Using Slides in Classroom Teaching

Numerous articles have been written about the pros and cons of using PowerPoint, KeyNote, or other slide presentation tools in the classroom. Slides have become a standard tool for professors and depending on how they’re used, they can clarify and complement or detract from an instructor’s lecture. For better or worse, slides have become a lecturing standard. Below, we offer some tips for keeping your lectures interesting and share some links to resources and commentary.

Eight Tips for Design and Delivery:

Keep slides light on text. Slides shouldn’t be the used as your lecture notes. If you pack them with text, they’ll probably not be read. If you don’t intend for your students to read the slides, then use an image instead or a simple concept on the slide, allowing your narrative to deliver definition and context. Use handouts for dense amounts of information.

Don’t read your slides out loud. Research as shown that not only are people are unable to effectively listen and read at the same time, particularly when new terms and concepts are being introduced, MRI tests show that the 2 activities use the same parts of the brain and they directly compete with each other, creating frustration rather than learning. If a slide has some text on it (remember not to use much), allow sufficient quiet time for people to read the content. Talk about it, but don’t read it.

Don’t aim for comprehensiveness. This may seem paradoxical to effective teaching, but consider exercising communicative discipline with both your slides and spoken lecture. If you try to shoehorn in exhaustive amounts of information, you might only overload your students and bury the basics that you most want them to understand.

Present images with (or without) your text. The Picture Superiority Effect is a well researched phenomenon in which pictures are more likely to be remembered than words.
Therefore, pictures and diagrams are best understood either in isolation or with spoken information only. (“Cognitive Load theory” by John Sweller)

Avoid using transitions and animations. Some people feel these techniques will “jazz up” a presentation, but remember that there are many people for whom these effects are a visual distraction that impedes their ability to stay focused on the message. A simple fade is the exception.

Create legible slides. Use big enough fonts in contrasting colors. Appropriate font size varies based on the audience size and scale of the room. Here are some guidelines from Think Outside the Slide.

Black out the screen when it’s not relevant. There may be times in your lecture that you want more focus on listening (or you need to stray from what’s on the slide). Slides can go stale if they’re up too long, especially when they aren’t on topic anymore. To temporarily blacken the screen, press the “b” key (for black). To bring it back, press “b” again.

Know your lecture as though you didn’t have slides. In other words, try not to rely on the slides as your lecture blueprint. If you are prepared to give the lecture without it, you’ll be more relaxed, less tempted to read from slides, and your lecture will flow.

Resources and Tutorials

Commentary