Slides for Students where they help each other

SLIDES FOR
STUDENTS
The Effective Use of
Powerpoint in Education
GARY D. FISK

Blue Ridge | Cumming | Dahlonega | Gainesville |
Oconee
SLIDES FOR
STUDENTS
The Effective Use of
Powerpoint in Education
GARY D. FISK

Copyright © 2019 by Gary D. Fisk
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part
without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may
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electronic publications; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored
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from the publisher.
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Printed in the United States
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CONTENTS
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Introductio
n
vi
i
Presentation
Software
1
Powerpointlessne
ss
1
4
Educational Effectiveness and Student Perceptions
32
Avoiding Death by
Powerpoint
5
3
Design for
Emotion I
6
7
Design for
Emotion II
8
4
Design for
Sensation
10
0
Design for
Perception I
11
7
Design for
Perception II
13
5

10 Design for
Attention
15
6
1
1
12
13
14
15
16
17
A
B
Design for
Cognition I
17
0
Design for
Cognition II
19
0
Design for
Behavior
21
3
Technology
Choices
23
2
Tips and Tricks for Slide
Presentations
24
7
A Classroom Presentation
Example
26
4
The Bright Future of Powerpoint in
Education
29
2
Appendix
A
30
7
Appendix
B
31
0
Appendix
C
31
4

0
INTRODUCTION
The creative spark that motivated this book was the
observation that powerpoint presentations sometimes fail to
produce a positive impact on student learning. There seems to
be a strange, somewhat curious disconnect between an amazing
technology and a mediocre or poor student learning experience.
Discussions with other college faculty reinforced the idea that
powerpoint presentations often fall short of expectations in
the classroom. The initial curiosity about this disconnection
became a personal journey to learn more about presentation
technology and how it was used—or misused—in the classroom.
My overall conclusion is that powerpoint presentations are often
used in ineffective ways. This is not entirely the fault of the
technology. Rather, the main problem lies in how humans use
the technology. If we want to unleash the full potential of
powerpoint presentations, we must

viii | Slides for Students
do a better job of creating presentations that fit the educational
needs of our students.
My exploration of the use of powerpoint in education
suggested a need for definitive guidelines that would inform
educators about the best practices for its use. Many educators
have written specific studies of powerpoint in the classroom, but
clear-cut recommendations based on this evidence were missing.
The present book addresses this need by synthesizing
information across psychological research areas, such as
sensation, cognition, and behavior. Other evidence comes from
classroom-based studies conducted by educational professionals
across a wide range of academic disciplines. A third body of
evidence was the recommendations made by professional
designers who aim to improve the quality of powerpoint
presentations. The present book was synthesized from these
widely varied sources into recommendations that should help
education professionals connect with their students and get
better learning outcomes from their powerpoint presentations.
This book is not meant to be a software manual or a how-
to guide for using a particular software application. Many such
books are available for Microsoft’s PowerPoint or Apple’s
Keynote software applications. Instead, this book’s emphasis is
on the design of educational presentations. The ideas behind
these design concepts focus on general principles of human
learning rather than a specific technology, so these ideas should
work well for any particular kind of presentation software.
Another feature that sets this book apart is the emphasis on an
evidenced-based, scientific approach. This evidence focus leads
to a substantively different way of designing presentations, one
that provides a true

Introduction | ix
educational benefit rather than emphasizing the construction of
pretty slides.
A small but important challenge in the writing of this book
was how to handle the term “PowerPoint.” At first, it seemed
best to avoid using this term because it represents a proprietary
product that is trademarked by the Microsoft Corporation. On
the other hand, my attempts to write about presentations
without using the term “PowerPoint” resulted in awkward
writing. The heart of the issue is that the term “PowerPoint” has
taken on multiple meanings and, therefore, can be used in
more than one manner. Hubert Knoblauch, a sociologist who
studies PowerPoint as a cultural phenomenon, suggests an
elegant way to delicately treat this ambiguous term (Knoblauch,
2012, p. 3). He uses “PowerPoint” (note the capitalization) to
refer specifically to the Microsoft Office software application.
This capitalization is appropriate given that Microsoft’s
PowerPoint software is a proper noun. In contrast, the term
“powerpoint” (all lower case) is used to describe a modern
presentation style that is characterized by some form of
multimedia supplement to the speaker’s voice. This broad use of
the term can refer generically to many modern presentations,
regardless of the technology that was used. This book will
follow Knoblauch’s suggested usage of these terms to make this
important distinction between a specific software product
(PowerPoint) and the more general uses of multimedia to
support presentations (powerpoint). The writing of this book
was a large and somewhat audacious project that was supported
by many people. In particular, I thank Ellen Cotter, my wife, for
her support of this project and her great proofreading skills.
This book would not have been possible without her. From my
department, I thank Jamie MacLennan for

x | Slides for Students
giving feedback on the manuscript and Chuck Huffman for his
support of this scholarly activity. More broadly, I would like to
thank the faculty of Georgia Southwestern State University
(GSW) for their encouragement and enthusiasm. These GSW
colleagues reinforced my initial impressions that powerpoint
presentations can be problematic and are worthy of greater
scientific attention. My colleagues also suggested numerous ideas
that have been incorporated into this book. The Interlibrary
Loan librarians at GSW were instrumental for obtaining the
numerous articles that formed the basis of this book. Their
support is greatly appreciated. I thank Stephen Snyder, Director
of University Relations at GSW, for taking high-quality pictures
of the powerpoint displays in the classroom. Finally, I would like
to thank the University of North Georgia Press for believing in
the vision of this book and the potential benefit that it might
have for educational professionals. I thank the editors and peer-
reviewers for their work, which greatly strengthened the book.

1
PRESENTATION SOFTWARE
The Revolution and the Dilemma
The PowerPoint program is like the weather: Everyone likes
to complain about it but nobody does anything about it.
(Kosslyn, 2007)
Picture the following scenario: A modern college class begins
with an introductory title slide that displays a topic title and a
few bullet points. The class begins with a warm greeting from the
professor, who then walks the classroom of 200 students through
a progression of twenty-five slides. The presentation is very
orderly, with the slides being delivered in a carefully-planned
sequence. Each slide has a neat hierarchy of information laid out
in a bullet point list. A few slides have graphs or diagrams that
support an important idea. Once in a while, a student asks a
question. At the end, the professor shows a conclusion slide
and asks the class

2 | Slides for Students
if there are any further questions. One student asks a question,
which the professor answers. The class is dismissed.
Now, consider your reaction to this scenario. It’s likely that
your initial response is that this imaginary class sounds a bit
dull. This scenario fits our modern standards for education, but
it doesn’t seem to be dynamic or student-centered. It describes
a rather passive approach to learning that places too much
emphasis on the slide show. Somewhat mysteriously, the state of
the art powerpoint technology has led to a mediocre educational
experience. This humdrum result occurred even though the
professor had good intentions and put a significant effort into
giving the students a first-rate education.
The above scenario, with some slight variations, is repeated
in university and K12 educational settings numerous times each
day all over the world. Of course, the exact number of
educational presentations is not precisely known, but the
number must be rather high. Microsoft once estimated that
300 million PowerPoint presentations of all kinds are given
daily (I. Parker, 2001). Another estimate is that 350 powerpoint
presentations are being given each second (Parks, 2012). These
high numbers illustrate the importance of powerpoint
presentations in modern culture. Slide presentations are found
in business, education, government, and the sciences. Even
churches have adopted this technology to assist worshippers
during church services. The ubiquity of powerpoint
presentations shows that powerpoint is taking a central role in
everyday modern life (Knoblauch, 2012). The current cultural
standard is that every presentation must include a slide show.
For educators, the classroom experience often focuses on the
slide deck (an antiquated term for a

Presentation Software |
3
powerpoint presentation), which makes powerpoint the center
of the modern classroom.
A Brief History of Visual Presentation Aids
The use of visual aids to supplement presentations emerged
in the early part of the twentieth century as a movement towards
making business management more scientific. An early example
is from the Du Pont chemical company, which had a special
“chart room” that was designed for business meetings (Yates,
1985). Large charts with financial information were moved in
and out of the conference room on tracks to support the process
of making business decisions. The use of visual displays for
presentations was slowly adopted and imitated by other
companies throughout the twentieth century. Early proponents
of this visually-focused approach to presentations included
scientists, engineers, and the military. By the 1960s, the practice
of supplementing presentations with visual aids had become the
presentation standard in many technical fields.
Important technical innovations that fostered is practice
are the introduction of the overhead projector in 1962 (3M,
2002) and the introduction of the microcomputer in the 1980s.
Microsoft’s PowerPoint software, which is the industry standard
for presentations, began as a commercial product called
“Presenter” in 1987 (Gaskins, 2007). The initial purpose of the
software was to facilitate the creation of transparencies (version
1.0) and 35-millimeter slides (version 2.0) for use in business
presentations. In 1990, the software became a component of
the Microsoft Office business software suite and was rebranded

“PowerPoint.” The distribution of PowerPoint software as a part
of the Microsoft Office product suite helped PowerPoint to
quickly become the standard presentation software in the field of
business, which was then followed by its adoption in
government, schools, and other institutions.
The use of visual aids for supplementing a presentation
is a twentieth century technology revolution in the way that
presentations are given. In the 1800s, it would have been unusual
to supplement a presentation with a visual aid. At most,
educators used chalkboards to provide a visual supplement to
their lectures (May, 1855; as cited in S. C. Parker, 1912, p. 92). In
the 1960s through the 1980s, educators occasionally used
transparencies on an overhead projector to supplement a lecture.
Now, it is almost unthinkable to give a presentation without
supporting visual materials. It would feel unnatural and wrong.
In the past 100 years, our cultural standards for what constitutes
a good presentation have changed from purely verbal speeches to
presentations supplemented by multimedia visual aids.
Microsoft’s PowerPoint software has enjoyed a near
monopoly on presentation software for almost thirty years,
which is an unusually long period of market dominance
compared to other computer-based technologies. Just think of
the technologies that were popular a decade or two ago–film
cameras, WordPerfect, My Space–but have disappeared or been
replaced by newer and better technology. Educational
professionals are not immune to these rapid technology changes.
Given this ever-changing technology environment, it seems
appropriate to ask the question of whether or not powerpoint is
still relevant in the contemporary classroom. Perhaps
powerpoint technology is nearing the end of its lifespan.

5
So, is PowerPoint obsolete? If we focus on PowerPoint, the
Microsoft product, then the answer might be “maybe,” although
obsolescence seems unlikely given the decades of market
dominance that this product has enjoyed. A better question is to
shift to a broader focus: Is powerpoint (the multimedia
presentation form) obsolete? The answer to this question is a
resounding “no.” Educators have been using visual aids to
complement the teacher’s voice since chalkboards became
common classroom equipment in the 1800s. Furthermore, our
current cultural standard has an expectation that a speaker’s
words will be accompanied by a visual event for the audience to
watch. Multimedia presentations that supplement the speaker’s
voice with text and images clearly have much to offer for educators
and students. Research efforts in this area are still making
significant progress in understanding the best multimedia methods
for teachers to use in their classrooms. Altogether, multimedia
presentations are clearly valuable for teachers and students, and so
powerpoint, the multimedia presentation style, will continue to be
an important educational tool well into the future.
The instructional recommendaations given in this book will not
become quickly obsolete like last year’s iPhone model. A strong
effort has been made to avoid providing a simple “how-to” book
for using Microsoft’s PowerPoint software application, although in
some situations references will be made to specific PowerPoint
features given that this software is widely used. In contrast, the
overall aim of this book is to focus on the design of visual aids or
multimedia presentations that are effective for education. The
principles outlined in this book will help the reader to become
proficient in assembling text and images in multimedia
presentations in a manner that promotes student learning. These
ideas should work regardless

of the software product or vendor (Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple
Keynote, and others) because the emphasis is on how students
learn from multimedia instruction. The principles of how students
learn will not go obsolete like so many technology products.
The Powerpoint Paradox
Powerpoint technology clearly offers some strong advantages
for presentations. Professional-looking graphics can be easily
and quickly created, even by people who have limited experience
with the software. The visual display of information makes text
and graphics more accessible to the audience. For example, words
projected on a powerpoint presentation are much more legible
than hand-written words on a chalkboard. Presenters can also use
graphics to support their main points in ways that were difficult
to accomplish before the powerpoint revolution.
Although the modern powerpoint presentation has some clear
advantages, the very real downside that accompanies the use of
presentation technology is apparent to anyone who has watched
enough presentations. Powerpoint seems to be a double-edged
sword. It can make good presentations better, but it also has the
potential to make bad presentations become worse. Powerpoint
presentations can sometimes be a tortured, unpleasant
experience for the audience, an experience that is often called
“death by powerpoint” and other unflattering terms. Our ability
to use powerpoint’s potential in ways that actually improve
presentations lags behind the adoption of the technology. The
technology has leaped forward, yet human communication skills
do not differ much from what they have always been.

7
The general assumption is that a presenter should intuitively
know how to use PowerPoint and similar forms of presentation
software. The creators of these software applications have strived
to make the software easy to use, so creating good slides for a
presentation should be a snap. Unfortunately, the truth is that
ease of use does not translate into effective presentations. In fact,
some presentation experts have suggested that the software’s ease
of use has created a contradictory situation. Many educators may
overestimate the quality of their presentations by confusing the
ease of creation with the quality of the final product. The
thoughtless and untrained application of default powerpoint
settings may be an important part of the powerpoint paradox:
amazing technology resulting in weak presentations.
A Presentation Success Story
Imagine for a moment how better powerpoint presentations
might positively impact student learning by considering a
fictional case study. Let’s pretend that Dr. Nuprof is a new
assistant professor of History at a state university. She finished
graduate school last year, so her teaching skills are still
developing. She regularly teaches general education history
classes, such as American History and Western Civilization, in
moderately sized classrooms of 25 to 50 students. The class is
largely a lecture format, although occasionally other educational
strategies are used to promote critical thinking about
controversial issues.
Dr. Nuprof’s spent a lot of time during her first semester
developing powerpoint presentations for her classes. Her
reasoning was the powerpoint slides are a focal point of the

student classroom experience, so it made sense to put a strong
effort into developing a good slide deck to support her lectures.
The development effort included making the presentations well-
organized and full of the main key terms that were most likely to
be on an exam. Most of the slides had a title and listed key terms
with the corresponding definitions. Some of the slides came
prepared from the textbook publisher. These prepared slides
included vibrant colors and decorative graphics which seemed to
be attractive and appealing to students. Dr. Nuprof believed that
using the publisher’s slides would be a smart choice because these
slides are designed by professionals and are convenient to use. In
particular, the convenience of a prepared slide deck was
important to Dr. Nuprof because she felt overwhelmed by the
need to develop content for her courses, several of which she had
not taught before. Overall, she was pleased with her slides.
Powerpoint presentations are expected in modern college classes
and she had successfully met this expectation.
Dr. Nuprof began the semester with high confidence in her
teaching abilities and her pedagogical approach. Her classroom
presentations went over the bullet points on the slides in a dutiful
manner. At first, it seemed as if everything was going according to
plan. Over the course of the semester though it became apparent
that something wasn’t working right. Her students showed signs
of disengagement, such as day dreaming and phone-fiddling. The
students seem to come alive for a moment when a new slide was
introduced. This was followed by quickly copying down the text
on the slide. After this, the students fell back into disengagement
and apathy. The cycle would repeat when a new slide was
introduced. It was a frustrating experience to work with such
uninvolved students.

9
The overall picture was not great either, with student
performance being low on exams and Dr. Nuprof receiving
lukewarm feedback on her student evaluations. Attendance
seemed weak, with some students opting to download the
powerpoint file from the learning management system rather
than attend class. It seemed that Dr. Nuprof had checked all of
the right boxes for a good teaching approach, but something
vital was still missing. Her classes were not terrible, but they also
could not be considered a great success. Like every good teacher,
Dr. Nuprof set out to improve upon her teaching practices for
the next semester. She read expert advice about powerpoint
presentations and did a thorough evaluation of the role of
powerpoint in her courses. These ideas guided changes to
boost the effectiveness of multimedia presentations in her
courses. She began by throwing out the content-heavy
PowerPoint slides that were provided by the textbook publisher.
These were replaced with her own slide decks that had a story-
like structure to the overall presentation (see Chapter 6). The
useless colors and unnecessary decorations from the prepared
slide decks were eliminated in order to focus student attention
on the relevant ideas and information (see Chapter 11). The
classroom time was changed to set aside time for active
learning exercises as a break from pure lecturing (see
Chapters 5, 10, and 12). Many slides that only contained
bullet point information were replaced with the more effective
assertion-evidence slide format that combines statements and
supporting images (Chapter 9). Images with relevant
educational content, such as pictures of important historical
events, were used to increase student interest and deliver
information more efficiently (see Chapters 5 and 9). The
segments of pure lecturing were alternated with

relevant stories from the topic and illustrative video clips to
keep students emotionally involved and sustain their attention
throughout the class period (see Chapter 10). In some sections,
she tried posing questions to students on slides, with a student
response system (sometimes called “clickers”) for collecting
student answers. This was a deliberate effort to employ a more
active learning strategy (see Chapter 12). She addresses the low
attendance problem by discussing note-taking strategies with
the students, regarding how slide deck files were intended to
provide an important resource for students’ note-taking efforts
instead of simply making class time unnecessary (see Chapter
13). In one section, she stopped posting the powerpoint slides to
the learning management system, so the easily available slides
could not contribute to the low attendance problem.
Dr. Nuprof’s students responded positively to these changes.
The degree of student involvement throughout the class period
seemed better. The students felt that the class was more
challenging that simply copying down text from a slide, but
this challenge was positive and welcomed by the students. The
class was now more interesting and thought-provoking to the
students. More students were asking questions, which improved
the interactions between teacher and student. Class time had
been changed from a one-way transfer of information to a two-
way dialog between the students and the professor. As a result,
Dr. Nuprof’s classroom experience was transformed from a dull
slog through a mountain of educational content towards a more
rewarding give-and-take intellectual exchange, for both the
students and Dr. Nuprof. For the semester, the grades were up
slightly and Dr. Nuprof’s student evaluations also improved.

11
Looking back, Dr. Nuprof realized that an effective
powerpoint presentation requires much more than simply filling
out the bullets on a slide with some key terms or providing
commentary on a slide deck provided by the textbook publisher.
Her previous approach treated powerpoint like it was an
electronic chalk board for showing words to students. The heavy
emphasis on key terms and definitions was not engaging and did
little to promote significant learning processes. She realized that
this information- focused approach is too shallow. Effective
instruction is more than feeding information to students on
pretty slides. The real goal is to consider the larger educational
strategy and purpose of each topic, then thoughtfully design the
presentation and class activities in ways that promote student
learning. This approach needs to consider the student as a whole
person: emotions, perception, attention, cognition, and behavior.
All of these dimensions must come together in a deliberate
manner to make a presentation a meaningful learning tool.
This fictitious example is, admittedly, rather optimistic. The
important point though is that powerpoint presentations can be
much more than a lifeless information delivery machine. Bullet
point lists are a starting point, but lists are not really sufficient to
fully engage student learning. Ideally, the right pedagogical
design and approach in powerpoint could help both the
instructors and the students achieve the mission of better
learning through balancing information delivery, student
engagement, and questions that foster deeper forms of learning.
There is much potential in powerpoint that currently goes
unrealized or escapes critical examination. The right application
is all that’s needed to unlock it.

Let’s Get Started
The dilemma posed by the visual media style of modern
presentations is this: How should teachers use presentation
technologies to improve education? No simple answer exists.
Most educators have significant familiarity with Microsoft’s
PowerPoint or a similar program like Apple’s Keynote. The
average educator regularly makes basic presentations based
upon powerpoint templates, such as slides with bullet point list
designs and built- in color schemes. Unfortunately, the
presentation design skills of most educators probably do not
progress much beyond the most basic levels of powerpoint use.
Most teachers have not received significant-enough advanced
training that would enable them to do more than make a basic
presentation. Consequently, most educators can make a decent
basic powerpoint presentation, but probably not one that truly
stimulates significant student learning. Simply replacing the
chalkboard with a colorful slide is not going to accomplish much
for helping students learn.
A need exists for thoughtfully designed and implemented
classroom instruction that focuses on the learner rather than
on the technology. Fortunately, over 400 published articles
in professional journals examine questions concerning how
powerpoint could work for improving education. These articles
span a wide range of academic disciplines, such as education,
business, psychology, and nursing. Most of these studies are
based on empirical evidence, such as student surveys, teacher
experiences, and experimental studies. Some laboratory-based
studies have also been done by psychologists, typically ones who
specialize in education or cognition. In total, the information

13
acquired in these studies provides a wealth of interesting and
useful evidence for improving the instructional effectiveness of
powerpoint. The present book was written to translate academic
research findings into practical suggestions about powerpoint
that educators can use.
The higher aim of making powerpoint into a better
educational tool is somewhat elusive, yet this effort is a
worthwhile investment. While involving a greater degree of effort
than simply filling out the next bullet point, carefully considering
the advantages and disadvantages of modern presentation
software will hopefully lead to effective presentations that avoid
the dreaded “death by powerpoint” experience. Deliberate design
can elevate a basic, dull presentation into exceptional teaching
that results in a superior learning experience.

2
POWERPOINTLESSNESS
Exploring the Dark Side of Multimedia
Presentations
PowerPoint could be the most powerful tool on your com-
puter. But it’s not. It’s actually a dismal failure. Almost every
PowerPoint presentation sucks rotten eggs. And much of the
fault lies with Microsoft. (Godin, 2001)
Many critics have blasted powerpoint presentations. The
following list catalogs the negative catch phrases that have been
used describe powerpoint. These have been intentionally
formatted into a powerpoint-style bullet point list for maximum
irony.
• Powerpoint is evil (Tufte, 2003)
• Is powerpoint the devil? (Keller, 2003)
• Powerpoint makes us stupid/dumb. (Bumiller, 2010;
Frommer, 2012; Simons, 2004; Thompson, 2003)

Powerpointlessness |
15
• Powerpoint is the Viagra of the spoken word. (van Jole,
2000)
• Powerpointlessness (McKenzie, 2000)
• Powerpoint hell (Vickers, 1999)
• Ban it now! Friends don’t let friends use powerpoint.
(Stewart, 2001)
• Powerpoint poisoning (S. Adams, 2000)
• Digital slideshows are the scourge of higher education
(Schuman, 2014)
• Powerpoint pissoff (Soltan, 2015)
• Computer slide shows: A trap for bad teaching (Klemm,
2007)
• Powerpoint is like having a loaded AK-47 on the table
(Peter Norvig, as quoted in Gunn and Raskin Gullickson,
2005)
We can even categorize these soundbite critiques into a
special death-themed category:
• Death by powerpoint (Garber, 2001)
• Death to powerpoint (Parks, 2012)
• Death by bullet points (Heavens, 2004)
These examples clearly show that many people hate
powerpoint presentations. The main concern is that powerpoint
technology is making presentations worse, not better. Everyone
who has suffered through a bad powerpoint-based presentation
can certainly understand this strong, negative reaction. Similarly,
some uneasiness persists about the use of powerpoint technology
in the classroom (Keller, 2003; I. Parker, 2001).

Edward Tufte—A Powerful Powerpoint Critic
Let’s consider the potential problems of powerpoint
presentations. Edward Tufte is the most prominent critic of
powerpoint presentations (Tufte, 2003, 2006). His critiques carry
considerable influence because he is an internationally-
recognized expert in the use of graphs, figures, and tables for the
visualization and understanding of scientific data (Tufte, 1990,
1997, 2001). Tufte’s view is that powerpoint seriously
compromises the ability of the audience to comprehend complex
information. In this summative paragraph, he writes:
PowerPoint’s convenience for some presenters is costly to the
content and the audience. These costs arise from the
cognitive style characteristics of the standard default
[PowerPoint] presentation: foreshortening of evidence and
thought, low spatial resolution, an intensely hierarchical
single-path structure as a model for organizing every type of
content, breaking up narratives and data into slides and
minimal fragments, rapid temporal sequencing of thin
information rather than focused spatial analysis, conspicuous
chartjunk and [PowerPoint] Phluff, branding of slides with
logotypes, a preoccupation with format, not content, and a
smirky commercialism that turns information into a sales
pitch and presenters into marketeers. (Tufte, 2006, p. 4)
Tufte’s opinion is that the powerpoint medium itself, not the
individual giving the presentation, is the source of the problem.
We will consider his main critical points one by one.

17
“Foreshortening of evidence and thought, low
spatial resolution”
An important concern is that presenters must greatly simplify
their technical information in order to fit it into the limitations
of powerpoint. This problem stems from the practical constraints
imposed by the slide medium. The size of the text used in a
presentation must be large in order to make that text visible to
the audience. The unavoidable consequence of large type is that
only a few words can be placed on a slide. In addition, colorful
graphics, corporate logos, and/or special layouts often take up
valuable slide space, thus further decreasing the space available
for the presenter’s information. These limitations encourage the
use of short phrases over complete sentences, leading to Tufte’s
comment about “foreshortening” of thought. Any supporting
graphics, such as graphs and diagrams, must also be very simple
and direct, causing a loss of their complexity and details.
Altogether, Tufte’s view is that the limitations of powerpoint
require presenters to greatly reduce the complexity of their
information in order to make the message fit on a slide. This
reduction culminates in a dumbing- down of the content for the
audience. Only the highlights can be covered in a powerpoint
presentation, which necessitates leaving out details that might be
important. Comparing the limitations of powerpoint to printed
formats, Tufte finds the latter as being able to carry a much
higher information density.
Tufte is certainly correct that less information can be placed
on a slide than on a printed document. However, the
counterpoint to Tufte’s critique is that we should not expect
presentations to convey the same degree of information as the
printed word

(Doumont, 2005). Too many details in a presentation will simply
overwhelm an audience. When used correctly, the limitations of a
powerpoint slide can be an asset by forcing the presenter to focus
on only the most important information. Unimportant details
should be deliberately excluded from the presentation in order
to avoid distractions or overloading the audience. By limiting the
information, the presenter quite literally points the main ideas
out to the audience by directing their attention to the main
message. The unavoidable drawback of these limits is that details
might become lost or overlooked, although this may not always
be a significant problem.
Fortunately, teachers and college professors have more ways
of delivering content to their students than a mere powerpoint
slide deck. The information presented during a class period is, to
some degree, an introduction to the topic. Instructors typically
supplement the information from a slide deck with information
from other sources such as textbook content, supplemental
readings, demonstrations, videos, and assignments. Thus, the
classroom presentation can concentrate on the highly important
information and the other sources can fill in the details.
“An intensely hierarchical single-path structure as a
model for organizing every type of content”
Tufte’s second major concern focuses on the organization of
slide presentations, which is both sequential (slide after slide, in
a predefined order) and hierarchical (headings with bullet points
and subpoints). Unlike information presented on a traditional
chalkboard, slide decks must be made before the presentation.

19
The instructor then follows this predetermined order, usually
without deviations, during the presentation. The prepared slide
deck ultimately controls their flow, thereby making instructors
become excessively rigid and lacking in spontaneity.
In education, several critics have voiced concerns that slide
presentations may encourage teachers to march through the
course content with little interaction from the students
(Frommer, 2012; Kjeldsen, 2006; Klemm, 2007). Teachable
moments that might come from student questions can be lost if
these questions go into directions that deviate from the order of
the slide deck. A related problem is that the rigid structure may
create a classroom environment that encourages the audience to
be obediently quiet and listen instead of interrupting the
presentation’s predestined flow. This may promote an
authoritarian relationship between teachers and students. A
third possible problem is that powerpoint’s strictly linear
organization might suggest a simple linear relationship between
topics (A then B then C) when, in reality, the true relationships
between topics might be much more complicated (Kinchin,
Chadha, and Kokotailo, 2008). The emphasis on serial order
could lead to an erroneous or oversimplified understanding of
how the various components of a topic relate to each other.
The possibility that the structure of powerpoint presentations
stifles student participation may be a common view, but it might
not have much research support. Knoblauch (2012) and colleagues
conducted studies of live powerpoint presentations and carefully
analyzed the social interactions. His conclusion is that “. . .
audiences are not passive recipients of presentations but are
actively oriented to both the technology as well as the presenter .
. .” (p. 126).

Knoblauch observed that professional powerpoint presentations
are a communication genre that specifically encourages audience
interactions at predetermined points in a professional
presentation, such as question and answer periods at the end of a
presentation. He also found that audience participation was
facilitated because both the presenter and audience can refer to
the text or graphics shown on the slides when discussing the
topic. The slide presentation can become a common point of
interaction for the audience and the presenter, and this makes the
presence of powerpoint visual aids actually increase audience
participation. Knoblauch concludes his analysis by stating, “In
summary, we can quite clearly see that powerpoint does not
obstruct interaction between audience and presenter” (p. 133).
This rigidity problem, if it truly is an issue, can be addressed
by an adept teacher. Knoblauch’s analysis suggests that the social
structure of the classroom, and not technology, drives student-
teacher interactions. A class meeting period does not necessarily
need to be a continuous powerpoint presentation from start to
finish. Teachers can build specific periods or activities into their
class time that encourage student-teacher interactions. The slide
deck organization might be a helpful skeleton for organizing
classroom activities, but it does not need to be the dominant force
for determining social interactions.
“A preoccupation with format, not content”
A third concern raised by Tufte is that slide presentations may
promote style over substantive information. Flashy graphics,
logos, themes, colors, and animations may distract from
communicating

21
important information to the audience. At their worst, decorative
features may be deliberately used by some presenters to give the
illusion of a meaningful presentation. For example, the military
sometimes gives powerpoint presentations to news reporters
with the intent of not revealing very much information, a practice
derisively called “hypnotizing chickens” (Bumiller, 2010).
The use of unnecessary special effects in powerpoint
presentations has decreased somewhat since Tufte voiced his
concerns. Much of Tufte’s criticism over content-free
presentations was centered upon a Microsoft PowerPoint feature
called the AutoContent Wizard. This feature automated the
development of presentations to some degree by suggesting
formats for presenters to build their presentations upon. The
AutoContent Wizard was heavily criticized (I. Parker, 2001; van
Jole, 2000) and was not very popular with users (Knoblauch,
2012), so in 2007 Microsoft discontinued the AutoContent
Wizard. Current users of PowerPoint consequently need to take a
stronger hand in developing their own presentation content.
Doing so may satisfy the “content-free” criticism that Tufte once
aimed at PowerPoint software. Another positive development for
presentation content is that current expectations for
presentations are shifting away from the use of unnecessary
flashy features. For example, early guides on using Microsoft’s
PowerPoint often suggested using built-in clip art of mostly
decorative images that was supplied with the software. The best
known clip art example was the group of “screen beans”
characters: faceless stick figures portrayed in a range of business
settings. In contrast, presentation experts currently encourage
users to deliberately avoid the use of generic clip art and built-in
themes to achieve a more professional-looking presentation.

Although the AutoContent Wizard is gone, some concern
still lingers about powerpoint presentations relying too much on
appearance and not enough on content. However, this criticism
may be somewhat misplaced. Content is important, of course,
but an effective presentation cannot be entirely content. To
a significant degree, presentations are also about conveying
emotion to an audience by, for example, displaying the
presenter’s enthusiasm for the topic (Duarte, 2010). A
presentation that lacks an emotional connection with the
audience will come across as being dry and overly abstract. The
presenter is confronted with a choice between emphasizing
content, which might seem dull, versus emphasizing emotionally-
grabbing visual displays that could lack useful information. Thus,
the counterpoint to Tufte’s concern about an overemphasis on
style is that the emotional qualities of a presentation are an
important part of a successful presentation.
Is Powerpoint Making Us Dumb?
A more general concern is that modern technology is causing
a decline in our cognitive abilities. This possibility should be
deeply troubling to educators because it is completely contrary to
the goals of education. The potential for negative cognitive effects
has been proposed by numerous critics. Tufte, as we have seen, is
concerned that powerpoint fosters a “cognitive style” that is
characterized by light content and nonessential design features.
Frommer’s (2012) book How PowerPoint Makes You Stupid
suggests that powerpoint fosters “faulty causality, sloppy logic,
decontextualized data, and seductive showmanship.” Several
experts from the

23
fields of business and the military also feel that powerpoint has
weakened decision-making processes by encouraging presenters
to omit important details (Bumiller, 2010; Hammes, 2009; Shaw,
Brown, and Bromiley, 1998).
A number of educators have also raised alarms about the
potentially-damaging effects of powerpoint on student learning
(Creed, 1997; Hlynka and Mason, 1998; Kjeldsen, 2006; Klemm,
2007; Mason and Hlynka, 1998). A common criticism is that
powerpoint is a teacher-centered technology rather than a
student-centered learning experience. It has been suggested
that powerpoint encourages teachers to give boring lectures that
deliver information without fostering much critical thinking. In
other words, powerpoint technology promotes the view of
teaching as a passive transfer of information from teacher to
student. It might not be the instructor’s intent to lecture in this
fashion, but slide technology might encourage this kind of
teaching anyway. This problem might be a particularly significant
issue for difficult topics that students tend to struggle with. It
might be easier for the instructor to muscle through a difficult
class period by marching through the slides rather than
attempting to engage students in the complexities of a difficult
topic.
New technology in education is often met with both
enthusiasm and negative reactions. Educational critics often
raise concerns about technology causing a decline in cognitive
abilities. In the 1960s, many educators viewed television as an
instructional medium that would revolutionize education, but
others saw television as a “vast wasteland”(Minow, 1961). In the
1970s, math educators debated the use of calculators in math
instruction (Ellington, 2003). The concern was that student
overreliance on

calculators would lead to a weakening of basic math skills. Studies
of calculator usage have since found no detrimental effect on
basic math skills (for a review, see Ellington, 2003). Most
recently, critics have suggested that modern technologies, such
as text messaging, Twitter, and web searches, are degrading our
mental skills (Carr, 2010; M. Jackson, 2008). The concern is that
people are replacing the sustained concentration of serious
reading and critical analysis with a blizzard of small information
snippets, and that these many small fragments of information are
ultimately detrimental to focused attention and serious critical
thought. Even the general concern about cognitive damage is
frequently expressed in sound-bite form: “Is Google making us
stupid?” (Carr, 2008).
Altogether, the concern about how powerpoint might
negatively impact our cognitive abilities can be viewed in a
cultural context of a vague uneasiness and apprehension of new
technology. Innovations produce new ways of working and
thinking that may feel unfamiliar and, therefore, are treated with
some suspicion. Many powerpoint critiques express this feeling
of vague apprehension. The critics aren’t sure exactly what the
negative effects of slide presentations might be, but they are
convinced that these effects must be harmful somehow. Our
approach to such negative views of new technology should be
cautious. Valid criticisms must be examined, but we must also be
careful to avoid being technology Luddites. Technology certainly
can change the way that we think, possibly for the worse. Modern
technology has an equally great ability to enhance and improve
cognition in new ways.

25
Is Powerpoint Editing Our Teaching?
Some educational observers have raised the possibility that
powerpoint could have unintended, insidious effects that might
not be immediately obvious to the teacher. Marshall McLuhan,
a media studies expert, famously used the phrase “The medium
is the message” to express the idea that media can carry an
indirect social message to the audience (McLuhan, 1964). In
brief, McLuhan’s argument is that every medium has an overt
message that is accompanied by a more covert message about
how people in the audience are supposed to act, think, or feel.
This covert message might influence people in subtle ways. For
example, perhaps slide presentations implicitly suggest a
particular social relationship between the teacher and the
student. The teacher is the expert authority whose word must not
be questioned (at least not too much). The students, in contrast,
are the followers who must assume a passive role, possibly
without much awareness of this role. Curiously, the subtle
communication effects about standards and social conventions
may also influence teachers as much as students.
Concerns about these subtle media effects have led some
commentators to suggest that powerpoint and other technologies
can “edit our thoughts” (I. Parker, 2001; Turkle, 2004). This use
of the term “edit” does not mean a literal change in our brain.
Rather, the idea is that powerpoint standards that shape the basic
features of a presentation may also have unintentional influences
on the way that we present information to students (C. Adams,
2006; Stoner, 2007). The software guides teachers in subtle ways
to encourage certain presentation styles, such as lecturing and the

passive transfer of information to students. Over time, the use of
presentation templates and other software guidance may even
influence the thinking and the teaching approach of the educator.
These implicit nudges effects that guide powerpoint
presentations might also influence student expectations and
behaviors.
Cognitive psychologists use the term “functional fixedness”
to describe situations in which our past experience with using
a tool may prevent or inhibit the tool user from thinking of new
and creative uses for that object. Like blinders on a horse, the
conventional use of a tool limits the possibilities we can conceive,
so tool use can inhibit creativity. The powerpoint version of
functional fixedness is the ubiquity of slides that follow default
formats. Older versions of Microsoft’s PowerPoint application
started with a default blank slide that consisted of a heading—
“Click to add title”—and a similar field for bullet points. For
another example, Microsoft’s PowerPoint give design suggestions
when photos are inserted into a slide. Older versions of
PowerPoint software kept images in a preformatted box, whereas
the latest software versions give design suggestions that are less
restricted. These defaults and guided activities form an
“invitation” to make slides in a conventional manner ( e.g., a title
and bullet point lists;
C. Adams, 2006). These features may help new software users
get started as simply as possible, but it may, in the long run, send
a subtle message that the best slide for a presentation should
follow the bullet-point list layout (C. Adams, 2006). Once new
users begin making slides with titles and three bullet points,
the use of the default format gradually becomes a habit that
influences how all presentations are made. In time, this habit
influences the presenter’s thinking by encouraging the view that
all topics and

27
instruction must be addressed the same way: how do I present
this concept with a title and three bullet points?
The general concern is that powerpoint defaults could lead
to habits of mind and, ultimately, teaching approaches that lack
creativity and stifle best practices. This subtle influence is hard to
measure directly. Indirect evidence for these unintentional
guiding influences comes from the personal experiences of
teachers when they describe how powerpoint has influenced their
approach to teaching. The following example illustrates how this
powerpoint functional fixedness might affect teaching
‘I actually removed a book from my syllabus last year
because I couldn’t figure out how to powerpoint it. It’s a
lovely book . . . but it’s very discursive; the charm of it is the
throwaways.’ . . . He couldn’t get the book into bullet points;
every time he put something down, he realized that it wasn’t
quite right. Eventually he abandoned the attempt. (I. Parker,
2001, p. 87)
Note the use of the term “powerpoint it.” This phrase suggests
the belief that all educational content must be converted into a
form that fits powerpoint standards, such as bullet point lists
(C. Adams, 2006; Keller, 2003). A similar example comes from
another teacher who reports that when “sitting down to prepare a
PowerPoint, I can’t help but to think in bullets” (C. Adams, 2009,
p. 5).
The common view here is that the powerpoint medium
gradually exerts a weak yet significant influence over teachers
through a functional fixedness encouraged by the software’s
default settings. At this point, it is worth remembering that
Microsoft’s PowerPoint

application was originally developed as a business sales tool
rather than an educational product (Gaskins, 2007). Therefore,
the default templates and layouts of presentation software may be
better suited to a business sales pitch than a classroom activity
intended to foster critical thinking. If this is true, perhaps the
guiding forces of powerpoint defaults might make our classes
more closely resemble sales pitches or advertisements than
engaging instructional experiences for our students.
In response to this critique, we need to understand that
limitations are inherent in any kind of communication medium.
It is somewhat unrealistic to fault slide presentation software
for giving suggestions and imposing some constraints on the
presenter. The more reasonable view is that no communication
medium is completely free from limitations and influence upon
the user. Musician and artist David Byrne expresses the issues
about powerpoint guidance and constraints like this:
There’s a lot of criticism of powerpoint for encouraging
users to do things in a particular way and discouraging them
from other things, such as putting more than seven bullet
points on a slide, he acknowledged . . . Powerpoint restricts
users no more than any other communication platform, he
asserted, including a pencil: “When you pick up a pencil you
know what you’re getting—you don’t think, ‘I wish this could
write in a million colors.’” (Powell, 2005)
The methods that teachers use can have subtle influences,
and these influences, in turn, could have a negative impact
on student learning. However, this situation is not entirely

29
hopeless. No teacher is a complete slave to technology. Rather
than faulting the limitations of powerpoint, we should focus on
analyzing, understanding, and accepting these limitations. When
necessary, teachers must actively work to find innovative ways to
overcome the limitations of the software in order to achieve their
instructional goals. The subtle influences of slide technology can
be avoided by an awareness of the limitations accompanied by a
well-thought out plan for using slides as an instructional tool. The
best practice, therefore, is to use powerpoint in a deliberate and
skillful way rather than uncritically following the defaults that the
software might suggest (Vallance and Towndrow, 2007).
A More Optimistic View
In closing, we can see that powerpoint technology has its
share of flaws. These difficult issues contribute to the powerpoint
paradox: Amazing technology being used to give awful
presentations. However, it seems that these concerns about the
negative qualities of powerpoint presentations may be
overstated. Some of the critiques seem to be mere opinions
based on witnessing a few (or possibly more than a few) bad
presentations. It is difficult to scientifically investigate criticisms
like a possible “foreshortening” of thought caused by powerpoint
presentations.
Many criticisms focus largely on powerpoint technology, but
in many cases the real blame for bad presentations should be
focused on the presenter, not the technology (Shwom and Keller,
2003). Bad presentations existed long before modern
presentation technology was invented. It is unrealistic to expect
that a special technology would magically transform bad
presentations given

by weak presenters into dynamic talks given by charismatic rock
stars. In this sense, much of the criticism about powerpoint
seems misdirected.
The root cause of many of bad presentations is simple: Most
people dread giving presentations and do not give presentations
on a routine basis. In addition, most presenters have received
little training in either the use of powerpoint or the art of giving
presentations. These inexperienced presenters tend to lean
heavily upon powerpoint technology as if it were a crutch or
handrail to get through the difficult and unpleasant task of giving
a presentation. Considering these circumstances, we should not
be surprised when the occasional presentation by these
presenters is dull and uninteresting. In brief, the real problem
with many modern presentations is often a simple lack of
communication skills (Doumont, 2005; Shwom and Keller,
2003). It’s a human failure rather than a technology failure. We
therefore must be somewhat wary of critics who blame the
technology rather than more accurately faulting the presenter
who created the presentation.
Contrary to the critics, it can be argued that powerpoint is
a great asset for people who struggle with presentations. The
software imposes a structure on the presenter’s message that
could help the presenter organize their thoughts. The slides also
give the audience something to look at during the presentation,
thereby giving the audience a more valuable experience than
they might have received from a strictly verbal presentation. The
overall result is that a bad presentation with slides could in some
situations be better than a bad presentation without slides.
Slide-based presentations do not need to be a totalitarian or
lifeless teaching endeavor. Furthermore, slide presentations are

31
not restricted to merely transferring information to students.
When properly done, slide-based presentations can be a
supportive and engaging aid to classroom instruction.

