Alberto Pugnale
Microsoft Sway has the potential to enhance the reader experience of subject guides and other student materials. Here Alberto weighs up the advantages and disadvantages of using Sway with Canvas to format content that would otherwise be presented in a PDF.
Have PDF-formatted subject guides suddenly become old-fashioned? You know, that comprehensive document that subject coordinators prepare and share with teaching staff and students. The more I play with Canvas and all the available tools and platforms for online teaching and learning, the more I believe subject guides in PDF are obsolete as an appropriate format for providing information to students.
As an alternative, I decided to test Microsoft Sway. For subject guides or even for tutorial running sheets, I think the potential is enormous compared to PDF. The main reason for testing this piece of software is because I see it as a missing link between a PowerPoint presentation and a website. Both presentations and websites work when they convey a clear message through a convincing narrative. I find it incredibly easy to focus on these aspects when working with Sway. Whether I create a presentation, a tutorial, or a webpage, Sway forces me to start with the document structure, the so-called ‘storyline’. I can conceive the entire structure of the document without even having any contents to place into the sections I create. I can reshuffle sections easily and there are plenty of themes available to make sure the final result looks good. I love this because, once again, the focus is on the content and not on the graphic layout. While initially the content is based on an existing PDF document, I could potentially embed Vimeo videos, animated GIFs, hyperlinks, etc. Finally, I think Sway works well in an online environment and is compatible with a variety of devices (readability is, therefore, better than with PDF documents).
In the specific context of teaching and learning, these are the advantages I see in using a platform like Sway rather than PDF format for student-facing documents:
Advantage | Details |
Structure | The focus is on the content and structure of the document, reducing redundant information, and clarifying a narrative. |
Compatibility | Pages are compatible across devices (PCs, mobile phones, etc.) and can easily be printed like normal documents in A4. |
Navigation and Formatting | Highlighting elements within the page is easy as there are multiple strategies, from cover images to text formatting. This simplifies and improves navigation through the content. |
Engaging Content | The platform encourages you to insert animated gifs, videos, or links to other websites and resources. The experience is more interactive, bringing the content to life. |
There are also certain things that Sway and similar platforms do not do particularly well:
Limitation | Details |
Scalability | Sway is not a replacement for an entire website; it is more of a single webpage creator. As such, it will have to be placed within another platform like Canvas that can host more than one Sway page |
Printability | Neither Sway nor standard webpages work well for presenting assessment criteria/rubrics. In this case, a simple Word or Excel table might work better, as this is something you would expect students and tutors to print out for guiding progress and the marking process. Similarly, there would be challenges for anyone working offline. |
Content Development | Although Sway is great at conceiving the structure for presentations and webpages, it is not the ideal platform for developing the actual content. Word documents are still required, as well as Photoshop and other software for image and video processing. |
Dissemination | I feel like I’m missing something when I don’t have a PDF document to share with colleagues. If someone asked for your subject guide, what would you share? The link to your Canvas site? Perhaps. |
At this point, the aim of these reflections is to help me define the best strategy to introduce my subject to students next semester. I have the feeling that I’ll ditch the conventional subject guide in PDF format and make sure that my Canvas is well-organised and rich in links to PDFs, Sways, Videos, and other useful resources for students. That’s my current view, and I hope students will appreciate my efforts to reduce the amount of information provided.
-Alberto Pugnale
Further information:
For more on the teaching potential of Sway, Alberto recommends this page: https://blogs.umass.edu/onlinetools/community-centered-tools/sway/
To discuss the suitability of Microsoft Sway, or any other online tools, for your subject, please contact BEL+T at abp-belt@unimelb.edu.au.
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