Lab Report

EDTC 7030
Dr. Brown
East Carolina University
Name: Kim Gandee

Date: 2 October 2014

Experiment Title: Web-Based Slideshow

1. Materials and Resources Used.
Materials/Resources Used:
Prezi web-based software program
TH-67 VFR Single Pilot Instrument Panel graphic
Microsoft Windows 7 Sound Recorder
Microsoft Office Word 2007
Logitech headset with microphone
Dell Studio XPS 435MT PC
References:
110
th
Aviation Brigade Standardizations. (2006). TH-67 operators supplement. Army
Publishing Directorate: Washington, D.C.
Prezi, Inc. (2014). Learn and support. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/support/
2. Instructional Need and Context:
This lesson is intended to assist the target audience with becoming oriented to the
configuration of the TH-67 (Training Helicopter) Instrument Panel. Currently, no TADSS
(Training Aids, Devices, Simulators and Simulations) for presenting this information exist
outside of the classroom. Instead, the students most of whom have never seen the inside of a
cockpit must refer to poor quality, black and white graphics (see Figure 1) in the TH-67
Operator's Supplement.

Figure 1. TH-67 Instrument Panel

This slideshow will be produced as Part 1 of a series. Additional slideshows will be
produced for other areas of the cockpit, such as the Cyclic and Collective flight controls, and
Center and Overhead Consoles. The overall intent is to chunk the information for the students
by panel/control/console to allow them to focus on one area of the cockpit at a time.
By providing the instructional media they need to familiarize them with the locations of
important instruments, the students will be able to take their first steps toward improving their
ability to quickly locate and assess aircraft performance feedback. Other benefits for this
medium include 24-7 equitable access as a public file on the Internet, review/reach-back
capability, portability, efficiency, and zero consumption of additional materiel resources.
3. Learner Analysis:
The target audience for this instructional media consists of Initial Entry Rotary Wing
(IERW) flight students. The majority of these students are prior military (Active Duty, Reserve,
and National Guard veterans); one to two students per class may be classified as high-
school/college-to-flight-school. The age range for this target audience is 18 to 32 years old.
Approximately six to eight students have prior aviation experience, either through civilian
education or an aviation-related MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) (e.g., helicopter crew
chief, flight medic, avionics repairman, etc.). Most, however, have no prior aviation experience.
On TD-7 (Training Day), the students begin the first of four days of hands-on training in
the CPT (Cockpit Procedural Trainer) where they begin the process of familiarizing themselves
with the aircrafts instruments and learn to perform several hands-on flight tasks by the CL
(Checklist) (e.g., engine start-up and related emergency procedures) in preparation for the flight
line. To use the instructional media, students must have the ability to access the Prezi slideshow
on the Internet from their government-issued laptop or personal device, or create an individual
Prezi account for the purpose of downloading Prezi to their personal device for offline access.
All students have the basic computer skills required to perform these tasks.
4. Instruction Designed:
Slideshow link: http://prezi.com/9rkvqyeyialp/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
Design Choices:

Graphic. I elected to use a colored graphic (see Figure 2) of the instrument panel to reduce
the amount of visual information available to the students (see Figure 3 for comparison)
their first time seeing the inside of the cockpit. Although a photograph of the aircrafts
instrument panel would provide more realism, there are currently no single pilot-equipped
aircraft in the USAACE (U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence) inventory.