3
EDUCATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS
AND STUDENT PERCEPTIONS
The general theme of the interviews, journal, and surveys is
“I like it, but. . .”, which reflects the mostly positive responses
to multimedia in large classrooms, but also notes less than
complete satisfaction. (Pippert and Moore, 1999)
The computer-based instructional aids that replaced
chalkboards and overhead projectors effected a paradigm shift
in education. This cultural change was welcomed by many, but
it was also troubling for some people (Keller, 2003; Knoblauch,
2012; I. Parker, 2001). A few educators and communication
experts, however, had a distinctly negative view of powerpoint
presentations. For example, “PowerPoint Invades the Classroom,”
an article published in the New York Times, focused on the
increasing use of PowerPoint in K-12 settings (Guernsey, 2001).

Educational Effectiveness and Student Perceptions |
33
The title’s use of the word “invade” sets an ominous, negative
tone. Some teachers had concerns about negative effects like
intellectual “narrowing” and the PowerPoint AutoContent
Wizard. In contrast, other teachers thought that PowerPoint
might have positive educational benefits.
Although some of powerpoint’s critics have been quite vocal,
their criticism is often based on thin evidence. Even Tufte, the
information literacy expert, does not provide much evidence to
back up his assertion that powerpoint is “evil.” Tufte’s strongest
evidence was a case study of how powerpoint may have led to poor
engineering decisions that eventually contributed to the
destruction of the space shuttle Columbia and the death of several
astronauts. Tufte’s view is that the disastrous shuttle decision
occurred because important safety information was omitted from
a powerpoint presentation. Important safety details would not
have been missed in a more thorough written report. His other
quantitative evidence is based upon a review of charts from
twenty-eight books and publications. This analysis concluded
that, compared to printed sources, powerpoint statistical graphics
are “the thinnest of all” in regards to the information provided to
the audience (Tufte, 2006,
p. 5). Ironically, it has been argued that Tufte’s evidence
against powerpoint is itself rather thin (Doumont, 2005).
Because there have been numerous scientific studies of
powerpoint and how it influences learning in the classroom, it
is possible to take an evidence-based view of powerpoint and its
potential usefulness in teaching environments. We will carefully
examine the evidence from these scientific studies to determine
if powerpoint presentations are helpful or harmful to student
learning. This focus on scientific findings is more substantive and

objective than the often unscientific approach that forms the basis
of opinion pieces.
This review will address these two questions:
1. Effectiveness: Do students learn more with powerpoint?
2. Perception: How do students feel about powerpoint pre-
sentations?
Efficacy Studies: Does Powerpoint
Help Students Learn?
Beginning in the mid-1990s, the question of powerpoint’s
educational effectiveness was the focus of numerous studies.
Their motivating idea was the possibility that powerpoint
presentations might be more engaging than chalkboards or
overhead transparencies, and thereby have greater educational
value. The general view was that the colors, styles, layouts, and
animations in a typical powerpoint presentation would be more
likely to engage student attention and emotions compared to
older forms of instructional technology. This increased
engagement would translate into better information retention
and more learning. This idea has been described as an arousal
view of educational media (Levasseur and Sawyer, 2006). In
other words, powerpoint presentation effects would breathe
some emotional life into otherwise dry academic topics and
thereby improve learning through increasing student interest.
Older technologies, in contrast, were viewed as being less
dynamic or less interesting to the students, and would therefore
have less impact on student learning. Some early studies
supported the arousal view, with

35
colorful powerpoint presentations being both highly rated by
students as well as improving topic comprehension (Morrison
and Vogel, 1998).
Educational psychologists use the term “media comparison
studies” to address the question of how well students learn
from different types of media. This research typically examines
whether students would learn better from a more advanced,
newer educational medium (such as powerpoint) compared to a
less advanced, older medium (such as chalkboards) The research
design of these effectiveness studies often divides students into
two groups, with one group (experimental) receiving powerpoint-
based instruction and the second group (control) receiving some
other form of instruction. This alternate instruction may take
the form of visual aids via the chalkboard or overhead projector,
but in some studies, the control group had no visual aids at all
during their lectures. At the end of the study, the experimental
(powerpoint) and control (no powerpoint) groups are compared
on a student achievement measure, such as test grades. The
anticipated outcome is that students who received instruction via
powerpoint presentations will learn more than students who did
not, presumably due to the greater engagement, attention, and
sensory arousal provided by the powerpoint presentations.
Although the basic media comparison study is
straightforward, it is somewhat challenging to summarize the
overall findings from these studies due to a wide range of minor
variations in how the studies were conducted. The various
studies sometimes used different software (e.g., Aldus
Persuasion), student age groups, and control groups. In some
studies, the powerpoint content was nearly the same as an
overhead transparency, but in other studies

the powerpoint presentations included video clips and
animations, which made the powerpoint presentation a much
stronger multimedia experience. In other studies, the
participants were given both powerpoint presentations and
handouts to accompany the lectures. Despite these differences,
the common factor is that these studies attempted to compare
powerpoint-based classroom presentations to other forms of
instructional technology (or no technology). This key comparison
forms the basis for determining the potential for enhanced
teaching with powerpoint.
Since the early 1990s, at least fifty-eight media comparison
studies on powerpoint have been conducted (see Appendix A),
with some publications reporting multiple studies (e.g., Szabo
and Hastings, 2000, provides three studies). Most of these
studies were identified through searches of academic databases
(Google Scholar, EBSCO, ProQuest) for articles published by the
end of 2016. Two comprehensive review articles published in
2006 were also useful for identifying early publications
(Levasseur and Sawyer, 2006; E. J. Shapiro et al., 2006). The
references of the articles identified through these search methods
were further scrutinized for additional papers that might have
escaped the keyword search process. A strong effort was made to
be as comprehensive as possible, but it is important to
acknowledge that the round-up of studies was challenging
because the scholarship of teaching and learning on powerpoint
is spread across a wide range of academic disciplines. The first
criterion for inclusion was the use of PowerPoint or PowerPoint-
like multimedia technology to deliver the educational content
during class time. A second criterion was that the studies needed
to have an experimental design or a quasi- experimental design
(most common) that compared students

37
who received powerpoint-based instruction to a group that was
not exposed to powerpoint. These comparison groups received
a different form of supplemental media (usually chalkboards or
transparencies) or possibly no supplemental media at all (lectures
without any form of supporting technology). This effectiveness
review did not include studies with nonexperimental designs,
such as studies based upon correlational analyses or survey
methods.
The general finding from these media comparison studies is
consistent: Students who receive powerpoint-based instruction
do about the same on student achievement outcomes as students
who receive traditional, lower-tech forms of instruction (see
Appendix A). Most of the media comparison studies (65.5%;
n = 38) produced no evidence for improvements in student
learning when the students were taught with powerpoint visual
aids. Somewhat surprisingly, improved learning outcomes only
occurred in 20.7% (n = 12) of the studies. The overall evidence
from this research suggests that powerpoint instruction yields
no educational benefit in most situations or maybe a slight
benefit in some situations. This conclusion is supported by two
comprehensive review studies, one of which found no overall
evidence of increased teaching effectiveness (Levasseur and
Sawyer, 2006) and the other finding only a slight improvement
with powerpoint (E. J. Shapiro et al., 2006).
The conclusion that powerpoint lacks strong educational
benefits is rather disappointing. It seems that a lot of work,
energy, and money went into developing powerpoint
presentations, yet this was largely a wasted effort because
student learning did not improve. In spite of this seeming
failure, these findings still provide some useful evidence for
educators. Recall that the

key idea behind these studies was the arousal viewpoint that
the presence of color and other dramatic powerpoint features
would capture student attention and emotions, and the increased
engagement from these effects would enhance learning. The
evidence, however, shows that the arousal theory is a failure.
The anticipated engagement benefit of a powerpoint
presentation actually produces little-to-no difference in
educational outcomes. This outcome is important to keep in
mind for educators who design their own powerpoint
presentations. Powerpoint features that are meant to grab
attention or arouse emotion may not necessarily have any
benefit for learning. Teachers may intuitively feel that dramatic
powerpoint presentation features like vivid colors would
increase learning, but the evidence clearly doesn’t support this
view. It could also be argued from this evidence that powerpoint
technology is not absolutely necessary to achieve meaningful
student learning and engagement.
On a positive note, the effectiveness studies show that
powerpoint does not seem to be hurting students. Only a few
media comparison studies (13.8%, n = 8; Appendix A) find
detrimental effects from powerpoint-based instruction. From
this, we can conclude that the powerpoint “invasion” into the
classroom does not seem to harm student learning. The grave
concerns about cognitive damage raised by powerpoint critics
(see Chapter 2) seem to be unfounded.
The results from these studies clearly indicate that powerpoint
use does not produce superior learning outcomes when compared
to older forms of teaching technology. Let’s try to dig a bit deeper
into these results. Given the potential for powerpoint to capture
students’ attention and present information in an organized and

39
compelling way, why have so many studies failed to show that
powerpoint has consistent, positive effects on student learning?
This is a perplexing question for many education researchers.
In retrospect, there are several reasons why media studies that
compare powerpoint-based lectures to more traditional
approaches have not established the educational superiority of
powerpoint.
One common problem is that many of these studies have
weak research designs that limit the researchers’ ability to make
strong conclusions. The practical limitations of classroom
settings make it difficult or even impossible to randomly assign
students to the experimental and the control group, thereby
limiting researchers to quasi-experimental or correlational
research designs that can make it difficult to establish
unambiguous conclusions. Another research weakness in
education is that the outcomes, like exam scores, might be
insensitive. It is a challenge to increase the exam score average
for an entire class by even a small amount. This insensitivity
might make it difficult to measure small improvements in
learning that might be attributed to powerpoint presentations.
The details of how the experimental and control conditions
differed in educational content may be another possible reason
for the failure to find improvements in powerpoint-based
instruction. Most of these studies compared powerpoint-based
class presentations to other classes that received the same
instructional content delivered by chalkboards or overhead
transparencies. Using identical content in both conditions was
done to control for extraneous variables that might interfere
with interpreting the outcome of the experiment. In retrospect, it
seems likely that this effort to make the groups equal in regard to
educational content made the experimental and control
conditions so similar to each

other that any potential benefits from the powerpoint
presentations were completely eliminated. A related problem is
that many studies do not fully describe how powerpoint was used
to present information in the experimental condition. It is often
unspecified whether the instructors merely used bullet point
lists, or also included supporting graphics or multimedia such as
animations and videos. This lack of information about the
educational content of the powerpoint slides raises the possibility
that maybe the content examined was simply ineffective
regardless of medium.
These questions about educational content raise a sobering
possibility: Perhaps many instructors simply copied lecture
material from the chalkboard and the overhead projector into
the newer powerpoint medium. Recreating a possibly-ineffective
lecture format into a new instructional medium is not very likely
to have a positive impact on learning. Despite its potential for
engaging the audience, powerpoint instruction still favors a
passive, lecture-style teaching approach, and this might explain
why it often produces no measurable improvement in student
learning outcomes.
These studies emphasize the comparison of lecture-based
instruction done with or without powerpoint technology. This
emphasis reflects the goal of media comparison studies, which
is to see if one media is superior to another for
instructional purposes. This comparison effort was fueled by the
passion for new technology in the field of education over the last
20 years, but it’s arguable that placing so much emphasis on
comparing various instructional technologies is misguided.
Unfortunately, there seems to be no research interest in
comparing high tech learning approaches centered upon
powerpoint multimedia instruction to

41
low tech, nonlecture forms of instruction. Perhaps this is an area
of research that would be useful to pursue in future studies.
The preceding interpretations of why powerpoint doesn’t
dramatically improve student learning are somewhat minor
research details. Educational experts who specialize in technology
and learning have raised another possibility that goes deeper
into the heart of effective instruction. Maybe technology like
powerpoint simply doesn’t change the fundamental nature of
learning very much, so ultimately, the technology is not very
important. The pedagogy, in contrast, is the real driver of student
learning. This is the somewhat controversial conclusion of some
media comparison studies skeptics. Richard Clark performed
a broad review of various technologies used for education in
an effort to assess their educational effectiveness (R. E. Clark,
1983, 1991). His main conclusion was that many instructional
technologies that were originally thought to be revolutionary—
radio, television, personal computers, and the Internet—seemed,
in retrospect, to produce no measurable improvement in student
learning. In Clark’s view, the teaching method (such as lecturing,
collaborative groups, and discussions) is responsible for real
changes in student learning, not the technology. It should be
noted that while Clark’s opinion was written before powerpoint
became available in classrooms, he seems to have accurately
anticipated the outcomes of the powerpoint effectiveness studies
based on his examinations of previous technological advances. A
clear bottom- line conclusion from the efficacy studies is that
powerpoint does not provide a significant improvement in
learning gains beyond older technologies like the blackboard and
the overhead projector. The potentially-increased arousal or
motivation from using

powerpoint slides doesn’t seem to improve the effectiveness of
teaching. Accordingly, teachers should not expect that the use of
powerpoint will dramatically improve student performance.
Student Perceptions: What Do Students
Think About Powerpoint?
The second general approach for evaluating the effectiveness
of powerpoint-based instruction focuses upon student
perceptions of powerpoint. Modern students receive many hours
of powerpoint- supported lectures throughout their educational
career. This direct experience makes student feedback valuable
for understanding what works or doesn’t work about powerpoint
presentations.
These student perception studies are relatively easy to
perform and have been conducted in a wide range of settings and
academic disciplines. The typical student perception study begins
with students who are exposed to slide-based presentations
during the semester. Sometimes, exposure to powerpoint-based
lecture materials is alternated over the semester with traditional
media such as chalkboards and overhead projectors. The
students are surveyed at the end of the course to measure their
impressions about powerpoint-based instruction. The students
in these surveys compare their powerpoint experience to other
instructional media, which they may have experienced in other
classes. The students rate their perceptions of powerpoint-based
instruction from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree” on a
numeric scale. Survey questions rated higher than neutral show
a preference for the use of powerpoint. Many survey studies also
include open-ended questions to collect more information from
the respondents.

43
At least eighty-two published studies use surveys to ask
students about their perceptions of powerpoint-based instruction
(Appendix B). These studies were identified through a process
that was similar to the review of the experimental studies:
Keyword searches on databases followed by the identification of
additional studies from careful evaluation of references in
published papers. These papers were published in 2016 or
earlier, with the earliest studies being in the mid-1990s. The
inclusion criterion was the use of nonexperimental survey
methods of student attitudes that asked students to report their
feelings and thoughts about powerpoint- based instruction.
These surveys varied in their questions, but all of them asked
students about their general satisfaction level with the use of
powerpoint for instructional purposes. The results from each
study were broadly classified as evidence for positive, neutral, or
negative attitudes towards powerpoint based on the majority of
survey responses. Most surveys also had questions about other
features, like the advantages and disadvantages of powerpoint. A
qualitative analysis was performed to catalog the common
student likes and dislikes about specific features. This analysis
involved some degree of subjective interpretation given the
variability of survey questions across these studies.
The key finding: Students clearly like powerpoint. Students
have an overall positive attitude towards powerpoint presentations
in the majority of student attitude studies, 76.8% (n = 63). The
typical finding in these studies is that about 60% to 90% of the
surveyed students indicate a preference for powerpoint-based
lecture materials over chalkboards, transparencies, or no visual
aids. In contrast, fewer studies report an overall neutral/mixed
(13.4%; n = 11) or negative (9.8%; n = 8) student attitudes
towards powerpoint.

The understanding of these survey results must be viewed in
the context that the data is self-reported by students. We can gain
a clear view of students’ experiences with powerpoint instruction
through self-reports. This is very important because we want
students to have a positive experience in the classroom. However,
self-reported views tend to be highly subjective opinions. The
general finding that students like powerpoint doesn’t necessarily
mean that this kind of instruction is effective, engaging, or
stimulating deep thoughts. There is a disturbing possibility that
students might like powerpoint for the wrong reasons, such as
using powerpoint to put less effort into their coursework. The
finding that students like powerpoint is certainly encouraging,
but it is not sufficient, by itself, to establish that powerpoint is a
worthwhile technology for the classroom.
What are the specific features of powerpoint that students
like? There is a wide range of reasons, many of which are
pragmatic in nature. The following lists summarize what
students like and dislike about powerpoint-based classroom
presentations. These conclusions are listed in the order of
preference from the most frequently occurring to the least
frequent. For brevity, specific citations for each finding have been
omitted.
1. Interest: Students report that powerpoint presentations
are more entertaining and enjoyable than presentations
that do not use powerpoint.
2. Organization: Students feel that powerpoint
presentations are organized better than traditional
chalkboard-based lectures. Powerpoint presentations
may have a flow or logical order that is easy for students
to follow.

45
3. Understanding and Memory: Students think that
powerpoint presentations promote comprehension.
However, this may be only a perception that does not
necessarily correspond closely to reality (see below).
4. Note-taking: Students report that powerpoint helps them
to focus on the key points of a presentation, which is
especially important for note-taking activities. Note-
taking may also be aided when instructors provide a
printed handout or a digital powerpoint file before class.
5. Instructor Qualities: Students have favorable impressions
of instructors who use powerpoint. These favorable
ratings include being more organized, better prepared for
class, more credible, and more professional compared to
teachers who do not use powerpoint. Students are also
more likely to indicate on course evaluations that they
would take another class from a professor who uses
powerpoint.
6. Exam Preparation: Students like reviewing powerpoint
files or handouts provided by the instructor as they
prepare for exams.
7. Efficiency: Students feel that powerpoint can be used to
cover more information during a class period.
8. Visual Aids: Students approve of using visual aids, such as
graphs and figures, to support learning.
9. Technology Advantages: The visibility of powerpoint
presentations is better than chalkboards and overheads.
The presentation delivery with powerpoint is also more
professional and efficient because instructors do not have
to rummage through transparencies or turn their back to
the class while they write on the chalkboard.

10. Memory: Some students feel that their memory is better
with powerpoint, although it is worth noting that this may
just be a student perception.
There are a few other positive characteristics. Some students
prefer the combined use of auditory (spoken) and visual
(powerpoint) information. Student who miss class presentations
appreciate having the powerpoint slides available online so they
can access the material that was missed, though not all
instructors engage in this practice. Some students feel that
powerpoint helps to promote class discussions. Finally,
powerpoint may facilitate the proper spelling of technical terms,
which is particularly important for students who have learned
English as a second language.
Overall, these benefits show that students have numerous
reasons, most of them practical in nature, for preferring
powerpoint presentations over traditional instructional media.
Even though powerpoint may not significantly raise student
grades, many students believe that it is still a worthwhile
technology for supporting instruction. These strong student
preferences provide a compelling reason for instructors to use
powerpoint, particularly if there is no strong evidence that doing
so is detrimental to student learning.
We must note that the results from student perception studies
can be a bit misleading when students are asked to assess their
own learning and memory. A few studies have directly compared
student perceptions of their own learning to their actual learning
performance. These studies show that students’ belief that
powerpoint improves learning is not necessarily accompanied by
an improvement in exam scores (Apperson, Laws, and
Scepansky,

47
2006; Selimoglu, Arsoy, and Yasemin, 2009; Susskind, 2008).
In other words, students may feel like their learning is improved
when they are taught with powerpoint, but the actual exam
results may not show any improvement. The student view
that more is learned with powerpoint instruction is likely to be
an overly optimistic opinion.
The student survey research also provides a valuable source
of information about what students dislike about powerpoint
presentations. The following list has commonly-reported
complaints or weaknesses about powerpoint from the sources
in Appendix B. These negative features are listed from the most
frequent to the least frequent. For perspective, keep in mind that
these powerpoint problems tend to be less frequently reported
than the positive responses.
1. Powerpoint Overload: Powerpoint enables instructors to
deliver too much information or deliver information at
a pace that is too fast for the students. In contrast, notes
and diagrams delivered via chalkboard have a slower,
more natural pace that may be closer to a student’s
natural comprehension and note-taking ability. In
particular, students in math or science courses sometimes
report that they prefer chalkboard-based presentations
(El Khoury and Mattar, 2012). It may be easier to follow
a sequence of mathematical operations when these are
diagrammed step-by-step on a chalkboard compared to
being flashed on a screen all at once in powerpoint
(Feldkamp, 2008).
2. Decreased Social Interaction: Some students feel that
powerpoint often leads to less interaction between
students

and less interaction between the students and the instruc-
tor. Powerpoint presentations are sometimes described as
being distancing, depersonalized, and less spontaneous.
3. Boring: Traditional lectures given via powerpoint can still
be dull. This problem is not necessarily due to technology,
however, because traditional lectures without powerpoint
also have a reputation for being boring. This finding is
consistent with the earlier speculation that technology
alone cannot rescue a boring presentation.
4. Technical Problems: Technical difficulties can lead to
dead moments in the classroom when the instructor must
focus on fixing technology breakdowns instead of on
teaching. It’s understandable that students dislike these
awkward technical failures that waste valuable class time.
5. Distraction and Note-taking: Some students report
difficulty in simultaneously using the visual information
from powerpoint along with the auditory information
spoken by the teacher. Students may wonder which is
more important, the verbal information from the teacher
or the visual information from the slide?
6. Using Powerpoint as a Teleprompter: A common
complaint, in both professional settings and education, is
that the presenter simply reads the contents of the slide
to the audience. The most obvious solution is that the
presenter should not read from the slides word-for-word.
However, doing so could create the problem mentioned
in problem number 5 above. That is, that the audience
may not know what to focus on if the slide content and
the auditory commentary differ. It may be difficult for

49
presenters to achieve an effective balance between content
and commentary that keeps the audience interested yet
able to follow along.
7. Insufficient Detail: Some students complain that
powerpoint slides do not have enough details. Curiously,
too many details can lead to powerpoint overload (see
issue #1), yet too few details also frustrates some students.
The finding that too much or too little information are
both problems shows how it can be difficult to find the
optimal amount of information in a presentation.
8. Attendance Problems: Most students report that they
would attend class even if the powerpoint file is available
to them online in a course management system. However,
some students may be more likely to skip class if they
can easily obtain the slide deck without attending class,
although this group represents a minority of respondents.
9. Visibility Problems: Powerpoint presentations have better
visibility, in general, than traditional teaching media, but
visibility problems can still occur. Students sometimes
report difficulty in viewing poorly-constructed slides
that are made with small font sizes or odd color choices.
Darkened rooms may make the projected images on the
screen more prominent, but the darkness also has the
downside of making it more difficult for students to take
notes or follow along in a textbook. Dark rooms may also
make students sleepy. In contrast, using white or lightly
colored backgrounds on the screen may sometimes make
students seated in the front row feel that the presentation
was blinding.

The good news about these drawbacks is that many of
these problems can be addressed and eliminated. For example,
powerpoint overload can be cured by paring down the amount of
information in a presentation. Dullness and decreases in social
interaction can be addressed by adding discussion exercises or
question/answer periods into the instructional plan. Technical
problems can be avoided with practice and proper preparation.
With careful design and planning, the competent teacher can
avoid most of these problems. Some of them, however, may have
no easy answer that satisfies everyone, which is a situation not
uncommon in educational settings.
Conclusions from the Scientific Studies
Scientific studies have not confirmed the alarms raised by
powerpoint critics, which is good news. However, numerous
studies that compare students taught by powerpoint versus
more traditional media have not convincingly demonstrated a
strong learning benefit. Student opinions, in contrast, are quite
positive about the use of powerpoint, with students having a
number of practical reasons for preferring powerpoint over
older instructional aids. As a whole, the evidence suggests that
powerpoint has a distinct place in the classroom. The beneficial
characteristics of powerpoint that the students like outweigh the
(as yet undemonstrated) potential for cognitive damage that was
proposed by powerpoint critics.
Some hard-line critics might insist at this point that there is
no need to continue using powerpoint because the media
comparison studies have failed to establish the educational
effectiveness of

51
this technology. The counterpoint is that reasons still exist for
using powerpoint, even if an improved learning outcome is not
likely to be achieved. In particular, teachers should give emphasis
to how students feel about powerpoint, which is largely positive
and could, in turn, produce more positive student expectations
and attitudes toward learning. Students also view teachers who
use powerpoint as being more organized and credible. For all
of these reasons, contemporary students have come to expect
that their instructors will use powerpoint (M. J. Jackson et al.,
2011). Teachers who do not use powerpoint may receive student
demands to begin using powerpoint (Driessnack, 2005) and may
suffer from lower student evaluations (Hill et al., 2012; Koeber,
2005; Schrodt and Witt, 2006; however, see also Daniels et al.,
2008; Kunkel, 2004; Lowerison et al., 2006). Instructors who are
ambivalent about using powerpoint should consider the students’
enthusiastic viewpoint when deciding whether or not to use
powerpoint technology.
The lack of evidence for powerpoint instructional
effectiveness is perhaps a sign that the standard practices for
using powerpoint are not working very well. Many of the
common powerpoint uses seem like dry lectures that merely
attempt to pass information along to students. As noted above,
transferring lecture materials from chalkboards to a newer
medium like powerpoint is unlikely to overcome the inherent
dullness of passive learning approaches. The teaching strategies
instructors employ most often in powerpoint presentations
likely are simply ineffective. Using powerpoint well involves
more than simply filling out a few bullet points on a slide.
Rather than despairing about this situation, we should view
it as a challenge. Educators must attempt much more than
the

standard approach if we hope to achieve educational greatness
with powerpoint technology. The main goal of this book is to
address the question of how we can remake powerpoint
presentations into effective learning tools. The guiding spirit is to
determine how teachers should use this medium to augment
their teaching and thereby improve student learning.

4
AVOIDING DEATH BY
POWERPOINT
It is striking that properties typical of powerpoint are mainly
mentioned as annoyances. (Blokzijl and Naeff, 2004, p. 76)
As we have learned, the phrase “death by powerpoint” is
widely used to describe the experience of bad powerpoint
presentations. When death by powerpoint occurs, the presenter
is often unaware of how their powerpoint presentations are
experienced by the audience. The teacher may have good
intentions, information, and ideas, yet the presentation still fails
miserably. Presentation practices that seem reasonable to the
teacher may be experienced as dull and possibly even insulting to
the students.
An important first step toward making better classroom
presentations is to examine the bad practices that produce the
death by powerpoint experience. Put simply, a good presentation

requires the absence of bad presentation practices. Some of these
problems may strike the reader as being rookie mistakes, which
is not inaccurate. However, these basic mistakes are
common enough that we need to address them. Becoming aware
of these basic problems will hopefully help educators avoid
making these mistakes themselves. This is a good beginning
point for the journey towards better classroom presentations.
Presentation Killer #1: Using Powerpoint
as a Teleprompter
Dave Paradi is a business communications expert who
conducts an annual survey about annoying powerpoint
presentation practices. The statement “The speaker read slides to
us” was rated the most annoying presentation problem in 2017,
with 67.8% of the respondents agreeing with this statement
(Paradi, 2017). This issue has been the number one problem in
Paradi’s survey for many years. The problem is that the presenter
is basically using the powerpoint presentation like a teleprompter,
reading the entire speech from the slides to the audience.
Reactions to this kind of presentation are usually quite negative.
In education, there are also reports of teachers who simply read
the powerpoint slide text to their students (Gurrie and Fair, 2008;
O’Quigley, 2011; Young, 2004). Educators are clearly not immune
to the teleprompter problem.
Several reasons explain why reading the slides to an audience
is a poor presentation technique. The audience can read the
text faster than the speaker can speak it out loud, which leads
to the audience waiting for the presenter to catch up with them.
In addition, multimedia theories of learning suggest that it
is

Avoiding Death by Powerpoint |
55
redundant to have the same words presented to both vision and
hearing. This double-dose of sensory information may pose a
cognitive load problem (Yue, Bjork, and Bjork, 2013). A third
problem is that reading large text passages from a projection
screen focuses the speaker’s attention in the wrong place. The
teleprompter approach makes the speaker face the screen to read
the text rather than facing the audience.
The solution to the teleprompter problem is to reduce the
amount of text that is displayed to the audience. If notes are
needed, they should be hidden from the audience on note cards
or the PowerPoint “notes” view that is not visible to the students.
Another strategy is to thoroughly practice the presentation before
going in front of an audience. Well-practiced presenters can give
their presentations from memory. Going without notes gives the
presentation a spontaneous, fresh kind of feeling, as though the
speaker is interacting naturally with the audience.
Presentation Killer #2: Too Much Text
The second most common problem in Paradi’s annual survey
is using too much text in a powerpoint presentation (Paradi,
2017). The problem is characterized by slides that have multiple
complete sentences or possibly even paragraphs crammed on to a
single slide. In teaching, this problem sometimes occurs when
teachers use powerpoint files prepared by the textbook publisher.
These prepared powerpoint presentations sometimes contain
significant amounts of text that were copied verbatim from the
textbook.
Several reasons explain why too much text is problematic.
From a design perspective, we must keep in mind that the
students who

receive a presentation can only handle a low information density
(see Chapters 10 and 11). This cognitive limitation means that key
terms and brief outlines are the most effective for learning. In
contrast, long sentences and paragraphs become problematic due
to the increased amount of information. Large quantities of text
just don’t fit into the low-density requirements of powerpoint
presentations.
The problem of too much text often relates to the first
problem of reading text directly from a slide. Using powerpoint
as a teleprompter requires a lot of text on the slides because the
slides must contain the entire speech. Thus, problem #1 (reading
from the slide) and problem #2 (too much text) tend to occur
together. In addition, using a lot of text requires a small font size
to make all of the text fit on to the slide. This problem leads us to
yet another common problem: low visibility.
Presentation Killer #3: Poor Visibility
The third and fourth place annoying practices on Paradi’s
surveys are visibility problems created by small text (#3) and
overly complex graphics (#4). In these situations, the presenter
refers the audience to information on the slide, but the audience
can barely see it. Maybe the students in the front row can see it
with some effort. The students in the back, however, might not
see the important information at all. The information on a
powerpoint slide is simply not helpful if the audience cannot see
it.
Sometimes, the visibility problem is caused by the amount of
text required when using powerpoint as a teleprompter (Problem

57
#1) or a written report. Because these situations require a lot
of text, the presenter consequently uses small fonts in order to
create more room for text. Most visibility problems actually result
from using powerpoint in an inappropriate manner to convey
excessive amounts of information (see Chapters 10 and 11 about
the problems of overload).
Another source of visibility problems stems from the
classroom presentation environment being significantly different
from the office computer screen. Text and images that look fine
on the teacher’s office computer screen might seem tiny when
viewed from a distance in a large classroom. Likewise, color
combinations and themes that look good in the office might
look washed out or different in the classroom due to differences
in the projected image and ambient lighting (see Chapter 7).
Teachers give a lot of presentations, and they may not have
enough time to test each one before giving it to a class.
Consequently, visibility failures are often noticed only when the
presentation is being given to the students, and, if the teachers
stay close to the screen, they may not notice these visibility
failures at all. When a visibility failure occurs, a good practice is
for the instructor to make a note of this problem in order to
address it before giving the presentation again. One means of
doing so is using the “insert comment” feature on a problematic
PowerPoint slide (Figure 4.1). This note provides a useful
reminder of a problem that can be fixed when preparing the file
for the next class.

58 | Slides for
Students
Figure 4.1: Documenting a visibility problem that needs to be addressed
Another consideration about the presentation venue is to
consider how the position of text and images on the projection
screen might affect visibility in the classroom. You can easily see
all parts of your computer screen when you are sitting behind
the computer display in your office. This equal visibility
across the screen may not, however, carry over into the
classroom. The poor visibility of the bottom part of the screen
may be particularly problematic for people who sit in the back of
the classroom because their view may be blocked by other
classmates or objects such as chairs or laptop screens. For
example, the students seated at the back of the classroom shown
in Figure 4.2 must stand up to see any information that is
presented at the bottom of the slide.

59
Figure 4.2: A student-centered blocked view of the projection screen from the
back of the classroom.
A useful visibility guideline is to horizontally divide the screen
into three equally-sized parts. The top third of the screen is the
most visible, and the bottom third is the least visible in the
classroom. Evidence from the study of web page designs also
suggests that most attention is directed to the top of a display
(Nielsen, 2006). Therefore, if you want to make a statement to
your students, put it at the top of the slide. In contrast, the
bottom of the display receives less attention.
Presentation Killer #4: Style Over
Substance
The visual teaching aids that existed before powerpoint were
pretty tame. The degree of movement was minimal, such as

the teacher’s hand moving across the chalkboard. Powerpoint
changed presentations by offering a much richer range of sensory
possibilities, particularly visual features such as flying bullet
points, fancy slide designs, dynamic slide transitions, clip art,
stock photography, 3-D graphs, and a broad assortment of colors.
Designers use these features with the good intentions of making
their powerpoint presentations more dynamic and interesting.
Teachers in particular often face the task of presenting dry
academic information to audiences of unmotivated, disinterested
students. Teachers often hope that adding vibrant graphics or
zooming bullet points to a presentation will stimulate student
attention. The special effects may seem like a quick solution to
adding interest to an otherwise dull presentation. The problem
with special animations and fanciful graphics is they fail to meet
the long-term goal of maintaining audience interest (see Chapters
5 and 10). These special effects may receive some student
interest at first, but the interest only lasts a brief moment. After
that, these special effects can become a distracting or even
fatiguing experience for the students, especially if they occur
again and again over the classroom period. Teachers need to
resist the urge to fix boring presentations by adding unnecessary
special effects. The real solution for the problem of dull topics
needs to focus on improving the educational content or the story
line of the presentation.
The gratuitous use of unnecessary animations and graphics
has become the hallmark of amateurish presentations. Examples
of this bad practice often appear in student presentations.
Students sometimes attempt to pump-up their presentations and
make them more special by adding special effects of various
kinds.

61
Again, the problem is that this approach can backfire and
produce the unintended feeling that the presentation lacks
substance.
The good news is that designers can easily fix the special
effects problem simply by eliminating all of the extra features that
lack educational content. This elimination can include animated
bullet points, flashy slide transitions, unnecessary stock art or
photography, and overly fanciful slide layouts and decorations.
Learning restraint and tasteful design may take some intentional
effort, but this effort is worthwhile.
Presentation Killer #5: Technology
Problems
No significant concern about technology failures occurred
when chalkboards were the height of teaching technology.
Today’s presentation technology is much more fragile, which can
lead to presentation disasters caused by technical failures.
Students and teachers find it frustrating when valuable class time
is spent fixing technology problems instead of teaching (Young,
2004).
Sometimes technology problems are unavoidable and cannot
be anticipated. For example, projector bulbs can blow out at
surprising moments, leaving the instructor without a critical
resource. Not much can be done about random failures in
technology when these occur. In these situations, the short-term
goal is to improvise your way through the class period, without a
powerpoint presentation to show. The long-term goal is to fix the
system after class is done.
A greater concern is when technology problems are caused
by reasons that can be controlled by the teacher, such as a lack
of adequate preparation. Teachers need to be certain that

projection technology in the classroom is compatible with the
software in the office they used to develop the presentation. For
example, presentations prepared on an Apple Macintosh
computer might not be fully compatible with a PC-based system
that uses Microsoft PowerPoint. The cables that connect a
computer to a projector come in a range of connector styles
(VGA, DVI, HDMI), which creates another potential source of
incompatibility. It’s easy to forget that the powerpoint file must
be transferred from the office to the classroom somehow.
Instructors must check links to web pages or videos on YouTube
before class because sometimes these resources disappear. It is
disappointing to work up to a critical moment in a lecture for a
short video clip only to find that it has been removed from
YouTube. Similarly, sometimes web pages or YouTube clips can
take some time to load, which again creates dead space at an
otherwise important moment.
Instructors need practice and training to become proficient
with classroom technology, such as wireless presentation devices
and student response systems. If you are new to a particular
classroom technology, it might be worthwhile to take some time
to learn how these systems work before attempting to use them
with students during class time. Unfortunately, most teachers
and professors receive very little training in the use of classroom
technology. The responsibility of learning how these complex
systems work often falls on the individual faculty member, who
doesn’t have much time to learn new technology. The result is
that teachers often learn new technology by trial and error while
they are in the midst of teaching.

