how do presentation programs help pupils in learning

• Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning
• Instructional Guide

Teaching with PowerPoint

When effectively planned and used, PowerPoint (or similar tools, like Google Slides) can enhance instruction. People are divided on the effectiveness of this ubiquitous presentation program—some say that PowerPoint is wonderful while others bemoan its pervasiveness. No matter which side you take, PowerPoint does offer effective ways to enhance instruction when used and designed appropriately.

PowerPoint can be an effective tool to present material in the classroom and encourage student learning. You can use PowerPoint to project visuals that would otherwise be difficult to bring to class. For example, in an anthropology class, a single PowerPoint presentation could project images of an anthropological dig from a remote area, questions asking students about the topic, a chart of related statistics, and a mini quiz about what was just discussed that provides students with information that is visual, challenging, and engaging.

PowerPoint can be an effective tool to present material in the classroom and encourage student learning.

This section is organized in three major segments: Part I will help faculty identify and use basic but important design elements, Part II will cover ways to enhance teaching and learning with PowerPoint, and Part III will list ways to engage students with PowerPoint.

PART I: Designing the PowerPoint Presentation

Accessibility.

• Student accessibility—students with visual or hearing impairments may not be able to fully access a PowerPoint presentation, especially those with graphics, images, and sound.
• Use an accessible layout. Built-in slide template layouts were designed to be accessible: “the reading order is the same for people with vision and for people who use assistive technology such as screen readers” (University of Washington, n.d.). If you want to alter the layout of a theme, use the Slide Master; this will ensure your slides will retain accessibility.
• Use unique and specific slide titles so students can access the material they need.
• Consider how you display hyperlinks. Since screen readers read what is on the page, you may want to consider creating a hyperlink using a descriptive title instead of displaying the URL.
• All visuals and tables should include alt text. Alt text should describe the visual or table in detail so that students with visual impairments can “read” the images with their screen readers. Avoid using too many decorative visuals.
• All video and audio content should be captioned for students with hearing impairments. Transcripts can also be useful as an additional resource, but captioning ensures students can follow along with what is on the screen in real-time.
• Simplify your tables. If you use tables on your slides, ensure they are not overly complex and do not include blank cells. Screen readers may have difficulty providing information about the table if there are too many columns and rows, and they may “think” the table is complete if they come to a blank cell.
• Set a reading order for text on your slides. The order that text appears on the slide may not be the reading order of the text. Check that your reading order is correct by using the Selection Pane (organized bottom-up).
• Use Microsoft’s Accessibility Checker to identify potential accessibility issues in your completed PowerPoint. Use the feedback to improve your PowerPoint’s accessibility. You could also send your file to the Disability Resource Center to have them assess its accessibility (send it far in advance of when you will need to use it).
• Save your PowerPoint presentation as a PDF file to distribute to students with visual impairments.

Preparing for the presentation

• Consider time and effort in preparing a PowerPoint presentation; give yourself plenty of lead time for design and development.
• PowerPoint is especially useful when providing course material online. Consider student technology compatibility with PowerPoint material put on the web; ensure images and graphics have been compressed for access by computers using dial-up connection.

PowerPoint is especially useful when providing course material online.

• Be aware of copyright law when displaying course materials, and properly cite source material. This is especially important when using visuals obtained from the internet or other sources. This also models proper citation for your students.
• Think about message interpretation for PowerPoint use online: will students be able to understand material in a PowerPoint presentation outside of the classroom? Will you need to provide notes and/or other material to help students understand complex information, data, or graphics?
• If you will be using your own laptop, make sure the classroom is equipped with the proper cables, drivers, and other means to display your presentation the way you have intended.

Slide content

• Avoid text-dense slides. It’s better to have more slides than trying to place too much text on one slide. Use brief points instead of long sentences or paragraphs and outline key points rather than transcribing your lecture. Use PowerPoint to cue and guide the presentation.
• Use the Notes feature to add content to your presentation that the audience will not see. You can access the Notes section for each slide by sliding the bottom of the slide window up to reveal the notes section or by clicking “View” and choosing “Notes Page” from the Presentation Views options.
• Relate PowerPoint material to course objectives to reinforce their purpose for students.

Number of slides

• As a rule of thumb, plan to show one slide per minute to account for discussion and time and for students to absorb the material.
• Reduce redundant or text-heavy sentences or bullets to ensure a more professional appearance.
• Incorporate active learning throughout the presentation to hold students’ interest and reinforce learning.

Emphasizing content

• Use italics, bold, and color for emphasizing content.
• Use of a light background (white, beige, yellow) with dark typeface or a dark background (blue, purple, brown) with a light typeface is easy to read in a large room.
• Avoid using too many colors or shifting colors too many times within the presentation, which can be distracting to students.
• Avoid using underlines for emphasis; underlining typically signifies hypertext in digital media.

Use of a light background with dark typeface or a dark background with a light typeface is easy to read in a large room.

• Limit the number of typeface styles to no more than two per slide. Try to keep typeface consistent throughout your presentation so it does not become a distraction.
• Avoid overly ornate or specialty fonts that may be harder for students to read. Stick to basic fonts so as not to distract students from the content.
• Ensure the typeface is large enough to read from anywhere in the room: titles and headings should be no less than 36-40-point font. The subtext should be no less than 32-point font.

Clip art and graphics

• Use clip art and graphics sparingly. Research shows that it’s best to use graphics only when they support the content. Irrelevant graphics and images have been proven to hinder student learning.
• Photographs can be used to add realism. Again, only use photographs that are relevant to the content and serve a pedagogical purpose. Images for decorative purposes are distracting.
• Size and place graphics appropriately on the slide—consider wrapping text around a graphic.
• Use two-dimensional pie and bar graphs rather than 3D styles which can interfere with the intended message.

Use clip art and graphics sparingly. Research shows that it’s best to use graphics only when they support the content.

Animation and sound

• Add motion, sound, or music only when necessary. When in doubt, do without.
• Avoid distracting animations and transitions. Excessive movement within or between slides can interfere with the message and students find them distracting. Avoid them or use only simple screen transitions.

Final check

• Check for spelling, correct word usage, flow of material, and overall appearance of the presentation.
• Colleagues can be helpful to check your presentation for accuracy and appeal. Note: Errors are more obvious when they are projected.
• Schedule at least one practice session to check for timing and flow.
• PowerPoint’s Slide Sorter View is especially helpful to check slides for proper sequencing as well as information gaps and redundancy. You can also use the preview pane on the left of the screen when you are editing the PowerPoint in “Normal” view.
• Prepare for plan “B” in case you have trouble with the technology in the classroom: how will you provide material located on your flash drive or computer? Have an alternate method of instruction ready (printing a copy of your PowerPoint with notes is one idea).

PowerPoint’s Slide Sorter View is especially helpful to check slides for proper sequencing and information gaps and redundancy.

PowerPoint Handouts

PowerPoint provides multiple options for print-based handouts that can be distributed at various points in the class.

Before class: students might like having materials available to help them prepare and formulate questions before the class period.

During class: you could distribute a handout with three slides and lines for notes to encourage students to take notes on the details of your lecture so they have notes alongside the slide material (and aren’t just taking notes on the slide content).