Figure 2. TH-67 Graphic
of VFR Instrument Panel

Figure 3. TH-67 High Fidelity
Simulator (HFS) Instrument Panel

Sequencing of content. My decision regarding the flow of information in the presentation
was based on a consultation with Training Developers who had recently attended cockpit
procedural training, and a CPT instructor.
Text size. Due to the proximity of the instruments, I chose to reduce the text size and to
require the viewer to click to see the instrument titles to reduce/eliminate confusion. In other
words, larger text made it more difficult to correlate the instrument titles to each specific
instrument, as they sometimes appeared to overlap one another. The intent was to use the
instrument titles in a smaller text size as visual cues to ensure the students learned the correct
title for each instrument.
Brief Description. While the intended outcome of the exercise is to familiarize the students
with the names and locations of the instruments, it is also important to provide relevancy.
Therefore, I chose to add a brief description of each item identified on the instrument panel
to spark the application process.
Zoom. As previously stated, due to the proximity of the instruments, it was necessary to
zoom in further to allow the student to focus on individual gauges, switches, etc. The down
side was the visual quality of the graphic was somewhat degraded.
Audio. I included audio tracks for each instrument to reinforce the information the students
were seeing on the screen. However, Prezi allows the viewer to turn the audio off if one
finds it distracting.
5. Formative Evaluation Results:
Preparation. Prior to beginning development of the slideshow, I watched the Prezi tutorials
to learn about its capabilities and potential limitations a valuable lesson learned from the
previous assignment.
Storyboard. The graphic of the TH-67 instrument panel I uploaded into Prezi provided the
perfect storyboard for the slideshow, as it already contained all of the information to be
presented in a logical sequence.
Rough draft slideshow. Due to the proximity of the elements of information being
presented, it was necessary to overlay numerous frames and text boxes, which made the
editing process somewhat difficult. The allowable file size was fairly limited, which reduced
the visual quality of the graphic when zooming in. I determined it was best to reduce the text
size to avoid confusing the students with more than one instrument title visible on the screen
at one time. In addition, Training Developers who reviewed my slideshow recommended I
fade the text in to help the students focus on one instrument at a time, using the text title as a
visual cue.
Script. I decided to write the script after determining the best flow of information across the
instrument panel. Writing the script for each path step made recording the audio files a more
efficient process.
Audio. Several Training Developers validated my decision to add voice-overs to each path
step to reinforce what the students were seeing on the screen. An Instructional Designer
recommended coupling the voice-over with the text on the screen rather than clicking
through voice, label, then description. To test this recommendation, I re-recorded a small
portion of the path steps and left the rest as-is for comparison. The reviewers unanimously
agreed that the reduction of clicks improved the flow of the slideshow.
Student feedback. The majority of the EDTC 7030 students who provided feedback on the
slideshow found it to be a simple tool for learning complex information. However, a number
of students commented there may be too much information for someone with no baseline
knowledge. The following comments were received from fellow students:
o I think your presentation is very good for self-studies. You can look at different parts
and learn what they are for. The only thing is that when I tried to look at the pictures
without enlarging it, I couldn't read the captions; and when I enlarged the screen, the
pictures were not very clear. Otherwise, I can take the test and pass it:-))
o What a great and useful tool for students to use. I try to make simple products students
can use as well. For me, it was a lot of information, but flying is not something I'm
familiar with. However, I think if you had a baseline knowledge, it would be great. The
picture was a little blurry but it definitely allowed you to get the concept.
o Great teaching tool

o This is a great learning aid for students - it provides an opportunity for students to
familiarize themselves with instruments, etc. You did an excellent job incorporating
audio, visuals, word text, etc. I will be curious to hear the feedback from incorporating
the presentation into the classroom (or online). I almost feel like I could sit in the cockpit
and take the helicopter out for a joy ride.
o I agree with the other comments so far. It is well organized, but lacks something to keep
the attention and break up the monotony and density. I'm going to lead off of what Dr.
Brown said and offer my suggestions for application. This would be better made into a
large lesson broken into LSAs that provides a full description of each gauge/instrument;
or a more simply labeled static diagram used in conjunction with the lesson plan for an
overall perspective for the student.
o Wow, you definitely showed us how Prezi can help pitch highly technical
information! Well done. Excellent synchronization of movement, text, and narration. I
solid product.
Instructor feedback. Its nicely done, Kim. But, its really dense with content
information. My first thought is, this could easily be two or three slide-show presentations.
Perhaps its because all of the information presented is new to me.
6. Summative Evaluation Results: The participants were all 1750s (Instructional Systems
Specialists [ISS]) with no prior aviation experience, but who had observed cockpit procedural
training in August 2013. Before sending the link, I explained the purpose of the slideshow a
self-study/-assessment tool and requested they use it as intended. From a student perspective,
they agreed it was a vast improvement over the educational materials currently available. From
an ISS perspective, they agreed the students would reap the most benefit if they were given
access to the slideshow as early as TD-1 to give them more time to learn the content through
repetition.
7. Concluding Comments and/or Personal Reflection: The most important lesson I will take
away from this experience is that although a software program may have the capability to
produce outstanding instructional media, some content and/or instructional strategies/methods
may lose their effectiveness if the medium is not conducive. My evaluation of the process
helped me to realize that the content I selected may not be a good fit for the software; however, I
have a list of other lessons that could easily be adapted to Prezi. File size is an issue; the
software reduces high quality pictures to avoid shutting down Prezi at the expense of the quality
of photo/graphic.