63
Presentation Killer #6: Presenting in the
Author Mode
Microsoft’s PowerPoint program has two basic modes of
operation. The default view that comes up when the program
is launched is an authoring mode. This view displays all of the
menus, buttons, and tools that a presenter might need to create a
slide deck, as well as small views (thumbnails) of each individual
slide. When it is time to present, the program can go into a full-
screen mode called “slide show” that displays only the slides. The
various authoring tools are hidden during the slide show because
they are unnecessary and would just distract the audience from
the presenter’s message. The full-screen mode is the standard
view for giving a presentation.
The difference between the authoring mode and the full-
screen presentation mode may seem obvious to most PowerPoint
users. However, some presenters prefer to give presentations
in the authoring mode, with all of the buttons, tabs, and other
development tools visible to the audience. Some powerpoint users
are apparently uncomfortable with giving presentations in the
slide show mode. However, giving presentations in the authoring
mode is clearly a bad presentation practice because the buttons
and other software features, not to mention the presence of the
other slides in the queue, are a distraction to the audience. Giving
a presentation in the authoring mode also reduces the size of the
primary slide, which can amplify some of the visibility problems
already mentioned.
The accomplished presenter needs to be well-practiced in
the ways of PowerPoint navigation, even when the program is

in full-screen mode. The most fundamental skill is being able to
switch between the authoring mode and the slide-show mode.
The software way, which is the method that most people seem to
use, is to click on the “slide show” tab in PowerPoint and select
either the “from beginning” or “from current slide” buttons. The
hardware method of launching a slide show is to use the F5
function key to start a presentation from the beginning slide.
Slide navigation in the full screen view can be accomplished
through the arrow keys (right = forward) or the mouse button, as
well as through buttons on a wireless remote.
Presentation Killer #7: Too Much Content
The problems described here may seem trivial, yet they are
very common in presentations. Mastery of these basic issues will
put your presentations ahead of many of your colleagues. The
good news about these fundamental problems is that they can be
relatively easy to address. Instructors can avoid many problems
simply by not using problematic features or avoiding ineffective
practices
Other “death by powerpoint” problems are more abstract
and, therefore, more difficult to address. One such problem is too
much information covered in a class period. Powerpoint makes
it possible to click through a slide deck in a rapid-fire way and
completely overwhelm students with too much content. A related
danger with too much information is that important ideas can get
buried in a sea of details. When students are overwhelmed, it
may seem that all information is equally important, even though
this is not usually the case.

65
The too much information problem occurs for several
reasons. Presentations need to be information-light, but the
goal of educators is that students need to learn as much as
possible. These competing needs are not always easy to resolve.
Furthermore, instructors have no clear-cut standard to follow
for deciding how much information is the right amount for a
class period. Too much information is undesirable, but too little
content is not good either.
This ambiguous situation leaves it up to the instructor to
judge the degree of content to be covered. There really is no
substitute for experience as a guide for how much information is
the right amount. Feedback is also important. After a classroom
presentation, teachers should take a moment to assess how well
the class period went. If there was too much or too little content,
it is a good practice to note, possibly even in the slide deck (see
Figure 4.1), that the degree of content for this class period needs
to be adjusted up or down before giving the presentation again.
Another strategy for dealing with the degree of content
question is to rely on external aids to deliver some of the content.
Tufte (2006) and other business communication experts
recommend the use of handouts for carrying the high-density
information that might complement the main messages of an
information-light presentation (see Chapters 10 and 11). The idea
is that the main themes of the presentations are fleshed out with
the details from the handout. Both mediums have their
strengths, and these can work together in a complementary way.

Presentation Killer #8: Too Many Bullet
Points
The standard powerpoint presentation relies heavily on
slides that use bullet point list layouts. Bullet points may have a
strong appeal to business people who emphasize a bottom-line,
expeditious way of handling matters. It has become ubiquitous
in modern society to distill complex topics into clean, itemized
lists. However, the use of bullet points may encourage teachers to
overemphasize lists and sequences. Some educators have
criticized the overly structured, highly linear nature of
information delivered in bullet points (C. Adams, 2006) Bullet
points may also suggest an overly simplified view of a topic and
thereby lead to passive note-taking and disengaged learning.
Life after Death for Powerpoint
Presentations
Powerpoint software is easy to use, yet the presentations
made with it often have some serious shortcomings. The
good news, though, is that teachers and students are not
doomed to the death by powerpoint experience. Many of the
problems described here are really beginner mistakes that
reflect a lack of training, effort, or experience. Teachers and
other presenters can quickly raise the effectiveness of their
presentations just by knowing about these common traps
that many presenters fall into and taking some reasonable
efforts to ensure that these problems do not ruin the
classroom experience.

5
DESIGN FOR EMOTION I
Capturing and Maintaining Audience
Interest
If a lecture is no more than a reiteration of the contents of a
paper we might as well choose to stay home, do some reading,
and avoid the ruinous expense. Learning is improved by the
addition of some form of emotional component to the
material and the presence of the distinguished or up-and-
coming lecturer might provide some of that—should we be
able to see them in the first place and interact with them
afterwards. (Taylor, 2007)
When I was in graduate school, the process of writing
scientific papers was seemingly endless. I spent many hours
crafting the very finest sentences that I could muster. I thought
that I was doing a terrific job, but my dissertation adviser
disagreed. His complaint: my writing lacked a “story.” He
would mark my papers up and

send them back to me, with the chief problem being a need for
more “story.” When pressed, my dissertation adviser could never
quite articulate exactly what he meant by the need for a story, so
the concept was rather elusive. At first, it seemed to me that
stories were really quite unnecessary for scientific research. I
believed all that my writing really needed to do was report the
facts to the reader in a straightforward way. In retrospect, it’s
clear that my early efforts at scientific writing had decent
sentence mechanics. The real problem was that the writing failed
to establish to the reader why the research was important or
interesting.
What I learned from this writing experience is that scientific
papers need a carefully-constructed persuasive message about
the importance of the study. The “story” that my adviser was
asking for was not a literal “story” in the sense that there was a
hero, a villain, and an epic struggle between good and evil. His
use of the term “story” simply meant that the document had to
(1) communicate the importance to the reader; (2) present a
problem worthy of investigation; (3) follow a logical, orderly
sequence; and (4) arrive at a reasonable resolution to the
issue. It would also be accurate to say that the scientific “story”
was a persuasive argument that presented ideas and
information to the readers in a compelling way.
Many powerpoint presentations have the same problem as my
early attempts at scientific writing. The facts and information are
excellent, but the importance, interesting features, and
emotionally- compelling reasons for the topic are not
communicated well to the audience. Information-rich but
emotionally-flat presentations are ones in which an audience
struggles to stay focused or, even worse, stay awake. They may
communicate some information,

Design for Emotion I |
69
but they do not encourage the student to take this information to
heart; alternatively, it may not sufficiently stimulate the student’s
mind. Much, perhaps even most, of a presentation’s content is
based upon nonverbal or emotional material (Duarte, 2010). To a
significant degree, instructors should view presentations as a
form of emotional communication rather than as the pure
transmission of facts and information. The effective presentation
is simply not a written report that that the teacher reads aloud.
It might be tempting for teachers to think that emotions and
persuasion are unimportant, just like I once thought that
scientific writing was just getting the facts on paper. However, an
effective teacher must firmly establish an emotional
connection with the students at the beginning of each class.
The students must be persuaded that the information is of high
importance. This emotional connection is really a prerequisite
for student learning. Students are unlikely to get involved in a
topic if they cannot be convinced from the start that it is
interesting and important.
Another way to consider this situation is to examine the roles
of the instructor and the textbook in a course. The textbook often
contains all of the information that a student might need to
master the key ideas of the course. We could, in theory, just
assign the textbook to the students and give them a test at the
end of the semester to see how well they have learned the
content. In reality, however, this textbook-only approach just
wouldn’t work. Most people wouldn’t read through a textbook on
their own. It would just be too dull. The teacher is necessary to
communicate passion and interest in the topic to the students,
acting as a cheerleader to get students excited about the course
content. The teacher provides emotional and social support for
the students to help them achieve

their highest potential. The teacher can also answer questions
and clarify information, which a textbook cannot do by itself.
The Presentation as a Story
Storytelling is the oldest form of pedagogy. Many prehistoric
cultures had oral storytelling traditions that preceded written
language. Important historical events were remembered in these
societies through oral traditions, such as The Odyssey by Homer.
These stories were passed down from generation to
generation to preserve a cultural memory. Fables and religious
texts also frequently use stories for teaching moral principles.
Expressing important moral teachings in story form is much
more persuasive than simply outlining key points with
commands like “spend money wisely” or “be responsible.”
Although an ancient art, modern storytelling is still successfully
used for teaching. Many award-winning documentaries are
simply stories that have embedded facts and information into
the overall framework of the story.
Information presented in a narrative form works well because
our brains are essentially wired to remember information in a
story form. Human long-term memory for personally-
experienced events is a kind of personal history, a story about our
lives. The distinguished biologist Edward Wilson expressed it
this way in an article that promoted the use of stories in science
education:
We all live by narrative, every day and every minute of our
lives. Narrative is the human way of working through a
chaotic and unforgiving world. … [The brain] develops stories
to filter

71
and make sense of the flood of information that we are
exposed to everyday. (E. O. Wilson, 2002)
Although a common analogy is to compare brain functions to
a computer, human cognition and memory does much more
than simply process and store information. The human brain
excels at connecting the information between data points through
an associative process that ultimately ends in story-like
memories. Evidence for the story-like nature of memory comes
from cognitive psychology research on memory. It may seem like
memory should be an exact duplicate of an event that has been
experienced, somewhat like a video recording. The truth is not so
simple. Human memory is more accurately understood as being
reconstructive in nature. This means memory is partly the real
information from the event that was experienced plus a plausible
explanation that fits our expectations. These combine to produce
a memory experience that is similar to reliving the original event
from our lives. Our memory for personal events, which is called
autobiographical memory, is experienced as being a story, with
ourselves as the central character. Neurobiological evidence for
story-like functions in the brain comes from the study of the so-
called ‘split-brain’ patients. These were a small number of
people with severe epilepsy who were treated with a radical
surgery that separated the two cerebral hemispheres. Michael
Gazzaniga, the world’s leading expert on these cases, found that
the left hemisphere of these special patients seemed to have an
“interpreter” function (Gazzaniga, 2000). The interpreter links
together environmental events into plausible explanations—
stories—of events or cause and effect relationships
that are taking place.

The functioning of this interpreter also occurs in a memory
disorder symptom called confabulation that is typically caused by
brain damage or extreme alcoholism (Schnider, 2008).
Confabula- tion occurs when the interpreter function in these
people keeps on operating, despite the loss of memory, taking
whatever information is available in the mind and making a story
out of it. The result is fabricated stories, some of which might be
quite fantastic and impossible, that are experienced by the
patient as being real memories. Altogether, this evidence suggests
that important human memory functions are understood and
stored in a story-like, narrative fashion. Accordingly,
information that fits into these story-like brain functions will
be readily processed by the brain.
This is why stories are effective structures for presentations.
The Educational Presentation as a Story
A common approach to developing a presentation is to fire
up the computer, launch powerpoint, and then start typing
up the slides. It seems natural to begin with the technology. The
problem with this approach is that starting with the technology
leads to presentations that are more like technical events than
engaging presentations (Ohler, 2005). A typical fault is that
many powerpoint presentations lack an adequate beginning that
engages the students. In our passion for our topic, the teacher
who is designing a presentation may launch into the details of the
content without adequately establishing to our audience why this
topic is interesting, important, and potentially useful.
A better approach would be to begin the development of a
presentation by considering the overall story for the presentation.

73
The presenter should begin by asking themselves questions about
the purpose of the presentation. What is the important message
that needs to be conveyed to the audience? Why should someone
who doesn’t know much about this field care about this topic?
What about this topic is exciting to me, and how do I
communicate this excitement to others? The important idea is to
start by determining what the audience needs and then working
to meet their needs. Duarte (2010, p. 4) eloquently expresses the
situation like this: “The audience does not need to tune
themselves to you— you need to tune your message to them.” The
presenter must put their own needs aside in order to focus on
what the audience really wants or needs.
Once the audience needs are established, it is important to
consider the overall structure and organization of the
presentation. Good presentations are like stories with plot lines
that follow a well-known structure (Duarte, 2010). The typical
fiction story begins with a likeable hero. After the audience gets
to know the hero, a challenge or dilemma occurs that throws the
hero’s life out of balance. Will the hero succeed in overcoming
this challenge? The hero may face many obstacles during the
middle section of the story. In the end, the challenge is overcome,
hopefully with a happy ending for everyone who is involved.
An inspiring presentation successfully incorporates the main
elements of a story structure. The beginning sets the stage for the
importance of the lesson. In fiction, this beginning is sometimes
referred to as the “call to adventure” (Ohler, 2005) or “call to
action” (Duarte, 2010). We become personally invested as the
characters face a significant challenge that they must address. It
would be a stretch to call most classroom settings an adventure.
However, the

beginning of a good presentation is somewhat similar to a work of
fiction in that it must convince the audience about the
importance of the topic.
The instructor should address the question of “Why should I
care?” at the beginning of the presentation. A significant barrier
to engagement is student cynicism about the value of courses. At
the college level, freshmen and sophomores commonly think that
core courses are wasted time, something to “get out of the way”
before the major courses are taken. At the K-12 levels, students
often fail to appreciate the real-world relevance of topics. Math
problems, for example, may seem to be esoteric exercises in
abstraction or pointless puzzles. Teachers need enthusiasm and
creativity to engage these difficult audiences. The teacher must
start by being a persuasive salesperson. The goal is to draw the
students into our world and show them the new intellectual
possibilities, which is a task that is often difficult to accomplish.
It is a common trap for experts, such as teachers, to think that
the importance of the course content must be obvious to
everyone. The truth, however, is that our students lack the
experience and specialized knowledge that we, the teachers,
already have. It may not be apparent to students why math is
important or why they should care about historical events that
happened long ago. Teachers must meet the students at the level
where they are currently at in order to engage them in the course
content.
The teacher has many possible ways to engage student
interest. One way is to connect academic topics to events from
everyday life. A benefit of teaching psychology is that I get to draw
upon examples of psychological phenomena that come from real
people in the everyday world. Other fields can employ relevance

75
to everyday life as an emotional hook, too. I once observed a
colleague teach about the U.S. Constitution in an American
Government class. It occurred to me that the constitutional
debate about the power relationship between the states and the
federal government is still quite relevant today. Many current
political issues revolve around the question of whether the states
or the federal government have the right to regulate firearms,
abortions, drugs, immigration, and other controversial issues.
This relevance to modern political struggles would be a natural
opening for this topic. A savvy history professor could open with,
“Who do you think should regulate , the states or the
federal government?” After a brief discussion, the natural segue
would be something like, “You know, the founders of this country
struggled with this question, too.” Once the relevance of this
issue to modern life is established, students might be sufficiently
intrigued to explore how this problem has been treated in the
past.
A second approach for engaging student interest is to tap into
curiosity about our complex world. Human beings have inborn
curiosity. Some people also have a need for cognitive stimulation.
An example opening line for this strategy is, “Have you ever
wondered why ?” When I teach about color vision, I often
open class with this question: “As a child, did you ever wonder if
other people internally experienced colors like you do? Perhaps
what I experience as being the color green you might experience
as being a different color.” This question usually brings up some
head nodding in agreement and brief discussions about how it is
impossible to know exactly what other people are experiencing
as colors. The opening question naturally leads to a discussion
of how color vision works (common between people) as well
as

common color vision deficiencies (different between people).
The conversation might eventually lead to how we can determine
that some people are insensitive to certain colors through careful
testing procedures. This may answer the opening question by
demonstrating that not everyone may experience color in the
same way.
A third story-like way to engage student interest is through
biographies or the chronological unfolding of events. Sometimes,
presentations can start with literal stories. The presentation can
describe an important person’s life, and then the contributions
and ideas that this person had fit within the context of the
personal story. Many documentaries take this approach.
A fourth idea for opening a class is to appeal to personal
interests. Many college students are interested in career
possibilities, such as how much money they could earn in certain
occupations. Instructors can use this personal interest of students
to stimulate their interest in the class topic. In Statistics, I tell my
students that many statistical experts have salaries over $70,000
per year. This information often surprises students who tend to
view data analysis as a boring waste of time. When I cover clinical
topics in other courses, such as sensory deficits, neurological
disorders, and psychological disorders, I sometimes mention how
many professionals work in these fields and earn good incomes.
Of course, most students will not pursue these clinical careers,
and extrinsic rewards should not be the sole motivation for
learning, but the mere mention of occupational possibilities is
enough to demonstrate that a pressing need exists for this
particular knowledge in the real world. These topics are not just
esoteric or pointless academic exercises.

77
A fifth idea is to use foreshadowing to create intrigue about
upcoming topics. In literature, foreshadowing occurs when
narrators give subtle hints about the outcome of the story. These
suggestions about the direction of the topic are engaging because
people are interested in anticipating the outcome of future
events. For presenters, a useful tool for starting a presentation is
to give a brief outline of what the students can expect. A mental
roadmap can give students a general feeling of the overall
purpose and flow of the presentation.
Finally, a last possibility is to make a connection to previous
topics. This connection can help students put the current content
into a bigger context and make connections across class periods.
For some topics, such as math, there is a definite progression of
ideas as the course proceeds. I often take time at the beginning
of each Statistics class to draw attention to how today’s topic is
related to and builds upon the topic that I covered during the last
class period. This connection shows that today’s ideas are not just
random, isolated thoughts. Rather, the current topic is another
step forward in a logical progression of ideas. All information
needs to be understood in a context. A brief review of a relevant
previous topic helps to establish the context for new ideas and
thus orients student learning.
Emotional Food for the Educational
Journey
After establishing emotional engagement, a good educational
presentation will move on to the middle or body of the
presentation. This is the time for covering the main concepts and
facts, the essential parts of the lesson plan. In regard to student
engagement,

the problem in this phase of the class is that the emotional energy
that started at the beginning of the class can slowly decline and
become lost. A lecture that starts off on a high note and then
slowly grinds down to dull facts will not be effective. Teachers
need to be aware of this diminishing emotional energy as the
class period proceeds and take appropriate measures to keep the
classroom energy high until the end.
One strategy for maintaining the emotional energy of a class
session is to follow the drier academic ideas with educational
activities or multimedia resources that stimulate a higher level
of student engagement. Instructors can follow a period of lecture
information with a discussion activity or a hands-on
demonstration. Another possibility is to illustrate a concept with a
video example of the key idea. When I cover psychological
disorders in the Introductory Psychology course, I follow a fact-
example sequence. The sequence starts with a brief lecture about
the symptoms and causes of each disorder. This emotionally-dry
information is followed with short video clips (about three to
five minutes long) of people who display symptoms of these
disorders. This fact- example sequence accomplishes at least two
desirable goals. One benefit is that the brief video gives students
an emotional boost after listening to the dry lecture material.
Watching real people do things is interesting and intriguing, so
the example helps to maintain student interest. Another benefit is
that I can ask students to identify the specific symptoms in the
video clip, which turns the video into a more engaging active
learning process.
Another emotional strategy that can help students through
the middle part of a presentation is to introduce some
humor at opportune moments (Berk, 2003). The students
don’t really

79
expect much in the way of humor in the classroom, so even
modest attempts to be funny can be helpful for emotional energy.
The goal is to use safe, simple humor like harmless one-liner
jokes and puns, which Berk (2003) describes as “low stakes
humor.” Good judgment must be used to avoid humor that has
the potential to be offensive to students. Jokes that are racist or
sexist, for example, might be a quick end to an academic career.
Leave the provocative humor to the professional comedians in
the comedy clubs. The classroom is not an appropriate place for
pushing the socially acceptable limits of comedy.
Humor can be particularly effective if you can find a joke
or cartoon that is highly relevant to the course content. A good
cartoon in the middle of a powerpoint slide deck can do a double
duty by simultaneously illustrating an important concept and
giving the audience an emotional boost. These moments provide
a means for the presenter to really reach the audience on both
the intellectual and emotional levels. Don’t just use any random
joke or cartoon. Use one that will help to reinforce the idea that
you are trying to teach.
Wrapping-Up a Class Period
Sometimes educational presentations just seem to end in
the middle. For example, the teacher’s lecture is going and going
through the topic content. At the end of class, the teacher is
surprised to notice that the class period is almost over. The class
abruptly ends with a statement like, “We’ll pick up here next
time.” It’s almost like putting a bookmark in a novel to mark the
stopping point and then picking up the book again at a later
time. This

sudden stop is less than ideal for class instruction. Endings that
lack closure are unsatisfying to the audience and also represent a
missed opportunity to make an educational impact.
The ending of a presentation is a good place to reiterate some
key points from the overall presentation. The goal should be to
bring the various content details together to give the students
a holistic overview of the topic before the class ends. Efforts to
bring closure to the topic may be helpful for long-term memory.
Memory research has demonstrated that the last bit of
information is recalled better than other information, which is a
phenomenon called the “recency principle.” Although this
phenomenon is usually studied in the lab, it seems likely that the
recency principle would also hold true for presentations (Duarte,
2010, p. 44). The ending is, therefore, an important last chance
to leave students with a particularly memorable idea.
The very best presentations end on an uplifting, possibly
inspirational note (Duarte, 2010). For an example, think of the
greatest speeches in American history, such as Martin Luther
King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech. An ideal outcome would be for
students to leave the class with a sense of wonder, excitement, or
curiosity that might be helpful for motivating their further studies.
Although perhaps a bit grandiose for every class, finishing with
such an inspirational quality when the right occasion arises is a
good aim.
Too Much of a Good Thing: Avoid
Overdoing Emotion
The average teacher can go a long way toward being more
effective by starting with an interest-provoking introduction

81
and adding some activities that stimulate emotion in the middle.
Carefully consider, however, an opposite extreme. If
presentations have too much emotion, these strong feelings can
overwhelm the academic message and be detrimental to learning.
Instructors face the real risk of having too much style and not
enough substance when trying to add emotion to their
presentations. This situation might be emotionally satisfying to
the audience yet provide little benefit for their educational needs.
A fitting analogy is that the emotion in a presentation is like
putting some seasoning on food. A small amount of salt or hot
sauce makes food taste better. Likewise, students will appreciate
having a bit of emotion and humor added to the educational
material. It will spark some interest in the topic and facilitate
learning. However, the chef should be careful not to get too
carried away: too much salt or hot sauce can overwhelm the
flavor. In a similar way, too much emotion in a classroom can be
a distraction and be detrimental to learning.
The use of graphics to increase the emotional content of a
powerpoint presentation is generally a positive feature. However,
doing so could also cause problems if the emotional images
overwhelm the presentation’s message. Educational psychologists
use the term “seductive details” to describe a similar
phenomenon that can occur in textbooks or multimedia
presentations (Mayer, 2009). Many textbooks attempt to be
more appealing by including images to liven up the textbook
content. The potential problem with seductive details is that
some of these images are not important for learning the topic
and do little or nothing to promote student understanding. In
fact, these unnecessary emotional details may even be harmful
to learning. For example, many Introductory

Psychology textbooks will have a picture of a sleeping person
in the chapter that covers sleep as a state of consciousness. The
purpose of the picture is to generate interest, but such a picture
is hardly necessary because everyone has seen someone who is
asleep at some point in their lives. The problem is that students
might remember the picture of the sleeping person but forget
the important information about sleep that was described in the
text. It seems likely that the seductive detail effect can occur in
powerpoint presentations, such as with graphics that add little
or nothing to the presentation’s content. The danger is that the
audience may remember a good cartoon or a memorable picture
but forget the important content of the presentation.
Interestingly, the results from seductive details research are
somewhat inconsistent. Earlier studies suggest that the irrelevant
emotions triggered by unnecessary information may harm
learning, but more recent studies suggest potentially positive
benefits (Mayer, Heiser, and Lonn, 2001; Park, Flowerday, and
Brünken, 2015; Rey, 2012; Schneider, Nebel, and Rey, 2016).
These mixed research findings suggest that the role of emotions
in education can be somewhat tricky. Sometimes emotional
content is helpful for learning, and sometimes it is not.
Design Goal: Emotional Needs
as a Starting Point
Presentation experts agree that the starting point for creating
a presentation should be to focus on the overall story at the
beginning of the creative process. The emotional needs of the
audience are often an afterthought in educational presentations

83
because instructors usually place the emphasis on the factual
content. The truth, however, is that the emotional needs of our
students should be given a higher priority.
Powerpoint has features that can assist teachers in achieving
these emotionally-centered goals. Students typically report that
powerpoint-based images are more engaging and interesting
than presentations that are purely verbal or are accompanied
by the chalkboard. The graphics can add an emotional spark to
the presentation. These features make powerpoint a persuasive
medium (Guadagno et al., 2013), and perhaps instructors can use
this persuasive nature to help disengaged students become more
involved in the course.

6
DESIGN FOR EMOTION II
The Organization of Successful
Presentations
Powerpoint is like being trapped in the style of early Egyptian
flatland cartoons … (Tufte 2006, p. 29)
At some point in your life, you may have experienced what I
call the “random teacher.” This person gives spontaneous lectures
that seem to skip from point to point without much connection
between the ideas. This teacher may have a nearly endless
collection of stories that are loosely connected to the topic. While
some students will be able to make the connections between
the stories and important concepts, others are likely to get lost.
Another problematic situation is teachers who start out with a
planned structure for their presentations but can’t seem to stay on
topic. This teaching style is characterized by frequent digressions
and detours that might be interesting, but the problem is that too

Design for Emotion II |
85
much class time is spent off-topic. These unfortunate situations
illustrate a need for order in effective teaching. Spontaneity is
good, but it can be a potential problem if the class seems to get
lost due to a lack of structure. Balancing order and flexibility is
important for being an effective educator.
Powerpoint presentations can be both an aid and a hindrance
to teaching goals due to the competing demands of order and
spontaneity. Powerpoint imposes a structure and order upon
a presentation that can be beneficial. Students approve of
powerpoint’s organizing effects for note-taking and the overall
structure of a lecture (Susskind, 2005). On the other hand, some
educators are concerned that powerpoint presentations can be
too linear or excessively organized (Hlynka and Mason, 1998). A
high degree of powerpoint structure may stifle student questions
and discussion if the students feel that it is impossible for the
class to deviate from the predetermined course of the slide deck.
Powerpoint may also make controversial topics with ambiguous
evidence seem to have an artificial sense of order. The linear
nature of a powerpoint presentation may therefore be
problematic for situations that require a more complex, intricate
understanding of relationships (Kinchin et al., 2008). We will
now examine the role of structure in a successful powerpoint
presentation.
The Organization of Powerpoint
Presentations
Conceiving an overall plan for an effective class session can be
difficult. In this section, we will aim for a generic class structure
that instructors can use for a wide range of topics to create an
effective organization for a lecture. The proposed structure

follows the basic elements of a storyline (see Chapter 5). Here, we
will put the storyline concept into practice to see how it might be
implemented.
I developed the following storyline structure through many
years of experience in teaching Statistics. This is a challenging
course to teach because many students dread topics that involve
mathematics. The generic structure I describe here proved to be
effective for Statistics, and it can be applied in a general sense to
other courses.
Step 1: Setting the Stage
A common problem in lectures is that the teacher simply
launches into to the main body of the topic without adequately
preparing students (see Chapter 5). It is a mistake to begin a
lecture with the facts and key terms that form the body of the
lecture. The first part of a successful lecture needs to take a
preparatory step by informing students about what the topic is
and why it is important. We cannot assume that students bring
the same level of interest and understanding to the topic that
teachers already possess. Teachers must, therefore, carefully
cultivate an interest or intellectual curiosity about the topic
before the lecture moves into the main part with facts and
information.
Teachers can start the process of building student interest
before the lecture has even started. An easy yet very useful
technique for promoting student interest is to begin with a
dramatic title slide. This slide should contain a short title, a
compelling graphic image that is relevant to the topic, and
possibly a brief outline (just a few words) of the topics to be
covered. The graphic image could

87
be a picture or cartoon that triggers a bit of emotion. Another
possibility for increasing intrigue is to make a ‘promise’ in the
title slide followed by an ellipsis: “Your PowerPoint Slides are
About to Get So Much Better. . .”. It is a good practice to begin
projecting this introductory slide about five minutes before the
class starts (Kosslyn, 2007). At least a few students will have
their interest drawn in by a dramatic image on the title slide. The
best part about this approach is that it takes almost no effort on
the part of the instructor to spark some interest.
When the class begins, many possible introductions might
capture student interest at the beginning of the lecture. The
common element of these openings is their intention to intrigue
students and motivate them to learn more. Some introduction
possibilities are introductory stories, emphasizing curiosity and
relevance to everyday life, and appealing to personal interests
(see Chapter 5). Even when student interest is not aroused,
making the effort to engage students is still worthwhile.
Students who are not emotionally moved by these engagement
efforts likely will appreciate the instructor’s attempt to draw their
interest into the topic.
Step 2: Important Facts and Concepts
After establishing student engagement, the next step is to
introduce the key facts, information, and concepts of the topic.
Most teachers are strong in this informative aspect of the lecture,
with the focus on communicating important information and
ideas. The slides in this part of the lecture will emphasize
information. These slides might contain key terms with
definitions or a topic

with associated subtopics. Some information-oriented slides
will contain more pictorial content, such as charts, diagrams, or
photos.
In Bloom’s taxonomy, the goal at this stage of the lecture is
described as knowledge and comprehension or, in more recent
versions, remembering and understanding. These are the lowest
levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, which is appropriate for this stage of
the lecture. The students must know something about the topic
before efforts to engage higher-level learning can begin. The
knowledge expressed in this part lays a foundation for subsequent
higher-level learning processes.
Step 3: An Example
Communicating information to students is essential, but it
is really just the start of the learning process. Students are quite
capable of memorizing a key term with a definition yet may
completely fail to recognize an example of this concept occurring
in the real world. To address this possibility, the third stage is to
illustrate the key terms or ideas by showing an example of how
these might work or appear in everyday life. This step bridges a
gap between the abstract key terms and more practical real-world
phenomena.
In Bloom’s taxonomy, this part of the presentation represents
a focus on application and the ability to use the concepts in
some real-life situation. Application is positioned in the middle
of Bloom’s taxonomy, between the lower-level memory and
understanding and the higher-level mental abilities. By following
the basic information from the concept to an application, an

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instructor is slowly building the cognitive abilities that relate to
this idea. This application stage may also involve a more active
learning process than simple comprehension or memorization.
The slides or other media shown during this part of the
lecture need to emphasize examples rather than delivering more
information. This need can be accomplished through the use of
images, video clips, and/or instructional animations, but these
examples must be relevant to the instructional content. Another
way to provide an example is through a hands-on demonstration
of some sort. Regardless of how they present the example, the
instructor’s role during this application is to guide the students
through the example to show how the application should be done.
This guidance is important because the students may not be
ready in this stage to apply the concept completely on their own.
They may still need an expert role model to point the way.
Students benefit from the change of focus or activities that
occurs in the application phase because they cannot continually
absorb more information without experiencing fatigue and
decreased learning. Changing up the format of a lecture is an
important component of effective lectures (Bligh, 2000). For
example, switching from information delivery to watching a short
video clip changes the dynamic of the lecture and helps to keep
students engaged in the topic.
Step 4: The Challenge Activity
The challenge part is the point where students must begin to
demonstrate mastery of the material, such as by working with
the provided concepts on their own. Many kinds of possibilities

exist for this step. Instructors could give the students a question
that must be discussed in small groups, with the goal of reaching
a consensus and reporting this result to the class. The discussion
questions need to be somewhat ambiguous topics with evidence
that can support two or more viewpoints of the issue. Trivial
questions with straightforward, factual answers—Is the sky
blue? —will result in little or no discussion. Teachers can choose
from many other activity possibilities. For ideas, the teaching
supplements that come with textbooks have instructor resources
that might provide good exercises for this portion of the class
period. Some disciplines, such as psychology, also have
collections of activities published in book form.
The slides during this part of the lecture should not aim to
present new information. Rather, the slides should guide or
support the challenge activity. The powerpoint slides might, for
example, pose questions or describe procedures for a small group
discussion. The powerpoint slide can also serve the purpose of
communicating a switch in classroom activities and thereby help
to coordinate the challenge exercise.
This part of class is for the higher level cognitive skills of
Bloom’s taxonomy: application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation,
and/or creation. The students have some freedom to run with the
ideas of the day and use them in their own way, giving this this
part of class a constructivist approach. Once again, the class
period has changed focus from a more passive information
delivery to a more active learning approach. These changes help
to keep students engaged in the topic. Although the focus is on
student activities, the instructor is still involved in the learning
process. When the individual or group results are reported to the
class, the instructor

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has a chance to weigh-in and provide feedback on student work.
Step 5: Conclusions
The last phase in a successful class is to wrap up the class
with some kind of take-home message, such as a big-picture,
holistic view of the topic. For controversial ideas, the instructor
can emphasize using evidence to carefully evaluate two or more
competing options, and then make an informed decision about
which viewpoint seems to be the most accurate. The concluding
phase of class could have a metacognitive emphasis, such as
having students identify what they perceived to be the main ideas
or difficult topics of the day’s lesson. An example is the two-
minute paper exercise, which allows students two minutes to
write their overall reaction to what they learned during class.
This type of assignment can help students consolidate
information into long- term memory and also give the instructor
feedback about what the students got out of the class session.
The slides during this part of class should emphasize holistic
conclusions that summarize the class period. For this purpose,
a powerpoint slide could contain a few complete sentences that
effectively summarize the key points from the class period. The
purpose for using complete sentences is to encourage complete
thoughts.
Ending a class period with video clips, discussions, or
demonstrations may fail. The reason for this problem is that the
last slide in the slide deck will send a strong signal to students
that the class is done. The students will interpret the last slide as
an ending even if the instructor does not intend to send this
message.

If the powerpoint presentation ends and the class finishes with a
short video clip, the students will mentally check out during the
video and begin preparing for their next class. Student interest
will be lost once you’ve reached the last slide, so any new
information or activities done after this point will be met with an
indifferent attitude.
Overall, this framework for a successful class period can be
applied to many course needs. It is a pedagogically sound strategy
that begins with student engagement and then progressively
builds up to higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. We should note
how powerpoint was not used from beginning to end to simply
deliver ever-increasing amounts of information. The role of
powerpoint can shift during the lecture: delivering information;
presenting media that stimulates discussion; instructing students
in performing an activity. In this sense, powerpoint can be an
organizing backbone for course activities, not just a means for
delivering information.
Potential Problems from Excessive
Organization
A common concern raised by educators is that powerpoint
imposes a rigid linearity on the instructor and the students. The
software requires the slides to be arranged in a predetermined
order, but classroom interactions between students and teachers
may sometimes go in unexpected directions. The fixed order
of a slide deck may make it difficult to accommodate topic
deviations, and thereby detract from the spontaneity and organic
flow of classroom interactions. A related problem is that the
predetermined organization of a powerpoint presentation may

93
stifle student-teacher interactions in a subtle way. Students might
be reluctant to ask questions if preserving the order of the slide
deck seems to be the teacher’s highest priority.
We can begin addressing this potential problem of excessive
linearity simply by being aware that powerpoint can encourage an
overly-structured teaching style. Powerpoint does not necessarily
mandate a linear sequence of ideas, but the nature of powerpoint
might suggest or even promote this kind of teaching style.
Teachers also need to be aware that students may have
reservations about interrupting the predetermined slide
sequence with questions. Being sensitive to the basic linear
nature of powerpoint is an important starting point for
addressing these shortcomings. We must be aware of the
potential problems posed by the slide structure before we can
seek solutions to overcome it.
A second step toward promoting student-teacher
communication is to explicitly inform students that they have
permission to ask questions, and that asking questions is
encouraged. A good time to introduce this idea is on the first day
of class. Teacher-student dialogue can be promoted during the
first and second weeks of class by seeking student opinions.
Teachers can demonstrate that they are sincere about teacher-
student communication during class by positively reinforcing
students who ask questions. These words and deeds early in the
course will show students that your individual style is open to
questions and observations.
Teachers will also find it useful to plan for discussion
opportunities while preparing their slide decks. Some natural
points in the class may occur in which student discussion is most
likely or appropriate. The overall structure can cover the topic,
yet

the instructor can set aside a few key moments for students to ask
questions or engage in a discussion-based activity. Natural points
for questions might be transitions between topics, such as
moving from the information-focused parts of a lecture to an
application exercise or an activity. The application and challenge
parts of the lecture (see above) might also be good times for
student-teacher interactions. For example, instructors can
follow video clips with a question and answer period. If the
students have no questions themselves, the instructor can pose
questions to the students about the video that might encourage
application of the concepts or other higher-order thinking
activities.
A tip for promoting discussions is that the best questions will
be specific and focused rather than vague and open-ended. For
example, let’s say that following a discussion of the symptoms
of schizophrenia, a class was shown a video with examples of
the disorder. The instructor-posed question, “Which behavior
illustrated the presence of hallucinations?” might be more likely
to get an answer that promotes discussion compared to an
unfocused question like, “Are there any questions?” If someone
gives a partial answer, the instructor can promote further
discussion by saying something like, “That was good. What other
symptoms did you notice?” Doing so encourages other students
to build upon partial answers in a collaborative manner.
Instructors can use the powerpoint slide itself to encourage
classroom interaction. The slides can directly encourage
questions and discussion by communicating to students that the
class direction is changing to discussion. One possible
approach is to use a blank slide to break away from the tendency
to deliver more information and refocus attention on the
teacher. Perhaps

95
instructors might place structured questions on a slide about the
things that students should be considering in order to promote
discussion. Aim to keep these discussion-promoting questions
short. A one-word questions like, “Symptoms?” might be more
effective than using an entire sentence, such as, “Which
symptoms does this person have?” In order to encourage
discussion, these slides should not provide further
information. Students should not be writing down more
information when the real goal is engagement in a discussion
activity.
Knoblauch (2012) reports that the contents of a powerpoint
slide can often be a common point of discussion for presenters
and the audience. In education, an informative graph or an
intriguing image presented without text may be a good way to
stimulate discussion. For example, Maxwell reports successfully
using powerpoint in history classes to present primary sources
such as photos rather than bullet point lists of information
(Maxwell, 2007). He stimulates class discussion by showing
dramatic images of historical events. One of his examples is the
impact of hyperinflation in Germany before World War II. He
illustrates this historical event through the use of photos that
show people using paper money to light a stove or using money
as waste paper. These moving images are much more likely to
promote student interest and discussion than a dry bullet point
item like “hyperinflation was a problem.”
Some technology solutions may also help to provide more
flexibility from the predetermined order of the slide deck. Most
presenters know that the arrow keys on the keyboard will go
forward or back in the slide presentation. Relatively few
presenters, however, seem to know that presentation software
programs often

have a feature that allows the presenter to jump to any particular
slide in the presentation. In PowerPoint 2016, a right mouse click
on the presentation in slide-show mode will bring up a context
menu with a “see all slides” command. This feature reveals
thumbnail images of all the slides and allows the presenter to
jump to any slide in the slide deck. The online version of
PowerPoint has a similar “go to slide” option that can jump to a
particular slide number. Yet another possibility is to enter the
slide number into the keyboard, and then press ‘enter’ to jump to
a particular slide. Instructors can also make the order of
powerpoint slides more flexible by using hyperlinks that can
jump to predetermined slides or web pages. A situation in which
the nonlinearity of hyperlinks might be useful is for questions
and answers at the end of a presentation. The presenter could
insert hyperlinks in the final slide that go to key slides in the
presentation, such as a graph with important results. If a
question arises about this graph, the presenter can jump to the
graph by simply clicking on the hyperlink in the conclusion slide.
One drawback, however, is that the instructor must build these
hyperlinks into the slide deck before class.
Other supplemental technologies can help powerpoint
presentations be both more flexible and interactive. The oldest of
these technologies is a chalkboard or whiteboard. They can offer
a flexibility that nicely complements the inflexible structure of a
slide deck. If a student asks a good question, the instructor can
respond by writing key information on the board off to the side
of the powerpoint projection. The instructor can provide this
information in an improvisational way, adding text as the flow of
discussion suggests. Smart boards and similar products represent
a step up the technology ladder. These technologies enable the

97
instructor to write notes such as text, arrows, circles, and other
embellishments on top of a slide, making a slide more like a chalk
board. PowerPoint also has some built in features for annotating
slides in the slide-show mode with the pen tool or the highlighter
tool. Another approach to increasing the flexibility of powerpoint
presentations is to use student response technologies to allow
students to express an opinion or convey their understanding of a
topic (see Chapter 12 for a review). Altogether, these
supplemental technologies can promote greater spontaneity and
flexibility during the presentation.
Nonlinear Approaches to Presentations
Some educators address the possible linearity problem by
using presentation technologies that are less structured and
more nonlinear than Microsoft’s PowerPoint application. Prezi
is an online presentation technology that has received significant
attention for being less rigid than a standard slide deck. The Prezi
presentation begins with a large master slide—the infinite canvas
— that works like a cognitive map of the overall presentation. The
speaker can zoom into this canvas to reveal more details about
a specific subtopic. The speaker can move through the
subtopics in any desired order, which makes the flow of the
presentation less confining than the linear order imposed by a
conventional PowerPoint presentation. Microsoft is also working
to give presenters a greater degree of flexibility for navigating
through a slide deck with the “show all slides” command. These
new technologies may help educators tailor their presentation
needs on the fly to best fit where the flow of their presentation is
going.

