A new tool for MSU educators

Student snoozing through a boring lecture might be a thing of the past in classes offered by Michigan State University’s College of Arts and Letters.

PopBoardz is an innovative, interactive new app that gives educators and students alike a new presentation tool — but this isn’t your typical slideshow. Created by budding software developer Moonbeach Inc., the app allows users to create a single-page presentation comprising 16 “tiles.” Each tile can hold a piece of media, from PDFs to webpages, to image slideshows and videos. Think PowerPoint meets Pinterest.

The best part of the software for MSU’s College of Arts and Letters, however, might be its price. The department recently received 4,000 donated software licenses for the complete version of the iOS/OS X app.

The gift from Stougaard, a former MSU alum and PopBoardz developer, came up to about $100,000. In a phone interview, Stougaard said the app has grown to be a popular teaching tool.

“Teachers love it because they make ‘presentations,’ but they don’t make a beautiful PowerPoint or those kinds of presentations,” he said. “They have a little lesson plan and they wish they had some examples, and they’re able to jump around.”

The app is initially free to download off the app store, but requires in-app purchases for a complete experience. The college’s marketing director, Ryan Kilcoyne, said the full version that faculty and students will soon use typically runs about $24.99.

The College of Arts and Letters, which Stougaard graduated from in 1981, includes majors ranging from philosophy and studio art to a variety of foreign languages. Matt Handelman, an assistant German professor, has tested earlier versions of the app in his classes.

“It really worked to decentralize the classroom, and took me out of a teaching role and into a helping role and enabled the students to be the own arbiters of their education,” he said, “which was really exciting.”

The app allows educators at the university or primary school level alike to step outside the typical lecture of talking with a PowerPoint slide in the background. Teachers can add in easy-to-access videos and image slideshows to give students a visual on a particular topic, and include website pages so students following along can access more information on a subject during class.

Handelman, who previously tested a beta version in classrooms, said that despite early bugs, he thought the app worked well in the classroom.

“It’s a less confusing way of rethinking the PowerPoint model, which is standard in a lot of foreign language classes in terms of presenting materials, images, texts,” he said. “It had this richer functionality which was really, really helpful with students and included being able to live-access websites.

The university previously tested a beta version in some classrooms. Stougaard said the app not only keeps classes interesting by including different types of media, but also gives teachers the ability to move around the presentation fluidly, so if a student has a question, the tile with the answer doesn’t have to be searched for as it would in a PowerPoint presentation with 30-plus slides.

“Rather than calling it presentation software, I’m sort-of calling it discussion software,” Stougaard said. “You can have all of your relevant content right at your fingertips at any moment.”

Stougaard, who once worked at DreamWorks as well as 20th Century Fox, said he is just excited to be helping students at his former university. In the past, he has given studio tours to MSU students and said he tries to meet up whenever a student group is in L.A. He has made multiple donations to MSU in the past as well.

“It’s been fun to stay in touch, and as much as they’re getting something from me, I get plenty from giving back as well.”

Since leaving 20th Century Fox in 2011, Stougaard has worked on his innovative video startup ActivateTV, and also as a developer with Moonbeach Inc., where he developed PopBoardz.

While he is very happy with his app, Stougaard said educators were never the target audience he had in mind when developing PopBoardz.

“I just made this app for me, because I wanted it, and I couldn’t find anything out there that did it.”

Stougaard thinks his app is so popular with educators because it gives them a blank slate, something easy to use and free-form that can be filled with custom content. He said that many teaching apps in comparison try to help teachers create a curriculum — something many teachers have told him they already have.

“Teachers discovered us more than we discovered them,” he said. “They know what they’re going to teach these kids, they don’t need you to break these down into different lessons that are already out there, they want to make their own, and have it be personalized, and updated as often as you want.”

MSU, along with many other institutes throughout the world, has tested beta versions of the app in the past. Stougaard said his app has been in use in schools around the world, with pilot programs in Texas and even Australia.

“It’s pretty spectacular and I’m pretty proud, and [their use] says more than I can possibly say about it,” he said.

The version MSU will receive will include tools for developers to track usage, data that will help further improve Pop- Boardz as a teaching tool in the future.

Stougaard said this most recent version of PopBoardz should make it to the university by the end of this week, following a bit of maintenance and some bug fixes.

“I certainly didn’t want to send that to Michigan State with things that become bugs,” he said. “The last thing I need is 4,000 haters, right?”