How to use Annotations in Your Courses

With the growth of online learning (emergency remote teaching, dual enrollment courses, blended learning environments, etc.) more information is being provided to our students online. We are finding that students need more assistance with the material. One of the ways we can assist students in understanding the materials we provide to them is through annotation. Annotation is a practice where we provide additional specific guidance on the various instructional materials we use in our teaching/classes/presentations such as slides, documents, videos, etc. Annotating important information during presentations or videos is a great way to emphasize important information and help students understand and better retain that information. When done well, it grabs the attention of the student and makes the presentation more interesting. Many platforms allow you to annotate, highlight and emphasize information in this way. We’re going to show you how to do this in Zoom, Google Jamboard, and Powerpoint.

The following 3 demonstrations focus on annotating - however, we use three different platforms to offer you a variety of ways you can incorporate this practice depending on your specific needs. You will find that each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses. You may find one suits your situation better than the others. We encourage you to try all three and figure out which works best for you.

Follow the links below (1, 2, 3) to learn more:

  1. PowerPoint - Annotate in PowerPoint, save notes for your students to revisit, improve understanding!
  2. Zoom - Increase student engagement and participation during Zoom classes and make your classes more interactive with Zoom annotations
  3. Google Jamboard - Work through problems with your students, collaborate and encourage interaction with this digital whiteboard.

 

To follow along with these demonstrations, you’ll need the following:

 

If you do take the time to learn more about annotations via our presentations - please take a moment to let us know what you think. We are always trying to improve our practice and help improve your experience.

Presentation Evaluation (<--click here) Links to an external site.