Several studies have been conducted to see if nonlinear
presentation technologies like Prezi have educational advantages.
Student perceptions of Prezi are generally positive (Brock and
Brodahl, 2013; Conboy, Fletcher, Russell, and Wilson, 2012;
Virtanen, Myllärniemi, and Wallander, 2013). However, studies
of educational effectiveness that compare PowerPoint to Prezi do
not find higher student performance with Prezi (Castelyn and
Mottart, 2012; Castelyn, Mottart, and Valcke, 2013; Chou, Chang,
and Lu, 2015). These negative results suggest that the linear
nature of powerpoint presentations is perhaps not a major
problem.
Kinchin and colleagues address the linearity of powerpoint by
supplementing powerpoint presentations with handouts that have
information organized in a nonlinear fashion (Kinchin, 2006a,
2006b; Kinchin and Cabot, 2007; Kinchin et al., 2008). These
handouts have concept maps that present the same information
as the powerpoint presentation, but the handout’s
organization of information better reflects the nonlinear
complexities of the subject matter. These educators suggest that
the combination of a linear powerpoint presentation with a
nonlinear concept map on a handout is a powerful combination
for promoting student learning. Using handouts in this fashion is
a strategy worth considering for educators who might be
concerned about the potential problems created by the linear
structure of powerpoint presentations.
Balancing Structure and Student
Interaction
Many teachers struggle to find an effective yet engaging way
to convey their topic material to students. Powerpoint can help
with this process by guiding instructors into forming an
organized path

99
through the topic. Students generally appreciate presentations
with an orderly structure. In one study, only 17% of the surveyed
students felt that the predetermined order of a powerpoint slide
presentation was a significant problem (D. Burke and Apperley,
2003). However, while teachers must provide their students with
a path to follow, learning is often not as straightforward as
staying on a particular path. The students must, to some degree,
find their own way as they learn. All learning is a bit
constructivist in nature as students find their own understanding
of the material. This need for each student to discover their own
way sometimes makes learning a nonlinear process, one with
diversions, dead-ends, and convoluted turns. The creative use of
powerpoint navigation can be used to address these nonlinear
teaching moments in a manner that is effective and exciting in
the classroom.

7
DESIGN FOR SENSATION
The Need for Visibility
“. . . of all the senses sight best helps us to know things, and
reveals many distinctions.” Aristotle
After the story line of the presentation has been established,
instructors should next consider the visual aids that will support
the presentation message. However, it is still premature to fire up
the computer and start creating slides. The accomplished teacher
must have a clear understanding of how the visual elements of
powerpoint will communicate information to the audience. Far
too many presentations fail because the sensory qualities of the
slides just didn’t work for the audience. Possible problems
include small text, faint text, and odd color combinations that
detract from the value of a slide presentation. Visual aids with
poor visibility will obviously not work, yet many presenters fall
down on this fundamental feature of their presentations.

Design for Sensation |
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We will now will focus on the basic sensory qualities of slides,
such as contrast sensitivity, spatial frequency, and color. The
emphasis will be on vision because powerpoint is primarily a
visual communication medium. Examining the basic science of
vision suggests best practices for slides that will be highly visible
to the audience.
Contrast Sensitivity: The Most Basic
Visual Function
Vision is fundamentally about detecting small differences
in light intensity across the visual scene. Photons, which are
the particles and waves that make up light, have the ability to
strike objects and bounce off. This reflected light energy from
our environment is spread unevenly, with some areas of the
environment being darker (e.g., shadows) and others being
lighter (e.g., full sun). This uneven distribution of light energy
provides important information about our environment, such as
the size of objects and depth information. The reflected light,
which is called “luminance,” eventually enters our eye and is
converted into a nervous system signal in the retina at the back
of the eye.
The visual function of being able to sense comparatively lesser
or greater amounts of light throughout our environment is called
“contrast sensitivity.” The idea of contrast sensitivity is illustrated
in the two following examples of powerpoint slides (Figure 7.1).
The backgrounds in these slides vary in luminance, from darker
(top) to lighter (bottom) areas. The text is a constant color of
white (left) or black (right). Contrast sensitivity allows us to
distinguish the text—the foreground—as being separate from the
background. A high degree of difference is easy to read.

102 | Slides for
Students
Figure 7.1: Contrast between text and background
The relationship of the text to the background in these
examples makes an important point about contrast sensitivity.
When the contrast is high—such as light text on a dark background
or dark text on a light background—words will be very legible and
easy to read. For this primary reason, books are typically printed
as black text on white paper. Low contrast situations, such as light
text on a light background or dark text on a dark background, are
difficult to read.
Our first best practice conclusion for visibility is that
presenters need slides with high contrast in order to promote
visibility and easy reading. Low contrast is simply too difficult for
the audience to see. Under low contrast situations, the text seems
to disappear. Which is the best way to achieve high contrast?
Figure 7.1 shows the two possible ways to accomplish high
contrast: dark text on light backgrounds, or light text on dark
backgrounds. The best approach depends on the presentation
context, with the most critical factor being the degree of the
ambient light in the classroom.
Some presentation experts, usually from the field of business,
recommend light text on dark backgrounds for a professional look.
This recommendation is particularly good for small classrooms.
The dark background is easy on the eyes for people who are
seated near

103
the screen. However, a potential problem with using light text on
dark backgrounds is that, contrary to intuition, projection systems
do not project black onto the screen. It’s problematic, therefore,
to use black backgrounds in bright rooms with a high degree of
ambient light. The light coming from various sources will strike the
screen and make the dark parts of the slide appear much lighter.
For example, a black background can become more like grey in a
room with strong ambient lighting (Figure 7.2). The implication is
that black or dark backgrounds will look best in dark rooms
without much ambient light. The practical problem that this may
pose is that, as already mentioned, darkened rooms may put
students to sleep and cause difficulties for note-taking efforts.
Students may also find it difficult to see the instructor in a dark
room.
Figure 7.2: A black background that appears to be grey in a classroom with strong
ambient lighting
The other high contrast possibility is to use black text on lightly
colored or white backgrounds, just like most reading material.
This approach seems to work better in rooms that have strong
ambient lighting. For example, the classrooms that I teach in have

large windows and overhead lighting near the screen that cannot
be turned off. The black text on a white background seems to have
higher contrast, and therefore greater visibility, in this lighting
situation. Another advantage of this approach is that the classroom
lights do not need to be turned off during the presentation,
because the white light projected on the screen is much brighter
than most of the ambient lighting.
A white slide with black letters under high ambient lighting
conditions is shown in Figure 7.3. This photo was taken from the
side of a classroom approximately twenty-two feet (6.7 meters)
away from the projection screen. The screen is approximately
twelve feet (3.7 meters) wide. Even though the slide is designed to
be high contrast—black text on a white background—the intensity
of ambient light from the windows and other sources significantly
lowers the contrast. This effect makes the black font appear to be a
washed out grey color and shows that it is best to aim for the
highest possible contrast. Lower degrees of contrast would be
even harder to discern under conditions with significant ambient
lighting.
Figure 7.3: Black text appearing grey under strong
lighting

105
A final point to consider about contrast sensitivity is the
uniformity of the background. Backgrounds that are a solid color
with a uniform text, like black or white, will have the same
contrast sensitivity in all parts of the slides. Backgrounds with
variations in color or photographic backgrounds will have
uneven degrees of contrast in different parts of the slide.
Consider the slides shown in Figure 7.4.
Figure 7.4: Contrast for backgrounds with varying light intensity
The left slide has high contrast only in the middle of the slide.
Text placed at the top or bottom of the slide will be difficult to
read. This kind of uneven contrast between the text and the
background can be even more problematic in slides that have
photographic backgrounds (Figure 7.4, right). Overlaying the
the text on to a photo can be dramatic and is sometimes
recommended by presentation experts. However, the uneven
contrast may create visibility problems. For example, the text
that is superimposed on the darker parts of the photo (such as
the middle row of text) is simply not visible due to low contrast.
This situation can be difficult for making legible text. Sometimes
this problem is addressed by adding a text box with a solid color
background, such as a white box for containing black text, to
make sure that the text has high

contrast for the audience. Most teachers lack the professional
design expertise needed to make complicated photographic slides
that are appealing yet highly readable, although the latest
versions of Microsoft PowerPoint can provide helpful design
suggestions for these tricky situations.
Photographic slide backgrounds can make slides more
dramatic, but a better approach for visibility and high contrast is
to simply keep the slide background a single solid color. Black text
on a white background is probably the easiest and best approach
for most classroom situations, although it can appear somewhat
boring. It would also be best for teachers to keep their slide
designs simple in order to emphasize the visibility of important
content. Maximizing visibility is more important than making
dramatic slides.
Spatial Frequency: The Resolution of the
Eye
Most of our visual world is complex, just like the photo in the
background of the second slide in Figure 7.4. A typical scene may
contain millions of slight variations in light intensity. In contrast,
the number of fine changes in luminance that the eye can capture
is limited. The technical term for these small changes in lighting
is “spatial frequency.” The sensitivity to luminance changes in a
given amount of a visual image is the degree of visual angle.
Figure 7.5 shows a very basic powerpoint slide and how this
slide would be perceived by the eye of a student. The background
(light) and the text (dark) reflect more or less light, respectively,
from the slide. The differences in light intensity between these
white and black areas are preserved as the light travels through
the eye as small angles.

107
Figure 7.5:The degree of visual angle in the eye
An everyday example of this phenomenon that most people
can relate to is the visual acuity testing done in optometry clinics.
The standard test of visual acuity is to read black letters from a
white chart. The classic Snellen test of visual acuity determines
the smallest line of letters than can be seen at a distance of
twenty feet (six meters). A diagnosis of 20/20 (6/6 in meters)
means that the patient can see letters at twenty feet that the
average person should also be able to view from twenty feet,
which is a complicated way of saying someone has an average or
normal visual acuity. Although the Snellen test is known to most
people, modern optometrists and vision researchers use a more
sophisticated measure of visual acuity called the degree of visual
angle. As previously stated, the differences between the light and
dark parts of the visual display form small angles as they travel
through the lens of the eye. The degree of these angles can be
used to measure the smallest differences in light intensity that
people can reliably see.
The practical question about spatial frequency for presenters
is how small these differences (the degree of visual angle)
between light and dark can be, yet still be distinguishable by the
audience. For example, how small can a presenter make the text
on a

powerpoint slide, yet still have text that is easy for the audience
to read? If the text size falls below the spatial acuity ability of
the audience, it will be nearly impossible to see, just like it is
almost impossible to read the smallest lines on the eye chart at
the optometrist’s office. However, text that is too large may be
overwhelming to people seated in the front row. Large text will
also limit the amount of information that can be put on a slide,
which could also be problematic.
It would be convenient if the answer to this question was
something simple, like, “Always use a 32 point font or larger.”
Although many articles make such suggestions, a simple
recommendation for a specific font size doesn’t completely work.
The degree of visual angle for people in the audience will depend
partly on the size of the image shown on the screen, which is
determined by both the font size and the screen size. A second
less obvious factor that influences the degree of visual angle is
the audience members’ distance from the slide. If the image size
stays the same, the degree of visual angle will become smaller and
smaller as the audience members get farther and farther away
from the screen. Once again, the analogy of visual acuity testing
is helpful. As you get farther away from the chart, the degree of
visual angle for the chart letters becomes progressively smaller to
you, making it harder to see the letters. The basic point is that the
degree of visual angle is a relative measure that will depend both
upon the size of the image on the screen and the viewer’s distance
from the screen.
The relationship between screen size and distance for a
hypothetical powerpoint slide is shown in the following Figure
(5.6). The eyes of the nearby viewer (top) should have little or no

109
difficulty reading this slide. The degree of visual angle is
sufficiently large enough to enable easy reading. In contrast, the
distant viewer seated at the back of the classroom (bottom),
might have difficulty viewing this slide. The degree of visual angle
is so small for this person that it might be nearly impossible to
distinguish the letters. Both viewers are seeing the same screen
with the same- sized images. The only difference is the distance
from the screen to their eyes.
Figure 7.6:Visual angle as a function of distance from the display
Let’s return to the practical question of how large our text and
graphic features need to be in a presentation. Microsoft has put
great care into making the default font sizes in PowerPoint large
enough to work well for most situations. Starting with
PowerPoint 2013, the default font size for bullet points is a 28-
point font. This size has decent visibility in a standard college
classroom. Figure
7.7 shows a 28-point font (the top bullet point) along with
other font sizes. The screen is about twelve feet (3.7 meters) wide
and the photo was taken approximately thirty-three feet (10.1
meters) from the screen. Most of the words in the 28 -point font
line of this figure are between one to two degrees of visual angle.
The size of the room is an important qualifying factor. In larger
rooms, like

auditoriums, 28-point font may not be large enough, particularly
for students in the back of the room. For small rooms, a 28-point
font size may be more than enough. In a room small enough, the
presenter could even go smaller than 28-point, to 24 or 18-point,
without sacrificing visibility.
Figure 7.7: Different font sizes presented in a typical classroom
Powerpoint users often just go with the software defaults
when they create their slides but then sometimes get caught off
guard when it comes time to actually deliver the presentation. The
problem that can arise is that the appearance of font sizes on the
computer screen in the teacher’s office may significantly differ from
the appearance in the classroom. The only way to know for sure
that a font is a sufficient size is to test it in the classroom,
particularly to see how it looks from the back of the room. Testing
in the classroom is the best approach because it doesn’t rely upon
questionable rules about font sizes or complicated mathematical
formulas. Once you

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know the font size that works for your classroom, you can make
this size a standard for all of your future presentations.
A more technical way to consider this problem is to think of
the visual acuity of an average viewer. If someone has an average
20/20 Snellen visual acuity, a five-letter word will take about a
half degree of visual angle from left to right. This size might work
for some students with good vision, but people with lower vision
would likely struggle with words presented at this size. A general
design recommendation is to aim for a larger size, such as words
that are 1 to 2 degrees, in order to be more visible to people who
have low visual acuity.
You can use an easy method to quickly determine the visual
angle of the text in your slides. If you stick your arm straight
ahead and hold up your thumb, the width of your thumb will
cover about two degrees of visual angle (Figure 7.7). You can use
the thumb measure as a quick test for your slides in the
classroom. If the width of your outstretched thumb is about the
same width as most of the words on the screen, then your words
have about two degrees of visual angle and will be easily visible to
most students. If the thumb measure seems unnatural, you could
simply go by your subjective impressions about visibility from
the back of the classroom: Is this easy to read, or not?
You can use other practical means to judge the size of the
letters in a powerpoint presentation. One practical test is to print
the powerpoint slides out on a standard sheet of paper and then
place the sheets of paper on the floor. While standing over the
sheets, ask yourself if you can read them easily. If the answer is
no, the font size is too small and needs to be increased (Guetig,
2011). A second testing idea is to back up at least three feet from

the computer monitor in your office and read the screen. Font
sizes that are difficult to easily read from this distance are too
small (Kosslyn, 2007). A third test possibility would be to reduce
the size of the powerpoint application window on your office PC
to be about five inches (13 centimeters) wide. This shrinkage of
the application window will simulate the effects of seeing the
screen from the back of the classroom and allow for a quick
judgement about the visibility of particular font sizes.
Color: The Perception of Wavelength
A third fundamental visual function is color vision, which is
the perception of different light wavelengths in the visible light
spectrum. Color information is important for guiding behavior,
such as assisting honey bees to find flowers or enabling people
to respond to traffic signals. Color perception may have enabled
early human ancestors to distinguish food like ripe berries from
the surrounding vegetation, which is usually green. People and
animals who could detect these color differences may have had
an evolutionary advantage over others who had more limited
sensitivity.
One of the major changes that occurred with powerpoint
is that presenters were given a wide range of color possibilities.
Most presentations use color to provide a positive aesthetic
quality—pretty slides—and thereby add visual interest. Color
may do more, though, than simply enhance the appearance
of slides. Experimental evidence suggests that the presence of
color can enhance memory for photographs, such as pictures of
natural scenes like rock formations, fields, and forests (Homa

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and Viera, 1988; Wichmann, Sharpe, and Gegenfurtner, 2002).
In support of this idea, an early study that compared black and
white presentation visual aids to color aids found that the
addition of color increased comprehension and retention
(Morrison and Vogel, 1998).
Part of the reason why the presence of color might enhance
memory is that color can make photographs more salient or
prominent (Wichmann et al., 2002). A likely practical use of color
in teaching, therefore, is to highlight important text or
graphics. A “pop” of color can direct student attention to a
particularly important part of the slide. This has also been called
the signaling principle if teachers use color highlighting as a
cue for pointing out important information (Mayer, 2009). This
color highlighting will only work if the color is distinctive and
stands out on the slide. When there are many colors, highlighted
words or colored arrows may not be effective because the
highlighted color will simply be lost in the kaleidoscope of colors
on the slide.
It is important to consider the potential emotions that
colors can trigger (for a review, see Elliot and Maier, 2014).
The color red is particularly noteworthy for being associated
with strong emotions, like aggression, failure, losses, or danger.
These strong reactions suggest that red is a color that should
be used with caution because it may elicit emotional responses
that are counterproductive to teaching. Other colors may also
have emotional qualities, although these are not typically a
strong as red. Pink is stereotypically associated with femininity,
whereas blue is stereotypically associated with masculinity.
Blue, green, and other cool colors are believed to have calming
and generally positive emotional effects. Some of these color-

emotion associations may be based upon culture-specific values.
For example, green is associated with money in the U.S.A because
American currency is green, but this association is not
necessarily true in other countries. The emotional values
associated with certain colors suggest that the colors used in a
presentation may have emotional effects upon audiences, and
these effects might indirectly influence student learning. The
audience might not be overtly aware of the influence, yet the
emotions induced by color may have a measurable effect upon
their behavior (Hanke, 1998). However, not much systematic
color research on emotions has been done with powerpoint
presentations.
The use of color also has potential downsides. Certain color
combinations can have conflicting or clashing effects when
presented together. For text, presenting color opposites next
to each other can make reading difficult and produce unsettling
emotional qualities. For example, red text on a green background
can produce a feeling of vibration or fuzziness (Figure 7.8, left).
Blue text on a black background is also problematic because it
makes the letters fuzzy and indistinct (Figure 7.8, right). Other
poor color combinations include brown/green and blue/purple
(Hanke, 1998)
Figure 7.8:Visibility problems created by odd color
combinations

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Visual Impairments
Teachers must consider the possibility that some students will
have visual impairments that require special accommodations. It
would be mistaken to assume that all students will have normal
visual acuity or contrast sensitivity. Slide designs must aim to be
accessible to individuals with low vision in order to be inclusive
for all students.
Recall that visual acuity depends upon the relationship
between the size of the object and the viewer’s distance from the
object (see Figure 7.6). This relationship suggests a simple
solution for students with low visual acuity: These individuals
should be encouraged to sit at the front of the classroom.
Being as close as possible to the screen will increase the retinal
image size and degrees of visual angle. This small change in
behavior is an easy way to accommodate students with visual
acuity impairments.
Most teachers work with students who are young and have
good visual sensitivity. However, we cannot take visual sensitivity
for granted when the students are middle-aged or older. People
over forty typically have presbyopia, a condition that produces
difficulty in changing focus from near to far objects. This normal
aging process may make it more difficult to focus on text and fine
details. Older adults can also experience a wide range of
additional visual insensitivities that may be caused by diseases or
age-related changes in the visual system. Large fonts with high
contrast will be best for these mature audiences.
Regarding color, a significant proportion of people are
insensitive to red and green wavelengths. Although this
insensitivity is commonly called “color blindness,” this description
is somewhat

inaccurate because most of these individuals can see some color
wavelengths, such as blue and yellow. About 8% of male and
0.4% of female Caucasians are estimated to have red-green color
insensitivities, with lower prevalence rates for people of other
races (Birch, 2012). The relatively common occurrence of this color
insensitivity suggests that presenters should aim to minimize or
eliminate the use of red and green colors from their presentations.
Design Goal: Aim for Visibility
Though it often happens, we should not take vision for
granted. The real solution to such issues as tiny fonts, poor
contrast, and odd color combinations in powerpoint
presentations is to keep the visual sensitivities of the students
in mind when creating a powerpoint slide deck. Aim for making
the important visual features prominent to increase the visibility
by using relatively large fonts (24 to 28 points minimum for
most classroom situations) and high contrast (black/white or
dark/light color combinations). Be mindful that differences in
luminance, the size of the images on the projection screen, and
the students’ distance from the screen effects what the students
will experience in the classroom. Testing is necessary to make
sure that your presentations are just as highly visible in the
classroom as in your office.

8
DESIGN FOR PERCEPTION I
How the Brain Interprets Powerpoint
Images
Professionals everywhere need to know about the incredible
inefficiency of text-based information and the incredible
effects of images. Then they need to do two things:
1. Burn their current PowerPoint presentations
2. Make new ones. (Medina, 2008, p. 239)
For the teacher or presenter, the visibility of a powerpoint
slide is only the starting point for communication. After the eye,
visual information undergoes extensive analytical processing in
the brain to make our visual experience possible. Approximately
20% of our cerebral cortex is solely dedicated to processing
visual information, with an additional 20% to 40% of the brain
also having some degree of relationship to vision (Felleman and

Van Essen, 1991; King, 2013). In fact, people who have extensive
damage to the visual areas of the brain are described as being
“cortically blind.” These unfortunate people have rudimentary
visual functions, such as being able to tell light from dark, but
they cannot recognize objects or do simple tasks like telling how
many fingers the doctor may be holding up.
Teachers need to consider how the perceptual abilities of
students enable them to process and analyze modern
presentation graphics. A basic knowledge of perceptual
functions can allow the presenter to take advantage of these
functions and create graphics that will inform the audience in an
effortless way. The goal is to use perception to promote
understanding and thereby aid the learning process. If
successful, the students will experience the presentation as being
intuitive. However, presenters can only achieve this goal of easy
understanding via perception by giving careful consideration to
the design of their graphic aids.
Gestalt Psychology: The Perception of
Patterns
A fundamental function of visual perception is the ability to
recognize important objects in our environment. For example, a
person in a classroom will recognize that they are surrounded by
meaningful objects like chairs, tables, windows, and computers.
This object recognition is called “form perception.” Think for
a moment about what the world would be like without form
perception. It would be like living in a world without visual
meaning. This kind of condition, which is called visual agnosia,
sometimes occurs in people who have experienced strokes or
other forms of brain damage. These individuals can draw objects
or copy

Design for Perception I |
119
diagrams, which shows that they are not blind, yet they cannot
identify the objects that they see.
One of the earliest and most influential approaches to
understanding form perception was proposed by German
psychologists in the early twentieth century. This movement was
called Gestalt psychology, with the word German word “gestalt”
translating into “form” or “shape” in English. A famous quotation
from Kurt Koffka to describe the concept of gestalt was, “The
whole is different from the sum of its parts” (“Gestalt
psychology,” 2016). This means that the human mind makes
connections between the parts of a system to arrive at a
relationship or understanding that is different from merely
perceiving the individual components. For example, when we
look at a chair, we perceive it as a cohesive, single chair object
and not as several separate objects (legs, seat, back) that just
happen to be connected to each other.
The Gestalt psychologists described several perceptual
principles, or laws, that described how information was grouped
into meaningful patterns. The Gestalt psychologists believed
these rules were useful for much more than basic visual
perception. For example, some of the Gestalt psychologists
studied creativity. They felt that creative solutions occurred when
people developed new perceptions of relationships between the
components of a problem. Some of the Gestalt psychologists also
proposed that Gestalt principles were important for education in
that a teacher’s role was to promote understanding by helping
students perceive relationships between concepts (Wertheimer,
1959). The idea is that meaningful learning occurs when students
mentally “see” relationships that are new to them and form a
new perception of previously unrelated pieces of information.

The Gestalt laws can be used to help students make the
proper associations between ideas and help to promote
understanding. A good example to begin with is the Gestalt law of
figure-ground, which states that visual information from a scene
is segregated into a prominent, important point (the figure)
which is distinct from the rest of the scene (the ground;
Todorovic, 2008). The ground or background tends to be less
important than the figure and, accordingly, receives less
attention or processing. For powerpoint slides, this perceptual
phenomenon suggests that each slide should have a main
prominent feature that contains the essential information that
the teacher is trying to convey. The remaining elements of the
slide, such as background colors or patterns that surround the
figure, will not have much impact on the audience.
The segregation of visual information into a figure-ground
relationship suggests that having too many features on a slide
might overwhelm and visually confuse the audience. When a slide
is complex, it becomes more difficult for the audience to
segregate the information into a main point (figure) and
background. The multiple slide elements compete with each
other to become the figure. The real need in this situation is to
edit the number of slide features downward to the most basic,
essential features. This reduction in features will help the
important figure part to stand out. Although this idea of simple
design seems straightforward, it is sometimes difficult to
accomplish in practice.
Many other Gestalt grouping principles have been proposed
(for a review, see Todorovic, 2008), with some being especially
relevant to the design of slide graphics. The Gestalt law of
proximity is that components that are physically near each other
will be perceptually grouped together (Figure 8.1, upper left).
This

121
example shows four identical circles. If these circles were evenly
spaced, the overall pattern would be perceived as one group or
unit. By spacing some circles closer together, two groups seem to
form (left and right).
Figure 8.1:The gestalt laws of form perception
For presentations, the proximity principle means that the
items which are physically close to each other on a powerpoint
slide will be perceived as part of the same group. If we want to
label a graph, for example, we should put the label next to the
appropriate place on the graph. The Gestalt law of proximity
would cause the audience to intuitively perceive that the label
and the graph feature go together. In contrast, a label that is
located far from the graph might seem odd and disconnected
from its target object. In some situations, the proximity principle
suggests that having appropriate text labels that are located near
a visual feature that they belong to might be more effective than
a text header placed at the top of the slide. The proximity
principle may also be valuable for the layout of the slide
elements. The parts that belong together should be placed in
close proximity to each other to make it appear that they belong
together.

Another way that the proximity principle can be used is to
make creative use of the empty space between items. This empty
space can serve as a boundary that creates two separate groups.
Consider the following example as a bulleted list:
• Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
• consectetur adipiscing elit
• sed do eiusmod tempor
• incididunt ut labore et
This example clearly seems like two groups. The white space
between the upper and lower bullet points creates a separation that
makes the proximity different between the upper and lower bullet
points, thereby grouping them into two separate groups. Judicious
use of spacing on powerpoint slides could thereby take advantage
of the proximity principle to guide the audience to perceive certain
elements as being together, which in turn could reduce the need
for explanatory text on the slide and simplify the slide’s
appearance.
The Gestalt law of similarity states that items with similar
shapes, colors, and other characteristics form perceptual groups
(Figure 8.1, upper right). The law of similarity can also be used to
create groups of text that share a similar characteristic, like font
families, styles, colors, or sizes. For the overall design, a suggestion
based upon similarity is that the headings in a document
should all be the same type and size. This will distinguish them
from subheadings, all of which should, again, be similar in type
and size. Each category throughout the document will seem to be
a consistent and organized part of its family because the
appearance is similar.

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The law of connectedness makes items that are attached by a
connector appear to be part of the same group (Figure 8.1, lower
left). The practical use of this principle in a slide is to have labels
that link to a particular spot on a diagram by an arrow or line.
The presence of this line between the label and the diagram part
will make these features into a perceptual group. These
connectors are also useful for diagrams that involve flow charts
or organizational charts. The relationship between units can be
expressed by the presence or absence of connecting lines.
The law of common region states that elements that are
contained within a common boundary will seem to be part of
the same group (Figure 8.1, lower right). Teachers can use this
grouping principle to make groups from numerous elements. All
you need to do is draw a circle or square around the elements to
make the groups. This grouping effect naturally communicates to
the audience the various groupings that might be present in the
display and, again, may allow the presenter to simplify the slide
appearance by reducing the need for explanatory text.
Several Gestalt laws of perception are applied to a powerpoint
slide in Figure 8.2 to illustrate how these grouping principles
might be used. This slide, which is from a lecture on intelligence,
is designed to show that people with cognitive disabilities make
up approximately 2% of the overall population. The slide has a
clean figure-ground organization because the graph of IQ scores
stands out prominently from the white background. There are no
decorations or other graphics that might compete or interfere
with the figure-ground segregation. I used the Gestalt law of
common region to group together the segments of the graph that
represent the bottom 2% of IQ scores by drawing a box around
this area of

the IQ score distribution. Using a bracket graphic (left brace or
right brace) could also be an effective grouping graphic for this
purpose. I positioned the label “lowest 2%” very closely to the
green box that represents the bottom 2% of the curve, so students
will associate this label with the box group due to the Gestalt law
of proximity. I could also have made this association by
connecting the “lowest 2%” label to the box with a line or arrow,
thereby taking advantage of the law of connectedness.
Figure 8.2:The application of Gestalt laws to a powerpoint slide
Such deliberate application of Gestalt grouping principles can
usefully convey important information about relationships in a
way that seems effortless and intuitive to the audience.
A second example of using Gestalt grouping principles to
make understanding intuitive and effortless is shown in Figure
8.3. This figure shows three forms of long-term memory with
examples, and also shows these three forms relate to each other.
The types are grouped into unconscious (implicit; orange
outline) and conscious (declarative or explicit; blue outline)
memories by using different color coding for each type. The two
forms of declarative memory

125
are grouped by positioning them close together (the Gestalt
law of proximity) and using the same color lines for the related
forms (the Gestalt law of similarity). In contrast, the procedural
(or implicit) memory category seems different because it is
positioned farther from the others and has a different color. In all
of the specific examples, a box around the text and the associated
icon helps to group these together via the Gestalt law of common
region. Using the visual system’s ability to group information in
this matter will make the different ideas and their relationships to
each other seem natural and obvious to the students. Designing
such intuitive educational images does take some careful
planning and intentional decisions about applying the grouping
laws in a manner that is conducive to learning.
Figure 8.3: Using the Gestalt laws of perception to facilitate understanding of
conceptual relationships.The iconic images are from pixabay.com and have open
licenses for reproduction.
Animation and Motion Perception
A second perceptual function is the ability to understand and
appreciate movement in our environment. Motion perception
begins with cells in the retina that are specialized for detecting

motion. The processing of motion information continues all the
way to the higher order areas of cerebral cortex, where some
brain areas—called V5 or MT—specialize in the understanding
of motion. The ability to perceive motion contributes greatly to
our ability to survive in a dynamic environment. We are able
to accurately judge the speed of oncoming cars and use this
information to judge when it is safe to cross the street. Motion
perception is a way of noticing and understanding the changes
that occur in an ever-changing environment.
In education, the use of animated presentations has been
investigated as a way of promoting learning by using our built-
in ability to perceive motion. The “motion paths” feature in
PowerPoint allows users to take objects, like squares or circles,
and make them move in certain paths that are defined by the
presentation author. This form of animation has potential
instructional value by guiding students through a complicated
process in a step by step manner. Instructors can also use
animations to gradually build complexity in diagrams by adding
features in a progressive fashion. This gradual building of
information assists comprehension by decreasing the possibility
of cognitive overload (Kosslyn, 2007). Another instructional use
of animation is to promote the understanding of three-
dimensional structures through the use of movement. For
example, instructors can promote a deeper understanding of
anatomy by displaying a three-dimensional model of brain
anatomy through an animation that rotates brain images on the
screen.
Is animation an effective teaching tool? A review of studies
that use animated multimedia for teaching reveals mixed results:
some studies suggest improved learning with animation, whereas
other

127
studies show no improvement (Fisk, 2008). A closer inspection
of the research results suggests why animation is not always
a successful instructional tool. Animated instructional materials
seem to work best when the animations are closely aligned
with the instructional goals (Rieber, 1996). An effective use of
instructional animation is to show how relationships between
the parts in a complex system change over time. For example,
Treleven and colleagues developed a set of instructional
animations for teaching operations management (Treleven,
Penlesky, Callarman, Watts, and Bragg, 2012, 2014). They
divided these instructional animations into two categories:
quantitative technique examples and concepts. The technique
examples included topics such as the computation of project
time, project completion dates, safety stock/reorder points, and
materials requirements planning. Examples of concept
animations included group technology, project network
diagrams, quality cost theory graphs, and Six Sigma quality
graphs. The student opinion was that these complex
instructional animations were valuable for learning. This example
is a noteworthy illustration because it shows that animation
can be beneficial for illustrating highly specific instructional
concepts.
Contrary to the above, some animations seem to have little to
no educational benefit (Fisk, 2008). A good example comes from
a study that used an animated, Einstein-like character called “Dr.
Phyz” to narrate an educational animation on the ways the
electric motors work (Mayer, Dow, and Mayer, 2003). A
control group of students saw the same educational animation
but without the animated Dr. Phyz character. The results from
this study showed no learning differences between the groups,
indicating that the presence of the animated Dr. Phyz
character did not promote

student learning. Studies like this show that motion, by itself,
is not enough to produce better learning outcomes. The reason
for this failure is that animations like the Dr. Phyz character are
basically content-free. Only animated motions that are be closely
tied to the educational content will produce real learning gains.
The term “animation” in PowerPoint presentations does not
refer to the educational animations described above. Instead,
PowerPoint animation usually refers to specific software features
that are meant to add a dramatic quality to the presentation.
Animation is commonly used for bullet point effects, such as bullet
points that zoom into the screen or appear when the presenter
clicks on the mouse. Some animation effects can even be used to
create movement in the background of the slide, such as graphics
of moving gears. Other examples of movement in powerpoint
include slide transitions, such as dissolve and fade effects that are
triggered when the presenter advances the presentation to a new
slide. Unfortunately, these content-free forms of animation
probably will not produce a positive educational impact on
students, just like the Dr. Phyz example. The reason is simple:
There is no educational content to be gained from a zooming
bullet point.
A powerpoint animation feature that has been the topic of
some debate is the use of animation to make bullet points appear
one-by-one at the appropriate time in the speaker’s delivery,
and thereby keep the speaker in control of the pace of slide
information. This animation feature is variously referred to as
presenting bullet points “on-click” or the gradual build technique.
The advocates for this technique cite several advantages.
Cognitive psychology evidence suggests this form of animation
could be beneficial because it prevents students from being
overwhelmed

129
with too much information at once (Kosslyn, 2007). The on-click
delivery of slide information can more closely match the speaker’s
verbal delivery, which prevents students from getting ahead
of the speaker. Also, student survey studies suggest a
preference for slides that gradually build-up bullet points over
slides that introduce all of the points at once (Apperson et al.,
2006; Blokzijl and Naeff, 2004; Kask, 2004).
There are also some strong reasons for not using on-click
animations to control the appearance of bullet points.
Experiments conducted by Mahar and colleagues found that
animated bullet point lists that gradually build had harmful
effects on student learning (Mahar, Yaylacicegi, and Janicki,
2009a, 2009b). Some presentation experts also oppose the
practice of using animation to control the appearance of bullet
points. Tufte describes this practice as “the dreaded slow reveal”
after which “the audience flees” (Tufte, 2006, p. 6). Another
presentation expert feels that the gradual building of bullet points
is “tiresome” and “painful” (Alley, 2013, pp. 146, 152).
Overall, it seems that using animation to control the
appearance of bullet point list items cannot be recommended,
particularly because this practice may have detrimental effects
on learning (Mahar et al., 2009a, 2009b). The reason for using
a gradual build-up of bullet points or complex information is to
prevent giving the students so much information at one time as to
overwhelm their cognitive capacities. Perhaps the real problem,
though, is that the slide simply holds too much information to
begin with. In these situations, the use of animation to reduce
cognitive overload doesn’t really address the root of the problem.
Dividing the excessive content of one complicated slide into

multiple slides seems preferable to trying to remedy this situation
with animations that gradually build the slide content.
Using motion perception in practical ways can help students
understand complex relationships that change over time or the
three-dimensional qualities of objects; for instance, seeing a
complex system in motion can help students better understand
how the parts might work together. However, animations need
to convey useful information. Empty animations are more of a
distraction than a benefit.
Perceiving Quantity through Graphs
Visual perception enables people to estimate size and
quantity. This ability is evident in young children, even before
the children can count. For example, toddlers and young
children are quick to point out which cookie is the largest, as any
parent knows. Experimental psychologists have even found that
people are able to do simple counting from just a brief glimpse of
information (Mandler and Shebo, 1982).
Statisticians have long appreciated this built-in perceptual
ability to judge quantities and relationships. Data that is
expressed in visual form like a graph can be much easier and
more intuitive to comprehend than data that is listed as numbers
in tables. Therefore, complex data sets are often expressed in
graphs or other visual representations to promote
communication and understanding (Tufte, 1990, 1997, 2001).
Many people feel that making graphs is simple. Perhaps
they feel this way because they have been making graphs since
third or fourth grade and they regularly see graphs in the news.

