PowerPoint is usually associated with business presentations, but it is also frequently used in schools and universities to convey information to students. Now, with the arrival of Office Mix, teachers have a new way to create interactive online lessons and presentations, and gather data about students’ performance. This is an add-on for PowerPoint, and it can be used to transform existing presentations into online documents, making the lives of teachers and others users a great deal easier.
Interactivity is the name of the game here, and Office Mix aims to make things as simple as possible. You can record audio and video, annotate your slides as you speak, and add elements such as polls, quizzes and videos. Quizzes can take a variety of forms, and it’s easy to track the results of those who take them.
If you make a mistake when making your presentation, or need to make a few tweaks here and there, you are free to do so. Once this has been done, your creation can be transformed into a “mix”, upload to the web and shared with people of your choosing.
There are numerous uses for Office Mix, but it is likely to find its natural home in the classroom. Microsoft explains to teachers: “In essence, you’re able to capture the entire experience of giving your lecture, complete with visual and audio aids, with the added bonus of interactive content like quizzes or activities.”
Office Mix is available as a customer preview right now, and the only requirement is a copy of Office 2013 SP1.