After class: some instructors wait to make the presentation available after the class period so that students concentrate on the presentation rather than reading ahead on the handout.

Never: Some instructors do not distribute the PowerPoint to students so that students don’t rely on access to the presentation and neglect to pay attention in class as a result.

• PowerPoint slides can be printed in the form of handouts—with one, two, three, four, six, or nine slides on a page—that can be given to students for reference during and after the presentation. The three-slides-per-page handout includes lined space to assist in note-taking.
• Notes Pages. Detailed notes can be printed and used during the presentation, or if they are notes intended for students, they can be distributed before the presentation.
• Outline View. PowerPoint presentations can be printed as an outline, which provides all the text from each slide. Outlines offer a welcome alternative to slide handouts and can be modified from the original presentation to provide more or less information than the projected presentation.

The Presentation

Alley, Schreiber, Ramsdell, and Muffo (2006) suggest that PowerPoint slide headline design “affects audience retention,” and they conclude that “succinct sentence headlines are more effective” in information recall than headlines of short phrases or single words (p. 233). In other words, create slide titles with as much information as is used for newspapers and journals to help students better understand the content of the slide.

• PowerPoint should provide key words, concepts, and images to enhance your presentation (but PowerPoint should not replace you as the presenter).
• Avoid reading from the slide—reading the material can be perceived as though you don’t know the material. If you must read the material, provide it in a handout instead of a projected PowerPoint slide.
• Avoid moving a laser pointer across the slide rapidly. If using a laser pointer, use one with a dot large enough to be seen from all areas of the room and move it slowly and intentionally.

Avoid reading from the slide—reading the material can be perceived as though you don’t know the material.

• Use a blank screen to allow students to reflect on what has just been discussed or to gain their attention (Press B for a black screen or W for a white screen while delivering your slide show; press these keys again to return to the live presentation). This pause can also be used for a break period or when transitioning to new content.
• Stand to one side of the screen and face the audience while presenting. Using Presenter View will display your slide notes to you on the computer monitor while projecting only the slides to students on the projector screen.
• Leave classroom lights on and turn off lights directly over the projection screen if possible. A completely dark or dim classroom will impede notetaking (and may encourage nap-taking).
• Learn to use PowerPoint efficiently and have a back-up plan in case of technical failure.
• Give yourself enough time to finish the presentation. Trying to rush through slides can give the impression of an unorganized presentation and may be difficult for students to follow or learn.

PART II: Enhancing Teaching and Learning with PowerPoint

Class preparation.

PowerPoint can be used to prepare lectures and presentations by helping instructors refine their material to salient points and content. Class lectures can be typed in outline format, which can then be refined as slides. Lecture notes can be printed as notes pages  (notes pages: Printed pages that display author notes beneath the slide that the notes accompany.) and could also be given as handouts to accompany the presentation.

Multimodal Learning

Using PowerPoint can help you present information in multiple ways (a multimodal approach) through the projection of color, images, and video for the visual mode; sound and music for the auditory mode; text and writing prompts for the reading/writing mode; and interactive slides that ask students to do something, e.g. a group or class activity in which students practice concepts, for the kinesthetic mode (see Part III: Engaging Students with PowerPoint for more details). Providing information in multiple modalities helps improve comprehension and recall for all students.

Providing information in multiple modalities helps improve comprehension and recall for all students.

Type-on Live Slides

PowerPoint allows users to type directly during the slide show, which provides another form of interaction. These write-on slides can be used to project students’ comments and ideas for the entire class to see. When the presentation is over, the new material can be saved to the original file and posted electronically. This feature requires advanced preparation in the PowerPoint file while creating your presentation. For instructions on how to set up your type-on slide text box, visit this tutorial from AddictiveTips .  

Write or Highlight on Slides

PowerPoint also allows users to use tools to highlight or write directly onto a presentation while it is live. When you are presenting your PowerPoint, move your cursor over the slide to reveal tools in the lower-left corner. One of the tools is a pen icon. Click this icon to choose either a laser pointer, pen, or highlighter. You can use your cursor for these options, or you can use the stylus for your smart podium computer monitor or touch-screen laptop monitor (if applicable).  

Just-In-Time Course Material

You can make your PowerPoint slides, outline, and/or notes pages available online 24/7 through Blackboard, OneDrive, other websites. Students can review the material before class, bring printouts to class, and better prepare themselves for listening rather than taking a lot of notes during the class period. They can also come to class prepared with questions about the material so you can address their comprehension of the concepts.

PART III: Engaging Students with PowerPoint

The following techniques can be incorporated into PowerPoint presentations to increase interactivity and engagement between students and between students and the instructor. Each technique can be projected as a separate PowerPoint slide.

Running Slide Show as Students Arrive in the Classroom

This technique provides visual interest and can include a series of questions for students to answer as they sit waiting for class to begin. These questions could be on future texts or quizzes.

• Opening Question : project an opening question, e.g. “Take a moment to reflect on ___.”
• Think of what you know about ___.
• Turn to a partner and share your knowledge about ___.
• Share with the class what you have discussed with your partner.
• Focused Listing helps with recall of pertinent information, e.g. “list as many characteristics of ___, or write down as many words related to ___ as you can think of.”
• Brainstorming stretches the mind and promotes deep thinking and recall of prior knowledge, e.g. “What do you know about ___? Start with your clearest thoughts and then move on to those what are kind of ‘out there.’”
• Questions : ask students if they have any questions roughly every 15 minutes. This technique provides time for students to reflect and is also a good time for a scheduled break or for the instructor to interact with students.
• Note Check : ask students to “take a few minutes to compare notes with a partner,” or “…summarize the most important information,” or “…identify and clarify any sticking points,” etc.
• Questions and Answer Pairs : have students “take a minute to come with one question then see if you can stump your partner!”
• The Two-Minute Paper allows the instructor to check the class progress, e.g. “summarize the most important points of today’s lecture.” Have students submit the paper at the end of class.
• “If You Could Ask One Last Question—What Would It Be?” This technique allows for students to think more deeply about the topic and apply what they have learned in a question format.
• A Classroom Opinion Poll provides a sense of where students stand on certain topics, e.g. “do you believe in ___,” or “what are your thoughts on ___?”
• Muddiest Point allows anonymous feedback to inform the instructor if changes and or additions need to be made to the class, e.g. “What parts of today’s material still confuse you?”
• Most Useful Point can tell the instructor where the course is on track, e.g. “What is the most useful point in today’s material, and how can you illustrate its use in a practical setting?”

Positive Features of PowerPoint

• PowerPoint saves time and energy—once the presentation has been created, it is easy to update or modify for other courses.
• PowerPoint is portable and can be shared easily with students and colleagues.
• PowerPoint supports multimedia, such as video, audio, images, and

PowerPoint supports multimedia, such as video, audio, images, and animation.

Potential Drawbacks of PowerPoint

• PowerPoint could reduce the opportunity for classroom interaction by being the primary method of information dissemination or designed without built-in opportunities for interaction.
• PowerPoint could lead to information overload, especially with the inclusion of long sentences and paragraphs or lecture-heavy presentations with little opportunity for practical application or active learning.
• PowerPoint could “drive” the instruction and minimize the opportunity for spontaneity and creative teaching unless the instructor incorporates the potential for ingenuity into the presentation. 