131
Another reason why people view graphs as being simple is that
the visual system makes the interpretation of graphs feel
effortless. However, this common view that “graphs are simple”
is somewhat inaccurate, especially in regard to the creation of
good graphs. Although statistical graphics are based on data,
the effective use of graphs also depends strongly upon good
design and visual perception. Unfortunately, it is easy to create
graphs that confuse or even mislead people. Most people
overestimate their abilities to make good graphs, so a few
pointers are in order for making the most of statistical graphics.
A good starting point to consider is the powerpoint medium.
Most of your audience will simply not be able to see fine details
in your graph. Therefore, the graphs in powerpoint presentations
will need to have large, bold elements such as big columns, large
text, and saturated colors. Fine details will not work well because
the audience simply will not be able to see it. There is a trade-off
between complexity and visibility. As the complexity increases,
the visibility of the graphics will decrease, as will the value of the
graphics for promoting understanding. This need for simple, bold
graphs poses no problem for small data sets or basic
relationships. The problem arises when data sets are large and
complex. It can be difficult to make good powerpoint graphs
from complex data, as noted by Tufte’s scathing review of
powerpoint (2006).
The teacher who needs to convey complex data in a graph has
some difficult choices to make. The teacher can simplify statistical
graphics to fit into powerpoint, but this approach risks an
oversimplification of the statistical evidence. A second possibility
is to use complex statistical graphics in the powerpoint
presentation, recognizing that this is done at the risk of
overwhelming the

comprehension abilities of the audience. A third possibility,
which Tufte (2006) recommends, is to put complex statistical
graphics into a paper handout for the audience. Paper-based
graphics have a higher resolution than powerpoint, which will
help the audience understand small details or complex
situations. Additionally, instructors can include supplemental or
explanatory details on the paper handout without
overcomplicating the information on the powerpoint slides.
Once instructors address the resolution problem, they must
still make a number of crucial design choices. Many graphs can
be faulted for problems with the axes. For most bar or line
graphs, it is best to use a Y axis (vertical) that is slightly shorter
than the X axis (horizontal) because the length of vertical lines
tends to be overestimated (Kosslyn, 1985). Another common Y
axis problem is the scaling. The best approach is to start the scale
at zero and go up. In practice, many graphs start with scales that
are well above zero, which causes viewers to overestimate the
magnitude of change or difference between categories. Yet
another axis problem occurs when the graph maker fails to put
labels on the axis. For powerpoint, doing so may not pose much
of a problem during the presentation because the presenter can
verbally tell the audience about the scales, although it is still
advisable to label the graph’s axes for the sake of clarity. The axis
labels need to be present in order to make the graph work in a
stand-alone document. The presence of labels on graphs might
also be helpful for students who are taking notes about the slide.
Powerpoint features can also tempt users into making
poor design choices about their graphs. A potential problem
is turning two-dimensional bar graphs or pie charts into three-

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dimensional graphics (Mackiewicz, 2007b). The addition of a
three-dimensional effect is meant to add visual interest to the
graph and make it more appealing to the audience. The problem,
however, is that the three-dimensional qualities of the bars or
pie chart slices may create distortions that interfere with the
understanding of the relationships represented by the statistical
graphics. The recommendation for powerpoint graphs is to resist
the temptation to turn two-dimensional statistical graphs into
three-dimensional graphs (Mackiewicz, 2007b). Instructors can
achieve visual interest in the graph by using cool colors (e.g.,
blue, green) that contrast with the background of the slide (e.g.,
white) rather than using unnecessary three-dimensional effects
(Mackiewicz, 2007b). The recommendation to avoid unnecessary
three-dimensional special effects, notably, is not universally
shared by all graph perception experts. Some evidence suggests
that the addition of three-dimensional effects has a minimal
influence on graph comprehension (Kosslyn, 2007; Shah and
Hoeffner, 2002; Zacks, Levy, Tversky, and Schiano, 1998).
One of Tufte’s concerns about graphs is the general tendency
for presenters to feel that charts are intrinsically boring, which
creates a motivation to improve the chart in some way to make it
more interesting or appealing to the audience. Some presenters
add unnecessary graphics to improve the visual interest of the
charts and “jazz it up.” Tufte famously coined the term
“chartjunk” (Tufte, 2001, p. 107) to describe this phenomenon of
adding unnecessary artwork or pointless graph features,
including unnecessary three- dimensional effects. His view is
that chartjunk can harm the content of a statistical graphic by
making readers draw the wrong conclusions or miss the main
point of a relationship. Instructors

do not need to embellish the basic features of a chart just to add
interest. The emotion should come from the presenter rather
than gratuitous, unnecessary graphics.
Design Goal: Use Perception to Make
Ideas Intuitive
Vision is an information-rich sense for human beings.
The visual perception centers of the brain automatically and
effortlessly process visual information. From the workings of
these brain centers, we can simply intuit relationships and
quantities. These abilities are amazing, but they are largely taken
for granted. Teachers should instead attempt to use these visual
perception strengths to make ideas more intuitive to students.
Teachers can use Gestalt principles to indicate relationships,
instructional animations to help students visualize complex
changes that occur over time, and graphs that convey
quantitative information in an accessible manner.
Human beings are largely unaware of how they process per-
ceptual information. Therefore, such effective use of instructional
graphics requires some deliberate design effort and creativity
on the part of the presenter. By doing so, our instructional aids
become more intuitive. Indeed, the goal for teachers using power-
point presentations is to use graphical examples that can almost
teach by themselves without any assistance from the instructor.

9
DESIGN FOR PERCEPTION II
Assertion-Evidence Slides and Educational
Images
Bullets allow us to skip the thinking step, genially tricking
ourselves into supposing that we have planned when, in fact,
we’ve only listed some good things to do. (Shaw, Brown, and
Bromiley, 1998, p. 42)
Anyone who regularly sees powerpoint presentations can tell
you that slides with bullet point lists are the heart and soul of most
presentations. Studies of the slide formats used in powerpoint pre-
sentations confirm the heavy emphasis on bullet points. One study
of slides from 117 presentations found that approximately two-
thirds of the slides in the body of the presentation contained a
bullet point list (Garner, Alley, Gaudelli, and Zappe, 2009). A
similar analysis of fifty-eight presentations showed that 60.5% of
the slides included bullet point lists (Pötzsch, 2007 as cited in
Knoblauch, 2012).

The bullet point list is clearly the standard slide layout for modern
presentations, a kind of cultural convention. The word “point”
in “powerpoint” even suggests an association with the bullet point
list. The bullet point list format may have some significant
drawbacks even though it is a standard used in millions of
presentations. An early criticism of the bullet point list was
made by Gordon Shaw and other managers at the 3M
Corporation (Shaw et al., 1998). They suspected that their
business plans “failed to reflect deep thought or to inspire
commitment” (p. 42) due to the excessive use of bullet point lists.
An internal review of hundreds of 3M business plans suggested
problems that originated with the bullet point list format. Bullet
point items often tend to be vague goals such as “increase sales”
rather than specific ideas. They also found that bulleted lists often
lack clarity about relationships and omitted important
assumptions. Shaw and colleagues concluded that bullet point
formats tend to oversimplify business plans and thereby
compromise deep thought.
These concerns are similar to criticisms raised by other powerpoint
critics (e.g., Frommer, 2012; Tufte, 2006).
We will now closely examine the bullet point list slide layout
and consider some alternatives that might be more effective for
educators. The teaching goal should be to use fewer bullet point
lists and, when these are used, to employ them in a judicious
manner. We will also examine alternative slide formats that may
help educators escape the fragmentation of thought that may
occur when complex ideas are converted into tiny bullet points.
Making Better Bullet Point Slides
Let’s begin the discussion of slide formats by considering the
problems that bullet points can introduce. With a sense of irony,

Design for Perception II |
137
here are common problems with bullet point list slides presented
in a bullet point list format:
• Short, vague phrases
• Too much text
• Poor visibility
• Too many bullet points
• Reduced space for graphics
Given all of these problems, you can see why some
presentation experts have suggested completely dropping bullet
point lists.
Various rules have been proposed for making bullet point lists
more effective. A common suggestion is 6x6 or 7x7 rules, in which
the first number refers to the maximum number of bullet points
per slide and the second number refers to the maximum number of
words per bullet point. Other word limit recommendations
include using no more than three words in each bullet point
(Altman, 2012) or that the entire slide should have no more than
six words (Godin, 2001). The problem with such
recommendations is that these rules seem to lack a strong
empirical justification (Blokzijl and Andeweg, 2005). No clear
reason explains why a slide must be limited to seven bullet points
that have seven words each, a fact which makes the recommended
limits rather arbitrary. These rules seem to generally suggest that
having a small amount of concise text tends to be more effective
than having many items with lots of text (Yue et al., 2013;
however, see also Blokzijl and Andeweg, 2005).
Altogether, the evidence and recommendations from
presentation experts encourage presenters to reduce the
usage of bullet point lists. A limit of four bullet points is a good
recommendation based on the limitations of visual short-term

memory (Kosslyn, 2007). In addition, limiting the length of
each bullet item to no more than three words will be much more
effective than using long passages (Altman, 2012). Keeping each
bullet point item short will also make the bullet points a true
list rather than some kind of hybrid list/narrative format. These
recommendations are in general agreement with multimedia
learning theories stipulating that excessive on-screen text is
detrimental to learning. Keeping bullet point lists short, in both
number of bullets and length of bullets, will eliminate a common
source of information overload in powerpoint presentations.
The Assertion-Evidence Slide Format
Michael Alley is an engineer and communications expert
who has worked towards reimagining the basic layout of the
powerpoint slide. His work was inspired by early efforts from
the field of engineering (R. Perry, 1978) and from working with
graduate students at Virginia Tech and Penn State. His view is
that presentations that are based upon standard powerpoint
conventions like bullet point lists are often ineffective. His
conclusion is that a better slide layout is needed.
Alley’s redesigned slide layout is called the assertion-
evidence format, or sometimes the “headline style” slide. This
slide design horizontally splits the powerpoint slide into two
major parts, the upper and lower part of the slide. The assertion
part of the slide at the top uses a complete sentence that directly
states the key idea of the slide. The assertion text should be a
“short sentence headline, left-justified, and no more than two
lines” (Alley, 2013, p. 129). The assertion can be a hypothesis, a
research finding, or a direct

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statement. In contrast, the lower part of the slide is for evidence:
“a supporting image, such as a photograph, drawing, or graph.”
(p. 129). The purpose of the image is to reinforce the idea from
the assertion part of the slide. An important feature for the
evidence part is to keep the evidence visual in nature, such as
graphs and images. Bullet point lists of evidence are discouraged.
Figure 9.1 is an example of a slide with a standard bullet
point list slide layout and how this slide might be redone in the
assertion-evidence format. A slide with a standard topic-subtopic
layout from an Introductory Psychology course appears on the
left. It contains the usual powerpoint slide features: a short
phrase heading (topic), points, and subpoints (subtopics). A slide
similar to this example is probably used by hundreds of
psychology teachers in Introductory Psychology courses.
Figure 9.1: Comparison of the topic-subtopic and the assertion-evidence slide
formats. The iceberg image was contributed to Wikimedia by user AWeith, who
released the image under a Creative Commons license. It is reproduced from
commons.wikimedia.org.
Let’s begin our critique of the standard slide layout by
starting with the title. The problem is that this title is not very
informative. The students were probably told at the beginning of
the presentation that this presentation would be about Sigmund

Freud’s ideas about personality, so the instructor has no reason
to repeat this information again in the slide heading. Also,
students may misinterpret the slide’s title to refer to Freud’s own
personality and not his theory of the structure of personality
in general. The instructor can safely delete this title without
removing any important content from the presentation. The
body of the slide is also problematic. It comprises a total of six
bullet points, which is probably too many. The descriptions of
the key terms are short and fragmentary rather than being
complete ideas.
The right side of Figure 9.1 shows how the top bullet point
and subpoint have been turned into an assertion-evidence slide.
The first bullet point was made into an assertion statement (top)
that communicates the main idea of the slide in a complete
sentence. This statement communicates the more complete
thought that the bullet points were based upon. To make room
for this assertion sentence, we had to move the title field up and
stretch it horizontally, as well as reducing the size of the font.
The increased title space provided some freedom to add new
information about the id from the subpoint. The evidence part
of the slide (bottom) is an iceberg image based on Freud’s
analogy that the personality structure is like an iceberg.
Immediately, we can see that this slide is highly attractive and
visually interesting compared to the basic bullet point layout,
even though the slide formatting is a very simple black text on
white. Students may be intrigued by this image—Why is there an
iceberg on this slide?—and this intrigue may help to increase
student engagement. With this slide, the instructor can discuss
the basic characteristics of the id, and then segue nicely into
Freud’s analogy to illustrate how the id relates to
consciousness. (In brief, the above-water parts of the iceberg

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are analogous to the small and limited conscious mind, but the
larger and more powerful below-water parts of the iceberg are
like the unconscious mind.) Note how the iceberg graphic will
support and complement the assertion made at the top of the
slide. The iceberg image, with labels in the appropriate places,
will help the instructor explain this famous analogy to the
students. The labels on this slide have been formatted for high
contrast (white text on dark backgrounds and vice versa) to
facilitate reading. The image gives the instructor something
interesting and memorable to discuss with the students.
Altogether, the assertion-evidence slide is much more
information rich than the bullet point formatted slide, with
more details about one bullet point item. This new information
is not overwhelming though, at least partly because some of
the information is presented as an image rather than text. The
assertion-evidence slide is less likely to overload students because
it contains less text than the bullet point formatted slide: fifteen
words vs. twenty-one words, respectively.
We also need to consider the information omitted from the
assertion-evidence slide. We removed the title from the slide with
the bullet point layout because it was unimportant, redundant,
and ambiguous. We can eliminate the subpoints of how each
part of the personality relates to consciousness by working this
information into the assertion sentences. This change makes it
more cohesive. Finally, fancy colors and slide design graphics
were eliminated to decrease potential distractions. The
instructional graphic generates sufficient visual interest. The lack
of extraneous information from unnecessary colors and
decorations makes the students be more focused and avoids a
short-term memory burden.

The assertion-evidence slide in Figure 9.1 also left out the
bullet point information about the other personality parts (ego
and superego). The information from the second and third bullet
points of the standard slide can become headlines for two new
slides with the assertion-evidence layout. The coverage of one
point per slide will help keep the class focused on the part under
discussion (the id in this example) and thus keep the pace of the
lecture on track. Students have no opportunity to be distracted by
getting ahead of the teacher. In this example, the students will not
be writing down information about the ego (main bullet point
#2) and superego (point #3) while the teacher is still discussing
the id (point #1). Presenting one idea on a slide in this manner
will help to avoid information overload.
A second example of an assertion-evidence formatted slide
appears in Figure 9.2. In this example, the key idea—an
increasing autism diagnosis rate—is clearly stated for the
students at the top of the slide. This assertion is supported by a
graph based on data from the Centers for Disease Control. The
graphic helps the speaker make an important point about the
degree of change. The use of a colored arrow directs attention
towards the most critical part of the graph. The upward direction
of the arrow accentuates the increase and makes understanding
the graph more intuitive for the audience. Another positive
feature is that the graphic is more visually appealing and
interesting than bullet points. It might even be interesting
enough to become a common point of discussion between the
speaker and the audience. Finally, note how the slide formatting
is very plain in order to focus everyone’s attention on the
message.

143
Figure 9.2: A second example of a slide with the assertion-evidence format
Alley gives the following guidelines for the assertion part of
the assertion-evidence slide layout (Alley, 2013, pp. 131–132).
Note the emphasis on readability.
1. Keep the headline to no more than two lines.
2. Left justify the headline for easier reading
3. Capitalize the headline as you would a sentence.
4. If the headline goes more than one line, break the first line
such that phrases stay together for easier reading.
5. For formatting, the recommendation is for a 28-point,
sans serif font (e.g., Arial, Calibri, or Helvetica) in bold.
The sentence structure of the assertion-evidence slide is also
important to maximize audience comprehension. Presenters need
to aim for a concise, direct, and clear writing style for the headline
statements. Active voice sentences, in which the subject of the sen-
tence performs an action, are preferred over passive voice
sentences.

For the evidence part of the assertion-evidence slide, Alley
recommends visual features such as “. . . photographs, drawings,
diagrams, graphs, films, equations, or short tables“ (Alley, 2013, p.
131). In contrast, the use of text, including bullet point lists,
should be avoided or minimized. Using images in this space will
have a greater impact on the audience than presenting more
words. This evidence area also gives teachers the opportunity to
pair visual images with text statements and achieve the synergistic
benefits of multimedia learning. Although the use of text in the
evidence area is generally discouraged, strategically placed key
words in this part of the slide can be helpful guides that highlight
important features. For example, complex diagrams may need
labels that serve as orienting cues for the important elements of
the visual evidence.
It’s worth noting that the assertion-evidence layout was
developed to specifically meet the needs of science and
engineering instruction. The evidence used in these STEM
disciplines has a mostly visual basis. In contrast, faculty
members who teach English and foreign language courses have
informed me that text rather than images would be the subject
matter for the evidence part of their slides. It seems likely that
the assertion-evidence format could be successfully adapted to
language-focused courses. In these situations, the assertion
statement would, for example, convey a writing principle to the
students. The evidence part of the slide would be examples of
sentences that illustrate the principle from the assertion
statement. The instructor would use these example sentences
from the evidence part of the slide to support the discussion of
the writing principle. It might be a good practice in these
situations to provide students with a brief period of time to
silently read through the example sentences in order to

145
reduce the possibility of cognitive overload. This suggested use of
assertion-evidence in the humanities would need further research
to determine if it is an effective approach.
The assertion-evidence format has numerous advantages.
One benefit for the speaker is increased focus. The process of
summarizing the main idea of the slide in the assertion forces
the speaker to fully develop the key components of the message.
A second benefit is that the assertion-evidence style allows the
presenter to make a clearer statement about the thesis of the
slide. The audience benefits from the assertion because important
assumptions and relationships can be expressed more clearly in a
single sentence than several bullet point list items.
Although writing an assertion as a full sentence might seem
rather wordy, the assertion-evidence slide layout tends to have
less text overall than slides with the standard bullet point list.
An assertion-evidence slide has more space for visual images
compared to a standard slide that has a title, bullet points, and
a graphic area. Making the images larger improves the visibility
of the graphics and increases the overall emotional impact
that the slide might have on the audience. These changes
improve the effectiveness of both the text and the image
information.
A variation on the assertion-evidence format that may be
especially useful for teaching is the evidence-assertion sequence
(Alley, 2013). The first slide in the evidence-assertion sequence
poses a question, in headline format, along with visual evidence.
The visual evidence might be a graph, table, or other graphic
display of information. The instructor asks the students to
answer the question posed in the slide headline by using the
visual evidence provided in the slide. This question leads to a
dialogue

between the instructor and students about the idea that the graph
might demonstrate. The second slide in the sequence contains
the answer, in the headline format again, along with the same
visual evidence, thereby providing closure to the question posed
in the first slide of the sequence. This clever approach increases
active learning and student engagement.
Given the strengths of the assertion-evidence slide format,
slides using this format should result in better learning and
higher test scores than slides containing standard bullet point
lists. Positive evidence supports their educational effectiveness. A
pioneering study evaluated the educational impact of assertion-
evidence slides by comparing these to standard powerpoint slides
in an undergraduate Geology class (Alley, Schreiber, and Muffo,
2005). The students who received the assertion-evidence style
slides performed better on select multiple-choice final exam
questions (82% correct) compared to students from previous
semesters who received the standard powerpoint format (71%
correct). In addition, student attitudes towards the assertion-
evidence slide format were positive, with the assertion-evidence
style slides being preferred by a greater than seven to one ratio.
Subsequent studies by Alley and colleagues replicated these
findings of better exam performance with the assertion-evidence
formatted slides (Alley, Schreiber, Ramsdell, and Muffo, 2006;
Diesel, Alley, Schreiber, and Borrego, 2006; Garner and Alley,
2013; Wolfe, Alley, and Sheridan, 2006).
A number of reasons explain why the assertion-evidence
slide layout is superior to the typical bullet point list layout. The
assertion-evidence layout represents the epitome of multimedia
learning by combining a statement (text) with a supporting and

147
informative visual image. Using headlines that contain complete
thoughts may also be beneficial. A sentence headline can clearly
communicate and organize key ideas better than a short phrase
title, which is an example of the signaling principle of multimedia
learning (C. Atkinson and Mayer, 2004). Headlines may also
help because the key idea of the slide is not mixed together with
bullet list items of varying importance in the body of the slide
(Alley et al., 2006). The assertion-evidence layout guidelines
also recommend reducing the overall amount of text on the slide
(consistent with the modality principle of multimedia learning)
and eliminating unnecessary slide features (consistent with the
coherence principle), both of which are beneficial practices.
Finally, the assertion-evidence structure, in its essence,
reflects scientific thinking. The assertion sentence is similar to a
hypothesis. The evidence part of the slide resembles the results
of an experiment. These two elements combine in a meaningful
way to make each assertion-evidence slide a miniature example
of the scientific method (ideas and supporting evidence). In this
manner, the assertion-evidence format might engage deeper
thinking processes than the usual bullet point list slide layout.
The assertion-evidence format has a great deal of promise
for educators. Unfortunately, the educational effectiveness of
the assertion-evidence slide format has received little attention
outside of the field of engineering. We clearly need more research
evidence to fully establish the educational effectiveness of the
assertion-evidence slide format, especially in disciplines other
than the natural sciences and engineering.

Assertion Titles with Bullet Point Lists
An important inspiration for the assertion-evidence format
was the observation that standard slide titles with large fonts
(e.g., 44-point) are very short, which leads to uninformative, brief
titles (Alley, 2013). In contrast, assertion statements are based
on complete ideas rather than sentence fragments. This general
assertion-evidence idea, that the titles should be complete
thoughts, may be useful for slide layouts that use bullet point lists.
Consider the following example in Figure 9.3 which has a
sentence structure that is left unfinished. The bullet items
effectively complete the thought started in the assertion. In this
way, the combination of assertion and completing bullet points
makes the slide into a series of three coherent ideas. Another
variation on this idea is that the sentence in the assertion could
be a question with a blank in place of a key term, and the bullet
point items could be the potential solutions. This would make the
slide into a multiple-choice question, which could benefit
assessing student comprehension.
Figure 9.3: A hybrid style of an assertion title with a bullet
point list.

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Alley (2013) recommends against the use of bullet points in
the evidence part of the assertion-evidence format. The present
example suggests, however, that using an assertion statement
with a bullet point list might be a significant improvement over
the standard bullet point slide layout. No research to date
specifically compares the educational value of assertion titles
with bullet point lists to the shorter standard titles used in most
presentations.
Eliminating Text with the Graphic-Only
Slide
A general guiding principle for making good powerpoint
presentations is that too much text on a slide typically has
negative effects on the audience. In general, less text is better.
This raises an interesting possibility: How far could we go in
eliminating text? Would it be worthwhile to completely eliminate
all of the text and just use instructional images?
Research on multimedia learning has investigated the role
of on-screen text in educational materials and provides some
informative answers. A consistent finding from research studies
is that on-screen text that duplicates the information provided by
narration leads to lower scores on tests that involve higher-order
thinking skills. These findings form the basis of the redundancy
principle: “People learn more deeply from graphics and narration
than from graphics, narration, and printed text” (Mayer, 2009;
see also Sweller et al., 1998). Another form of redundancy can
occur in situations that have two forms of word-based
information, such as narration plus written words, presented at
the same time without instructional graphics (Moreno and
Mayer, 2002).

The problem posed by redundancy—the same words
presented by both narration and visual text—bears a striking
resemblance to a typical powerpoint presentation. In many
powerpoint presentations, the speaker provides the audience
with the same words through vision (on-screen) and hearing
(spoken) at the same time. Therefore, the standard powerpoint
presentation closely resembles the redundancy situation studied
in the lab. Applying the redundancy principle to powerpoint
presentations suggests that the best format might be to use
powerpoint primarily for showing instructional graphics. Text
should be used sparingly, possibly as cues for important points,
or not at all. In other words, a good instructional slide could
focus entirely on instructional images (no text) with the
explanatory words coming entirely from the teacher’s voice.
The idea of using slides that emphasize instructional graphics
also has support from presentation experts who recommend
using full-screen graphics and as little text as possible. The
presentation design books Presentation Zen (Reynolds, 2008)
and Slide:ology (Duarte, 2008) contain many examples of
presentation slides that are predominantly images with little-to-
no text. These large images support the speaker’s main points but
do not overwhelm the audience with unnecessary on-screen text.
Alley calls the full- screen graphic slide the “TED slide structure”
after the popular educational video series. It is characterized by
“few words (if any) and powerful images that often fill the
screen” (Alley, 2013,
p. 184). This format might be particularly useful when
scientific experts communicate their research findings to the
general public. Only a few studies have scientifically tested the
educational effectiveness of emphasizing images over words in
slide content.

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One study examined the educational effects of slides that had
short sentences integrated with evocative images (Johnson &
Christensen, 2011). The study compared students who received
the “simplified-visually rich” (p. 294) slides to students who
received a standard bullet point format. Student interest was
increased for the simplified-visually rich format slides, but their
performance on examinations was the same as students in a
condition that received the standard bullet point list format.
Another study compared a group of students who received a
standard powerpoint presentation (bullet point lists) to students
who received powerpoint slide graphics that varied in the degree
of relevance to the topic (Tangen et al., 2011). Students who
received the presentations with images had higher interest in the
topic than students in the text condition, suggesting that
students prefer images over bullet points. Not surprisingly,
student performance was lowest in the conditions with the least
relevant graphical images. These studies show that images are an
effective way of increasing student interest in a topic, but, again,
the images must be highly relevant to the educational content in
order to promote learning. Images that are evocative yet
irrelevant may be ineffective or possibly even harmful due to
producing distractions or seductive detail effects.
One research study has investigated the educational outcomes
of replacing bullet point lists entirely with relevant instructional
graphics. Holstead compared course sections taught with the
standard powerpoint slide formats (i.e., bullet point lists and
instructional graphics) to other sections of the course taught with
slides containing only instructional graphics ( i.e., no bullet point
lists; Holstead, 2015). The student performance on exams was
the same for the first two exams, but the graphics-only sections

did better than the standard powerpoint sections on the final
exam. Student feedback in the graphics-only course was more
positive than the standard powerpoint condition in regards to
“general intellectual development, instructor-student relationship,
importance and relevance, and overall perceptions of the course”
(p. 345). In addition, students in the graphics-only sections found
the course to be easier and reported paying more attention due to
the slide format. The instructor also felt that the flow and pacing
of the lecture were improved with the graphics-only slides. There
were, for example, no requests to go back to the previous slide
because someone was struggling to write down all the text. These
results show that the elimination of bullet point lists seemed to
produce a neutral to weakly beneficial effect on exam scores, and a
positive benefit on student perceptions of the lectures.
Intriguingly, student performance was not harmed by the
complete elimination of bullet point lists.
The findings of the Holstead study are consistent with
laboratory findings on multimedia learning. The student feedback
that the course was “easier” without bullet point lists may indicate
that they experienced less of a short-term memory cognitive load.
Students might find it easier to pay attention to the instructor’s
voice when they face no bullet point list to copy down. In addition,
the absence of a bullet point list in Holstead’s (2015) study may
have promoted active learning. The increased student need for
active engagement with the teacher may have occurred, in part,
because the students were not provided with online access to the
powerpoint file or some other form of instructor notes. The
student note-taking effort was entirely dependent upon listening
closely to the instructor and developing a personal understanding
of the key points for note-taking.

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The use of images may also have beneficial effects for
promoting student-teacher interactions. Class discussion can be
improved when the slides emphasize instructional images or
assertion- evidence slides with large images (Kahn, 2007;
Maxwell, 2007). These increased student-teacher interactions
might occur because the image projected on the screen can
become a common point of discussion between the presenter and
the audience (Knoblauch, 2012). This evidence suggests that
instructional images might be more effective than bullet point
list items for promoting classroom discussion. Possible
explanations for this might be increased emotion from images or
possibly because the students are not preoccupied with writing
down all of the text in their notes. Further research will be
necessary to explore these possibilities.
Surveys of student opinions about powerpoint features also
suggest a preference for less text (Apperson et al., 2006). The best
teaching styles in one study were associated with using a wide
range of features in their powerpoint slide decks, including
photos, charts, graphics, sound, and animation (Brock and
Joglekar, 2011). Their recommendation for teachers was to use
slides that are light in text (three bullet points or twenty words
per slide) and to add visual elements to text slides (Brock and
Joglekar, 2011).
In summary, the research findings suggest interesting
possibilities for the role of instructional graphics. Slides that
focus on educational images rather than bullet points stimulate a
higher degree of student interest. Again, these images must be
highly relevant instructional graphics that support the verbal
message from the instructor. The effects of these image-focused
slides on student achievement, however, must be cautiously
interpreted as neutral to slightly beneficial. Still, these
preliminary findings are

encouraging possibilities that go beyond a bullet point list layout.
Perhaps these image-focused slides would be a good option to use
after bullet point lists, especially in the middle of a class when
student interest and attention may be waning.
Breaking Free from Bullet Points
The typical bullet point list layouts of powerpoint slides have
guided millions of slide presentations. Although the bullet point
format isa widely used standard, the evidence suggests that the
slides produced with this layout are weak and ineffective
presentation aids. These presentations may have a slick,
professional look with the bullet points and accompanying
decorations, but at their heart bullet points often lack the
intellectual substance that the presenter and audience
desperately need. Alley urges presenters to go beyond the
common use of bullet point lists and other standard powerpoint
approaches. His view is nicely captured in this short phrase
about the default values of powerpoint, such as bullet point lists:
“We can do better.” (Gilbert, 2015). Like Alley suggests, teachers
should aim to do better by avoiding the overuse of bullet point
lists, a practice that seems to be a common cause of presentation
mediocrity.
From this review, we can generally conclude that relevant
instructional images, such as diagrams, charts, and pictures, that
support the instructional message may have a stronger
educational benefit than a multitude of bullet points lists. There
are several advantages. Instructional images can convey a higher
degree of information to an audience than written text without
causing a cognitive overload problem. Informative images can
complement

155
and support the spoken word in many different ways, and thereby
provide an educational benefit that goes beyond words. The use
of images also promotes more student engagement than a bullet
point list format.
A good starting point for improvement is to decrease the text
and number of bullet points on slides, aiming for a maximum of
four bullet points per slide and keeping the text of these bullet
points limited to short phrases. After this initial effort, the next
step is to convert bullet point list items into separate slides in
an assertion-evidence format or a graphic-only format. Perhaps
it would be enough to simply sprinkle a few graphics-only slides
between existing bullet point slides. Switching to assertion-
evidence formatted slides can be difficult at first, but this extra
effort is well worth the time and energy. Students will experience
this method of teaching as being effortless and even fun
compared to the usual endless lists that they typically receive.

10
DESIGN FOR
ATTENTION
Focusing on the Information That
Matters
“A good teacher, like a good entertainer, first must hold his
audience’s attention, then he can teach his lesson.” John
Henrik Clarke
Basic sensory and perception processes are important first
steps. However, a third fundamental process must also take
place before learning can occur. This third process is attention.
Teachers are intuitively aware of the importance of attention. It
is well known that students who are off task, like daydreaming,
are learning little or nothing. Additionally, cognitive psychology
research has consistently demonstrated that failing to pay
attention to information, whether when initially learning it or
when attempting to solidify it in memory, results in poor recall.
In other words, sometimes we fail to remember information
not

Design for Attention |
157
because we forgot it, but because we never paid enough attention
to it in the first place.
The following widely-cited quote on attention is from William
James, who was one of the first American psychologists:
[Attention] is the taking possession by the mind, in clear
and vivid form, of one out of what seem several
simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought.
Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its
essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to
deal effectively with others . . . . (W. James, 1890)
The quote expresses how attention requires ignoring some
sensory information in order to dedicate more processing power
to the most important matter at hand. In spite of this early
insight, attention was not scientifically studied for many decades
because psychologists thought that attention was too vague and
slippery to be the subject of scientific study. Fortunately, the last
several decades have seen an increased interest in scientific
research on attention. The phenomenon of attention is much
better understood now, even though it still remains a somewhat
elusive subject.
An important discovery made by modern attention research
is that attention is not just a single, unitary process. What we
broadly call “attention” in everyday life is actually made of
several separate processes that complement each other. We can
break attention down into an earlier process (orienting) and later
processes (selective, sustained). Examining each of these
processes and considering practical ways teachers might use
these different aspects of attention will help facilitate teaching
and learning.

The Orienting Reflex: Grabbing Attention
Attention begins by noticing the things and events that are
happening around us. We are almost magnetically drawn to
sensory changes produced by moving objects and loud noises.
These dynamic sensory changes alert us to something interesting
that is occurring in our environment. Certain brain regions
are specifically wired to direct our attention to whatever might
be changing in our environment. This early and basic form of
attention is called the orienting reflex. A good example of the
orienting reflex is how the flashing lights, bold colors, and loud
sirens of an ambulance can grab our attention. These dramatic
features alert us to an important situation.
A downside to having an orienting reflex is that people can
be easily distracted by any sudden sensory change. A classroom
example of the orienting reflex occurs when students arrive late to
class. It seems like the eyeballs of the classroom are
automatically drawn to look at the latecomer, taking attention
away from the teacher. The same problem occurs during
studying when distractions like television, phones, and ambient
noise capture attention and leave fewer mental resources
available for doing coursework. There are growing concerns that
people are not very capable of managing the continuous
interruptions produced by modern technology (Gazzaley and
Rosen, 2016; M. Jackson, 2008). Minimizing distractions,
whenever possible, is a good strategy for educators to follow
because distractions can be an enemy of the learning process.
The experienced teacher is aware of the orienting reflex and
uses it to their advantage to promote learning. Have you ever

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taken a course from a professor who drones on and on in a boring
monotone voice? The stereotypical boring professor might also
have little motion, and stay fixed in one place behind the lecture
podium. It’s unnatural for people to maintain their focus on an
unchanging, never-moving object. Students can pay attention to an
unchanging presentation delivery for a brief time, but it becomes
progressively harder and harder to maintain the focus, which leads
to daydreaming, phone fiddling, and other distractions. The
solution is for the teacher to use some sensory changes in the
delivery to engage the orienting reflex. Varying the volume and
tone of voice makes the verbal dimension of the presentation more
dramatic and easier to listen to. For vision, it helps for the teacher
to get away from the podium and move about the room. The
orientation reflex will cause students to follow the variations in
your voice and track your movements around the room. These
small variations will trigger the orienting reflex and make your
presentation more engaging.
Powerpoint presentations can direct attention via the
orienting reflex in a number of ways. One of the most basic ways
is the slide transition. Switching to a new slide can alert students
to a change and draw attention. Likewise, highlighting an
important part of a slide in a dramatic color that is different from
the rest of the slide draws student attention to the highlighted
area. Colored circles or arrows that stand out can highlight an
important part of a figure or graph. Laser pointers can also
usefully provide both color and motion to point out an important
feature in the presentation.
It has been suggested that today’s students, who have been
raised with visual stimulation from many sources, will respond
positively to having lots of visual stimulation in their education.
If this is true, perhaps it would be advantageous to put as many

special effects as possible into a powerpoint presentation.
Examples would include dramatic slide transitions, flying bullet
points, and other animation effects. The potential problem with
this idea, of course, is overdoing it. People tend to shut down or
direct their attention away if there is too much stimulation.
Excessive motion and other sensory stimulation can also make a
presentation look amateurish and unprofessional. The best
approach is to use motion and auditory changes in moderation
because too little stimulation is undesirable, but too much
stimulation is also undesirable. This suggestion matches with the
Yerkes-Dodson law from psychology: Increasing arousal
improves performance up to a point, but further increases in
arousal may actually produce declines in performance (Yerkes
and Dodson, 1908). Attention is a valuable resource, so
instructors must take care to not overwhelm the students with
content-free sensory stimulation.
Selective Attention: Zooming In for a Closer
Look
The orienting reflex starts the attention process by alerting us
to the most interesting things that are occurring around us. The
next step directs our focus more specifically. Selective attention
occurs when the brain narrows sensory input down to
concentrate on the information that is most important. Selective
attention works through subtraction. Most of the incoming
sensory information is actively ignored so that one particularly
important matter can be examined in great detail, as William
James described in his famous passage. This limitation reflects a
judicious trade-off in processing. The brain can only think deeply
about a single thing at any given moment, so unimportant
information must be discarded.

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A number of analogies have been used to describe the focused
and limited nature of selective attention. A popular analogy is to
liken selective attention to a filter. Most of the sensory
information gets trapped in the filter and receives little to no
processing. A small amount of important information is selected
to pass through the filter and on to consciousness for deeper
processing. Another common analogy for selective attention is to
liken attention to a spotlight in a theater. Imagine a play being
performed on a large theater stage. When a spotlight shines on
the main character, we see this character and the nearby parts of
the stage in great detail. The highlighted features are prominent
and stand-out from the rest of the stage. In contrast, the darker
areas of the stage that are outside of the spotlight recede.
Activities in the areas outside of the spotlight may go completely
unnoticed. The spotlight serves to focus and thereby enhance our
attention on one point of the stage, but this increased focus
comes at the expense of ignoring events that are occurring on the
other parts of the stage. Both analogies feature the essential
aspect of the limiting nature of attention. People possess a very
narrow capacity to deeply process sensory information. Deep
thought is limited to about one topic at any given moment.
Selective attention describes what most educators are
thinking about when they ask a class to “pay attention.” In
classroom settings, we would hope that the teacher and
educationally relevant activities would be the focal point of
attention. Students must filter out less important information in
order to properly focus on the lesson. Interestingly, the phrase
“paying attention” implies that attention is like money.
Attention, just like money, is a limited resource. Like money,
attention must be spent wisely.

The limited capacity of selective attention suggests that an
audience has a limited ability to process the amount of
information on a powerpoint slide. We’ve seen that the most
common student complaint about powerpoint presentations is
that too much information is presented. This problem occurs
because the limitations of selective attention can make it easy to
overwhelm the audience with too much information. The
obvious solution to this problem is to reduce or limit the
amount of information on the slides. The more effective
approach for slides that have numerous bullet points, including
multiple levels of organization, would be to split the
information over several slides with only a few bullet points on
each slide. In addition, it is generally recommended that each
bullet point item should be kept short, such as one-to-three
words in length, rather than being lengthy sentences (Altman,
2012).
Powerpoint presentations can also overwhelm selective
attention if the pace of information delivery is too fast.
Powerpoint makes it easy for the teacher to simply click
through the slide deck without giving students enough time to
comprehend the information, leading to information overload.
The solution to this situation is to be mindful of how much
information students can learn from a powerpoint presentation.
Teachers must watch carefully to see how students are reacting
to the pace of the presentation and be prepared to slow down if
needed.
The Problem of Divided Attention
A key feature of selective attention is the limited capacity.
This limitation may create problems when students try to attend

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to two or more events at the same time. This situation is called
“divided attention” and can lead to decreased learning. A
common classroom example occurs when students attempt to
take notes and respond to cell phone text messages at the same
time. This splitting of attention between two tasks leads to lower
performance on both tasks, but doing poorly on the note-taking
task is our primary concern.
Although it’s called divided attention, this term is a little bit
misleading because selective attention cannot be truly divided.
Divided attention really involves rapidly switching back and
forth between two different tasks that require attention
resources. For example, a student who attempts to take notes
and keep up with phone text messages at that same time is not
really doing both activities simultaneously. Instead, they are
really switching back and forth very quickly between tasks.
When they focus their mind on the cell phone, they filter out all
other information, including the lecture or class activities, so
their learning drops from little to none at all. Since attention is
a limited resource, limiting distractions of all sorts beneficially
minimizes the potential problem of divided attention.
Several aspects of educational presentations might involve
divided attention problems. One divided attention situation
occurs when the spoken part of the lecture is accompanied by a
visual slide presentation. This situation gives the students two
competing sources of information: auditory and visual. Which
one does the student attend to and learn from? Having multiple
elements together on a slide may also possibly create a divided
attention problem. This division of attention would be
particularly likely when a powerpoint slide gets loaded with
more and more

elements that compete with each other for how students should
allocate their attention. A third problem is that students may
focus their attention on slide features that are emotionally vivid—
pretty pictures—yet light in instructional content. A fourth
possible problem is that note-taking creates a divided attention
situation. Students are not attending to the current verbal
information when they are composing a sentence in their notes.
Only after the student finishes composing the sentence does their
attention become free for redirection back to the lecture
message.
Given this limited nature of attention, the teaching mission
is best served by eliminating as many competing elements as
possible in order to help students focus on the most essential
components of the presentation. This idea is supported by
multimedia learning research findings that providing
unnecessary information can decrease student learning (Mayer,
2009; see also Chapter 11). A good starting point is to eliminate
or minimize classroom distractions frequently recognized as
potential problems, such as loud noises, student conversations,
and electronic distractions like cell phones. These distractions
may interfere with instruction due to both the orienting reflex
and divided attention problems. Next, a clean presentation
design that eliminates or minimizes unnecessary features—
extraneous colors, logos, and cutesy pictures—will also help
direct attention towards the important parts of the presentation.
Digital technologies like powerpoint sometimes make it too easy
to keep adding features. The best teachers, however, know when
to apply restraint to keep inessential embellishments from
obscuring the main message. Finally, teachers need to consider
how the slide presentation complements the spoken word and
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the visual and auditory components might be pitted against one
another for the students’ attention.
An old saying used by designers is that “less is more.” This
saying is not intended to encourage boring or featureless designs.
Rather, the essence of “less is more” is that removing
unimportant features can help to direct attention towards the
instructional components that really matter, and thereby
improve the overall learning experience. “Less” suggests a kind
of editing process that enhances the main goal—paying
attention to essential course content—by carefully cutting out
unimportant features. Eliminating unnecessary information
might help students by improving their focus on the most
important information.
Sustained Attention: Keeping
Students Engaged Over the Course
Period
A third component of attention that psychological researchers
have uncovered is called sustained attention. This component is
the ability to hold and maintain attention over extended periods
of time. An example of sustained attention is the task faced by a
hunter in the woods. The hunter must stay still and be vigilant
while waiting for game animals, sometimes for hours at a stretch.
The hunter must focus on watching for game animals so that
nothing will be missed. Unfortunately, maintaining attention
over long periods of time can be difficult to do. Boredom creeps
into the task, and the mind wanders away from its intended
purpose.
In the classroom, teachers have long known that it can be
difficult to engage student attention over a seemingly long class
period. A commonly-cited statistic is that student attention drops

off after about twenty to thirty minutes of lecturing. The evidence
behind this statistic comes primarily from studies of educational
television programming in the 1960s, which was a hot research
topic at that time. For example, one study found a considerable
drop in the number of students paying attention to educational
television shows over the course of thirty minutes (Bridges,
1960). In a similar fashion, 84% of surveyed college juniors
reported that “. . .20-30 minutes was the maximum amount of
time during which they could tolerate uninterrupted lecturing
and note-taking during a lecture period.” (MacManaway, 1970,
p. 322). Other research has suggested that the drop-off in
attention occurs in as little as ten minutes (Hartley & Davies,
1978; Medina, 2008), although the quickness of this decline is
somewhat uncertain (K. Wilson & Korn, 2007). A fast drop-off in
attention is plausibly due, at least in part, to the sophisticated
multimedia exposure of today’s students. On YouTube, the most
popular videos from 2014 had an average length of four minutes
and twenty seconds (“The best video length for different videos
on YouTube”). Class lectures that go on for over an hour may
seem quite dull compared to the latest viral video clips.
In some respects, the exact time point when students begin to
lose interest in a lecture doesn’t matter. Teachers can safely
assume that the drop-off in student attention occurs fairly
quickly and declines progressively throughout the course of the
lecture. The sustained attention problem brings up two
important questions about lecturing during classes. First, is
lecturing a valid teaching approach given this dramatic drop-off
in attention? It seems like lectures could be completely futile if
attention declines so rapidly. Second, what can teachers do to
counteract this lost attention?

