|
|
|
Lest we forget, distance education began with printed materials. We cannot
overstate the importance of handouts, especially for off-campus students.
Summaries or outlines of important text or verbal information presented in
class, not already in the textbook or other course materials, such as a Web
page, should be printed and distributed to students prior to their discussion in class.
It is particularly important for students to have their own copies of tables,
figures, and other detailed visual information that you present in class. With advance
planning, these materials can be duplicated and sold as coursepacks by the
bookstore along with the text.
You can use technology to provide student handouts. You may wish to post all
class materials on the Web (or learning management system, such as WebCT or
BlackBoard) as PDF files or Word documents. Students could then download and
print the documents prior to class. You also may wish to send the documents as
attachments to e-mails. Be sure, however, that the document files are not
overly large. Some e-mail providers do not allow large files to sent to their
clients.
In addition to word processing programs, slides developed in PowerPoint (or
similar presentation software) can be converted
to paper handouts quite easily. in PowerPoint, select Print in the File menu.
When the Print screen appears, go to Print What and select Handouts you have
your choice of two, three, or six slides per page. Click in the box for Pure
Black and White to remove extraneous graphic and color information from the slide.
Then click on Print. If you have
Adobe Acrobat installed, you can also make PDF files of the PowerPoint
handouts. Instead of printing to a printer, choose the Acrobat PDF Writer as
the "printer" and make a PDF.
Destination 7: 13 of 22
