library .uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. - - PDF document

library.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

• A. Background of Study

The aim of this study is to investigate the implementation of multimedia- based presentation in the form of Powerpoint encompassing the preparation to the performance. The research was constructed regarding the needs of education improvement as the core of civilization by using technology to assist the learning

• process. The topic is in the practitioners’ spotlight and being discussed among

the scholars in the educational field (Ghafivekr, et al., 2014). It is believed that the technology will greatly influence how the education goes. In the developed world, the range of technology tools have been exploited; therefore, they are now commonly found in the classroom (Mercer, Hennesy, & Warwick, 2017). The practice of technology also becomes the integral aspects of those disciplines (Pasternak, Hallman, & Rush, 2016). It indicates that more researches regarding the implementation of educational technology in the learning process are also required to be the benchmark and guideline for the teachers to apply technology in their teaching. Previously, Heinich et al. (2002, p. 10) have predicted that learning does not only include the instructional methods and physical activity but also media and technology. They outline the notion of learning as the process of selecting, arranging, and delivering information along with how the students interact with the given information. The statement is in line with the aim of this study in which it attempts to specify the detail of how multimedia-based presentation is designed and implemented in the learning. In this case, the multimedia principles (Mayer, 2003) becomes the focus of the research to find out the students’ process in designing and presenting multimedia-based presentation. Ploetzner, Fillisch, Gewald, & Ruf (2016), in their discussion of media and technology, agree that the age of information digitalization greatly combines the static and dynamic learning to become interactive. It also transforms the 1

library.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id 2 learning from teacher-centered to the student-centered as the use of technology can stimulate the students to be more actively engaged and involved in the classroom as well as play their roles as the main commodity in the learning

• process. This educational technology is also used in all levels of education from

primary education to higher education. The context of students’ outcomes as well as their achievement becomes the primary focus of the researchers. It can be seen in the study conducted by White (2011), Chou, Chang, and Lu (2015), Cornwell (2014), and others. However, only a few of them discuss how the students get along in the learning process in the classroom since the previous studies concern more on the outcome. The researches related to the use of multimedia presentation are also carried out by several researchers. Hertz, Kerkhof, and Woerkum (2016) investigated multimedia-based presentation in the context of academic speaking, such as the conference or seminar. Hertz, et al., (2016) correlate two aspects: speaking anxiety and the use of the text. The study did not elaborate on the planning of the research and the process of designing multimedia-based

• presentation. Hertz, et al., (2016) focus on the performance and the product of

the presentation. Moreover, Barret and Liu (2016) also undertake the research concerning on academic oral presentation as a part of English for Academic Purposes (EAP), yet they did not specify the kinds of presentation. The research

• nly elaborates the oral academic presentation in general without providing

sufficient literature and data about the media to the presentation. Based on the aforementioned previous researches, they mostly have not yet investigated in detail about how the students as the audience get along with the presentation and how the students as the presenter design the multimedia- based presentation specifically. Moreover, the common researches have not yet integrated those two aspects in research, so the scope of the research takes the deeper coverage ranging from the planning to the performance of multimedia- based presentation. As multimedia-based presentation is also related to the nature of human learning, this issue is indeed needed to be explored. Therefore, the present study is nested within the more specific scope to fill the gap. As this

library.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id 3 research focuses on the use of technology in higher education, the way how the students plan the presentation, identify the context and the audience, process the material, and practice the product are considered important to be investigated. In the higher education, the students have to eagerly convey their ideas to broaden their knowledge. Exchanging and sharing the knowledge among the students are required to make the information transfer works well. The scope of information-transfer in higher education is not merely from the lecturer to the students; meanwhile, the students also get the bigger opportunity to share their knowledge with other students. As this study is carried out in foreign language learning environment, the transfer of information or knowledge indeed requires the media as the bridge to connect between the speaker to the audience. It is closely related to the study conducted by Roby (2000) that his underlying principle is that “foreign language learning lends itself naturally to the use of media”. In line with the urgency of information-sharing in the classroom, one of the methods involving technology in presenting ideas is through multimedia- based presentation. In conceptualizing the importance of multimedia-based presentation in the tertiary level, the study about the effectiveness of text and pictures if they are placed at the same time and space is continuously conducted due to the development of technology in improving the learning and the students’ understanding (Mayer & Anderson, 1992; Mayer & Moreno, 2002). Therefore, the present study is addressed the college students due to the high percentage of their technology literacy. In terms of multimedia-based presentation that is used in the classroom, the survey also released about the activities done by the internet user in which the college students mostly spend their time to browse pictures, music, graphics, videos, and movies the internet. It also indicates that their interest is on modalities which are sound, picture, and