167
In the influential book What’s the Use of Lectures?, Donald
Bligh suggests that lecturing is still an appropriate teaching
method even though student attention may drop off dramatically
during the course of a lecture (Bligh, 2000). The lecture approach
particularly excels at the transmission of information, so
lecturing is worthwhile to educators for this purpose. Bligh
proposes that the key to successful lectures is to plan for a
decline in attention by alternating lecturing with other teaching
approaches. The students need periodic lecture breaks that
switch away from lecturing to other teaching-related activities.
These other approaches tend to engage emotions and interest,
and thereby keep the students emotionally involved. After these
break points, lecturing can resume for a short while and then be
followed by another educational strategy switch to maintain
student interest. The successful teacher is, in some ways, like a
juggler who must constantly switch between various educational
approaches during the class period in order to maintain student
interest.
A similar recommendation is made by John Medina, who is
a neurobiologist and the author of Brain Rules (2008). Medina’s
successful lecture organization is centered upon the limited
ability of students to sustain attention through a lecture (p. 89—
92). The class period starts with an overview that outlines the
topic for the day. After this introduction, class time is divided
into 10-minute modules based upon evidence that the ability to
pay sustained attention to the topic fades at about the 10-minute
mark (Hartley and Davies, 1978). Each 10-minute module
presents one main idea, the “gist” of a topic, that can be
explained in one minute. The following nine minutes in the
module contain details about the key idea that provide
supporting evidence and clearly relate to the

main idea. When the ten-minute module is complete, declining
student attention is recaptured and boosted by presenting
emotional hooks that are based upon case histories, anecdotes,
narratives, and possibly even humorous material. It is important
for these emotional breaks between modules to be relevant to the
preceding modules to avoid the possibility of seeming
“disjointed” or “patronizing”. In other words, an off-topic joke is
not desirable. An interesting example or anecdote that illustrates
the lecture topic in an entertaining way is the goal. The emotional
break is then followed by another ten minute module of
educational content to start a new cycle. Throughout the class
there are periodic reminders of the progress through the topics of
the day to help keep students oriented in regard to how each
module relates to the overall picture for the class. This pattern of
regular switching from lecturing about course content to
emotional hooks and then back again to course content helps to
maintain a high level of student interest throughout the entire
class period. This teaching method has not been explicitly tested,
but it is based on research evidence and is also consistent with
Bligh’s recommendation for switching strategies during a lecture.
Medina credits this “brain rule” understanding of human
attention for his teaching success.
Powerpoint can help instructors follow this lecture-break-
lecture-break pattern. Instructors can design powerpoint slide
decks with regular break points in the lecture to avoid the
monotony of a never-ending stream of facts. For example, the
instructor could include a slide with a prompt that asks the
students if they have any questions. Sometimes the instructor
can dramatically illustrate key concepts with short video clips
embedded in the powerpoint presentation. These video examples

169
can be followed by a discussion that requires students to critically
analyze the video content and make connections between the key
terms and the video information. Yet another idea is to change
from the lecture-based passive learning to a more active, hands-
on type of learning through activities such as demonstrations, lab
exercises, and working math problems. Short discussion exercises
can also be quite effective (Bligh, 2000). The possibilities for
brief alternatives to lecturing are nearly unlimited. Whatever the
approach, the key idea is to intersperse the lecturing approach
with other teaching approaches to maintain student interest in
the topic throughout the class period.
Design Goal: Plan for the Limitations of
Attention
Advertising firms that display ads on the Internet often
discuss “eyeballs” as being a valuable resource. More ads viewed
equals more products sold and more money made, which leads
to a premium on getting people to view ads. This emphasis
on the importance of “eyeballs” is, in many ways, similar to
attentional issues that effective teachers must address. Students
are only learning when their attention is actively engaged in the
subject matter. Although attention is short, limited, and fickle,
an understanding of how it works can produce effective teaching
strategies that capture and maintain student attention while not
overwhelming this valuable resource.

1
1
DESIGN FOR COGNITION I
Reaching the Student Mind
“If anything, Powerpoint, if used well, would ideally reflect
the way we think.” Steven Pinker
Teachers aim to improve their students’ mental abilities,
including conceptual knowledge, critical thinking, and problem
solving abilities. The hope is that students will be more informed
and enlightened thinkers when they finish their education, people
who are awakened to new realities of the world. Cognitive science
and the field of neurobiology have made numerous discoveries
since the 1960s that have the potential to improve student
learning. From this broad field, we will focus on topics in
cognition that are the most relevant to improving the educational
value of powerpoint presentations. Like Stephen Pinker suggests
above, we will ideally find ways for our powerpoint presentations
to

Design for Cognition I |
171
match the inner workings of the mind and thereby stimulate the
cognitive growth that teachers strive to achieve.
The Limitations of Short-Term Memory
The information processing model is a well-established view
of human memory that was introduced in the late 1960s (R. C.
Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968). The model likens the human mind
to a computer: information is entered, processed, and then
stored for later use. The model proposes that long-term memory
is gradually formed through three stages of processing. The first
stage is sensory memory, which is a one- to two-second
impression of sensory information. The second stage is short-
term memory. This stage holds information for up to twenty
seconds, a period just long enough to do something productive
with the information. The capacity of short-term memory is very
limited, with the classical description being 7±2 items of
information (see also Baddeley, 1986; Baddeley, Thomson, and
Buchanan, 1975). These first two stages of the model prepare
information for the last stage, which is long-term memory
storage.
As the information passes through these stages, a selective
process takes place that eliminates the less important
information. Vast amounts of sensory information enter the
system, but relatively little information—only what is attended to
—is eventually stored in long-term memory. The degree of data
loss is huge. It has been estimated that each eye collects about
3,900 megabytes of information every second, which is enough
information to fill six compact disks (Snowden, Thompson, and
Troscianko, 2012). Most of this information never makes it
past short-term

memory. The vast majority of data is lost going from the earliest
stages (megabytes) to the second stage (about seven items). This
huge information loss may seem problematic, but it is, in fact, an
important feature. The purpose of forgetting massive amounts of
information is to prevent long-term memory from becoming filled
up with unimportant details.
Cognitive scientists in the field of education have focused
on the small capacity of short-term memory (sometimes called
working memory) as being a key limiting factor for student
learning (Baddeley, 1986; Paivio, 1990; Penney, 1989). Cognitive
load theory proposes that the learning process places demands
on the information processing capacity of students. When there
is too much information, the limited cognitive capacity of short-
term memory is exceeded and learning declines. Either the
audience can be overwhelmed with too much information or the
information may be presented in a manner that places too many
demands on short-term memory. Cognitive load research in
education has, in general, focused on finding teaching strategies
that improve student learning by reducing the cognitive load on
short-term memory.
At this point, it is worth noting that the key idea of limited
cognitive capacity from memory research is quite similar to
the research on attention described earlier. Both attention and
short-term memory research suggest a very limited capacity in
the human mind that can be easily overwhelmed by too much
information. This evidence for limited attention and limited
short-term memory capacity needs to be a guiding principle
for the design of powerpoint presentations. The most effective
educators aim to stimulate the minds of their students while

173
simultaneously being careful to not overload them with too
much information.
The Complementary Nature of Words
and Visual Graphics
On entering [the] room, we were struck at the appearance
of an ample Blackboard suspended on the wall, with lumps
of chalk on a ledge below, and cloths hanging at either
side. I had never heard of such a thing before. There it was—
forty- two years ago—that I first saw what now I trust is
considered indispensable in every school—the blackboard—
and there I first witnessed the process of analytical and
inductive teaching. (May, 1855 as cited in S. C. Parker, 1912,
p. 92).
The use of a chalkboard as a teaching technology may seem
trivial and antiquated to modern teachers. We need to appreciate,
however, that the use of chalkboards as an instructional aid is a
relatively recent invention, going back to the early 1800s in the
United States. Chalkboards enabled teachers to make key terms
and outlines available to their students in a visual medium (i.e.,
not simply spoken). This change improved instruction by giving
words a visual presence. It seems likely that chalkboards
facilitated education, at least in part, by relieving a short-term
memory limitation that students commonly face. A student who
hears a purely spoken lecture must hold the key points of that
information in short-term memory long enough to write down
the information in their notes. A few words written on the board,
however, improve

the ability to process information by providing an external aid
that reduces cognitive load.
Critics may be tempted to view powerpoint as being just an
electronic version of chalkboard technology: a high-tech word
delivery device. In fact, many educators held this attitude when
powerpoint was introduced years ago, dismissing the then-new
powerpoint technology as unnecessary. This view, however,
errors by being too narrow. Just like great food combinations,
the combination of visual and verbal information in a
powerpoint presentation results in something more than the
mere sum of the parts. Education has traditionally relied upon
text to convey important ideas. With powerpoint, there is the
opportunity to transcend the limitations of the written word by
combining text with other rich sources of information. Seeing the
topic material affords the students a more direct connection with
the topic through images and video. This more immediate
connection might facilitate student engagement much more than
a chalkboard. The support of text with other visual information
may also tap into deeper learning processes and thereby aid the
teaching process.
The educational media used in today’s classrooms has an
information richness unimaginable in the 1800s due to the wide
availability of pictures, diagrams, graphs, animations, and videos.
This approach—words plus images—has been called a
multimedia- based approach (Mayer, 2009). Multimedia
educational research has compared the comprehension of text
passages with or without the presence of visual images. The
findings of these studies consistently show that combining words
with visual information, such as instructional graphics, can have
a beneficial effect on student learning from textbooks (Carney
and Levin, 2002; J. R.

175
Levin, 1981; J. R. Levin, Anglin, and Carney, 1987). Later studies
documented the positive effects of combining spoken words with
animations and other high-tech visual media (Mayer, 2009). The
complementary effects of visual and verbal information are the
same regardless of the medium used to deliver this information
to the students. This idea, which is variously called dual-coding
theory or multimedia learning, is that visual and auditory
information might work together in a complementary way to
promote learning (Mayer, 2009; Paivio, 1990).
A number of ideas have been proposed to explain why using
visual information plus spoken words promotes student learning.
One explanation is that this improvement could occur because
short-term memory uses separate brain areas for vision and
hearing. These two separate channels of information processing
might work together in a synergistic fashion (Horvath, 2014). A
second possibility is that pictures themselves contain information
and that this information richness might help overcome the
limitations of short-term memory. Evidence suggests that
information from visual aids may be processed more efficiently
than text. Some studies also suggest that images such as diagrams
may help students create mental representations of complex
information (Glenberg and Langston, 1992; Mayer, 1989). Yet
another possibility is that images help the learning process by
directing attention or promoting information integration in ways
that facilitate learning. The beneficial effects of pairing words
with pictures may depend on all of these processes to some
degree and may vary depending on the teaching situation.
Although combining words and images is positive, the
research is very consistent in showing that not just any image will

promote student learning. One test of this idea used eye-tracking
technology to determine which parts of a slide received the most
visual attention during a presentation (Slykhuis, Wiebe, and
Annetta, 2005). The images that matched the slide instructional
content received the most viewing time. In contrast, decorative
images were viewed for much less time. These results show that
students strategically allocate their mental resources in ways that
will promote learning, such as close examination of images that
provide some form of useful content.
Several image types are beneficial for learning. Carney and
Levin (2002) describe and categorize some typical roles for
pictures presented in context with text. Organizational images
provide a framework for understanding the text content. For
example, news stories about a particular region often include a
map to help readers understand the geographical location of the
news story. Node-link diagrams, such as organizational charts,
also provide a visual representation of the organization and
relationship between different elements (Dansereau and
Simpson, 2009). Interpretational images such as diagrams,
graphs, and instructional animations help the reader understand
the text content by illustrating how complex systems work
(Mayer and Gallini, 1990; Mayer and Moreno, 1998). Finally,
transformation images contain memory aids like mnemonic
devices that assist in the memorization of important points from
the text.
Powerpoint seems like an ideal medium for multimedia
instruction because it can display visual images to an audience
in a way that can augment or complement the verbal message.
This ability should allow educators to reach students in both an
auditory and visual manner, which combine to facilitate learning.

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Many presentations, however, do not take full advantage of
multimedia learning possibilities because they rely too heavily
on text and have few instructional images. Adding informative
images to powerpoint presentations is an important practice for
maximizing the learning potential that powerpoint offers.
From Short-Term Memory to Multimedia
Learning
The relationships between multimedia and student learning
have been extensively studied by Richard Mayer and his
colleagues in an effort to find the optimal conditions for student
learning. In their research studies, students learned about science
or engineering topics from instructional passages that were
accompanied by visual images or animated instructional
graphics. The typical experiment was to compare students who
had text accompanied by images (experimental group) to
students who had just text (control group). Variations on this
basic experimental approach were used to address a wide range
of questions about the learning conditions that would promote or
hinder learning. For example, would students learn more from
an animation with narration alone or an instructional animation
that has both narration and on-screen text? Would more learning
occur with background music? Would students learn more if the
subject content was accompanied by interesting stories? From
these studies, a number of general principles were developed to
guide instructional design (Mayer, 2009). These practical
principles can be applied to make powerpoint presentations
provide more effective education.

178 | Slides for
Students
The Multimedia Principle
A multitude of studies show that the combination of verbal
information with images produces stronger learning than verbal
information alone (Mayer, 2009). Research from Mayer and
other investigators tested this idea by comparing the performance
of people who receive only narrative instruction to students
who receive both narrative and image-based information. The
combination of words and images produces superior performance
in both recall and higher-order learning of the material. This
superior learning is most likely to occur for topics that have a
strong visualization component, such as scientific topics. The
research findings that support multimedia learning are robust,
with supporting evidence from studies of reading comprehension
(for reviews, see Carney and Levin, 2002; Filippatou and
Pumfrey, 1996; Levie and Lentz, 1982) and computer-based
instruction (Mayer, 2009). Although most research in this area
has not specifically focused on powerpoint presentations, it
seems that powerpoint is well-suited to providing the visual
component of the multimedia principle. Powerpoint images can
provide representational, organizational, and explanative content
that will support and enhance the speaker’s message.
The Redundancy Principle
A research question related to the multimedia principle is
whether the multimedia effects described above could be further
improved by providing verbal information in two forms, both
narration (auditory) and on-screen text (visual). To address this

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possibility, a number of studies by Mayer (Mayer et al., 2001;
Moreno and Mayer, 2002) and other researchers (for reviews,
see Sweller et al., 1998; van Merriënboer and Sweller, 2005)
compared learning situations that had an instructional graphic
plus narrative instruction to other learning situations that had
instructional graphics, narration, and on-screen text. The results
of these studies consistently show that students perform better
when a graphical image is accompanied by narration without on-
screen text. In short, providing the same words in both visual
and auditory form hinders learning because providing too much
information at one time creates a cognitive load problem.
The redundancy principle explains why the common pre-
sentation practice of reading a speech from a projected slide is
problematic. The students in this situation receive a repetitious
double-dose of the verbal message to the auditory and visual
systems, which results in overloading short-term memory capac-
ity. The redundancy principle suggests that educators would be
better off by having a visual graphic plus narration accompanied
by minimal or no on-screen text (see Chapter 9).
The redundancy principle is not meant to suggest that all of
the text should be eliminated from a powerpoint slide. The typical
source of the redundancy problem is displaying an excessive
amount of text to the learner. The redundancy problem occurs in
the laboratory when the entire narration and on-screen text are
identical. Most powerpoint presentations, in contrast, only show
brief bullet point items and do not follow this problematic pattern
of excessive on-screen text. Some research shows that having
brief phrases displayed to the students is beneficial. In particular,
short word cues like captions that are strategically placed on a
displayed

graphic are often helpful because they cue attention to an
important feature (Mayer and Johnson, 2008). The increased
attention and organizational benefits from these useful cues in
these situations outweigh the redundancy problem of the on-
screen text.
The Coherence Principle
It seems very intuitive that adding human interest stories
to educational content might assist instruction by increasing
the students’ emotional involvement. Although stories can be
engaging, they sometimes have detrimental effects on learning
when the stories have little relevance to understanding the topic.
The research term for this phenomenon is seductive details:
interesting yet irrelevant information producing harmful effects
on learning. This seductive detail problem occurs because
unimportant information consumes precious short-term memory
resources, thereby leaving less cognitive capacity available in
short-term memory for the important ideas (Mayer, 2009). The
elimination of seductive details in some studies has helped to
improve student learning (Mayer et al., 2001).
It might seem like the harmful potential of seductive details
contradicts suggestions about the importance of emotions and
stories from Chapter 5 and 6, but this is not necessarily true. The
main suggestion from these chapters was that a presentation
needs to have an overall storyline with story-like features that
engage the audience (Duarte, 2010). Seductive details, in
contrast, are small stories (not a storyline) that are only
tangentially relevant to educational content. The seductive
details problem occurs largely when these nonessential stories
lack educational content

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and become emotional distractions that detract from important
learning goals. Emotional features in presentations can be either
helpful or detrimental, and here it is largely detrimental.
In powerpoint, one potential form of seductive details is the
decorative images or content-free graphics that are meant to
arouse emotion. Other sources of seductive details and
unnecessary cognitive load may come from the nearly infinite
number of design possibilities for fonts, colors, layouts, and
animated special effects. From the perspective of multimedia
learning, unnecessary or content-free features should be
eliminated in order to decrease cognitive load and increase the
short-term memory available for important learning objectives.
The coherence principle suggests that students will do better if
designers remove all of these unessential elements.
Undesirable cognitive load can also occur when a powerpoint
slide deck has inconsistent design features. Significant design
changes over the course of the presentation will create a situation
in which each new slide will require a bit of extra effort from
the audience to adjust to the new appearance. These design
inconsistencies create a cognitive cost that may detract from
student learning. Empirical support for this possibility comes
from a study that deliberately manipulated slide design features
to change during a presentation and thereby increase cognitive
load or “interference” (Bradshaw, 2003). The results of this
study showed better learning outcomes for the students who
received slides that had a consistent design. In contrast, the
students who received the inconsistently-designed slides had
lower performance. Although this negative impact from
inconsistent design is small, these results support the coherence
principle. The practical implications

are clear: Teachers should aim for a consistent slide design to
reduce cognitive load and improve student learning.
The Signaling Principle
Topics that seem straightforward to experts can be
overwhelming to novices because the novices cannot tell the
difference between important information and unimportant
details. Novice learners try to take in everything about a topic at
one time, which leads to an information overload. The signaling
principle proposes that effective instruction should use cues that
highlight the most important points. The cues draw attention
to the important features and help novice learners to organize
information for the learning process. This is the practice of
pointing out the most important features to the students.
Examples of these cues can be outlines or headers that
communicate how the topic is organized. The speaker’s voice can
also be used to emphasize certain points, such as the order of
topics (first, second, third, etc.) or emphasizing a transition to a
new subtopic. Vocal cues such as intonation or emphasis on
certain words can also help listeners anticipate the organizational
structure of a topic or presentation. Bullet point lists are
commonly used in powerpoint presentations to cue the major
points for students. Presentation graphics can also use signals
that point out important information, such as arrows,
highlighted text, or circles around a key point of interest. It
seems likely that the signaling principle works by directing
limited cognitive resources to the most relevant parts of the
topic, which can decrease short-term memory load and promote
the formation of new memories.

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Several other multimedia learning principles might be
useful for designing educational powerpoint presentations.
The contiguity principle suggests that the placement of text in
relationship to the graphics is important. Strategically placing
text near the critical features of the graphical image (spatial
contiguity) and together in time with the visual graphic
(temporal contiguity) are best for learning due to easing
cognitive load requirements for the students. These concepts
are similar to the Gestalt law of proximity (see Chapter 8). The
segmenting principle suggests that breaking a presentation into
smaller parts and giving the learner control over the pacing of the
presentation may facilitate learning. For further information
about these and other principles of multimedia learning, please
refer to comprehensive reviews of this topic (Mayer, 2009;
Sweller et al., 1998; van Merriënboer and Sweller, 2005).
The multimedia learning principles described above are based
upon the results of numerous laboratory experiments. A
potential weakness is that the laboratory environment might be
too artificial and produce results that are not effective for real
educational situations. To address this possibility, several studies
have tested the multimedia learning principles in powerpoint
presentations given to real students. The good news from these
studies is that the multimedia learning principles derived from
laboratory studies are also effective in the classroom. One study
reports that students learn better when powerpoint images and
multimedia are combined with text, which supports the
multimedia learning principle (Hallett and Faria, 2006). Two
studies redesigned standard powerpoint slides to use formats
suggested by multimedia learning principles. These studies
documented improvements in

student learning outcomes with the redesigned slides (Issa et al.,
2011; Overson, 2014). Eliminating unnecessary slide elements
and redundant text information also appears to be beneficial
for learning (Wecker, 2012), as suggested by the coherence and
redundancy principles. Overall, these findings show that the
multimedia learning principles from laboratory research are
effective when applied to powerpoint presentations used in real
classroom situations.
As a final note, the use of instructional graphics has complex
cognitive effects that are still being teased apart and may
eventually yield important new insights. There are also
controversies over contradictory experimental findings. Some
studies in this area suggest that seductive details, which are those
interesting yet irrelevant bits of information that might impair
learning, can have neutral or even positive effects on learning in
some situations (Park et al., 2015; Schneider et al., 2016). The
emotional effects created by seductive details are apparently
quite complex, with emotional content being beneficial in some
situations and harmful in others. Another area of research
focuses on cognitive load effects for short-term or long-term
learning tasks. Under some conditions, overloading short-term
memory may produce improved long- term learning, which is an
effect that has been called “desirable difficulties” (Schweppe and
Rummer, 2016). Yet another area of research interest has
focused on individual differences in learners, such as comparing
high-ability to low-ability students, novices to experts, or high
school to college students. In general, novice learners seem to
benefit more from multimedia instruction. More knowledgeable
students may, in some situations, show impaired learning with
multimedia instruction, which has been called the

185
“expertise reversal effect” (van Merriënboer and Sweller, 2005).
Altogether, these recent studies suggest that multimedia learning
is complex. As Mayer (2009) has suggested, the principles
derived from cognitive research are not absolute rules. These
principles are more accurately understood as useful guidelines
that are sensitive to a number of conditions.
A promising future possibility for multimedia education
research is to explore the neurobiological mechanisms that might
be responsible for the multimedia learning principles. Horvath
(2014) attempts to explain multimedia learning in light of
evidence from functional brain imaging studies. Horvath
proposes that the redundancy principle (concurrent auditory and
visual words decreases learning) occurs because the same
auditory cortex areas in the temporal lobe are responsible for
processing both silent reading and auditory speech perception.
Situations that require reading and hearing words at the same
time might create a competition between the two sources of
information for access to a single brain area. This limited
processing capacity for two streams of information thereby
decreasing learning. In contrast, the multimedia principle
(improved learning when images are combined with words) may
occur because the images and the text are processed in parallel or
side-by-side in different brain areas. The visual imagery is
processed mostly in the occipital lobe and the ventral temporal
lobe, whereas the text and auditory information is processed
mostly in the superior temporal lobe. Thus, words and images
can be processed in a complementary way in different brain
areas, which avoids a conflict over a limited neural resource. This
parallel or independent processing of visual and auditory
information might explain why words and images

can have synergistic, positive effects rather than interfering with
each other. Neurobiological research on contextual cuing also
suggests that having a consistent image size and location on a
powerpoint slide, such as the assertion-evidence layout, might
promote learning, possibly because the brain needs to expend
less effort to analyze repeated visual scenes. The possibility of
using brain imaging studies to gain further insights into the
optimal powerpoint presentation display conditions is an exciting
possibility. However, it is important to keep in mind that the
current evidence is somewhat speculative. The wide gap between
basic neuroscience research and applied teaching methods is
difficult to bridge (Goswami, 2006).
Applying the Multimedia Principles to
Powerpoint
Ironically, reading through all of these multimedia learning
principles may be giving you a bit of cognitive overload by this
point. It is challenging to understand how all of these multimedia
learning principles will come together and make a good
powerpoint presentation. Fortunately, Mayer has worked with
Atkinson, the author of the book Beyond Bullet Points (C.
Atkinson, 2011), to specifically apply multimedia learning
principles to powerpoint presentations (C. Atkinson and Mayer,
2004). Their five recommendations provide practical suggestions
for putting the research findings from cognitive psychology into
practice. These recommendations are also a good review of the
multimedia principles described above.
Their first recommendation is to make the slide titles more
informative. This is achieved through using full sentences

187
that explicitly state the main idea of the slide. Titles that are
complete sentences explain and communicate better than the
short phrase titles that are commonly used. This is an example
of the signaling principle, which states that clear
communication and organization facilitate better learning (see
Chapter 9 on the assertion-evidence layout).
Their second recommendation is to use the slide sorter view
of PowerPoint to organize the overall presentation into more
easily digestible parts. Slides with too much information might
be easily noticed in the slide sorter view. If there is too much
information, then instructors can divide the slide contents
across two or more slides. The presenter may also better evaluate
the overall story line of the presentation in the slide sorter view.
This practice works due to the segmentation principle, which
advocates dividing complex information into smaller pieces to
avoid the potential problem of overloading the audience with too
much information on each slide.
The third recommendation is to reduce the amount of text
on the slide, which is especially important for presenters who
mistakenly attempt to place their entire speech on the screen.
Reducing text benefits the audience by helping them to focus on
hearing the speaker’s words (narration only). If the speaker needs
the text for delivering the speech, it can be put in the “notes” view
of PowerPoint or possibly on paper or notecards. The general
idea is that the presenter can see their speaking notes but the
audience cannot, which reduces the cognitive load for the
audience. This situation is an example of the modality principle:
“People understand a multimedia explanation better when the
words are presented as narration rather than on-screen text” (p.
12). The recommendation to reduce text may also be an
example of the

redundancy principle, which suggests that having the same words
presented to both the visual and the auditory system at the same
time is harmful for learning.
The fourth recommendation is to pair the text from the slide
title with informative graphics. This combination of text plus
a supporting image make a message more effective due to the
multimedia principle. Descriptive titles plus relevant and
informative instructional images should combine in a
complementary way to enhance student learning. This
recommendation is similar to the assertion-evidence layout slide
(see Chapter 9).
Atkinson and Mayer’s last recommendation is to declutter
and simplify the appearance of powerpoint slides. Instructors
should only use the essential instructional features. Content-
free decorations are an avoidable and unnecessary burden
on short-term memory, so instructors should eliminate these
features. The recommendation to avoid unnecessary text,
colors, decorations, and other design elements is based on the
coherence principle, which is improved learning through the
elimination of unimportant information.
Design Goal: Use Cognitive
Principles to Improve Learning
The old view of how students learned has been characterized as
an information transfer process. Information was moved from the
mind of the teacher to the mind of the student in a manner similar
to copying a file from one directory to another on a personal
computer. Although this view is appealing, modern cognitive
research has shown that this is simply not how the human mind
works.

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The modern view of student learning is that students must
actively seek to understand information and develop new internal
models (schemata) of how the world around them must work.
This process takes effort. During this memory formation process,
students can be easily overwhelmed by the amount of
information that is being made available to them. Therefore,
teachers must take the limitations of short-term memory into
account when developing instructional materials. The key
takeaway point is to deliver the right amount of information (not
too much or too little) while simultaneously decreasing
unnecessary details that might burden short-term memory. In
addition, we should make strategic use of text and instructional
images that complement each other in useful ways to promote
student learning.

12
DESIGN FOR COGNITION II
Active Learning in Powerpoint Presentations
. . . [L]earning is an active, constructive, cognitive, and social
process by which the learner strategically manages available
cognitive, physical, and social resources to create new
knowledge by interacting with information in the
environment and integrating it with information that is
already stored in memory. (Kozma, 1994, p. 8)
The old-fashioned view of education is that the teacher’s
role is to transmit important information to the students,
who were treated like empty vessels that needed to be filled
with information. The role of the instructor as an information
provider was reasonable years ago when important information
was contained in obscure books that students were unlikely to
encounter. The instructor was the critical source of information
in an information-limited environment.

Design for Cognition II |
191
The information-rich nature of the modern world has changed
the focus of education. When information is easily available from
the Internet and phone-based digital assistants, there is not as
much need for the instructor to be the chief information provider.
The critical cognitive skill is being able to use higher order thinking
skills to evaluate information. As a result, modern educators view
learning as an active process. The modern educator employs
creative teaching strategies to facilitate this process of student
exploration and understanding, rather than merely imparting
information to an audience who has no other access to that
information.
The focus of education has also changed dramatically as a
result of educational theorists who have advanced a conceptual
framework that advocates the need for deeper learning. Paulo
Freire made the powerful argument that education once operated
by a banking model, in which information was deposited into
students like money was deposited in a bank (Freire, 2000). Such
a learning approach was oppressive. In contrast, the true goal of
education should be to empower students to think for themselves.
Other educational theorists, such as Malcolm Knowles, Jack
Mezirow, Donald Schön, and Stephen Brookfield, have also
argued that educators need to aim for deeper, more meaningful
forms of learning than simply memorizing information.
Evidence from the fields of cognitive psychology and
neurobiology is another possible contribution to the movement
away from information transfer approaches to education. For
example, cognitive psychology research on memory has shown
that rote learning may be inferior to strategies that rely upon
elaborative encoding of information, such as a more active
learning process which relates new information to older,
mastered understanding. Cognitive

neuroscience research also suggests the existence for multiple
forms of long term memory, such as procedural, semantic, and
episodic memories. Altogether, our contemporary view is that a
high-quality education needs to be much more than the simple
transfer and storage of important information.
Although powerpoint is a modern technology, the inherent
nature of powerpoint presentations is to gravitate toward passive
learning approaches that emphasize information delivery. It
seems that passive learning is a default mode of powerpoint
presentations. This passivity is not surprising given that the
modern powerpoint presentation has historical roots in older
technologies associated with lecturing, such as chalkboards and
overhead projectors. Teaching excellence with powerpoint will
require, to some degree, going against the inherent tendency to
use powerpoint for mere information delivery. To achieve active
learning, the instructors will need to intentionally use powerpoint
to promote active learning classroom situations (Vallance and
Towndrow, 2007).
We will now explore the ways that powerpoint presentations
can promote learning processes. Instructors can use powerpoint
to provide support for active learning exercises, and thereby
indirectly contribute to important course goals. Such methods
include technologies and assignments that infuse a more active
learning emphasis into powerpoint. Learning response systems
that require student feedback and promote student-instructor
interactions and student-authored powerpoint presentations are
possible ways of encouraging active learning with powerpoint.
There are many other possible approaches, all of which
emphasize the stimulation of student cognition.

193
Adding Active Learning to Lectures
A key conclusion from the book What’s the Use of Lectures?
can be captured in a single sentence: “The lecture method alone
is rarely adequate” (Bligh, 2000, p. 223). By extension, the
standard powerpoint presentation that emphasizes information
delivery and passive learning for an entire class period is a
bad practice. Bligh cautiously points out that lectures are not
always bad, even though educators sometimes view lectures
with disdain. Bligh’s view is that teachers should “[u]se lectures
to teach information. Do not rely on them to promote thought,
change attitudes, or develop behavioral skills if you can help it.”
(p. 20). Lectures become problematic when instructors overuse
the lecture approach. To achieve teaching excellence, we will
need to follow Bligh’s advice to break up our traditional lectures
with other teaching approaches that emphasize an active learning
process. Active learning exercises are small parts of the big
puzzle, activities that instructors can sprinkle throughout the
class period to break up the monotony of a lecture approach.
These activities can supplement the information-delivery focus
of powerpoint presentations.
The active learning possibilities in powerpoint are very broad.
Bligh recommended brief discussion activities during class to
break the monotony of a continuous lecture. Burmark suggests
using flashcards, digital photo essays, and writing prompts
(Burmark, 2004). Berk suggests surveys, reading/interpretation,
and reactions to music or video (Berk, 2011). Digital storytelling
is another possibility (Robin, 2008). The general idea is that
powerpoint slides do not need to always involve presenting

information, even though information delivery is their typical
function. The successful educational use of powerpoint is to
realize that the slides can play a useful supporting role for
promoting active learning.
Click to Active Learning
Powerpoint is like a one-way street: Information tends
to move from the presenter to the audience. In some cases,
powerpoint presentations may even discourage student feedback
or interactions between the students and the instructor. This
problem could be particularly strong in large lecture situations.
Students in large lecture halls may feel uncomfortable asking
questions during class due to the potential embarrassment that
could occur when speaking in front of 100 or more people.
In the late 1990s, new wireless devices were introduced to
promote more communication from the student to the instructor
and thereby address an important weakness in the typical
educational presentation. These wireless response systems go
by a wide variety of names, with the most common term being
“clickers.” (Business professionals may use the term “clicker”
to describe wireless remote control devices that advance a slide
presentation, but in the field of education, the word “clicker” is
typically used to describe student response systems.) Although a
number of different vendors and possible features are available,
the most essential characteristic is that this technology enables
teachers to collect quick feedback on student learning.
Student response system technology is most commonly used
for assessing content-based questions in large lecture classes. The

195
instructor initiates the use of these devices by posing a question
to the students on a powerpoint slide. The questions are often
in a multiple choice or true-false format: A statement followed
by several potential answers. The students answer this question
through the student response system device by using buttons like
A/B/C/D or Yes/No. Some educators ask their students to briefly
discuss the best possible answer with their neighbor after they
report their answer via the wireless remote device. The student
responses are wirelessly transmitted to a receiver system that
collects, tabulates, and displays the results on the computer. The
powerpoint display can give students feedback on their answers
and also project the classroom responses for the entire class to
see. This information provides the instructor with a quick, real-
time assessment of student learning. If students seem to be
grasping the key concept, the lecturer can move on to new
content. In contrast, poor student comprehension can be an
important indicator that more class time is needed for the topic.
The instructor can also use the student feedback for discussion
purposes, for example, to comment on why particular student
answers are correct or incorrect. This process typically repeats
several times during the class period, with the instructor asking
four to six content-based questions during a typical classroom
period.
A recent trend in classroom response systems is favoring
the use of smart phone apps over specialized hardware devices
(Roll, 2017). This is a part of a general ‘bring your own device’
(BYOD) movement that involves personal phone use for business
or institutional purposes. Examples of these smart phone apps
include Poll Everywhere (see polleverywhere.com), Top Hat (see
tophat.com), and Socrative (see socrative.com). Some response

system manufacturers, such as Macmillan and Turning Point,
are offering both hardware and phone app-based systems. Phone
app responses systems offer the practical advantages of increased
convenience and possibly lower cost. Student attitudes towards
these systems are positive. The potential downsides include
phone-based distractions, such as playing games during class,
and dropped wireless connections (Miller Griffith and Roberts,
2013; Morrell and Joyce, 2015).
Learning strategies based upon student response systems,
like content-based questions, effectively promote student
learning, with only a few studies finding no benefits (for reviews,
see Caldwell, 2007; Kay and LeSage, 2009; Keough, 2012). A
good example study was done by Mayer, the multimedia learning
expert whose work was discussed in the cognition chapter (see
11), and his colleagues (Mayer et al., 2009). In this study, a
student response system group (student response system plus
group questioning) was compared to two control groups (no
student response system and no group questioning; no student
response system with group questioning). The results showed a
small but positive increase in the exam scores for the student
response system group (83.4%) compared to the control groups
that lacked this technology (80.3% and 80.2%).
Several possible reasons explain why student response
systems and content-based questions might improve student
learning. Mayer’s interpretation is that this approach promotes
generative learning, such as using attention, organization, and
metacognitive skills that are beneficial for deep learning (Mayer
et al., 2009). Another study suggests that the benefits may
be due to testing effects and feedback (A. M. Shapiro and
Gordon,

197
2013). Many other possible instructional benefits of using student
response systems include increased student-teacher interactions,
better assessment of student preparation, practice problems, and
formative assessments (Caldwell, 2007). Student response
systems also give students an opportunity to see how their
performance compares to their classmates’ (Dean, 2013). Let’s
say that two- thirds of a class answers an instructor-posed
question correctly. The remaining students who got the answer
wrong must face the uncomfortable truth that they were in the
minority are, therefore, behind the rest of the class. This ability
for the students to see where they stand in relation to their peers
may put social pressure on the lagging students to work harder.
It seems natural to view the student response system
technology as the source of important student learning gains in
these studies, but this view is somewhat inaccurate. Several
carefully designed studies suggest that the improved learning
comes from questions, projects, assignments, and student
discussions rather than the technology itself (Anthis, 2011;
Christopherson, 2011; Fallon and Forrest, 2011; Zayac, Ratkos,
Frieder, and Paulk, 2016). The learning gains are caused by
posing questions or challenges to students that engage active
learning (for examples, see Strauss, Corrigan, and Hofacker,
2011). In essence, the pedagogy is the real source of learning
gains, not the technology. This understanding is useful because
it suggests that there may be ways to capture many of the benefits
of student response systems without the need to purchase and
implement special technology. For example, student response
system technology might be unnecessary in small classrooms in
which students can use traditional means of responding, like
raised hands. Focusing too much on the

technology can lead educators astray by taking their focus away
from the elements of teaching that are the most important for
improving educational outcomes.
Both student and faculty perceptions of student response
system technology tend to be positive. One review found that 89%
of the student response system studies have an increase in
student satisfaction (Keough, 2012). Most studies also show
increases in perceived performance, attention, and attendance.
Student response systems also increase student-faculty
interactions, including ones not dependent on the technology.
Increased interaction occurs because some students are more
likely to use the response system for class participation compared
to other means, such as asking questions, because the voting is
anonymous and avoids the possibility of public embarrassment.
Overall student engagement can be increased because voting on a
question is a way that teachers can reach out to students and
make them feel like they are involved in class activities.
For negatives, students may be concerned about the
additional costs of these systems if they are required to purchase
their own response system device or must access a phone app.
Technical downsides can include broken or lost remote devices
and possible system failures, such as dropped wireless
connections. Some faculty members may be concerned about the
increased preparation time it might take to incorporate these
device activities into their powerpoint presentations. The amount
of class time available for covering course content may also be
decreased if more time is devoted to question-focused activities.
These negative points may be small problems, but they are still
important to consider for teachers who might use a student
response system.