As with any technology, the way PowerPoint is used will determine its pedagogical effectiveness. By strategically using the points described above, PowerPoint can be used to enhance instruction and engage students.

Alley, M., Schreiber, M., Ramsdell, K., & Muffo, J. (2006). How the design of headlines in presentation slides affects audience retention. Technical Communication, 53 (2), 225-234. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/43090718

University of Washington, Accessible Technology. (n.d.). Creating accessible presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint. Retrieved from https://www.washington.edu/accessibility/documents/powerpoint/  

Selected Resources

Brill, F. (2016). PowerPoint for teachers: Creating interactive lessons. LinkedIn Learning . Retrieved from https://www.lynda.com/PowerPoint-tutorials/PowerPoint-Teachers-Create-Interactive-Lessons/472427-2.html

Huston, S. (2011). Active learning with PowerPoint [PDF file]. DE Oracle @ UMUC . Retrieved from http://contentdm.umuc.edu/digital/api/collection/p16240coll5/id/78/download

Microsoft Office Support. (n.d.). Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities. Retrieved from https://support.office.com/en-us/article/make-your-powerpoint-presentations-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities-6f7772b2-2f33-4bd2-8ca7-ae3b2b3ef25

Tufte, E. R. (2006). The cognitive style of PowerPoint: Pitching out corrupts within. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press LLC.

University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Medicine. (n.d.). Active Learning with a PowerPoint. Retrieved from https://www.unmc.edu/com/_documents/active-learning-ppt.pdf

University of Washington, Department of English. (n.d.). Teaching with PowerPoint. Retrieved from https://english.washington.edu/teaching/teaching-powerpoint

Vanderbilt University, Center for Teaching. (n.d.). Making better PowerPoint presentations. Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/making-better-powerpoint-presentations/

Suggested citation

Northern Illinois University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. (2020). Teaching with PowerPoint. In Instructional guide for university faculty and teaching assistants. Retrieved from https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guide

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• Teaching and Learning

Student Presentations: Do They Benefit Those Who Listen?

• February 21, 2013
• Maryellen Weimer, PhD

Almost everyone agrees that student presentations benefit the presenter in significant ways. By doing presentations, students learn how to speak in front a group, a broadly applicable professional skill. They learn how to prepare material for public presentation, and practice (especially with feedback) improves their speaking skills. But those of us who have students do presentations in class know there’s a downside—and that’s how the rest of the class responds to these presentations. When the teacher talks, students more or less have to pay attention, at least some of the time, but when their classmates present, they can be comatose. Not only does this make it more difficult for the presenter, it means the students listening are not likely having any sort of learning experience.

Peer evaluations are one way to get students listening and learning from the presentations of others, as the authors of the article referenced below have documented. Students attend more carefully to what their classmates are saying when the evaluations they are doing “count.” In this article, which describes the use of peer evaluations in ten 300-level political science courses, students evaluated every presentation and those evaluations constituted between 3 and 5 percent of their course grade—an amount the authors describe as “just enough to make the students take this assignment seriously.” (p. 806) The quality of the feedback students provide is improved when they use criteria (in this case the same one the teachers used) to assess the presentations. Without much experience critiquing presentations and with no specific guidelines, they are likely to offer feedback that is generic and not particularly helpful, such as “Good presentation.”

These authors had students in each of the 10 classes evaluate the peer evaluation assignment, and that feedback indicates the merit of having students do the evaluations. Seventy-three percent of the students agreed or strongly agreed that completing the evaluations made them pay more attention to the presentations. Almost 60 percent said doing the evaluations gave them a different perspective. “Students indicated they gained a different insight into the process, rather than just sitting through presentations without having any objective or direction as an audience member.” (p. 806) Another sizable majority, almost 74 percent, agreed or strongly agreed that completing the evaluations clarified expectations for the presentation assignment.

Students were equally clear that they did not want the evaluations of their peers to have any role in determining their grade for the presentation. This response is interesting in light of the fact that an analysis of a subset of the data revealed a high correlation between instructor and student grades (r = .740). Instructor grades were slightly higher than student-assigned grades. Even though small, this difference was statistically significant. And even though students didn’t want the assessment of their peers to count, over 80 percent agreed or strongly agreed that the feedback of peers would be helpful in improving subsequent presentations.

It is appropriate for teachers to consider the learning potential of presentations, not just for the presenter, but for the audience. Peer evaluations can be used to increase the level of attention paid to those presentations and the learning that might result from listening. They can also develop critiquing skills. Rather than incorporating peer critiques into the grade of the presenter, maybe part or all of the critique grade could be determined by the presenter, who rates the quality of the feedback provided. As these authors note, sometimes the logistics of peer evaluations discourage faculty from using them—multiple evaluations to collect, record, sort, and return. What about an online system of peer reviews? Or assign a certain number of peer reviewers to each presentation. That ensures that at least a portion of the audience are attending, and with fewer evaluations to prepare, students could be expected to provide more detailed feedback. Or how about some bonus points to the students whose presentations are rated highest by their colleagues? The details associated with using peer evaluations can be handled in a variety of interesting and useful ways.

Reference: Baranowski, M., and Weir, K. (2011). Peer evaluation in the political science classroom. PS, Political Science and Politics, 44 (4), 805-811.

Reprinted from The Teaching Professor , 26.1 (2012): 5.

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8 Tips to Power-Up Your Classroom Presentations

Last month, I attended a Back to School Night for parents, sitting through presentation after presentation by teachers, some with slides that helped make their presentation a delight to listen to, and others . . . well, that's why I'm writing this blog post.

The goal of a classroom presentation is to aid you in effectively conveying information in a way that allows students (or their parents) to remember what you said. Unfortunately, for some, the presentation becomes a crutch, and they begin to rely on the slides to tell their story, rather than to help them tell the story.

I've been creating presentations using software like PowerPoint and KeyNote for 20 years, and I've learned a lot about how to most effectively communicate. Here's what I've found.

1. Use as Many Slides as You Need

It's a common myth that better presentations use fewer slides. This is simply not the case. I once sent an education conference presentation to the organizers so they could preview it in advance of my speaking. They wrote back, concerned that my 45-minute presentation had 116 slides. I looked it over and realized they were right! I revised it and sent a presentation with 135 slides back to them. I finished my talk with 5 minutes to spare -- just enough time to take questions -- and the presentation was a huge success.

The number of slides in your presentation is irrelevant. What matters is how well your slides communicate and how much time you spend talking about each slide. Spending five minutes on five slides will almost always be more engaging to your students than spending five minutes on a single slide, even when the information is exactly the same.

In the movie Amadeus , the Emperor of Austria complains to Mozart that his music has "too many notes." Mozart responds, "There are just as many notes as are required. Neither more nor less." Use as many slides as you need to make your point. No more. No less.

2. Minimize Verbosity

Your slides are there to support what you are saying, not to say it for you. Keep your word count low, and only place one main point on a slide, plus three to five sub-points if absolutely needed. Remember tip #1 above -- don't be afraid to use more slides. They're free! Also, the language in your slides doesn't need to be in complete sentences. Pare the text to as few words as possible, using what's there only to emphasize and reinforce -- not replace -- the words coming out of your mouth.