• animation. Therefore, the researcher is encouraged to conduct the research since

the data proved that the use of multimedia-based presentation is necessary as the students tend to keen on doing multimedia learning. According to Oommen (2012), tertiary level students prefer Powerpoint presentation to the traditional method of information delivery. In recent years,

library.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id 4 Powerpoint turns to be the preferred method to deliver information in educational field – which was previously used in business and industry field. It is due to the effectiveness of Powerpoint in students’ long-term retention (Chou, Chang, & Lu, 2015) and how Powerpoint gives the positive attitudes in lecture delivery (Oommen, 2012). Shepherd (2006), in his prior research, has already suggested that the electronic presentation is universally expected in this technological ages. As technology develops, other presentation tools are also used, such as Prezi, Visme, Projeqt, Slides, and so on. Therefore, this research attempts to reveal how the multimedia-based presentation tools especially Powerpoint can effectively promote the learning and knowledge transfer for both the students and the instructor. In presenting materials using multimedia-based presentation, the students tend to use verbal representation and corresponding visual representation of the content (Moreno & Mayer, 2007). Furthermore, they also explore the effective learning that is created by combining verbal and non-verbal representation of the knowledge – later known as mixed-modality approach. This claim is strengthened by Zolna (2007, p.142) who concerns the principle of modality that can promote the instructional materials by integrating words and

• pictures. Modality is precisely defined as the sensing receptor or the human’s

ability to receive the auditory information through the ears and visual information through the eyes (Moreno & Mayer, 2007). The combination of those two modes is believed to support the students’ abilities in processing the

• information. It also helps the learners to have different background and

experience to engage in a more representative stage for making meaning (Altas, 2014). In line with the theory, it is also believed that involving pictures and words act as the powerful tool for improving the students’ understanding of instructional material (Lee, Hsiao, & Ho, 2014). Thus, the use of multimedia- based presentation is essential in helping the students to process the information easily and to make the meaning effectively. However, the implementation of multimedia-based presentation must be integrated with the classroom condition. It includes the atmosphere of

library.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id 5 the classroom, the background of the members of the class, the classroom interaction, and the students’ interest. This research attempts to investigate the use of multimedia-based presentation as well as the consideration regarding the audience as the main commodity in multimedia-based presentation. Heinich, et al (2002) highlight the whole point of technology that it requires the students’ engagement and avoids the boredom or passivity. It is in accordance with the urgency of implementing multimedia-based presentation as the students’ preparation in academic presentation, such as research presentation in international seminar that indeed needs more practices. Generally, PowerPoint is used to support in educational, academic, and business settings (Hertz, Kerkhof, & Woerkum, 2016, p. 1). They also conclude how the preparation and design do matter in multimedia presentation (Huang & Chiou, 2010) to increase self-confidence and to avoid speaking anxiety. Other than the psychological factors, the preparation or the exercise of academic presentation in the classroom also train the students to prepare three dimensions of academic contexts proposed by Aryadoust (2016), he mentions verbal communication, nonverbal communication, content, and organization. In terms of verbal communication dimension, conducting academic presentation in academic speaking classroom also increase the vocabularies used by the presenters to make them well-perceived by the audience (Crossley in Aryadoust, 2017). In terms of nonverbal communication, in addition to the gesture, body movement, facial expression that become the benchmark of nonverbal communication dimension, audiovisual aids are also considered as nonverbal communication (Aryadoust, 2017, p. 401) where they can engage the audience as well as illustrate or visualize the presentation content (Brock & Joglekar, 2011). Multimedia-based presentation has its cornerstone of the transfer of information or knowledge. In this study, the researcher also concerns how well Powerpoint as multimedia-based presentation can be greatly implemented in