199
The use of content-based questions in large lecture classes
is just one example of how student response system technology
can be useful. A much wider range of creative possibilities are
available. The devices can be used for interactive games, like the
television game show Jeopardy! Some faculty use these devices
to record attendance. Student response systems can also be used
in conjunction with student discussion activities. For example,
students can discuss the answers to a complex problem in small
groups and then report their conclusion to the instructor via the
response system technology. The devices could be used to vote
for the winners of a debate contest. These ideas are only a small
sampling of the possibilities that might be enabled by having a
quick and efficient means of collecting responses and opinions
from students in the classroom.
The present description of the potential benefits from active
questioning methods and student response system technology
is just a brief overview. For more, the interested reader should
begin by reading review articles that cover the advantages and
disadvantages of these systems (Caldwell, 2007; Kay and LeSage,
2009; Keough, 2012). The manufacturers of student response
systems also have practical suggestions about how to maximize
the educational gains from these systems.
Active Learning with Instructor-Provided
Note Resources
It has become a common teaching practice to make
powerpoint files available to students through learning
management systems for use as a note-taking resource (see
chapter 13). This practice is

popular with students, but downsides exist, such as the
promotion of passive note-taking. One idea for improving
student note- taking quality is to provide a partial or incomplete
resource to the students rather than the common practice of
making the full slide decks available to students. The instructor-
provided resources are partial because key terms are missing or
important bits of information must be completed by the students
during the class period. In most studies, using a partial resource
in this manner produces better learning outcomes than either no
notes or complete instructor notes (Annis, 1981; Cornelius and
Owen-DeSchryver, 2008; Katayama and Crooks, 2003; Kiewra et
al., 1988; but see also Stark-Wroblewski et al., 2006 for negative
results).
The often beneficial, though not universal, effects of
instructor- provided partial notes seem to come from a delicate
balance between providing useful information and requiring
active involvement. These incomplete notes provide enough
information to be a guide for facilitating student note-taking, yet
they are not so information-rich as to encourage a completely
passive approach to note-taking and possibly poor class
attendance. The need for student effort and engagement with
partial notes presumably facilitates learning by requiring an
effortful formation of memory and other cognition by providing
useful scaffolding to help novices. As a practical matter, the
creation of partial note resources, notably, will require some
additional effort from the instructor. At present, most teachers
who make their powerpoint files available online are simply
uploading the same file that they use during the class
presentation. To make the note-taking resource incomplete, the
instructor will need to go through the powerpoint file and
remove information in critical spots. This creates gaps that the

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students must actively fill with their own notes when they are in
class. Another possible way to make powerpoint slides into an
incomplete resource is to save the outline as a text file without
any images. Any information presented through the images or
diagrams would need to be recorded by students as part of their
note-taking activities.
Pardini and colleagues have proposed a different note-taking
technique for online instructor-provided notes (Pardini, Domizi,
Forbes, and Pettis, 2005). Their idea, which they call the parallel
system, also involves active learning and was inspired by the split
page or Cornell system for student note-taking. The system
begins with the students downloading and printing the slide deck
before class. On the back of each page, the students draw a
vertical line two inches from the left side of the page. On the
wider right side part of the page, the students take notes during
class. Thise information that the students record is done in
parallel with the printed powerpoint resource. The narrow
margin on the left side is used for annotations that reflect higher
order thinking. These comments might include questions,
synthesis, relationships, and possible comments about points
that need further study. In other words, the left margin
encourages a metacognitive assessment of issues and insights
that are related to the content-oriented notes on the right.
This parallel note-taking system has several advantages. This
system shows students an effective way to use instructor-
provided slide decks plus student notes as a “hybrid text”
(Pardini et al., 2005). The strategy communicates to students
that instructor- provided resources are intended to guide
learning, rather than replace the need for note-taking. Doing
so gets away from the

common view that students are passive recipients and recorders
of information during a lecture. A teacher advantage is that this
method does not require instructors to edit key terms out of their
slides in order to provide a partial note student resource.
Student Presentations as an Active
Learning Exercise
One of the best ways to learn about a topic is teaching the
topic to others. Being a teacher puts social pressure on an
individual to learn a topic thoroughly. You simply can’t fake
expertise when you are in front of an audience. The fact that
understanding must precede teaching can make student
presentation assignments a valuable method for promoting
active learning. A presentation assignment requires students to
take a careful inventory of what they know about a topic.
During the development of the presentation, students will need
to make critical decisions about the importance and
relationships of the different aspects of their topic information.
The use of powerpoint can play a strong role in this creative
process by providing an organizing point for the presentation
materials that will be shown to the audience.
Presentation assignments have a number of positive features
(Marmienė, 2006). The projects are student-directed, which is
an active, hands-on way to learn. Student presentations involve
the integration of several abilities, including speaking, listening,
writing, and analyzing. The development of the presentation
includes elements of higher order learning from Bloom’s
taxonomy, such as evaluation and synthesis of information.
Presentations can also provide opportunities for cooperative
learning. Students

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may take more time and effort to impress their peers than they do
their teachers, so the motivation to work hard on a presentation
project can be quite high. Finally, presentations also provide a
good opportunity for students to develop their public speaking
skills, which is good preparation for future career activities.
The effectiveness of a present-to-learn teaching strategy is
documented in several studies. In these studies, the assigned task
was to make a presentation that included a powerpoint visual
aid. When students in a present-to-learn group are compared
to students exposed to a more traditional learning situation (no
presentations), the group that was required to make
presentations showed greater mastery of the subject (Gunel,
Hand, and Gunduz, 2006; Gürbüz et al., 2010; Kisoglu, Erkol,
Dilber, and Gurbuz, 2012; Siegle and Foster, 2001). Many studies
of the present-to-learn approach emphasize cooperative learning
as a natural fit to the practice of giving presentations. Teachers
have reported successful collaborative presentations in a wide
range of disciplines and age groups, including middle school
students with disabilities (Kelly, 1999), middle school social
studies students (Dils, 2000), undergraduate chemistry students
(Pence, 1997), and MBA graduate students (M. A. Levin and
Peterson, 2013). Student perceptions of a present-to-learn
teaching strategy are also positive (Blake, Poranek, and
MacCulloch, 2007; Kisoglu et al., 2012; Seo, Templeton, and
Pellegrino, 2008).
Modern presentation software has online technology that
can be particularly useful for presentations developed through a
collaborative group effort. The newest versions of PowerPoint
and some PowerPoint alternatives like Prezi enable each student
to log into a cloud-based, online system to work on their own
part of a

presentation (Brock and Brodahl, 2013). In PowerPoint, online
collaboration may involve using Microsoft’s “OneDrive” cloud
storage or SharePoint technology. These collaborative features
should be useful for facilitating group work because the students
do not have to share a file back and forth, such as sending email
attachments several times between group members.
The slide formats used for preparing student presentations
can significantly influence the degree of student learning in a
present- to-learn strategy. One study compared undergraduate
engineering students who were instructed to create a
presentation using the assertion-evidence slide layout to
another group of students who were allowed to design their
slides in whatever manner they wished (Garner and Alley, 2016).
The students in the latter group mostly designed slides with
bullet point list characteristics. The students who made
assertion-evidence slides performed better on a surprise quiz
compared to the students in the other condition. The assertion-
evidence slide format intriguingly had a significant positive
impact on the presenter’s mastery of the subject material.
Although student presentations have strong active learning
possibilities, they also include significant downsides. A small
number of students are extremely anxious about public speaking
situations. It might be necessary, therefore, to have some
kind of alternative assignment available for people who have
extreme fears of public speaking. Poor attendance on
presentation dates can be another significant problem. In one
report, attendance fell to about 20% on the student
presentation days (Dobson, 2006). The classroom logistics of
having traditional, face-to-face student presentations can also be
problematic. Student presentations can be time consuming,
especially for larger classes, and this problem

205
can be exacerbated by student presentations that run over the
time limits. Valuable time might be wasted in the transition
between different presenters.
Levin and Peterson suggest a creative solution to some of
these student presentation problems based on a little-used
PowerPoint feature (M. A. Levin and Peterson, 2013). Each
student can make a presentation on their own time and use
PowerPoint to record their voice as a narration (the “record
slide show” function). This recording feature saves the narration
along with the slides, which results in a digital presentation. The
narrated slide deck can be electronically submitted to the
instructor as a video file for grading. The recorded narration idea
raises other instructional possibilities, such as peer-review
grading of presentations or alternative presentation assignments
for people with social anxiety problems. Narrated powerpoint
presentations saved as digital files could also be useful
assignments for online course formats.
Teachers who assign presentations will almost surely get
problems related to powerpoint technology. Inexperienced
student presenters often have common problems like bad slide
themes, animated bullet points, and too much text. A good
starting point to address these issues is to set limits and rules for
acceptable presentations, such as rules against using gratuitous
animations and slide transitions. Students also need rules on
time requirements, like the minimum and maximum times, to
guide the development of their presentation. In addition to rules,
instructors can provide guidance by giving the students a slide
template (default background and other formatting features) that
will serve as the foundation for all of the student presentations.
Doing so will help to prevent the use of unusual slide decorations

and features, as well as setting a consistent appearance for the
entire class. Some educators address these powerpoint
technology problems by providing students with a brief
instructional manual that explains a few basic ideas about how to
use powerpoint (Downing and Garmon, 2001; Gareis, 2007). For
an example of student presentation guidelines, please refer to
Shackelford and Griffis, who thoroughly describe an assignment
overview, learning objectives, definitions (e.g., software features),
limitations, and requirements (Shackelford and Griffis, 2007).
The Pecha Kucha Format for
Student Presentations
A drawback of student presentations is the time it can take
to teach students good presentation practices. Developing
presentation skills is desirable, but skill development is a
secondary goal for most courses. Another problem is that student
presentations often go over their allotted time limits, which
creates logistical problems. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a
straightforward way to quickly and easily prevent these bad
presentation practices from occurring in student presentations?
Some instructors have successfully implemented a specific style
of powerpoint presentation that seems to accomplish these goals
with very little work on the instructor’s part.
The pecha kucha presentation places severe constraints on
presenters with two very simple rules: twenty slides, and twenty
seconds for each slide (20 x 20). This distinctive style of
powerpoint presentation breaks with many presentation
conventions. The pecha kucha format was invented by two
architects, Astrid Klein

207
and Mark Dytham, for the purpose of giving brief presentations
to small audiences. The term “pecha kucha” is the Japanese
equivalent of the English term “chit chat,” which is consistent
with its initial use for giving presentations to small groups. The
pecha kucha style has grown into an international movement in
which people gather in public venues for pecha kucha-style
presentations, somewhat like open mic nights for poetry
readings.
In a pecha kucha presentation, the slides are set to
automatically advance every twenty seconds with no intervention
from the speaker. This time limit fundamentally changes
powerpoint presentations in ways that prevent many bad
practices. The emphasis on brevity forces the presenter to get to
the main point without meandering through digressions and off-
topic musings. Long text passages and numerous bullet points
must be avoided because these would be too long to read in
twenty seconds. The emphasis in pecha kucha presentations is on
graphical images, with text being used sparingly or not at all. The
lack of text prevents speakers from using the slide as a
teleprompter, which prevents another common presentation
problem.
The pecha kucha format has features that make it well-suited
to classroom use. The length of an entire pecha kucha
presentation is just under seven minutes (20 slides x 20 seconds
= 400 seconds or 6 minutes, 40 seconds). Students cannot run
over their time limit because the timing is automatically
controlled by the software. This helps the instructor with the
logistics and planning for several pecha kucha presentations in a
single class period. The constraints of pecha kucha benefits
presenters by making them edit their message to focus on the
essential ideas. The overall time limit of about seven minutes is
short enough to make it easy

for students to practice the presentation multiple times before
the final presentation. All of these positive benefits are achieved
without requiring the instructor to put significant time and effort
into teaching students good presentation practices.
Pecha kucha presentations given by students are perceived as
being more interesting and enjoyable than a traditional
powerpoint presentation (Beyer, 2011). The pecha kucha format
has been used successfully for student presentations in a wide
range of academic disciplines, including business (Anderson and
Williams, 2012; M.
A. Levin and Peterson, 2013), psychology (Beyer, 2011),
statistics (Wolverton, Butler, Martinson, and Thomas, 2014),
and English (Gries and Brooke, 2010; Wolverton et al., 2014).
Although the use of pecha kucha in a writing class might seem
somewhat surprising, it is apparently very useful for teaching
about powerful visual metaphors and the importance of the
editing process in creative works (Gries and Brooke, 2010). The
pecha kucha format does not result in higher learning scores
compared to students who merely watch a presentation
(Klentzin, Paladino, Johnston, and Devine, 2010), but the active
learning involved in creating a pecha kucha presentation are
rated by students as being a valuable learning experience (M. A.
Levin and Peterson, 2013).
Teachers who are interested in using the pecha kucha style
for class projects will need to invest some time into preparing
the students for this format. It will take effort on the
instructor’s part to make the students clearly understand that
pecha kucha is not the same as a typical powerpoint
presentation. Showing an example pecha kucha presentation is
a good way to start (many are available online; see
www.pechakucha.org). Students may also need technical help
with setting the slides to automatically

209
advance every twenty seconds. Providing a template file with
this feature enabled is a good way to address this need. The
students also need to understand that pecha kucha-style
presentations should be image-focused rather than the
standard text and bullet points. Finally, the successful
instructor will need to encourage students to rehearse the
presentation, perhaps many times, to get comfortable with the
up-tempo nature of this presentation style.
Many More Possibilities for Active Learning
There are numerous other ways that powerpoint could be
used to promote active learning in the classroom. One possibility
is to use powerpoint for organizing classroom discussion
activities. The question that represents the focal point of
discussion could be displayed on the projection screen at the
front of the room. This facilitates discussion because the
question has a visual persistence: It does not fade from memory
like a question delivered by voice might. Students can refer back
to this question as they form their responses. Other details about
the discussion activity could also be listed on this slide. This
might save the instructor from distributing paper handouts that
describe the assignment or repeatedly announcing the activity
requirements. Using powerpoint in this manner may have a
beneficial effect by guiding the class through an active learning
exercise.
In psychology, important phenomena can sometimes be
directly conveyed to the students so that the students can
experience it for themselves. There are examples of short term
memory demonstrations and visual illusions that can be put
into a powerpoint

presentation. This direct experience with the subject matter may
facilitate the formation of memories that are both verbal (from
the powerpoint text) and experiential (from the demonstration).
Educators who teach science, math, or engineering may
benefit from the highly visual nature of brief videos or
animations that illustrate the movements of complex objects.
Projection technology could be used to show students a live view
of a microscopic image. In math classes, problems can be
projected on to the screen for the students to solve. After this, the
answers can be revealed on the following slide, along with an
explanation. This approach requires student involvement and
provides feedback on the answers (see Chapter 16 for an
example).
A Spanish teacher shared a simple active learning exercise
that she uses to promote active learning. The powerpoint
displays short passages in Spanish on the screen. The students
take turns reading these passages out loud to the rest of the class,
which makes the students an active participant in the powerpoint
presentation. The students benefit by getting feedback on their
efforts. The rest of the class sees role models of good (and maybe
not-so- good) pronunciations. Witnessing these examples from
other students can form the basis of an observational learning
process. Student involvement in this exercise is quite high
because there is some social pressure to perform well. A similar
approach will work well in other classes. In Sensation &
Perception, I explain the different forms of monocular cues for
depth perception to the students, along with examples. This is
followed by a series of full- screen images from sites around the
college campus. The students are asked to identify examples of
the various monocular depth perception cues in the scene with a
brief explanation of why this

211
situation illustrates a particular concept. Powerpoint provides the
means to accomplish this kind of rich active learning experience.
The important take-home idea is that the multimedia
capabilities of powerpoint may facilitate active learning exercises.
Embedded videos might serve as a launching point for an in-
class discussion. The use of hyperlinks might help to organize
information in a fashion that is organic and nonlinear. Links to
different slide topics in the slide deck might be helpful to support
learning processes. In this manner, powerpoint can be seen as
a computer programming platform for educators. It enables
instructors to assemble a rich assortment of information in
creative ways to provide a stimulating experience that promotes
active student learning. This medium can clearly be much more
than overly simple lists of points that form the basis of most
current powerpoint presentations. All that is needed is a creative
learning approach, one that goes beyond a chalkboard-like use of
powerpoint technology.
There are numerous ways to promote active learning with
powerpoint, many of which may be specific to a particular topic
or discipline. A common factor in all of these is to structure the
powerpoint to provide students a challenge based upon the subject
phenomenon. After this, it is up to the students to think deeply
about the challenge, take action, and give an appropriate answer
or response. The requirement of student involvement in these
challenges should be interesting and beneficial to the learning
process. It requires students to shift from absorbing information to
actually using the new concepts in a realistic and productive
manner. In addition, students can evaluate their own learning
when they receive feedback on their responses to the challenge.
There are also

opportunities for interactions between students and observational
learning from the examples seen by other students. These activities
tend to be stimulating and have high student engagement.
Design for Active Learning Processes
The guiding spirit of this chapter is that the default role of
powerpoint—information delivery—is not as important in
modern education as it once was. Because the focus of modern
education is more constructivist, the traditional use of
powerpoint should be intentionally suspended at strategic
moments during a lecture to make room for active learning.
Doing so gives students a needed break from the task of
absorbing more and more information. At these critical points,
the teaching mission can switch from information delivery to
active learning exercises that involve questions, discussions, or
other activities. Lectures are good for information delivery, but
teachers need to mix up the lecture approach with other learning
strategies to promote the best educational outcomes.
Powerpoint is still a useful teaching technology even when it
is not being used for information delivery. There are many ways
that powerpoint can be used to promote active learning, such as
student response system quizzes and present-to-learn
approaches. Using powerpoint in these atypical ways must
become a standard practice if we want to promote higher-order
learning processes.

13
DESIGN FOR BEHAVIOR
Influences on Note-taking and
Attendance
A few students were exceptionally thorough note-takers, but
most did little more than to copy down the key terms and
topic headings provided on the transparency. (Baker and
Lombardi, 1985, p. 32)
An enlightening teaching experience happened to me many
years ago, when I was just beginning to use powerpoint in my
classroom lectures. My powerpoint presentations at that time
were very basic, containing mostly headings and bullet point lists
of key terms. They included only a few instructional graphics. The
powerpoint presentations were essentially the same outlines that
I once wrote on the chalkboard.
One day, a student pulled me aside just a few minutes before
class to tell me that they would not be present in class due to an

urgent personal situation. The student followed this information
with a variation on the “Are we doing anything important today?”
question. It’s a question that frequently comes up in these situa-
tions. This question is annoying because it implies that most class
meetings aren’t really important. This student’s variation was
slightly different though, and it had a lasting impact on me.
“Are we just copying today?”
Thie question caught me off-guard. At first, it wasn’t clear to me
what the student meant, so I hesitated. I had never thought of my
class as being a mere copying exercise. After a moment, I
responded with something like “If you feel that this situation is
urgent, you don’t have to come to class today.” The student was
satisfied with this response, and I went ahead with teaching the
class, just like usual.
The “copy” question stuck with me after this class period was
over. It seemed that this student viewed my carefully prepared
presentations as a simple information transfer exercise: The
professor puts something up on the screen and the students copy
it down. If this was true, the class required minimal note-taking
effort and no active thought process. The question suggested
disengagement from the course. This experience was a critical
moment, one that makes a teacher deeply question their methods
and search for finding a better way to increase student
engagement. Perhaps this book can be viewed as the culmination
of years of professional development towards answering this
“copying” question. It sparked a search for finding powerpoint
presentation techniques that would really engage students,
stimulate thought, and produce a more authentic kind of
learning.
After this episode, I began looking for signs of simple power-
point copying. These signs can sometimes be detected while walk-

Design for Behavior |
215
ing around a classroom and observing the notes that the students
are taking. The following figure (13.1) is an example of student
notes that seem to be a word-for-word copy of a powerpoint pre-
sentation. Even the bullet points have been recreated in the notes.
The notes seem to exhibit no attempt to go beyond the content
presented in the powerpoint slide.
Figure 13.1: An example of student notes based on a powerpoint presentation
This chapter focuses on how students react to the use of
powerpoint. How does powerpoint influence student behavior,
particularly student note-taking? A related topic is how making
slide deck files available to students outside of class (e.g.,
uploading them to a course management system) influences both
note-taking and attendance.
The Importance of Note-Taking
Recording notes during a class presentation has long been
considered a positive student behavior. Both students and faculty

agree that note-taking is helpful. In one study, students indicated
a strong agreement with this question: “Overall, note-taking is
very important to my academic success.” (Williams et al., 2013,
p. 96). However, the benefits of note-taking are not merely
perceived; evidence from cognitive science research supports the
utility of this practice.
One way note-taking helps students is by providing a form
of information storage. Essential information can be recorded
as notes and then studied at a later time. Students generally
view note-taking as being important for information storage
reasons (Badger, White, Sutherland, and Haggis, 2001). From a
learning theory perspective, the use of notes as an information
storage device suggests an information transfer model of
learning. Information is moved from the teacher’s mind to the
student’s notes and, eventually, the student’s memory.
There is more to note-taking than simply storing information.
A secondary role of note-taking involves the active selection and
organization of important information from the presented
material (Di Vesta and Gray, 1972; Hartley and Davies, 1978;
Howe, 1974). During the note-taking process, students actively
relate new information to ideas that they already understand in
order to form a new level of understanding. This means that the
activity of note- taking does more than simply store information
on paper. Note- taking actually helps to form long-term
memories and schemata (conceptual organization) in the brain.
In cognitive psychology, this phenomenon has been variously
called the encoding effect or the generative role of note-taking. In
the field of education, this function might be called active
learning, a term which implies more than just passive student
listening, or constructivism, a

217
term used to refer to a personal, subjective understanding of the
course content. The encoding-related effects of note-taking may
be small and may depend on a multitude of factors (for a review,
see Kobayasi, 2005). In real educational situations, students
likely benefit from both information storage and the encoding of
new memory during the note-taking process.
Even though students understand the importance of taking
notes, research studies of their behavior have clearly documented
that students tend to be poor note-takers. In one typical study,
students only recorded about 50% of the main ideas from a
lecture (Baker and Lombardi, 1985). The range of recording
critical information in notes is from 11% to 70%, with most
studies reporting around 25% to 50% of the key ideas being
captured (Kiewra, 1985). In contrast, most students believe that
their note- taking skills are be very strong (Williams et al., 2013).
The low rate of recording important information in student
notes is problematic for both the storage and the encoding
functions of note-taking. If the goal of taking notes is information
storage, then poor note-taking fails on that front because missing
information cannot be used later to study for an examination. In
addition, when students omit lecture information from notes, it
suggests that they view this content as being unimportant,
making it unlikely that the information was encoded into their
long-term memory. Given these problems, a long-standing
concern in the field of note-taking research has been to improve
the quality of student notes. Better notes will hopefully translate
into better study materials and a more active encoding of
information into memory, eventually leading to better
performance on examinations.

Powerpoint to the Rescue?
An important reason to use powerpoint in education is to
highlight the key ideas in a presentation. If a concept is on the
teacher’s slides, the students will interpret this information as
being important and will record it in their notes. In multimedia
learning theory, this could be called a signaling effect: The
presence of a key term on a slide communicates to students the
importance of the idea.
Research on student note-taking provides strong evidence
that students view the material presented in powerpoint slides as
being important and, therefore, worthy of recording (Badger et
al., 2001). Experimental studies also show that the use of
powerpoint increased the quality of student notes (Austin, Lee,
and Carr, 2004). One study compared students given different
cues for recording information, such as powerpoint slides, verbal
cues, or discussion cues. This study found a high rate of
recording information from powerpoint slides, but much lower
rates of recording information from the other sources (Huxam,
2010). This finding is consistent with earlier studies that were
done with overhead transparencies and chalkboards (Baker and
Lombardi, 1985; Locke, 1977). In one study, students recorded
almost everything (88%) that was written on the chalkboard, but
information not written on the chalkboard was recorded only
51.6% of the time (Locke, 1977). A similar study showed an even
lower rate (27%) of note-taking for information that was not on
the chalkboard (Locke, 1975). Overall, the research consistently
shows that students are much more likely to record information
presented to them in a visual rather than a spoken form.

219
These research findings show that powerpoint addresses
the important note-taking problem of clearly communicating
the key ideas from a lecture to the students. Anything that the
instructor believes to be important should be put into the visual
slide presentation. The visual presence in the slides sends a clear
message to students that this material is important and worthy
of being in the notes. Powerpoint use should help to increase the
number of important points from a class that students capture in
their notes.
Although powerpoint sends helpful note-taking cues,
potential problems still exist with using powerpoint to guide
student note- taking efforts. One problem is that some students
record rather little in their notes, even when instructors use
powerpoint to cue students about the important points (Huxam,
2010). A related problem is that much of the information that
students record from a powerpoint slide could accurately be
described as verbatim note- taking: Their notes are an exact
replica of the slide information, such as Figure 13.1. The problem
with verbatim notes is that such note-takers have made very little
effort to understand key terms or make connections between
concepts, both of which are crucial parts of the learning process.
For example, one study found that only 22% of the notes were of
sufficient quality to demonstrate understanding (Huxam, 2010).
A third potential problem is that some students may still struggle
with identifying the key ideas, even when these ideas are
presented on the powerpoint slide (Haynes, McCarley, and
Williams, 2015; Williams et al., 2016). Students may view all of
the information from a powerpoint presentation as being of
equal importance, even when this is clearly not true. If
students’ approach to note-taking involves simply copying

information, this will not enable the student to distinguish more
important material from less important material.
In sum, it appears that powerpoint provides a useful yet only
partial solution to guiding student note-taking efforts. Instructors
can use powerpoint to clearly signal the content and ideas that are
important and encourage the recording of this information in
notes. The problem, though, is that relying on powerpoint for
these signals generally leads to low-quality records of the
presented information which show little evidence of
understanding or other higher-level thinking skills. Again, this
problem is not unique to powerpoint (e.g., Locke, 1977); it may be
more accurate to say that powerpoint is not a magical panacea for
the problem of poor note-taking.
Making Powerpoint Files Available to
Students
It has long been thought that instructors should try to
enhance the quality of student notes by providing assistance
that might improve note-taking efforts. One form of assistance
takes the form of outlines of the lecture material, sometimes
called ‘partial notes’ (Annis, 1981; Kiewra, 1985; Kiewra et al.,
1988). The intent for providing this resource is to give students a
framework for organizing the topic material. The students’ job is
to fill in the details of the framework with their own notes taken
during class (see also Chapter 12). In general, these instructor-
provided materials would meet two important needs of note-
taking. First, the instructor-provided information would ensure
the completeness and accuracy of the resources for storage and
review, which fills the need for information storage. Second, since
they were provided with key information, students would be
free

221
from the need to record lots of lecture information. Students
could then direct their note-taking effort toward recording
thoughts, reactions, and other kinds of active or constructive
learning that might help the encoding of long-term memories.
A different type of solution, particularly if students are poor
at recording information, is to give the students highly-detailed
handouts (Katayama and Crooks, 2003; Kiewra, 1985; Kiewra
et al., 1988). Full notes are somewhat helpful, but the students
who are given these resources typically do not perform as well as
students who receive partial notes. The complete notes decrease
the students’ need to work at note-taking, and the corresponding
lack of student effort translates into lower grades. From a
cognitive psychology perspective, it is possible to decrease the
cognitive load too much, removing all need for effortful
processing. The students clearly need to put some effort into
recording notes in order to form new memories.
Although early studies showed that providing partial notes
assisted note-taking, it was not widely adopted in practice. In the
1970s and 1980s, making paper copies of note-taking resources
and distributing them before class was cumbersome. The
transition to powerpoint technology dramatically changed this
process by eliminating the need for paper copies altogether. It is
now relatively easy for teachers to upload their powerpoint files
or lecture outlines to an online course management system, such
as Blackboard, Brightspace, or Moodle. Students can access the
presentation files before or during class and then use these
resources to augment their note-taking during the class
presentation.
Students strongly approve of having online access to their
teacher’s powerpoint files (Badger et al., 2001; Worthington and

Levasseur, 2015). This information can serve as a guide to key
ideas in the presentation, which is probably the biggest
advantage of providing this access. The students do not have to
copy down every word because some of the material is already
available to them. Thus, the students can annotate the
powerpoint file or print-out with their own thoughts, insights,
possible exam questions, and issues for further clarification.
Some students feel that access to the powerpoint slides is useful
for keeping up with the rapid pace of a presentation and avoiding
information overload (Sambrook and Rowley, 2010). Non-native
English speakers and students with reading disabilities or
hearing impairments may feel that the instructor-provided
notes are valuable resources (Sambrook and Rowley, 2010).
Students also like to use powerpoint files as a study guide when
they prepare for exams. One student survey found that 69.2% of
students “always” and 15.4% “usually” use instructor-provided
powerpoint files as review material before tests (Debevec, Shih,
and Kashyap, 2006).
There is another dimension to powerpoint that should also
be considered, one that is broader than serving the note-taking
needs of students. The modern use of powerpoint in our culture
has two purposes. The first and most obvious purpose is to
support presentations. The second purpose of powerpoint, which
is newer and less obvious, is to preserve a record of information
that was given during a meeting. This usually means storing the
powerpoint slide deck file online or on a corporate network so the
people in the audience can access it at a later time. This dual role
of powerpoint—presentation and document—has become a
standard practice in business and government (Knoblauch, 2012;
Nathans- Kelly and Nicometo, 2014). Given this cultural
standard, it would

223
be a good practice to provide powerpoint files online in a course
management system, as it will provide students with a good
model for using powerpoint in their future occupations.
Although the practice of providing powerpoint files for
students is now commonplace, it is worth examining whether or
not having access to these files can really improve student
performance on exams. Many studies have been conducted to
address this question. Some of these studies employ an
experimental approach (Does powerpoint file access cause better
exam performance?) and some of these studies have taken a
correlational approach (Is there a relationship or pattern
between students downloading the slides and course grades?).
The overall research findings are mixed. Out of fifteen reviewed
studies, only six report a positive effect of providing powerpoint
files online to students (Austin et al., 2004; Chen and Lin, 2008;
Cornelius and Owen-DeSchryver, 2008; Frank, Shaw, and
Wilson, 2008; Grabe, Christoperson, and Douglas, 2004;
Hammonds, 2003). In contrast, seven studies found no
improvement (Bowman, 2009; Debevec et al., 2006; Noppe,
2007; Nouri and Shahid, 2008; Stark-Wroblewski et al.,
2006; Vandehey, Marsh, and Diekhoff, 2005; Worthington and
Levasseur, 2015), and one study found a decline in grades
(Weatherly, Grabe, and Arthur, 2002) for students who had
powerpoint file access. One report had mixed results, with
handouts leading to improvement in one experiment and no
improvement in another (Marsh and Sink, 2010). Even when
powerpoint file availability is beneficial, it seems that the benefits
are small, with reported grade increases of only 3.5% to 6%
across the entire class (Chen and Lin, 2008; Grabe et al.,
2004). A research weakness in some studies is that correlations
showing improved test scores

associated with powerpoint file availability cannot be interpreted
as demonstrating that powerpoint access causes better student
grades (Cannon, 2011). It could be that students who download
powerpoint files have other characteristics associated with greater
academic success—such as being more organized or having more
proactive study skills—that could cause them to do well on an
exam with or without powerpoint file access.
A simple explanation for the weak educational benefits of slide
deck availability is that many students do not use the available
slide decks to guide their note-taking. Studies show that only
thirty-five to fifty percent of students download slide decks before
class, which is when this resource would be most beneficial for
guiding note-taking efforts (Chen and Lin, 2008; Debevec et al.,
2006; Grabe et al., 2004; Worthington and Levasseur, 2015).
In one study, only eight percent of the students printed the
slides before class to use as a note-taking resource (I. Wilson,
2016). Clearly, many students do not seem to take advantage of
instructor-provided resources for improving their notes. Another
problem is that the effectiveness of instructor-provided notes can
be diminished if students do not understand how they should
use instructor-provided resources. For example, students may be
uncertain about whether they should add more information to
the powerpoint file during class, or if they should just listen
attentively to the instructor without writing anything down.
Some students also complain that instructor-provided resources
may have too much information or are poorly organized, which
might decrease their educational effectiveness (Pardini et al.,
2005).
Fortunately, the research literature in this area provides
suggestions that may help instructors and students maximize the

225
effectiveness of online powerpoint resources. A good starting
point is whether or not the full slide deck should be made
available. A number of studies suggest that partial notes, such as
an outline, may be more beneficial than a more detailed set of
notes (Annis, 1981; Cornelius and Owen-DeSchryver, 2008;
Katayama and Crooks, 2003). Partial notes provide needed
information and guidance, yet they still require a more active
level of student involvement than full notes. Another decision
when posting powerpoint files online concerns the resource
format. Students seem to prefer text- based resources, such as
bullet points, over image-based or audio- based resources
(Garrett, 2015; Grabe and Christoperson, 2008). The student
preference for text over images suggests that it might be
worthwhile to convert a powerpoint presentation, particularly
one that is image-heavy, to a text-only outline for sharing with the
students. The timing of the resource availability is also
important. Instructors should make these resources available
before the class so the students will be able to use these resources
as guides for their note-taking efforts during class. A possible
variation is to make partial notes available before class (to help
encoding and active learning) and full notes available after class.
Just as we should not assume that students naturally know
how to take good notes, we also should not assume that students
will naturally know how to use note-taking resources that the
instructor provides. Less than half of the students will print the
powerpoint file before class when this resource is available. This
suggests that students may need direct encouragement or
instruction to download and print powerpoint files before class.
Students may also need help in using this resource to identify the
most important ideas to record in their notes (Haynes et al., 2015;
I. Wilson, 2016).

226 | Slides for
Students
Powerpoint File Access and Student
Attendance
I missed classes thinking I could just look at the [online]
notes, (then did bad on the test). . . . [S]tudents that have
access . . . will probably assume that they can procrastinate,
or only study a little because they have the answers right
there (at least that’s what I did, and it didn’t work too well).
Anonymous student from Stark-Wroblewski et al., 2006, p.
34
Class attendance is a student behavior that may be affected
by powerpoint. This possibility is most relevant to college-level
courses that may not have strict attendance policies. Since class
attendance is known to be important for college success, any
influence that powerpoint might have on attendance could be
either helpful or harmful.
Several early studies found that attendance was improved in
courses that used powerpoint presentations, presumably due to
increased student motivation (Daniels, 1999; Evans, 1998 as cited
in Szabo and Hastings, 2000; Susskind, 2005; Szabo and
Hastings, 2000). Other studies, in contrast, have found that the
use of powerpoint has no effect on student attendance, either
positive or negative (Beets and Lobinger, 2001; Frey and
Birnbaum, 2002; Sambrook and Rowley, 2010; Susskind, 2008).
One interpretation of these mixed research findings is that
powerpoint presentations may have boosted attendance when it
was a new technology, but may not increase attendance at the
present time because powerpoint is no longer a novelty to
students (L. A. Burke and James, 2008). In one set of studies,
students were more likely

227
to self-report that they would attend a lecture with a powerpoint
on a survey (Susskind, 2005), but a subsequent study based on
actual attendance records was unable to confirm a real increase
in attendance (Susskind, 2008). This difference between student
perceptions and actual attendance records might also explain
why some studies find increased attendance while other studies
find no evidence of improved attendance. Altogether, the
research findings suggest that using powerpoint in the classroom
probably has no significant influence on student attendance or, at
the very least, cannot provide a guarantee of increased
attendance.
The possibility that powerpoint might change student
attendance for the worse is relevant to the common practice of
making powerpoint files available online to students. Concerns
have been raised that students who can download a powerpoint
presentation are less likely to attend class (e.g., Schuman, 2014).
In particular, if students view a class lecture as a simple
information transfer exercise (i.e., “copying”), then getting the
key points from an online powerpoint file makes class attendance
completely unnecessary. It would be much more efficient for
students to simply download the file and not bother taking the
time to attend class. To address this possibility, several studies
have asked this question: Will classroom attendance decrease if
powerpoint files are made available to students?
Again, the research evidence is mixed. A few reports of
powerpoint use indicate decreasing class attendance. One
professor observed a 20% drop in attendance when powerpoint
files were made available to the students (Young, 2004),
although this evidence is anecdotal and should be interpreted
with caution. In one survey, students reported that they were
less likely to

attend class and were more likely to procrastinate if the
instructor provided notes (Pardini et al., 2005). In another
student survey, the students reported that having instructor-
provided notes would not negatively affect their own attendance,
but it might negatively affect the attendance of other students
(Sambrook and Rowley, 2010).
In contrast, the majority of studies on attendance did not
find decreased attendance when slide decks were made available
to students. Ten empirical studies, based on varying research
methodologies, report no adverse attendance effects from posting
powerpoint slide decks online for student access (Bowman,
2009;
L. A. Burke and James, 2008; Cornelius and Owen-
DeSchryver, 2008; Debevec et al., 2006; Frank et al., 2008; Frey
and Birnbaum, 2002; Grabe and Christoperson, 2008; Gurrie
and Fair, 2008; Vandehey et al., 2005; Worthington and
Levasseur, 2015). One study suggests that students with certain
learning style preferences might be less likely to attend class if
powerpoint slides can be downloaded, even though there was no
overall decline in attendance for the class as a whole (Debevec et
al., 2006). Several studies that failed to find a connection
between powerpoint slide downloads and poor attendance did,
however, find a general influence of attendance on grades. In
other words, students who have poor attendance tend to do
worse in class regardless of whether or not they have downloaded
the powerpoint file (Bowman, 2009; Debevec et al., 2006;
Worthington and Levasseur, 2015). Again, the real association at
work here may be the influence of personal characteristics such
as poor work ethic or ineffective study habits, which could affect
both attendance and grades independently of powerpoint
availability.

