Teaching Commons Program Manager
Last Friday, April 30th, Sharon Guan of Instructional Design and Development hosted a Teaching Commons Workshop on how create more effective presentations. The workshop was well attended with faculty and staff from ten different schools/colleges/departments. Sharon covered when Powerpoint is and is not appropriate as a teaching tool and how design can have a significant impact on Powerpoint's ability to aid student learning.
Powerpoint was created with the bullet point in mind and therefore makes it incredibly easy to create bullet pointed slides. The problem lies in that not all information can be presented in a bullet pointed list. Furthermore, slides and bullet points in Powerpoint don't necessarily help a student understand the relationship between ideas and concepts, especially when presented in a linear manner.
Imagine being in a class where ten key scholars from a discipline are presented by using bullet points. For each scholar, one slide contains a brief biography and the next slide is a list of their key achievements. Both slides contain bullet pointed lists. 20 linear bullet pointed slides later, would a student necessarily have a complete picture of how these scholars build on one another, converse/debate within the discipline, or align themselves in relation to one another?
Some of these inherent linear patterns of Powerpoint can be overcome with a little creativity. One of Sharon Guan's central tenants was to create slides using the design principle of flow. One way to create flow is to keep the current slide in the context of the overall presentation's goals. Sharon does this by including, on every slide, a visible index of each section of the presentation. This gives the student a sense of place within the presentation itself, including where they have been and where they are going. It also gives the student a sense of the complete story being presented. You can see an example of this in Sharon's presentation and a how-to video below:
- Beyond the Bulletpoint: How to Design Low-Tech High-Effect Presentations
- Creating an Index in Powerpoint (2 Minute Screencast)
Additional Materials from the Workshop
- Oh, Good Old Powerpoint (Sharon's blog post)
- Powerpoint Heaven
- Stykz (Stick figure animation software)
Further Resources
- Point Counter Point: How to Use (and Avoid Misusing) PowerPoint
- PowerPoint Is Evil (By Edward Tufte)
- Five Experts Dispute Edward Tufte on PowerPoint
- Killer Slide Decks (Inspiration for better Powerpoint presentations)
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