• rder to transfer the information and knowledge to the students or audience in

an effective way. This study will investigate how multimedia-based presentation

library.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id 6 is implemented in the academic speaking classroom. Several studies have been conducted recently since technology has been widely used in educational field. Therefore, the researcher believes that this study will give the significant impact for both the students and teachers in secondary to tertiary level. Hence, this study is also based on the researcher’s experience in practicing multimedia- based presentation in the first year of graduate program. The students were asked to present the material using presentation method in which the presenter was required to insert the multimedia content. When the lecturer gave the chance for the students to prepare the material, each of them looked for the appropriate material based on their own strategies or material interest. Previously, the researcher has already conducted the survey during the learning process to find out the students’ considerations in designing multimedia-based presentation. It revealed that the students have two considerations in preparing the material, namely 1) the easiness in obtaining the material, and 2) their primary interest of the material. Meanwhile, in designing the material, the students are divided into two types of considerations, they are 1) the visualization, in which the students design the slides as attractive as possible to gain the audience attention. They inserted the animation, clip art, and even the sound whenever they click the next slide. 2) the simplicity, in which the students prefer to design the presentation as simple as possible to make them easier to present the material without considering its attractiveness. They only inserted the basic background along with the keywords of each slide. Based on the above-mentioned survey that the researcher conducted in the first year of graduate program, the researcher was interested in making the further research in the larger scope. In the implementation of multimedia-based presentation, the researcher witnessed the various condition occurred in the

• classroom. This situation made the researcher was eager to explore the issues in

the present study about 1) the pre-presentation covering how the students design the multimedia-based presentation tools, 2) the whilst-presentation covering how the students present the material using multimedia-based presentation tools and manage the audience engagement. In sum up, the underlying reasons in

library.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id 7 conducting this research are the researcher’s personal experience as the full participant as well as the researcher’s effort to fill in the gap of research that has not been previously conducted. The result of this research is expected to be beneficial for all of the educational stakeholders or it can be the future reference for the further study.

• B. Problem Statement

To fulfill the gap based on the researches that have been reviewed, the researcher proposes the research questions below:

• 1. How do the students design Powerpoint as multimedia-based

presentation in Academic Speaking classroom?

• 2. How do the students present Powerpoint as multimedia-based

presentation in Academic Speaking classroom?

• C. Objective of the Study

The aim of the research is mainly to investigate the implementation of Powerpoint as multimedia-based presentation from the preparation to the

• performance. Hence, the aim is divided into several objectives to make it more

precise based on the problem statements, they are:

• 1. To investigate the way how the students design Powerpoint as

multimedia-based presentation in Academic Speaking classroom.

• 2. To investigate the way how the students present Powerpoint as

multimedia-based presentation in Academic Speaking classroom.

• D. Significance of the Study

This research was intentionally conducted due to the condition that the implementation of multimedia-based presentation is slightly underexplored in a detailed way. The underlying principle brought by the researcher in carrying out the research is the fact that the instructional technology used in the classroom is

• nly targetted the students’ achievement. Therefore, this research is expected to

library.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id 8 give the significant impact to the educational field by concerning the process of implementation instead of the learning product. The process includes how the multimedia-based presentation is prepared either by the students or by the teachers and how they perform the multimedia- based presentation in the classroom. In this case, the researcher focuses on the implementation of multimedia-based presentation from the perspective, preparation, and practice. The principles of multimedia-based presentation which are the information processing and the transfer of knowledge become the topics of this study since those two principles contribute to the success of a presentation especially in academic context. Therefore, this research attempts to fill the gap of the study. Regarding the case that the use of multimedia-based presentation is recently increased in the field of educational technology especially in tertiary level, the research was conducted in Academic Speaking Classroom. Moreover, the researcher hopes that the result will contribute to the learning practice and can be implemented not only in tertiary level but also in all levels of formal education.