3. Maximize Visuals

Photos, figures and icons work as visual memory triggers. They help your students remember what it is you're saying. Any time you can add a visual that helps illustrate or reinforce the points you're making in your slides, you should use it. One great way to do this on the cheap is to use public domain or creative commons photos you can find on Flickr or Google .

4. Reduce Noise

Many teachers like to add banners, headers, footers, page numbers and more noise to their slides. Unless the information needs to be on every slide for a vital reason (which is rare), you should remove it. All these redundant elements do is create distractions from the content of your slides. I find this to be especially true of page numbers. Imagine if a movie included a time code at the bottom, constantly reminding you how long you had been watching. All this does is serve to take the viewer out of the moment. Page numbers in slides really don't provide any useful information -- they just remind your students how long they've been watching.

Pursuant to tips #1 and #2, you're not going to win awards by cramming the most content on the fewest slides. Make text and visuals as large as you can. Not only does this make them easier to see and read, but larger images and text make a greater impact to aid memory. There's nothing wrong with filling an entire slide with a photo, and then placing text right on top. You may have to use a transparent background immediately behind the text so that it's clearly readable, but the overall effect is almost always more memorable than just some text beside an image.

6. Highlight What You Are Talking About

While you are presenting, your students may be momentarily distracted taking notes, thinking about what you are saying, glancing out the window, possibly even daydreaming. When they refocus on your slides, though, they need to quickly pick back up where you are, or you risk losing them again.

• Use contrast or call-outs to clearly show the area of the slide you are talking about.
• Reveal bullet points or table rows one at a time so that the last one visible is the one you are talking about.
• Use arrows, circles or other pointers to show what you are referencing in specific parts of an illustration, photo or graph.
• Animate and reveal parts of illustrations and graphs (where possible) to build your story rather than showing everything at once.
• Use bold type or different colors to highlight the keywords in any lengthy text.

7. Transition Changes

Humans suffer from an affliction called change blindness -- we have a hard time seeing changes unless there is a clear transition between the states. This is especially a problem in presentations where slides may look very much alike. Most programs include transitions that can be used between slides or on elements in the slides themselves.

My favorite transition is the cross-dissolve -- where the first slide fades down while the next slide fades up -- but different transitions can help illustrate points in your presentation. Are you talking about combustion or the fire of London? Use a flame transition. Talking about photography or Hollywood movies? Use the flashbulb transition. Even "cheesy" transitions help overcome change blindness and aid student memory at the same time.

8. Repeat Yourself Redundantly

It’s OK to repeat the same slide more than once -- especially when using images -- if you are reminding students of an earlier point. Obviously, this is not a license to be monotonous. However, if you want to tie separate ideas together, emphasize a point or splash in a little comic relief, it's perfectly fine to repeat a slide.

Bonus Tip: Make it Funny!

There's little doubt that emotional responses can aid memory. While it can be difficult to apply this power in a classroom slide presentation, humor is easy enough, and adding a bit of levity to your presentations at the right points can work to give students vital memory hooks.

Remember, the point of presentation slides is not to replace you as the teacher, but to help your students understand and remember what you are teaching. Overwhelming them with too much information can be just as harmful as underwhelming them with too little.

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Teaching Resources

Improving Presentation Style

Resource overview.

Strategies for making your presentation style more effective in the classroom

Effective lecturers combine the talents of scholar, writer, producer, comedian, showman, and teacher in ways that contribute to student learning.”

Wilbert J. McKeachie, Teaching Tips

An effective teacher is an excellent communicator and therefore thinks about improving his or her presentation skills. One of the most important aspects of communicating is shaping both content and style to fit your audience. In the classroom, if you cannot communicate in a way that is both comprehensible and interesting to your students, their learning will be greatly reduced.

To strengthen your presentation skills, focus on improving your skills in these three areas:

Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication

• Find out all you can about the room in which you will be presenting. Visit the room ahead of time to familiarize yourself with its size and layout, as well as the type of chalkboards, chalk, erasers, and multimedia available. In addition, obtain any necessary training on the multimedia.
• Use the classroom as a stage. Move around to engage and interact with your audience. Do not stand in one spot the entire time. Move with purpose; do not walk aimlessly.
• Prepare. Preparation is essential. All excellent teachers are well prepared for each class. Practice in the room if you can, especially if you are new to teaching. In addition, prepare yourself emotionally and psychologically by taking the time to organize your thoughts and to look forward to teaching before every class.
• Speak loudly and clearly. Project your voice and face your audience when you are speaking. Speak slightly louder than you do in a normal conversation. Use a microphone in a medium to large classroom. The class may include students with hearing problems. Moreover, a microphone will help ensure that students can hear you even when you turn to the chalkboard momentarily.
• Modulate the tone, pitch, and speed of your speech. Do not speak in a monotone. Vary the pitch and speed of your voice for emphasis and effect. Use appropriate pauses. Rather than using filler words such as “uh,” for example, simply pause before moving on to the next idea or point.
• Use gestures and facial expressions to help you explain, emphasize, and communicate the material. However, be careful not to develop distracting habits such as pacing or repeatedly adjusting your glasses or hair. To find out if you are unconsciously doing anything that may be distracting to your audience, have a colleague observe one of your classes or have your class videotaped. To schedule a videotaping and teaching consultation, call The Teaching Center at 935-6810.
• Develop a teaching persona. Decide how you want to be perceived and what mannerisms you want to have. For example, do you want to be quiet, humorous, formal, or informal? Whatever persona is right for you, aim to convey confidence and ease. Move with certainty and assuredness, and be careful not to seem pompous or intimidating.
• Show passion and enthusiasm for the topic. If you are not interested in the subject, you cannot expect your students to be interested, either. Point out the fascinating aspects of what they are learning.
• Do not read your notes or slides. Doing so will lower your energy level and lead your audience to feel less engaged.
• Interact with and pay attention to your audience. Make eye contact with the students, not with the wall or chalkboard. Build a rapport with the class. Make sure the class is with you (following and understanding what you are discussing). If they appear to be lost, take additional time to explain points and to ask and answer questions.
• Do not take yourself too seriously. Be able to laugh at yourself and your mistakes. Feel free to bring humor into the classroom, but direct it at yourself, rather than at your students’ questions and ideas.
• Keep track of the time. Do not start early or end late. The students often do not recall or listen to information presented after the class period is technically finished.

Effective Use of the Chalkboard and Visual-Aids

Using the Chalkboard

• Write legibly and big enough that your writing can seen in the back of the room.
• Think about the organization of the material on the board.
• Fill one board at a time, starting at the top of each board and writing down.
• Do not scrunch in words at the very bottom of the board or in the margins. The students in the back will not see the words at the bottom, and no one will see the words in the margins.
• Underline or mark major assumptions, conclusions, etc.
• Use color to emphasize points.Before the course starts, determine which colors are most visible in the back of the room.
• Erase a board only when you have run out of room.
• If you find a mistake on a previous board, do not erase it. Cross it out, then write the correction in, which is what the students must do.

Using Visual Aids, such as PowerPoint Slides

• Do not use visual aids unless they serve a clear and important purpose. Visuals should aid quick comprehension and support the main points.
• Book and check out the presentation equipment in advance.
• Talk to your audience and not to the screen.
• Use the visuals to enhance your presentation, not as a substitute for a verbal presentation.
• Use a pointer, if necessary.
• Coordinate the audio and the visual.
• Design your visuals with clarity and simplicity in mind.

