EMAP West Training Presentations

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• EMAP West Training Presentations
• Jay Araas
• Department of Statistics
• In partial fulfillment of the requirements
• for the Degree of Master of Science
• Colorado State University
• Fort Collins, Colorado
• Spring 2006

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• Acknowledgments
• Funded by STAR grants awarded to CSU and OSU by
  U.S. EPA
• IT Department at Sheridan College
• Numerous people involved in the development of
  materials
• N. Scott Urquhart director of STARMAP (CSU)
• Jon Stoddard U.S. EPA (Corvallis, Oregon)
• Dave Peck U.S. EPA (Corvallis, Oregon)
• Phil Kaufmann U.S. EPA (Corvallis, Oregon)
• Bob Hughes Dyanamac, Inc.
• Other contributors A.T. Herlihy (OSU), Michael
  Barbour Kristen Pavlik (Tetra Tech, Inc.)

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• Overview of Materials
• Background
• Goals
• Content of Materials
• Questions Addressed
• PowerPoint Training Presentations
• Appendices
• Features
• Audio (with text)
• Bookmarks
• Links
• Disadvantages/Difficulties
• Audio
• Navigation
• Converting PowerPoint to PDF
• Proposed Direction
• Suggested Improvements
• Future Learning Materials
• Conclusion

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• Overview
• Background
• Big Picture
• Learning materials developed by STARMAP at CSU
  and DAMARS at OSU
• Used by water quality personnel in States and
  Tribes to monitor (measure) aquatic resources
• Part of EPAs Environmental Monitoring and
  Assessment Program (EMAP)
• Specialized Materials
• Training presentations for States and Tribes in
  the western United States (EMAP West)
• Address the questions Why monitor? Where to
  monitor? What to monitor? How to monitor?
• Based on field crew training seminar done in May,
  2004, in Corvallis, Oregon

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• Overview
• Goals
• Main objectives
• Further develop the learning materials for
  surface water monitoring to effectively train
  personnel whom are involved in the EMAP program
• Compile the PowerPoint training presentations
  into a user-friendly format
• Link audio narration and with accompanied text to
  each presentation
• Other goals
• Use knowledge of statistics to incorporate a
  relevant glossary of terms and effectively
  communicate other information to those with
  limited knowledge in the subject matter
• Learn to use Adobe Acrobat program to effectively
  communicate information via audio/visual
  demonstrations.

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• Content
• Topics Addressed
• What to monitor (measure) at each probability
  site
• How to monitor (measure) at each probability site
• Other topics discussed Why monitor water Where
  to conduct water monitoring
• Future topics to be covered How to summarize
  data Case studies
• PowerPoint Training Presentations
• Contributed by those involved in the 2004
  training workshop
• Include necessary details and information about
  surface water monitoring methods
• Appendices
• Detailed instructions to aid the user in viewing
  and navigating through the interactive materials
• Table of Contents provides information on where
  in the learning materials one can find
  information on a certain topic
• Glossary provides detailed definitions and
  explanations of terms or phrases that are
  commonly misinterpreted

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• Features
• Audio Narration
• Audio narration is used to further enhance the
  learning experience by providing detailed
  explanations and examples of the topics covered
• Most pages in the presentation have a link to the
  audio narration located in the upper right hand
  corner of the page
• The user can simultaneously view a corresponding
  text version of the narration if they prefer to
  do so
• Bookmarks
• If you would prefer to jump ahead in the
  presentation to a certain section, you can make
  use of the Bookmarks (which work like a more
  detailed table of contents).
• Links
• Links are set up for easy navigation between
  numerous pages in the document and the glossary
• Links to web pages and email addresses are also
  present if the user has access to the internet

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Viewing Instructions

• Option 1 Set up your viewing screen to a 2-page
  layout, so that the text version of the audio
  accompanies its corresponding slide. Do this by
  clicking on the Facing button, located in the
  bottom right corner (the button on the far
  right).

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Viewing Instructions

• Option 2 If you prefer not to have the
  accompanied text slides, then the click on the
  Single Page button in the bottom right corner
  (the button on the far left). This will set the
  viewing screen to show one page at a time,
  automatically enlarging the size of the slide
  that is shown.

