This presentation was delivered at the joint HEA/UKCISA Internationalisation of Pedagogy and Curriculum in Higher Education Conference that took place at the University of Warwick on 16th and 17th June 2011.
This presentation describes a pilot project aimed at extending the efficiency of online information whilst contributing to the need to keep students onboard through alternative approaches to imparting useful information. The project involves an interactive handbook developed using a new software platform called Prezi. The pilot does not intend to replace or replicate the institutional information available through Teesside’s international web presence. Instead it enhances the presentation of local school-based information through the use of softer graphical markers which attempt to convey the everyday experience through the metaphor of travel.
The Prezi format is akin to a PowerPoint which incorporates the qualities of Google Earth. It can be customised with self-generated or off-the shelf graphics and fonts. Its potential in this context is its professional appearance its capability to capture its constituent parts on one page its ability to be developed by non-experts and to be updated dynamically without programming knowledge. In this sense it serves perfectly the international student context where there will be an ever-increasing requirement to provide meaningful flexible and responsive information solutions.