Effective Design and Meaningful Organization of Content

Visual Design Suggestions

• Use single words or phrases.
• Organize the content visually.
• Choose a font that is easy to see. Choose a font that is simple, plain, and easy to read such as Times New Roman, Ariel, or Helvetica. Select a font size that is large enough to be seen at the back of the room. The minimal acceptable size is typically 24-point. Use both upper- and lower-case letters; all upper-case letters are difficult to read.
• Keep the design simple. Too many words, graphics, or different colors are distracting and cause students to miss the important points.
• Use short quotes, not long extracts, from documents.
• Assign a title for each visual. Doing so will help your audience organize and retain the information on each visual.
• Use summary lists.
• Limit the number of ideas on each visual. For example, limit the number of bullets on a page to approximately 4 to 6. Each bullet should be short, approximately one line. Do not crowd the visual with text; it will be too difficult to read.
• Use color for emphasis and organization. Color is useful, but needs to be used judiciously. The color should be used for emphasis or for distinguishing among data. Think about the color wheel: adjacent colors blend together and colors directly opposite each other are contrasting and provide better readability. Reds and oranges stand out, but are hard to continually focus on; therefore, use these colors only for emphasis. Greens, blues, and browns are easier to continually focus on, but do not grab a person’s attention.
• Design diagrams and tables that are simple and clear, with readily recognized symbols. Your audience must be able to read all data in your diagrams and tables. Often, this means that you will have to simplify a more complex or detailed table or diagram that has been prepared for a printed format.
• Use horizontal (landscape) layout, not vertical (portrait). Screens, video monitors, and computer monitors are shaped for a horizontal, not a vertical, format. In addition, a horizontal format is easier to project in rooms with low ceilings.

Content Organization Suggestions

• Plan the content. Think about the type of students in the class, the goals for the course and the current session, the type of material to be presented in the current session, and the type of media, if any, that you are going to use.
• Provide a structure. Each class session or presentation should have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
• List objectives or provide an outline at the beginning of each class session. Providing an outline helps students identify the most important points and follow the lecture or discussion more effectively.
• Organize course content with a theme or storyline. How do you want to arrange the material? How does each part of the material relate to what comes next.
• Remember that a typical student’s attention span is 15-20 minutes. Every 15-20 minutes, either change your teaching method or change activities. Use different teaching methods in one session to keep the students’ attention and to reach students who have different learning preferences. (See Teaching with Lectures .)
• Allow for pauses and “wait-time.” Wait-time is the pause after the instructor either asks a question or asks for questions. Students need time to think of a response to a question, or to think of a question to ask. Do not be afraid of silence. Most instructors wait 1-3 seconds for a response. However, increasing the wait-time to 5-10 seconds dramatically increases the number and quality of responses. (See Asking Questions to Improve Learning .)

Clark, Donald. “Making Presentations that Audiences Will Love.” PowerPoint Presentation. http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/templates/presentations.ppt .

—.“Monthly Speaking Tips.” LJL Seminars. http://www.ljlseminars.com/monthtip.htm .

“Common Visual Aids.” Faculty Development Committee. Honolulu Community College. http://letsgetengaged.wikispaces.com/file/view/using_visual_aids.pdf

“Creating Visual Aids That Really Work: Designing Effective Slides Using PowerPoint.” Effective Communications Group (ECG), Inc.  http://ecgcoaching.com/library/ps/powerpoint.php

Davis, Barbara Gross. “Delivering a Lecture.” Tools for Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. 1993.

Edwards, Paul N. “How to Give an Academic Talk.” School of Information. University of Michigan. http://pne.people.si.umich.edu/PDF/howtotalk.pdf .

McKeachie, Wilbert, et al. McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers. 12th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

“Presentations.” Teaching and Learning Center. Eastern Kentucky University.

Sammons, Martha. “Students Assess Computer-Aided Classroom Presentations.” The Journal Online, May 1995. http://thejournal.com/articles/1995/05/01/students-assess-computeraided-classroom-presentations.aspx?sc_lang=en

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Teacher well-being, cultivating diversity, equity, & inclusion, integrating technology in the classroom, social-emotional development, covid-19 resources, invest in resilience: summer toolkit, civics & resilience, all toolkits, degree programs, trauma-informed professional development, teacher licensure & certification, how to become - career information, classroom management, instructional design, lifestyle & self-care, online higher ed teaching, current events, teachers: 5 tips for creating great powerpoint presentations.

A teacher’s PowerPoint presentation is one way to share content with students that’s different from lecturing or teaching from the textbook.

And if a PowerPoint is put together correctly, it can be an effective way of reinforcing certain content to students so that they’re better able to retain it. What’s more is that teachers can print and distribute the PowerPoint presentation or post it online so students can go back and access it as reference material. However, if it’s not put together correctly, a PowerPoint presentation can disengage and make students bored.

So how should teachers go about putting together an effective PowerPoint presentation? For starters, it should be simple. But just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it can’t also be fun. Here’s a look at five tips that teachers can use to spruce up their PowerPoint presentations and make them an effective teaching tool.

Highlight a take home message

A PowerPoint presentation should be basic, simple and not distracting. It should also focus on keywords and a take home message. For example, always be sure to include a summary slide of what the presentation is intending to accomplish as well as a table of contents on the different topics that will be covered in the program. The summary slide serves as the main topic and what students should learn after viewing the presentation. Then, at the end of the PowerPoint presentation, teachers should include another summary slide, going over everything that was just covered and, again, highlighting the main point. Bottom line: keep PowerPoint presentations simple, but make sure they have a purpose and make sure that the purpose is made clear.

Add pictures

We’ve already gone over how a good PowerPoint presentation should always have a focus on what it intends to accomplish and it should always contain a take home message. Teachers can reinforce this take home message with pictures, charts, symbols and other images. In fact, sometimes it’s better to have more pictures than text in a PowerPoint presentation. Images work to reinforce a main point or message. Teachers typically will just share this content with their class, so they can pull images straight from the Internet. However, for teachers who are making more public and widespread presentations, copyright law will need to be considered.

Just as how pictures can help reinforce a main point or support content, so can videos. And studies say that students enjoy watching videos and retain information from them well, especially if the video is engaging, interesting and informative. Teachers can embed videos right from YouTube or from their desktops to complement a PowerPoint presentation.

Nothing turns off a class like a poorly put together PowerPoint presentation, so teachers should always be sure to do a quick rehearsal before they present it to the class. While testing it, make sure that all the images load up on the slides, that videos load up properly and that audio works, too. Also, it’s important for teachers to make sure that there’s a way to connect their computer, or upload anything that’s storing the PowerPoint presentation, to a larger TV monitor or projector screen so the whole class doesn’t have to huddle around a computer screen to view it. Teachers should also make sure that any text can be read clearly and that the color scheme is good.

Make it fun

A PowerPoint presentation can be an innovative way of teaching. Generally speaking, it’s a more interesting and engaging way for students to learn than the typical lecture is. Teachers should embrace this method of teaching and have fun with it. Throw in some jokes, possibly some funny pictures and be sure to get creative with presentations. The more fun that teachers have in putting together a presentation, the more fun students will get out of it. And as we previously noted, the more students enjoy a lecture, presentation or activity, the more likely they are to retain the information.