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AppendicesTable of Contents Glossary
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• Features
• Audio
• In order to access the audio for a slide,
  double-click on the sound icon in the upper right
  corner of the slide. The audio selection for
  that slide will then play adjustments in the
  volume may be necessary. Once the audio for that
  particular slide is finished, it will
  automatically stop, and you can then proceed to
  the next slide.
• (Note some slides do not have audio comments)

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• Features
• Bookmarks
• If you would prefer to jump ahead in the
  presentation to a certain section, you can make
  use of the Bookmarks (which works like a table
  of contents).
• To access the Bookmarks, click the Bookmarks
  tab, located on the top left of the screen,
  directly below the left edge of the toolbar.
  This will list the section headings of the
  different presentations that were combined to
  make this one large presentation.
• To access individual sections (if you want to go
  to a certain page in the document), click the
  plus signs associated with each presentation.
  After doing this, you should now be able to click
  on an individual heading and go to that page in
  the document.
• Note Every page in the presentation (excluding
  the text for the audio) has a relevant heading
  which should help you quickly access information
  on a specific topic.

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• Features
• Bookmarks
• The picture below depicts the Bookmarks tab
  within the Adobe Reader program.
• B an expanded bookmark
• C bookmark options (which
• includes expanding and
• condensing bookmarks,
• and changing text size)
• Expands the current bookmark
• (highlighted bookmark)

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• Features
• Links
• There may be some words or phrases that are
  unfamiliar to you, and you want a brief
  definition or explanation as to what it means.
  You can then look them up in the glossary,
  located in the Appendix.
• A selection of words and phrases are linked to a
  glossary that you can access from anywhere in the
  document by clicking on that word or phrase.
  Otherwise, you can access the glossary by using
  the Bookmarks.
• Another important feature of this presentation is
  the presence of links between pages. For
  example, say you were trying to access all the
  information regarding Laying out the reach.
• You can use the Bookmarks to search through all
  the headings and find the ones that are related
  to laying out the reach. This will
  automatically move you to another page in the
  document that has a related topic.

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• Features
• Links
• For example, in the presentation page below, you
  would be able to click on EMAP to access a
  detailed description of this program in the
  glossary.

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• Difficulties
• Audio
• Audio from original videotapes was not usable
• Had to record audio with limited equipment
• Conversion to PDF
• Embedded objects in PowerPoint are not always
  compatible with Adobe PDF (Ex. Video/Audio in
  PowerPoint converts to JPEG in PDF)
• Text and pictures sometimes changed size or
  format
• Other obstacles
• Large file size takes time to modify and save, as
  well as very difficult to send via email
• Most changes within document must be done in
  original PowerPoint file and then converted to PDF

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• Disadvantages
• Audio
• Limited playback capabilities
• Navigation
• Adobe program does not have a quick method of
  returning to a previously viewed page
• Viewing
• Not every Adobe program is set up to view the
  Bookmarks upon startup
• Not every Adobe program is set up to view the
  materials in the correct format needed to view
  the narrated text alongside the corresponding
  presentation page
• Different versions of Adobe Reader may not be
  compatible with all the features

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• Proposed Direction
• Suggested Improvements to these Materials
• Better quality of audio
• Improved audio playback capabilities
• Correct page layout view upon startup of program
• Quick navigation to previously viewed page
• Links to training videos
• Expanded glossary
• Any other improvements that can improve the
  educational value
• Future Focus of Learning Materials
• How to summarize data
• Case studies

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• Conclusion
• Goals
• Each goal was addressed and completed
• Application to Statistics
• Used my knowledge of statistics in developing
  understandable audio narrations and relevant
  glossary
• Applicable in my career area - teaching
• Final Product
• Printable version of the presentation with the
  accompanying narrative text
• Interactive PDF tutorial available on CD-ROM
• Feedback
• Any criticism or suggestions are welcome so that
  the learning materials can be continually refined
  and improved from the current version
• Suggestions and comments can be addressed to
  myself, Jay Araas, or N. Scott Urquhart, the
  administrator of the STARMAP program at Colorado
  State University, at the following email
  addresses
• Jay Araas jaraas_at_sheridan.edu
• N. Scott Urquhart nsu_at_stat.colostate.edu