In this module we will look at current learning theory and research, usability studies, and practical experience to show you how to effectively use PowerPoint in the classroom. The hands-on exercises in document assume that you are experienced in creating basic PowerPoint presentations.

Examples & Recommendations

We all start the same way: we learn how to create simple presentations, ones in which the message is more important than the medium. But as our skills with PowerPoint improve, sometimes our focus shifts from the message to “gilding the lily”. Some people spend hours looking for the right sounds, pictures, or backgrounds to beautify their presentations. They mistakenly assume that bells and whistles improve their presentations -- their presentations look better, so they must be better teaching tools. Along the way, they forgot that the primary goal of any classroom PowerPoint presentation isn’t to entertain but rather to teach.

PowerPoint was originally designed for business communication, not teaching. Microsoft added those fancy backgrounds, animations, builds, transitions, etc. to PowerPoint not for you and me but for the business community.

The fancier the PowerPoint presentation, the less valuable the ideas being presented. (Lovelace, 2001)

Customizing a Presentation

How your presentation looks can directly affect your audience’s response to your message. If your message is buried in inconsistent design elements and varied colors, you risk loosing the attention of your audience.

You can customize the background of your presentation in several different ways. You can change the background fill color or apply an alternate fill effect to the background. If your background currently includes graphics that are overwhelming your message, you can omit them.

Preparing Presentations for the Web

PowerPoint makes it easy to convert a presentation for display on the Web. The process involves saving the presentation in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) format for publishing to a Web server or learning management system.

If you are using a special font that is not available on all computers it needs to be included with into the presentation file. If this is not done you run the risk of having that perfect font being replaced by a less than desirable generic font on the viewing computer.

Creating Student Notes

Do your students need help taking notes? In a word, YES! (Potts, 1993)

According to Kiewra (1985), even your most successful students are missing many of the important points in your lectures.

• The best (college-level) note-takers include less than three quarters of critical ideas in their notes.
• First year college students’ fare far worse: their notes contain only 11% of critical lecture ideas.

Does student note-taking, however badly the students may do it, improve performance on fact-based tests? Of course! (Kiewra, Potts) But whose notes should the students review when it comes time to prepare for a test: theirs or yours?

Not surprisingly, students who only review the instructor’s notes perform better on fact-based tests of the lecture material than do students who only review their own notes. (Kiewra, Potts) Even less surprisingly, students who don’t even show up for the lecture but who review the instructor's notes score higher than students who attend the lecture and take and review their own notes. (Kiewra, Potts)

So, to increase student performance, should you tell your students not to take notes at all and instead give your students printed copies of your PowerPoint presentations? Not exactly. The problem is that students remember a greater proportion of the information in their own notes than in provided notes. (Kiewra, Potts) Students who take the same amount of time reviewing both their notes and the instructor's notes perform best of all on fact-based tests. (Kiewra, Potts) To maximize student performance on fact-based tests, what we need is a way to combine student note-taking during your PowerPoint presentations with word-for-word copies of your presentations (and lecture notes) afterward. There are two ways to do this.

The first way is to have your students take their own notes during your PowerPoint presentation, then give your students a copy (or handout) of your presentation after class but before the test.

The second way is to create a skeletal outline in PowerPoint and provide it to your students either before class or just prior to the lecture. To save your presentation as an outline:

1. In PowerPoint, go to File >> Save As…
2. Then, in the “Save as type:” pull-down list choose Outline/RTF (*.rtf)
3. Open the outline in Microsoft Word
4. Edit the outline to remove a bunch of content and add lots of white space
5. Either print the outline and give it to your students before you presentation or post the document to the course management system in HTML format.

You can also print PowerPoint handouts.

1. go to File >> Print,
2. Choose to print handouts, and
3. print 3 handouts per slide

Remember: The goal here is not only to foster retention but to also teach the students how to take notes on their own.

But that’s not really a skeletal outline, is it? Unless your slides are totally bereft of information, or unless you have obnoxiously detailed slide notes that you’re willing to share with your students after your presentation, a 3 slide handout simply contains too much information for a skeletal outline.

The happy medium -- to maximize student performance on fact-based tests, we need to combine student note-taking during your PowerPoint presentations with word-for-word copies of your presentations (and lecture notes) afterward. There are two ways to do this:

• Notes during/handouts after, or
• Skeletal outline before/notes during/handouts after.

The latter is a LOT more work on your part, but it teaches the students how to take notes.

One other word of advice: In a traditional lecture, students can recall approximately 70% of the content from the first 10 minutes of the lecture but only 20% from the last 10 minutes. (Hartley & Davies, 1986) Solution: front-load your presentation (put your most important facts in your first few slides).

Tips for Effective Presentations

Make it big – test the presentation to make sure everything can be read from the back row.

Keep it simple – No more than 6 lines of text per slide. No more than 7 words per line of text. Your audience can read faster than you can talk; you don’t want their attention split between the slide and you.

Make it clear – choose fonts, font sizes, and colors that enhance readability of your slides. Most of Power Points default font sizes and color schemes work well; if you decide to experiment with your own, be sure not to reduce readability in the process.

Be consistent in thought, word and deed – your goal should be to educate and inform your audience. Make sure the stages of your presentation and the visual aides you use follow a logical sequence.

Contrast combinations – Many of Power Point’s built-in templates use light text (like a white or yellow) on a dark background (like blue or red). The problem is that when light text is places on a dark background, the text may seem to “glow” (or “halite”), making the text harder to read. Ambient light also tends to wash out Power Point presentations with dark backgrounds, totally throwing the contrast (and legibility) out of whack.

Instead of light text on a dark background, try dark text on a light background.

If your projector is “to hot” of the room is too bright, you will lose the background (the frills) but the text will still be legible.

• Three decent color combinations are:
• Green text on a yellow background
• Black text on a yellow background
• Black text on a white background

Use a sans-serif screen display font like Verdana for your on-screen presentation, and use a serif print display font like Times New Roman for handouts.

Key Points to Remember

Don’t detract: Stay away from PowerPoint’s bells and whistles like builds, transitions, animations, and sound effects.

The bells and whistles are for selling, not for teaching.

If you absolutely have to use PowerPoint’s frills, only add them to slides that contain non-testable content. That way the presentation will look pretty, but the “real” content won’t be lost due to visual interference.

Only use pictures to teach, not to decorate or entertain. The on-screen text in PowerPoint is processed in visual memory because it is seen, viewed with the eyes. Relevant pictures do not help because they are also stored in visual memory along with text – no new information is added over a different channel. Unrelated pictures in a presentation, however, have a negative effect on students’ enjoyment and the learning of the materials. (Bartsch & Cobern, 2003) A picture may be worth a thousand words, but when you use an unrelated picture those thousand words drown out what you are trying to say.

To maximize student performance on fact-based tests:

• Have your students take notes during your presentation and then give your students a copy of the presentation (and lecture notes) afterwards.
• Or give your students a skeletal outline before your presentation (with lots of white space), have your students take notes during the presentation, and then give the students a copy of the presentation and lecture notes afterward.
• Because of diminishing attention spans, front-load the first 10 minutes of your presentations.