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How Slideshows Helps Class In Virtual Learning

• April 28, 2022

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Many new forms of learning have emerged as a result of the ongoing technological advancements. There has been an unfortunate shift from zteaching to virtual learning , brought about by the pandemic. In many respects, it is more exciting and superior than traditional approaches. The student’s interest is piqued by these tactics.

Students nowadays are more comfortable with technology. So incorporating new forms of technology such as slideshows will have a major impact on student learning. Slideshows are extremely simple to make too. All it takes is a quick google search on ‘ how to make a slideshow ‘ , and you’ll be a pro at making slideshows in no time. These slideshows can be used in virtual classrooms to make topics much more attractive for students. Other benefits for slideshows are as follows

Virtual learning is made easier

The web has seen a massive increase in its reach and proliferation all across the world. The notion of virtual learning and online education has, quite literally, exploded in popularity. Slideshows provide a variety of audio and visual capabilities to aid distance learning. Its point-to-point explanation style helps pupils understand tough concepts.

Most kids spend a large chunk of their day on the Internet. So it only makes sense to spend some of that time learning and expanding their knowledge. These can be done in virtual classrooms or online courses which utilize slideshows to effectively support them.

Slideshows: A powerful visual aid in the classroom

It is commonly known, and studies as well have demonstrated that visuals have a greater impact than words. When students study using graphs and charts, it is much easier for them to remember the material. Pictures, graphs, diagrams, and bullet points are common components of a PowerPoint presentation. It improves the mind’s memory capacity. It also aids kids in recalling material for a longer period of time.

A PowerPoint presentation can help students learn more. Simultaneously, it aids teachers in their teaching approaches. Students can acquire new material faster by using different typefaces, visual effects, and highlighting. It also encourages them to write better exam responses.

Develops self-esteem and confidence in students

The majority of PowerPoint tasks include presenting a topic to a bunch of people. Slideshows can be used in a way for a learner to practice public speaking. As we all know, addressing a crowd takes a great deal of courage and self-assurance. It would be quite tough to present your thoughts and opinions if you are not confident.

When students deliver presentations regularly, their confidence grows. It also allows them to express themselves in front of a group of people. There are marks assigned to presenting a topic in various schools and institutions. Students who provide the finest presentations receive higher grades. To score well in such a pattern, it is vital to cultivate self-confidence.

Increases attention span

Every component of the classroom should contribute to a student’s overall learning process. Sitting in the classroom, thinking about something else is a distraction from the lesson. It’s something almost every student has done at some point.

When a teacher employs fascinating and engaging teaching approaches, kids are more likely to pay attention. Their ability to retain information improves as well. Students of all ages might become bored when studying for lengthy periods. It’s much worse if standard teaching approaches don’t fit their mentality. Learning may deteriorate as a result.

It’s critical to keep things interesting to get students to concentrate through a long session. From time to time, try to pique their attention. When students are entertained while learning, they are more motivated to study.

The entertaining way maintains their attention for a longer period. It’s a proven truth that different learning strategies help the brain absorb knowledge faster. Audio, video, text, and animation are all used in most slideshows. It facilitates the assimilation of data.

Promotes classroom discussion

There are certain wow elements in a slideshow. It draws and almost completely captures the audience’s attention. Though the old way of using a board and chalk will never be abandoned. When it comes to enhancing student engagement , presentations are unquestionably more effective.

Each slide contains some amount of originality that engages the pupils’ attention. Students study the themes of a certain subject through the presentations. It also aids in the creation of a spirited classroom debate.

The presentation must incorporate a variety of learning aspects. Students who view their education as a burden may quickly tire of the text-heavy presentation. Using slides to present large paragraphs will also distract the viewers.

Aids in revision

Even if a pupil memorizes all of the chapters at the first reading, revising from the book is impossible. A slideshow includes both notes and a visual representation of the data.

As a result, a slideshow is superior to notes, albeit notes are beneficial to some extent. Those in the audience who are listening might review a topic as it is being presented in class. They may also have all of their questions answered before the tests.

Bottom line

To conclude, slideshows have been used for a long time in a wide range of settings for a variety of reasons. Slideshow lecture notes have a favorable impact on student performance. It can help you improve your overall exam result. Notably, it has entered the realm of education.

Teaching through presentations can transform the academic landscape. It is a way of learning that is constantly changing. When compared to traditional chalkboard and chalk learning, it offers additional advantages. Slideshows may work wonders for you if you know how to utilize them properly. Hopefully, this article has helped you understand how important slideshows are for students and others.

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14 Effects Of Power Point Presentations On Student Study

Due to the rapid progress in technology, there are many new ways of learning that have started. These methods attract the mind of most students. It is interesting and better than the traditional methods in many ways. These methods spark curiosity in the mind of the students. The whole process of education can sometimes feel tedious for students.

The students nowadays are more friendly with tech devices. So, to make it less boring need to start innovative ways that involve technology. The effect of using PowerPoint presentations on student’s learning is huge.

Impact of PowerPoint presentations

Let us take a look at how it promotes an active teaching and learning environment. These presentation tips draw a serious impact of PowerPoint presentations on students.

1. PowerPoint: An Invaluable Visual Tool For Classroom

It is well known and studies also show that the impact of pictures is more effective than text. It's easy for students to keep information in their minds if they learn things by using visual tools. A typical PowerPoint presentation contains pictures, graphs, diagrams, and bullet points. It increases the memory capacity of the mind. It also helps students remember information for a long time.

A PowerPoint presentation can enhance the intellect of students. At the same time, it helps the teachers in their teaching methods. Different fonts, visual effects, and highlighting can help students learn new information quicker. It leads them to write better answers in their exams.

"The whole purpose is to enable people to learn. Your mission is not to transmit information but to transform learners." - Harold D. Stolovitch and Erica J. Keeps

2. Ease Of Use For Students and Teachers

There are many presentation software are available. But none of them compares to the ease of using that PowerPoint offers. It is suitable for teachers who are not very techno-friendly as well as for students. Using it is very simple and easy. It can add various fonts, formatting, and animation with the click of a button. For users that want to be more creative, some advanced options are there.

One can use it with a little bit of extra technical knowledge. Students of High school can learn a diagram for Physics, Biology, Chemistry, etc subjects. Students of a higher level can gain deep information about complex subjects. These are some of the student's PowerPoint presentation examples.

You can see the effect of PowerPoint presentations on student learning shortly. It has the power to memorize your presentation with the least effort.

"The success of your presentation will be judged not by the knowledge you send but by what the listener receives." - Lilly Walters

3. Facilitates Effective E-learning And Distance Education

All over the world, the internet has got vast connectivity growth. In this internet era, the concept of e-learning and distance education has seen a heavy boost. To make distance learning easier the PowerPoint provides different audio and visual tools. Its point-to-point explanation method makes difficult concepts easier for the students.

Students spend a lot of time in front of the internet. Why not use it in learning something and improving your knowledge on various topics? Some of the tutoring websites offer an online course. They provide all the courses in the form of PowerPoint presentations. It includes some informational videos to back them up.

"If you don't know what you want to achieve in your presentation your audience never will." - Harvey Diamond

4. Develops Confidence In Students

Most PowerPoint projects involve presenting a topic in front of a group of people. This acts as a means to develop public speaking skills in a student. As we all know, speaking in front of a crowd requires great courage and a certain level of confidence. If you are not confident it will be very difficult to put forth your points and opinions.

When students give presentations, again and again, it increases their confidence level. It also helps them give their opinion among a group of people. In some schools and colleges, there are marks allotted to presenting a topic. The students who give the best presentation score better. For such a pattern, it is necessary to develop self-confidence to score well.

"They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel." - Carl W. Buechner

5. Customized Templates For Comfortable Learning

Everyone who uses it has an option to create customized templates and learn in a way that suits them. The teachers can teach a particular topic in an easy way to understand for the students. They can choose the template according to need.

The built-in library of templates is vast and there is something for everyone. Users can also store the custom templates that they have used for reference at some point in the future. This teaching strategy can make a teacher a preferred and favorite one soon.

"No one can remember more than three points."- Philip Crosby

6. Compatibility With Third-Party Educational Tool

Microsoft PowerPoint is a flexible solution. It has scalable functionality and very compatible with many third-party learning tools. For example, if a visual learner wants to add charts and a timeline to their assignment, the office timeline tool will be beneficial for them. It increases their learning capacity too.

You can add data to your presentation to put an explanatory appearance. You can also help the presenters as well as the audience to have a clear grasp of the concept. The Office mix plug-in enables users to share videos online, free for the rest of the world to watch and learn. The best part about these tools is most of them are free. You do not need any extra costs to access and use PowerPoint. You can also make your own notes by using PowerPoint with other available tools.

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." - Albert Einstein

7. Promotes Interactive Study

When a teacher teaches a subject by using a slideshow, it promotes an interactive way of studying. The teaching goes slide by slide and the students can clear the doubts and queries side by side. It's easy for the teacher to capture the attention of the students. The creative tools, its features, the interest and curiosity of the students are favorable aspects to the teachers. This results in more questions from the student's side.

When one student gives a statement, another can add to the information or ask a query. This increases the educational interaction between the teacher and the student. It also increases the student's learning capacity.

"People don't remember what we think is important. They remember what they think is important." - John Maxwell

8. Development Of In-depth Knowledge

A student will absorb the information better than writing a note in the notebook if they get a topic as slides. Most of the students copy their assignments from the internet which is a complete waste of time. But when they prepare a presentation, they have to put some extra effort, here they can take the help of the internet.

When the students do research for slides, they come across a wide array of information. They also learn how to summarize information in points. Its practice develops an exact way of answering in the examination in a point-to-point manner. Here the students can score great marks.

"A great presentation gives smart ideas an advantage." - Nancy Duarte

9. Up-To-Date Features

The best thing about most Microsoft services is, they keep them updated. They follow modern usage and study techniques while updating their software. They are reliable and nothing is ever outdated. They are consistent in their improvement. There are so many features of it that make you carefree even when you have left something unsolved.

You don't have to worry about any unattended problems as it's strong features are there to solve it. It keeps you up-to-date with the requirements of various users in the current scenario. Also, it integrates well with social media platforms and other services.

"If you think presentations cannot enchant people, then you have never seen a really good one." - Guy Kawaski

10. Increased Attention Span Of Students

Every element should act as a contributor to the entire learning process of a student. Thinking of something else sitting in the classroom is a distraction from the lecture. Almost every student has ever done it.

When a teacher uses interesting and engaging methods of teaching, they can draw the attention of the students. Their grasping capability also increases. No matter what their age is, students can get bored when studying for long hours. It is worse if the traditional teaching methods do not appeal to their mindset. The learning can actually suffer.

To make students sit through a long class it is important to keep things spiced up. Try to spark their interest from time to time. When students get entertainment during learning, it further aids in studying.

The entertaining method keeps them focused for a longer duration. It's a scientific fact the brain absorbs information faster with variant learning methods. Most PowerPoint presentations are a combination of audio, video, text, and animation. It aids in the absorption of information.

“ You can’t look at the competition and say you’re going to do it better. You have to look at the competition and say you’re going to do it differently.” – Steve Jobs

11. Lively Classroom Discussions

The projector base presentation has some wow factors. It attracts and pretty much catches the attention of the audience. Though the traditional board and chalk method never go completely out of the picture. Presentations are definitely more useful as far as increasing student engagement.

Each slide has some level of creativity that captures the mind of the students. The presentations make students learn the topics of a particular subject. Also, it contributes to creating a lively discussion in the classroom.

It's important that the presentation should be a mixture of various learning elements. The students who take their studies as a burden, the presentation full of text is sure to tire out. Presenting enormous paragraphs through slides will also distract the audience.

“ Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect.” – Jack Dorsey

12. Different Benefits At The Same Time

As we all know, the knowledge of a topic is better absorbed via presentations. PowerPoint presentation in a positive way affects a student's personality's various aspects. It improves the student's knowledge as well. As stated earlier, it develops confidence and gets rid of stage fright. Besides that, presenting a topic improves the vocabulary and speaking skills of students.

Students who are in the audience, their listening skills will increase. When the audience asks questions, it gives a chance for the presenters to answer further by expanding their knowledge as well.

“If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” – Mark Zuckerberg

13. Excellent Revision Tool

Even if a student learns all chapters in the first reading, it will not be possible the revision from the book. The presentation contains notes as well as a visual representation of the information.

So, a presentation is even better than the notes though Notes help to a great extent. At the time presentation of a topic in class who are listening can revise that particular topic. They can also get all their doubts cleared before the exams.

Our work is the presentation of our capabilities. Edward Gibbon

14. Development Of Job Skills In Students

To convey your ideas to the people nearby you via a PowerPoint is one of the most popular ways, very few of us realize it. The student should be habitual in giving a presentation from the beginning. Then the chances of making mistakes in a job are less.

PowerPoint may not be of any use for you in a presentation, but it may liberate you in another way, an artistic way. Who knows. David Byrne

These are the few best advantages of using PowerPoint presentations in teaching.

How To Memorize PowerPoint Slides:

As we already know what the benefits of a PowerPoint presentation are on the academics of a student. Now, it is time to move on to some memorizing techniques. It will help in keeping the information seen in the presentation for a long time.

Instead of cramming, students need to adopt creative ways to learn the information. One effective method is to try to join the points of the presentation with the pictorial form of the topics. When you relate the text to visual aids forgetting stuff is not easy for you.

Another thing to do is to read the text, picture the images many times in your mind, and then make notes in your own words. Along with helping you remember, this technique will also test your skills. How much you can remember based on many readings and understandings.

Conclusion:

To sum up, People have been using Microsoft PowerPoint tools for a long time in a wide area for many purposes. The effects of PowerPoint lecture notes on student performance are positive. It is helpful in increasing the whole examination score. Its entry into the field of education is noteworthy.

Teaching via presentation has the potential to make a change in the academic sector. It is a dynamic learning method. It provides more benefits as compared to the traditional blackboard and chalks learning. If you know how to use it in the right way, Microsoft PowerPoint can do wonders for you. I hope by now you have understood the importance of PowerPoint presentations for students and others as well.

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The Importance of Videos for Teaching and Learning

Giving compass' take:.

• Christine Umayam details five reasons why videos are helpful and effective for both classroom learning and teaching.
• How can you help schools access high-quality educational resources?
• Learn how teachers are using video games as a means for advancing student learning.

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The days of standing in front of the classroom and “lecturing” are long gone. By using video, teachers can keep students engaged in new and innovative ways.

Here are five ways video can have a powerful impact on teaching and learning:

• Engagement: Studies have shown that video learning has positive outcomes on multiple levels, including increased motivation and deeper learning, and can specifically impact students’ ability to facilitate discussions and identify problems.
• Effectiveness: Video learning is effective on both sides of the classroom; educators can use it to create time and space for active learning. Once a video is created, it can be reused and updated as needed, leaving more time in the classroom for live discussions and engagement with students.
• Authenticity: Video engages both the student and educator in a one-on-one relationship without ever being in the same room.A compelling 2016 study by the Online Learning Consortium found that video helped educators build and foster authentic relationships with students.
• Inspired Thinking: Visual cues combined with audio play a huge role in the comprehension and retention of new material. Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey claims one minute of video equals approximately 1.8 million written words. Thus when video is used in the classroom, students are are forced to think critically when introduced to complex content.
• Video For All: Video can help address this gap in training by giving both general and special education teachers the opportunity to teach students at their own pace. Students can rewatch a video multiple times in order to gain and retain learning material. And captions, for example, enable deaf students to read the video.

Read the full article about how videos can affect teaching and learning by Christine Umayam at EdSurge.

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How and why personalized learning experiences are beneficial, getting smart, sep 2, 2019, rethinking the flipped classroom model, aug 1, 2018.

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International Journal of Nursing Science

p-ISSN: 2167-7441    e-ISSN: 2167-745X

2015;  5(2): 81-86

doi:10.5923/j.nursing.20150502.07

Effectiveness of Video Presentation to Students’ Learning

Gia Lenn L. Mendoza , Lawrence C. Caranto , Juan Jose T. David

College of Nursing, Benguet State University, La Trinidad, Benguet, Philippines

Copyright © 2015 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved.

This study was conducted to identify the effectiveness of video presentation to students’ learning. This was derived due to the changes and updates the world has to offer on enhancing student’s wisdom. Instructors and even students rely or use educative videos to learn, compare and understand concepts. The use of video is only beginning to meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s learners. Using videos in teaching is not new. It was proposed that videos are effective when used to develop information literacy, using a student survey to measure the effectiveness of video lectures. Video based materials boost students’ creativity and cooperation. Access to video can help motivate students and create a distinctive context for their learning experience. Questionnaires were administered to 224 students of Benguet State University to measure effectiveness of video presentation to student’s learning. From the outcomes, it was found out that there is no significant difference on students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of video presentation to students’ learning when grouped according to sex. Moreover, results revealed that a significant difference exists among students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of video presentation when grouped according to their academic level. Furthermore, it is revealed that the level of effectiveness of video presentation to students learning is highly effective.

Keywords: Effectiveness, Video presentations, Students’ learning, Year level

Cite this paper: Gia Lenn L. Mendoza, Lawrence C. Caranto, Juan Jose T. David, Effectiveness of Video Presentation to Students’ Learning, International Journal of Nursing Science , Vol. 5 No. 2, 2015, pp. 81-86. doi: 10.5923/j.nursing.20150502.07.

Article Outline

1. introduction, 2. background, 3.1. design, 3.2. sampling, 3.3. instrument, 3.4. ethical considerations, 3.5. statistical treatment, 4. results and discussion, 4.1. level of effectiveness on using video presentation to students’ learning process, 4.2. perceptions of the effectiveness on video presentations of male and female students, 4.3. difference in perceptions of effectiveness of video presentations among the different year levels, 5. conclusions and recommendations, acknowledgments.

University of Washington Information School

A google slides extension can make presentation software more accessible for blind users.

Screen readers, which convert digital text to audio, can make computers more accessible to many disabled users — including those who are blind, low vision or dyslexic. Yet slideshow software, such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides, isn’t designed to make screen reader output coherent. Such programs typically rely on Z-order — which follows the way objects are layered on a slide — when a screen reader navigates through the contents. Since the Z-order doesn’t adequately convey how a slide is laid out in two-dimensional space, slideshow software can be inaccessible to people with disabilities.

A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has created A11yBoard for Google Slides, a browser extension and phone app that allows blind users to navigate through complex slide layouts and text. Combining a desktop computer with a mobile device, A11yBoard lets users work with audio, touch, gesture, speech recognition and search to understand where different objects are located on a slide and move these objects around to create rich layouts. For instance, a user can touch a textbox on the screen, and the screen reader will describe its color and position. Then, using a voice command, the user can shrink that textbox and left-align it with the slide’s title.

The team presented its research Oct. 25 at ASSETS 2023 in New York. A11yBoard is not yet available to the public.

“For a long time and even now, accessibility has often been thought of as, ‘We’re doing a good job if we enable blind folks to use modern products.’ Absolutely, that’s a priority,” said senior author Jacob O. Wobbrock , a UW professor in the Information School. “But that is only half of our aim, because that’s only letting blind folks use what others create. We want to empower people to create their own content, beyond a PowerPoint slide that’s just a title and a text box.”

A11yBoard for Google Slides builds on a line of research in Wobbrock’s lab exploring how blind users interact with “artboards” — digital canvases on which users work with objects such as textboxes, shapes, images and diagrams. Slideshow software relies on a series of these artboards. When lead author Zhuohao (Jerry) Zhan g , a UW doctoral student in the iSchool, joined Wobbrock’s lab, the two sought a solution to the accessibility flaws in creativity tools, like slideshow software. Drawing on earlier research from Wobbrock’s lab on the problems blind people have using artboards, Wobbrock and Zhang presented a prototype of A11yBoard in April. They then worked to create a solution that’s deployable through existing software, settling on a Google Slides extension.

For the current paper, the researchers worked with co-author Gene S-H Kim , an undergraduate at Stanford University, who is blind, to improve the interface. The team tested it with two other blind users, having them recreate slides. The testers both noted that A11yBoard greatly improved their ability to understand visual content and to create slides themselves without constant back-and-forth iterations with collaborators; they needed to involve a sighted assistant only at the end of the process.

The testers also highlighted spots for improvement: Remaining continuously aware of objects’ positions while trying to edit them still presented a challenge, and users were forced to do each action individually, such as aligning several visual groups from left to right, instead completing these repeated actions in batches. Because of how Google Slides functions, the app’s current version also does not allow users to undo or redo edits across different devices.

Ultimately, the researchers plan to release the app to the public. But first they plan to integrate a large language model, such as GPT, into the program.

“That will potentially help blind people author slides more efficiently, using natural language commands like, ‘Align these five boxes using their left edge,’” Zhang said. “Even as an accessibility researcher, I’m always amazed at how inaccessible these commonplace tools can be. So with A11yBoard we’ve set out to change that.”

This research was funded in part by the University of Washington’s Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences (UW CREATE).

For more information, contact Zhang at [email protected] and Wobbrock at [email protected] .

This article was first published by UW News.

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