229
Most students seem to be aware of the importance of attending
class. In one study, 17% of the students said that they were less
likely to attend class when powerpoint was available online.
However, the overall results suggested that most students felt that
attendance was important and that online access to the powerpoint
files was useful for note-taking activities (Gurrie and Fair, 2008).
This pattern is likely true with many classes. Perhaps attendance is
only a problem for a small proportion of students who are weakly
motivated and who are at risk for doing poorly in class anyway.
Powerpoint file access and regular attendance might still be valued
by most of the class.
Some anecdotal evidence suggests that giving powerpoint file
access to students causes lower attendance only when the teacher
misuses powerpoint in a particular pattern. First, the powerpoint
slides contain a large amount of text, which turns the powerpoint
file into a stand-alone document. In other words, the powerpoint
file by itself is sufficient to be understood without any
commentary from the teacher. The second related condition is
bad presentation practices, such as the teacher merely reading
the text from the powerpoint display to the students, which most
students find boring or even aggravating. When a detailed slide
deck is available to students and is combined with a boring
presentation style, the students might conclude that class time
is simply not valuable. We should emphasize that this pattern
does not describe good teaching practices. This pattern results in
the dullest kind of class, and it seems likely that attendance
might suffer in this kind of situation regardless of whether or not
the powerpoint files were available outside of class sessions.
The overall picture from research studies suggests that
making powerpoint slides available to students does not seem

to cause a strong negative influence on class attendance. The
majority of students believe that attendance is important and
they will attend class regularly, even if the powerpoint slides are
available online. Instructors who have reservations about
sharing slides with students through online resources should
not be too concerned about declining attendance. Still,
instructors need to be vigilant about the possibility of lower
attendance. The students may need to be informed that the
purpose of class meetings and note-taking is more than just an
information transfer process. In small classes, instructors can
monitor attendance for signs of poor student engagement.
Design Tip: Make Powerpoint Files or
Outlines Available to the Students
Powerpoint clearly can influence student behavior in
various, though somewhat ambiguous, ways. Powerpoint may
send important signals to students about the key ideas of a
topic, but the downside is that powerpoint can promote the
passive recording of information rather than deeper learning.
Many instructors who make their slide decks available outside
of class hope that doing so will help improve their students’
note-taking skill by decreasing the need to merely transcribe
information. In addition, students strongly approve of having
access to powerpoint files. However, the availability of teacher
slide decks is associated with, at best, only a modest
improvement on student grades. Nevertheless, such availability
does not seem to have a significant negative impact on
attendance. Based on this evidence, a weak recommendation is
to provide powerpoint files

231
to students in the hopes that these resources may be beneficial
for note-taking and study review efforts.
Because, again, students really prefer the text from
powerpoint presentations, simply providing the text rather than
the full powerpoint slides would be most useful. A text-only
resource would be missing some information, which would make
it similar to the partial notes conditions that produced the best
learning outcomes in some notetaking studies. Student
attendance and engagement would still be needed to fill in the
gaps of missing information.
This chapter began with a story about how students might
view powerpoint presentations as a mere copying exercise.
This does not have to be the standard student experience. The
use of better slide designs, such as using multimedia principles
to guide slide construction, should result in a more engaging
learning event. In addition, teachers need to ensure they use
active learning methods as a part of the course. Taking these
steps will ensure that students view class time as a meaningful
and engaging learning experience, so they will hopefully make a
strong effort to attend every class period.

14
TECHNOLOGY CHOICES
Evaluating PowerPoint and
Similar Presentation
Technologies
Microsoft PowerPoint has set the standard for office
presentation software since it was introduced in 1990. The
estimated market share of PowerPoint is over 90%, making it
the undisputed leader of presentation software. This market
dominance has thoroughly penetrated our culture as well.
Whefn people think of presentations, they naturally assume that
PowerPoint is the technology used for multimedia purposes.
Although Microsoft’s PowerPoint is the clear leader, some
teachers feel that that their needs are not fully met by this
product. As we have seen, there are some concerns about the
linear nature of slide decks and other limitations that PowerPoint
imposes on users. There are numerous other software
possibilities that can be used for delivering the multimedia
component of presentations. One review of PowerPoint
alternatives from 2017 described 36

Technology Choices |
233
PowerPoint-like applications (Croxton, 2017). In this chapter,
the advantages and disadvantages of PowerPoint will be briefly
reviewed. Several other possible alternatives to PowerPoint will
also be explored to see if the needs of teachers can be better met
with specialized products. Nontraditional distance learning uses
of PowerPoint will also be considered.
Microsoft’s PowerPoint: The King
of Presentation Software
PowerPoint has a multitude of software features for designing
and delivering presentations, such as slide templates, themes,
and drawing tools. The advanced features include the creation of
animations, editing photos, and embedding audio or video into
slides. Altogether, the ability to organize a wide range of text,
images, audio, and video makes PowerPoint a central organizing
container for delivering various forms of multimedia resources
during a class presentation. Many features are also available for
controlling the delivery of the presentation.
Being the industry leader comes with numerous advantages.
Most educators will have office and classroom computers that
come with Microsoft Office applications, of which PowerPoint is
an important component. There is a great convenience to using a
software standard. PowerPoint users can feel confident that their
presentations will work on almost any personal computer. There
is an entire technology ecosystem that supports PowerPoint,
including how-to instructional books and videos. Optional
presentation hardware, such as remote presentation controls and
student response systems, are typically designed to be used with

PowerPoint presentations, which eliminates potential headaches
that might be caused by hardware incompatibilities.
There are a few downsides to PowerPoint. Having a multitude
of software features is usually viewed as being positive, but it
can occasionally be the source of problems. Users can become
overwhelmed with too many software features, including features
that may potentially harm the quality of presentations. For
example, PowerPoint provides many possibilities for generic clip-
art, overly fanciful slide templates, and unnecessary animations
that most presentation experts warn against using. Another
practical drawback is that the software can be expensive. This
may not matter much to faculty who have computers provided by
their schools, but the cost may be an important barrier to
students who need to design presentations for classroom
projects.
PowerPoint software has a long history compared to most
contemporary computer technology. While a positive in many
regards, this legacy or long tradition may also been seen as
problematic. Standard features of PowerPoint may not be well
suited to classroom use for a variety of historical reasons, such
as being developed for business needs rather than educational
needs. The original designers of PowerPoint were computer
programmers who had no background in giving presentations.
Fundamental aspects of PowerPoint slides, such as the emphasis
on bullet points, can be viewed as a carryover from the limitations
of the 1990s personal computers. These historical roots have
created potentially problematic standards of emphasizing text
over images in PowerPoint presentations. Another legacy
hardware downside is that PowerPoint tends to favor files that
are located on a local hard disk. This local storage inclination is
at odds with the

235
increasingly online nature of information such as web pages and
videos. Current versions of PowerPoint have features for using
links and cloud-based computer files, but these features can feel
like awkward add-ons to a product that was originally intended
for desktop computers. Most recently, Microsoft has begun to
embrace the modern networked computing environment with
web-based versions of PowerPoint in Office 365. Perhaps future
versions will be friendlier to online information.
There are two notable software alternatives for desktop or
laptop computers that closely match the features and capabilities
of PowerPoint. For Apple computers, Keynote is a presentation
application from the iWork office software suite. Keynote was
used to develop and deliver the media presentations in Al Gore’s
award-winning “An Inconvenient Truth” documentary (see
http://www.duarte.com/portfolio/an-irresistible-keynote/), which
demonstrates the powerful potential of this software. A limitation
of Keynote is that it only runs on Apple computer products.
The second notable PowerPoint alternative is Impress from the
LibreOffice/OpenOffice software suite. This application has
almost all of the same features as PowerPoint, making it a work-
alike clone. Impress is available for free and runs on Windows,
Apple, or Linux-based computers.
Having several software possibilities can be a downside
because these technologies are incompatible with each other.
Situations may arise in which a presentation was created in
Keynote or Impress but the classroom projection system is based
on PowerPoint. This is particularly likely to occur when students
occasionally use these PowerPoint alternatives to create
classroom presentations. Fortunately, there are easy solutions.
Both Keynote and Impress

can save or “export” files to the PowerPoint format (.ppt or .pptx
on Windows computers). These exported presentation files can
then be opened on systems that use PowerPoint. Another option
is the web site cloudconvert.com. Upload the Keynote or Impress
file to cloudconvert.com, select the desired file format, wait a
moment, and then download the converted PowerPoint file. This
service is free and does not require special software. Conversions
to PowerPoint can be done quickly in a classroom situation, if
needed, for facilitating student presentations.
Web-Based Presentation Applications
An important trend in computer technology over the last
decade is the movement towards portability, such as smart
phones, tablet computers, and so-called cloud storage of critical
files (e.g., Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive). This portability
trend has increasingly emphasized online applications that are
hosted on remote computers and accessed through a web
browser on a hand-held device. This trend towards online
computing resources is reflected in a number of web-based
presentation applications, such as Microsoft’s PowerPoint 365
(as part of the online Office365 application suite), Zoho Show,
and Clearslide (formerly Sliderocket). The web-based
PowerPoint alternatives usually have a feature/flexibility
tradeoff. The upside of being web-based is that these
applications can be accessed from any computer that is
connected to the Internet. This might be a strong advantage if
the presenter’s goal is to give presentations from a wide range of
computer platforms, post slides on the web, or give remote
presentations. A chief disadvantage of online applications

237
is that they tend to have fewer features than the desktop or
laptop version of Microsoft’s PowerPoint. Basic edits are
possible with the online systems, but advanced features are
usually lacking. For a comprehensive review of online
presentation applications, please see Croxton’s (2017) round-up
of web-based alternatives to PowerPoint.
A flexibility advantage of PowerPoint 365 and many of the
online presentation application is the ability to collaborate online
with multiple authors during the creation of a slide deck. The
authors have the freedom to separately log into the system and
make slides at different times and different locations. This feature
can be valuable for student presentations that require group
collaboration. The ability to collaboratively author slide decks
online may not be necessary for most teachers, but it could be a
strong advantage for educators who assign presentation projects
to their students.
Some online PowerPoint alternatives explicitly aim to break
with potentially problematic PowerPoint conventions such as
bullet point lists and linear slide decks. Of these, Prezi (prezi.
com) has received the greatest degree of attention. Prezi is a free
online presentation application that is somewhat like conventional
PowerPoint yet has an innovative twist. The Prezi presentation
begins with a large master slide—the infinite canvas—that works
like a cognitive map of the overall presentation. The speaker
can zoom into this canvas to reveal more details about a specific
subtopic. The speaker can move through these subtopics in any
desired order, which makes the flow of the presentation less
confined than the typical linear order imposed by a conventional
PowerPoint presentation. An unusual downside of Prezi is that the

zooming effects can trigger nausea in some audience members: an
effect that is called “Prezi sickness.” The general recommendation
is to avoid going too quickly through the presentation. The Prezi
web site even has a special Prezi presentation on this topic
—“Avoiding Prezilepsy”—that gives tips about ways to avoid
motion sickness.
The educational view of Prezi is that this technology functions
more like a graphical organizer or mind-map than the usual
PowerPoint bullet list. A slide that starts with a map of Europe or
an image of the brain is a good starting point to give the students
a context. The instructor can then zoom into a particular region
of Europe or the brain to reveal more details. This zooming
feature might help students make connections between the whole
(or context) and the parts of the topic.
Student perceptions of Prezi presentations are generally
positive (Brock and Brodahl, 2013; Conboy et al., 2012; Virtanen
et al., 2013). Some instructors feel that Prezi may hold audience
attention better than the PowerPoint presentations. However,
direct comparisons of Prezi to PowerPoint have not found that
Prezi produces superior learning performance (Castelyn and
Mottart, 2012; Castelyn et al., 2013; Chou et al., 2015). Prezi has
also been successfully used for student presentation projects,
although some students report that Prezi is more difficult and
time consuming to use than PowerPoint (Brock and Brodahl,
2013; Conboy et al., 2012).
Another web-based presentation application is Haiku Deck,
which was specifically designed to meet the needs of teacher
and student presentations (Coget, 2015). The inspiration for this
software comes from the Japanese haiku poetry tradition, which
is characterized by a brief and simple elegance. Haiku Deck

239
emphasizes simplicity through highly constrained options for
creating basic slides. There are only four possible slide formats:
title, bullet point, numerical list, and unformatted text. Each
slide format also has limits, such as a five bullet point maximum,
to help prevent clutter and information overload. Problematic
features, like flying bullet point animations, are not available.
The constraints force users to create a highly focused message,
somewhat like Twitter (Coget, 2015) or possibly pecha kucha (see
Chapter 12). The simplicity of this platform might also facilitate
the creation of presentations on portable computing devices such
as smart phones and tablets. The Haiku Deck system also has a
classroom environment feature that enables students to easily
create and share slide decks during class. Teachers can use the
Haiku Deck system to quickly make basic presentations, which
could help to increase teacher productivity. In regard to cost,
Haiku Deck has a limited free trial offering of three presentations.
A monthly or annual subscription fee is needed to access the full
capabilities of this platform.
A third noteworthy web-based PowerPoint alternative is the
Slides application of the Google office suite. This application
offers many features that are similar to PowerPoint, including
slide authoring, style templates, and a presentation mode. The
web-based nature lends itself well to a wide range of computing
platforms, such as desktop or laptop computers, tablets, and
smart phones. The key advantage for educators is that Slides is
a component of Google’s popular office software suite. Many
teachers and students who are accustomed to Google’s other
educational services, such as Gmail-based email, Chromebooks,
and Google Classroom, may find it convenient to create and

present their presentations within the same environment. The
Slides application might be particularly useful for students due to
the web-based advantages: Portability, compatibility, and online
collaboration with other students. This application is available for
free, another feature that should greatly appeal to students.
Broadly speaking, the computing environment has changed
dramatically over the last decade, with a movement away from
desktop computers towards smaller, more portable devices
like smart phones and tablets. PowerPoint and similar software
applications are no exception to this trend. The capabilities of
web-based presentation applications have been greatly improved
and expanded over the last several years. It seems quite likely
that online, cloud-based technology is the future direction of
presentation software, with the flexibility and other advantages
that web-based software has to offer. Another possibility is that a
traditional/cloud hybrid model will emerge, in which
presentations are authored on desktop computers but are
presented with cloud- based technologies.
PowerPoint for Distance Education
A second important long term trend in the field of education
is the increase in distance education delivered via the Internet.
PowerPoint has shown a remarkable ability to adapt to these
newer online needs. Powerpoint-style presentations are
increasingly given through a variety of online technologies in
which the educator does not need to be in the same physical
space as the student.
One approach to making an online powerpoint presentation is
to record the spoken component of a presentation as a
narration

241
that can be integrated into the slide presentation. The end
product is a powerpoint presentation that can be watched over
the Internet without the instructor’s presence. In PowerPoint,
voice-over narrations can be created through the “Slide Show”
tab, then “Record Slide Show” button. The resulting dialog box
that pops up has checked radio buttons for “Slide and animation
timings” (for recording the slide transitions) and “Narrations,
ink, and laser pointer” (for recording voice and other features).
The “Start recording” button begins a normal slide presentation
while recording the speaker’s voice from a microphone and the
slide transitions with either mouse buttons or keyboard inputs.
After finishing, the resulting presentation with the voice-over
narration can be saved as a PowerPoint file or it can be saved
as a video file format, such as mpeg-4 (file extension .mp4) or
Windows media video (.wmv). The video formats are the best
choice for online courses. These video files display the slides and
play the audio recording for each slide as the slide deck advances,
giving the presentation a stand-alone quality that eliminates the
physical presence of the teacher.
Narrated PowerPoint files can also be used for whiteboard-
like functions. These might be particularly useful for doing
basic math or similar kinds of demonstrations. For this feature,
begin by inserting a blank slide at the point in the presentation
that requires the whiteboard. The “Record Slide Show” option
for record “Narration, ink, and laser pointer” must be checked.
During the recording, the keyboard command of control-p (for
pen drawings) can be used to draw on the blank slide, just like a
whiteboard. The control-l (for laser pointer) key combination can
also be used for pointing out key areas of interest on the slide.

These drawings and laser pointer movements are saved on the
PowerPoint presentation just like the narrated voice. For
further technical information, please search for instructional
videos on Youtube.com with the terms “powerpoint record voice
narration.” Some educators opt for more powerful video
creation and editing software. Camtasia is a popular video
creation application that can combine voice narration, screen
captures, media files like PowerPoint, and more to create a
unified video product that can be shared with students through
online learning management systems. Camtasia and similar
products can combine media sources in a much richer manner
than PowerPoint, such as including videos of the instructor
obtained via a web cam as part
of the powerpoint presentation.
Narrated PowerPoint presentation videos can be used
in a variety of ways. Some instructors upload these files to
online courses. The students in these online courses watch the
powerpoint presentations in a manner that is similar to an in-
class presentation. A well-known example of instructional lecture
videos is the video offerings available at Khan Academy (see
khanacademy.org). Salman Khan, the founder of Khan Academy,
had the insightful idea that video lectures would be a powerful
tool for students, who would be empowered to use lecture
material in a manner that was based upon their instructional
needs. For example, students who miss a particular idea
during the video presentation could replay the key part of the
video to watch it a second time. The Khan Academy web site
hosts a multitude of short educational presentations that cover
a wide range of topics.
Another possibility for recorded presentations that is gaining
in popularity is the “flipped” classroom model. This
teaching

243
strategy aims to reverse the traditional roles of the classroom
and homework by moving the lecture parts of a class to an online
environment. The cycle of flipped instruction begins by
assigning short video lectures online before class to prepare for
the classroom experience. Other educational content and
activities, such as participation in discussion boards, may also
be assigned as part of the classroom preparation. In the
classroom, the emphasis is on hands-on learning activities, like
working math problems, or interactions with other people, such
as discussion activities. The teacher’s role during the class
meeting is to provide feedback and assistance to students rather
than delivering educational content like traditional lectures. In
brief, the general flipped teaching strategy is to move course
content, which might possibly include recorded powerpoint
presentations, to an online environment and use face-to-face
classroom time for engaging learning activities rather than
information delivery. There is currently considerable
enthusiasm among educators for the flipped classroom
approach. However, the overall effectiveness and best methods
for flipped classroom teaching have not been clearly established
yet (Abeysekera and Dawson, 2015; O’Flaherty and Phillips,
2015).
Some distance educators use special applications to give live
powerpoint presentations online in real time, just like a face-to-
face presentation. These applications are similar to popular video
conferencing applications like Skype, Google Hangouts, or Apple
Facetime, but they have additional features that support teaching
activities. Many of these applications can share Microsoft Office
files, including PowerPoint, and interactive white board spaces
with the audience. Some of these software products are aimed at
the

needs of business professionals (example: Citrix GoToMeeting),
but a few products are specifically designed for educational needs
(example: Blackboard Collaborate). The practice of giving live
online presentations is sometimes described as “synchronous”
because the presenter and audience must agree to meet online at
the same time. An advantage of having a simultaneous meeting
time is that the students and instructor can freely interact in a
quick fashion, such as the instructor answering student questions
as part of the presentation. A drawback is that some
students may not be able to meet at a particular time. Online
students, in particular, may feel that the requirement for a
synchronized meeting time defeats the scheduling flexibility that
is a highly desired component of online courses.
Designing for Pedagogy Needs During
Times of Changing Technology
Moore’s Law is an observation that computer technology
doubles in power about every two years. The implication is that a
two-year-old computer is obsolete, which demonstrates the speed
of these technology changes. New technologies are sometimes
described as “disruptive” or “paradigm shifts” to express how new
technologies can revolutionize a field in a relatively short period
of time Powerpoint-style presentations are no exception. These
presentation technologies are likely to see continuing innovation
in the upcoming years, particularly in regard to web-based
delivery and distance-learning needs. Perhaps today’s standard,
Microsoft PowerPoint, will be dethroned in a few years by a new
technology that cannot be currently imagined.

245
Although the technology may evolve, current trends suggest
that supplementing spoken intstruction with powerpoint-style,
multimedia components will continue to be a standard feature
of classroom presentations for the future. The main feature of
these technologies—combining a speaker’s voice with slide-based
information—is the shared multimedia presentation strategy
across all of these technologies. The Microsoft PowerPoint
alternatives described above do not substantially break the
multimedia instructional standard of supplementing the spoken
word with text and graphical images. It’s true that some of these
newer technologies have innovative features, such as Prezi-
style zooming transitions and nonlinear slide order, but these
innovations do not render multimedia learning approaches
obsolete. The powerpoint presentation style is more of a social
standard for modern presentations rather than being a specific
technology produced by a single company (Knoblauch, 2012).
There seems to be no emerging new technology that will trigger
a radical break or paradigm shift away from the cultural standard
for multimedia presentations.
The wide-ranging technology possibilities combined with the
rapid rate of change in the technology world can feel
overwhelming at times. It can be difficult to keep up with the fast
pace of change. Educators who feel this way can take heart by
maintaining a focus upon human beings and the learning
process rather than technology. The highly visual modern style of
presentation capitalizes on the information processing strengths
of human vision and the cognitive advantages of combining
words and images in synergistic manner. These human strengths
are timeless when compared to the ever-changing trends in
technology.

Accordingly, the pedagogical needs of students will continue to
be the paramount need for educators to consider. Educators need
to ask themselves how they can best combine words and images
for their students, rather than becoming carried away to with the
latest technology fad. The investment of time and effort put into
designing effective multimedia presentations will result in an
important teaching skill that will not become obsolete over time.
This emphasis on designing for multimedia learning needs will
help educators keep up with endless technology changes.

15
TIPS AND TRICKS
FOR
SLIDE PRESENTATIONS
“There can be infinite uses of the computer and of new age
technology, but if teachers themselves are not able to bring it
into the classroom and make it work, then it fails.” Nancy
Kassebaum
Teachers need to focus on the learner rather than teaching
technology, as experts in the field of educational psychology have
recommended (R. E. Clark, 1983). However, we must not forget
that an important part of being a successful teacher is the
handling of practical matters. Sometimes, educators with good
intentions fail when they cannot execute the technical demands
of powerpoint presentations in the classroom. Indeed, student
surveys about classroom technology often express frustration
with classroom technology failures or the inappropriate use of
presentation technology. We will, therefore, now focus on
practical technology

skills that are important to educators and students. A secondary
goal is to provide tips that might help teachers work in a faster or
more effective manner. I present these ideas in the order that it
would take to develop a classroom presentation. For a few topics,
I mention software instructions for Microsoft PowerPoint, but I
have kept this coverage brief in order to maintain focus on best
practices rather than specific software features.
The Basic Slide Appearance
Many books and articles make recommendations about best
practices for the appearance of powerpoint slides (Alley, 2013;
Ball, 2009; Durso, Pop, Burnett, and Stearman, 2011; Giles and
Kinniburgh, 2014; Stryker, 2010). The font characteristics are a
good starting point. The general recommendation is to use fonts
from a sans serif font family, such as Calibri, Arial, or Helvetica.
The sans serif fonts are distinguished by the lack of small curly
endings or strokes at the ends of the letters (Figure 15.1),
rendering them “visually simple” (Kosslyn, 2007, p. 68). Sans
serif fonts are generally preferred for computer screen monitors
and similar situations because they are more easily read than
other font families. Sans serif fonts are also higher-rated in
regards to having a professional appearance (Mackiewicz,
2007a). The default PowerPoint fonts are usually for sans serif
fonts like Calibri, so staying with a default font is usually a good
choice.
Figure 15.1: A serif font (Times New Roman;left) compared to a sans serif font
(Calibri, right)

Tips and Tricks for Slide Presentations |
249
An important general principle is that fonts must be a
fairly large size in order to be visible to the audience. The sizes
recommended commonly range from 22- to 44-points,
depending on parameters such as classroom size and student
distance from the screen. Michael Alley recommends the
following settings for assertion-evidence formatted slides: left
justification, bold weight, and 28-point. It is also noteworthy
that Microsoft’s PowerPoint 2016 has a default 28-point size for
bullet point text items. Keep in mind that the largest fonts, like
44-points for titles, will force the presenter to use short phrases
that can be vague or ambiguous. The degree of contrast between
background and text is also important. Dave Paradi’s web site
thinkoutsidetheslide.com has a tool for evaluating color and
contrast (see “Free Resources”). The user enters the background
and text colors as RGB values, which is similar to the color
values used for the design of web pages. The calculator
simulates the colors in a sample slide and makes a
recommendation about whether or not there is a sufficient degree
of contrast. Some of these issues were already covered in
Chapter 7, but the information in that chapter does not eliminate
the need
for real-world testing of color schemes.
Most teachers and other presenters simply pick a pretty slide
format from the gallery of possibilities that the software maker
provides. Using built-in templates is convenient, but it may not
be the optimal approach for teaching because these templates
often contain undesirable colors, graphics, and layouts. It would
be more effective for teachers to take the time and effort to create
their own slide styles and layouts, especially if they intend to use
the assertion-evidence formatted slide. Fortunately, there is a way
to make slides without having to obsess about all these
formatting

and appearance details every time a new presentation is created.
PowerPoint has a feature called the “master slide template” that
can be used to set the default layouts, fonts, colors, and other
formatting characteristics. The creation of a slide template with a
personalized custom appearance can be a bit time-consuming,
but the long term benefit is that the template can be used
repeatedly, saving teachers from the hassle of setting the
appearances for each new presentation.
The Shape of Computer Displays
Television and computer monitors had the same shape for
several decades. They were slightly rectangular, being a little bit
longer in the horizontal plane. In 2003, the conventional shape
of these displays started changing to a more overtly
rectangular shape with a noticeably longer horizontal
dimension. Most displays are now based upon this newer
standard. Many people have noticed this difference on newer
high-definition, widescreen televisions. Current television shows
will fill the entire screen. In contrast, older television shows fit
into the center of the display while leaving blank spaces on the
left and right sides of the screen. The technical term for the shape
of television screens and computer monitors is called the
“aspect ratio.” This is a ratio of the width to the height of the
display area. A display that is four units wide and three units
tall (or multiples of these) would have an aspect ratio of 4 units
to 3 units, or 4:3. The two most common aspect ratios are the
older, nearly square shape of 4:3 and the newer, more
rectangular shape of 16:9 (Figure 15.2). On televisions, these
aspect ratios are called “standard” and “widescreen,” respectively,

251
so we will adopt this terminology for the sake of convenience.
Most computer displays now use the widescreen format (16:9),
although some businesses and schools might still use the older
standard display (4:3).
Figure 15.2: Display aspect ratio examples
Outstanding presenters need to have a basic understanding of
aspect ratio in order to design presentations that fit the available
projector technology. The older standard format of 4:3 is the
most conservative choice in that it will run well on either older or
newer projection hardware. For this reason, many powerpoint
slides are still formatted with the standard aspect ratio
dimensions. In contrast, if a classroom projector has widescreen
capability, presenters might as well take advantage of the entire
screen by using the widescreen format. In PowerPoint, teachers
can select aspect ratios by going to the “design” tab, then
selecting “slide

size” (“page setup” in older versions). The selection possibilities
are for standard (4:3), widescreen (16:9), or custom sizes.
Prefabricated Powerpoint Files from
the Textbook Publisher
Many textbook publishers for college-level courses offer
teachers prepared powerpoint presentations as an ancillary
resource. The advantage of these prepared slide decks is
convenience. The downside is that prepared slide decks tend to be
text-heavy repeats of material from the textbook. It’s also possible
that these resources may have been prepared by someone with
little expertise in the subject matter, meaning that important
concepts are not effectively identified or displayed. Prefabricated
slides also encourage teachers to not prepare for their lectures,
which ultimately leads to presentations that stumble through an
unfamiliar slide deck. This possibility has led to the criticism that
prefabricated slides are contributing to a “de-skilling” of faculty,
who are reduced to a commentators role on someone else’s slides
(Gabriel and Griffiths, 2005, p. 372). Given these problems, it
would seem to be best to avoid using powerpoint presentations
from textbook publishers.
Prepared slide decks may still be a valuable resource in spite
of these problems. The images in these files can be easily copied
into instructors’ own powerpoint presentations, saving the
instructors valuable time that would otherwise be spent hunting
down images online or scanning textbook images into the
computer. Discussing textbook images in class can also be
appropriate for situations with textbook errors or confusing
information. Doing so can offer the opportunity to walk the
class through a difficult topic.

253
Another possibility is to use publisher-provided powerpoint files
as a base for customization. In some cases, altering the content
on an existing slide to one’s own specifications may be more time-
efficient than creating a collection of new slides from scratch,
although this is somewhat of a judgment call.
Focusing on the Story Line
Most presentation experts recommend that a presentation’s
organization should begin on paper rather than on the computer.
The thoughts and organization can be composed on paper, then
transferred to the software when the ideas are complete. This
recommendation is similar to practices used in other disciplines.
For example, the traditional approach for developing a film is to
use story boards that show the composition of scenes and their
overall order. A similar idea for powerpoint is to use post-it notes,
with one post-it representing each slide (Duarte, 2008, pp. 28–
29). The post-it notes can be physically edited and rearranged
into a desirable order before the slides are created.
PowerPoint also has features to help presenters perceive the
overall feel and order of the slide deck. The “slide sorter” feature
shows a comprehensive overview of the presentation, with each
slide represented by a small thumbnail view. This view allows
the presenter to examine the overall impression of the slide
presentation and make any necessary changes in slide order,
appearance, or content. Using this feature can be helpful for
identifying global organization problems prior to the presentation
delivery, although testing the presentation in the actual setting is
the only way to ensure effectiveness.

254 | Slides for
Students
Designing for Accessibility
Educators have an obligation to educate everyone in their
classroom, including students with sensory disabilities.
Powerpoint is primarily a visual medium, so the main
accessibility concern is making the slide information available
for students who may have vision deficits.
As mentioned in Chapter 7, a minor yet common visual
disability is insensitivity to the colors red and green. A good
design principle for addressing this problem is to avoid or
minimize the use of critical slide elements that are either red or
green. For example, red arrows might seem like a good choice for
highlighting important aspects of a diagram, but perceiving the
color red may be problematic for some people. Blue, green, or
yellow would be better color choices for highlighting purposes. If
presenters have concerns about color visibility, the web site
Vischeck.com has a tool for testing how color insensitive people
experience images. The web site allows users to upload images
and view them without certain colors in a manner that simulates
color blindness. Teachers can use this feedback to determine
whether or not critical information might be unavailable to color
insensitive students.
Students with severe visual disabilities may need assistive
technologies that convert powerpoint deck text into speech,
thereby enabling the student to listen to the slide deck. An
important part of this technology is that the slide deck must be
properly designed to make the text-to-speech conversion process
work well. Images and hypertext links should include “alt” tags
(short for “alternative”) that contain brief explanations that
document the purpose or key idea. The assistive technologies use

255
the text of these alternative tags to describe the image or
hyperlink in an audible form. Teachers can insert this alt image
tag into PowerPoint by right clicking on an image and selecting
“format image,” then the “alt text” option. A second feature to
prepare slide decks for use with assistive reading technologies is
setting the proper order of elements on each slide. This setting
tells the reading technology which element of the slide must be
read first, second, and so on. Teachers can use this PowerPoint
feature by starting at the “home” tab, then clicking on the
“arrange” button and selecting “selection pane.” For each slide,
this window will show the elements on the slide. Teachers can
modify the order of slide items by moving the various slide
components up or down in the sequence.
Microsoft PowerPoint versions 2010 and later have an
“accessibility checker” tool that makes recommendations for
accommodating disabilities. To run the accessibility checker,
go to the “file” tab, select “Info,” then the “Check for issues”
button, and then “Check accessibility.” The tool analyzes the
slide deck and displays the accessibility recommendation results
in a new window. Running this tool near the end of the slide
deck development process will help presenters catch potential
problems that people with low vision might encounter when they
use assistive technologies.
Preparing the Slide Deck for Student
Notes
Teachers often make their slide decks available to students to
assist student note-taking efforts (see Chapter 13). Many
educators simply upload the PowerPoint file to their learning
management

system or distribute these files to their students via email. A
problem with sharing the PowerPoint files is that students may
not have the correct software to open the file, which can be an
expensive problem to solve. Another problem is that PowerPoint
files are formatted in a manner that makes them poor candidates
for printing hard copies. A 44-point title font on a full-page slide,
for example, is enormous on a printed page. Students may waste
paper if they simply print the file without reformatting it.
Teachers can improve on the common practice of simply
sending out the powerpoint files without much additional effort.
Nathans-Kelly and Nicometo recommend that the archival
format for powerpoint presentations should be an Adobe Acrobat
document (sometimes called “pdf” for “portable document
format”) rather than the original PowerPoint format (Nathans-
Kelly and Nicometo, 2014). These pdf documents are less
software- bound because pdf software is available for free from
Adobe. Most modern web browsers, such as Google’s Chrome,
can open pdf files without needing any additional software. This
makes it nearly effortless for students to open these files from a
web-based learning management system. Another pdf file
advantage is their smaller size, which makes the files easier to
post on a web site or send as an email attachment. In general, the
pdf document file format is better suited than PowerPoint for the
creation of paper-based documents that might be used for note-
taking or studying efforts.
There are three possible methods to create a pdf document
from a PowerPoint presentation. If the Adobe Acrobat software is
installed on your PC, an Adobe pdf file can be created by going to
the “file” tab and selecting “print” (or simply select control+P on
the keyboard). To make a pdf file, the “printer” setting must be
set

257
to “Adobe pdf” for the output rather than the usual printer driver.
Selecting “Adobe pdf” as the printer output will save the
document to the computer’s hard drive as a pdf file instead of
sending the slides to the actual printer. A second method for
creating pdf file is to select the “file” tab, then “save as”, then
“save as type.” Choose pdf for the output option. A third method
is through the “file” tab, then “export”, then “create Adobe pdf.”
The first two methods provide options for formatting the
presentation in student- friendly formats like handouts, slides
with notes, or outlines. It is well worth the small amount of extra
effort to prepare these nicely formatted pdf files for students.
Another useful tip for archiving PowerPoint files is to put
documentation that might be too detailed for the presentation
into the “notes” part of the slide deck (Nathans-Kelly and
Nicometo, 2014). During the slide deck creation, the teacher
might enter important information, such as context or
references, in the notes part of the slide where it cannot be seen
by students during the presentation. Other possibilities for the
notes area include direct quotes or brief explanations about the
purpose of the slide. This practice prevents the presentation
slides from being cluttered by details during the presentation
but still preserves these important details for an information-rich
handout. To view these notes, the students would need to
receive a paper handout or a pdf file that has been formatted
to include the notes along with the slide thumbnails. This
approach is a clever way to strike a balance between the need to
keep a visually simple presentation appearance, yet still give the
students an information-rich take- home document with more
details.

258 | Slides for
Students
Navigating Through a Powerpoint
Presentation
Most teachers know that powerpoint presentations can go
full- screen and that the slide presentations can be advanced by
using the arrows on the computer keyboard. As mentioned
earlier, the presentation can enter full screen mode in
PowerPoint through the “slide show” tab or by pressing the F5
key. The arrow keys on the keyboard can advance or go
backwards through the slide deck. If the presentation must be
terminated before the end, pressing escape will return the
software to the author view mode.
PowerPoint has many other features that can also be used
during presentations. These features are accessed through
keyboard commands because the on-screen buttons are not
displayed during a presentation. Using these keyboard commands
may take some practice, but they are easy and powerful once a
teacher becomes accustomed to using them. A list of the most
useful commands is shown in Table 15.1.
Start presentation: F5 for starting a presentation from the
beginning Shift+F5 starts from the current
slide
Advance: n (next), enter
, right arrow, down arrow, page
down, spacebar
Previous: p (previous), left arrow, up arrow,
backspace Display blank: b or period (for black), w or
comma (for white) Pen tool: Control+P
Highlighter tool: Control+I
Erase annotations:
Control+E Laser pointer
tool: Control+L Jump to a
slide: Control+S
Go to slide: Slide number then
enter End presentation: Esc (escape)
Table 15.1: Keyboard shortcuts for presentation navigation and effects
(PowerPoint 2013 and later)

259
Having the right hardware setup enables a special
presentation mode that gives the audience and the presenter
different views of the slide presentation (Figure 15.3). The
PowerPoint “presenter view” gives the audience the full screen
slide display. The presenter, in contrast, sees a smaller version of
the slides along with more information and additional options,
such as notes, navigation buttons, and a timer. The essential
requirement for using the presenter view is that the projection
setup must have two separate monitors, one for the presenter
and a projector for the audience, that have two separate
connections to the computer.
The advantage of using the presenter view is that the presenter
has a rich feature set of navigation tools and other tools available
on their display screen. Seeing the next slide in the queue can help
smooth the transitions between slides. Presenters will be less likely
to forget the content of the next slide or skip a few slides ahead.
The availability of the notes view can be valuable to remind the
speaker of important points or information that needs to be
shared with the students yet would be too excessive to put on to
the projected screen.
Figure 15.3: A comparison of the audience view and the
presenter view

The presenter view is very useful, but it can be tricky to use at
times. Care must be taken to not rely on the presenter view
feature too much. Overreliance can bind the presenter to the
monitor and take the presenter’s focus away from the audience
(Kosslyn, 2007). Another potential problem is that the links or
buttons shown in the presenter view are just images, rather than
real links. This can be confusing and lead to errors during the
presentation.
An expert-level tip for using the presenter view mode is to
think of the presentation as having two screens that are
positioned side-by-side. The presenter’s view is on the left and
the audience view is on the right. These screens, however, are
linked and continuous with each other. The mouse is not
restricted to one screen and can be moved to the other by going
either left or right. For example, activating a button on the
PowerPoint presentation might require the presenter to move
their mouse from the left to the right, off the presenter’s
screen and on to audience screen, in order to make it extend
over into the view that the audience sees. Once in the audience,
view the mouse cursor can click on buttons to activate them. A
similar process can be used to display information in another
window. For example, a Youtube.com video that is open in a
web browser window may need to be shown to the audience.
This window can be selected and then dragged from the left
presenter screen rightward to the projected screen for the
audience. When done, the browser window will need to be
selected on the right in the audience’s view and dragged from
right to left to move it back to the presenter’s view. This process
of moving from one screen to the other by moving left-right can
be somewhat tricky, but with practice, these kinds of transitions
can be mastered.

261
The full screen slide-show mode is rich with possibilities
for taking presentations to the next level. Learning to use these
features will make presentations seem polished and professional,
making it well-worth the time to learn a few keyboard shortcuts
and the presenter view.
Continuous Slide Development for the
Long Run
At times, teaching feels like a constant battle to stay just
one step ahead of where the students are in the course. This is
especially true for new teachers who often struggle to develop
content materials for their courses. Therefore, teachers need a
long-term strategy in order to overcome the urgency of
developing materials at the last minute.
Teaching the same courses repeatedly year after year offers
faculty members a chance to continuously improve their course
presentations and see these presentations gradually evolve over
several semesters. Sometimes, a teacher might randomly find
a good example or activity to use for a future class. Powerpoint
can function like a filing cabinet for saving these new materials
and ideas. It can store all of the interesting ideas or information
in the relevant slide deck until the next time the presentation is
needed. The text on the slides and the images are obvious ways
to organize the pertinent information. Multimedia resources can
also be collected as links, such as links to Youtube-based video
clips. Comments can be inserted like post-it notes to document
future changes that might be worthwhile. Another possibility is to
save information in the “notes” option for each slide. This
practice of storing new information in the appropriate
presentation file

organizes these new materials in an efficient manner so they will
be ready to use for the next presentation.
When the course content is ready to be taught again, take time
to review the past feedback on the slides. The outstanding teacher
makes any necessary changes that were noted from the last
presentation and uses the improved presentation to further their
course.
To be clear, the idea of reuse is not to recommend being like
the stereotypical old college professor who uses the same lecture
notes they made thirty years ago. Rather, the spirit is more of a
slow but continuous improvement to the slide deck over time.
The small additions and improvements instructors make from
semester to semester serve to keep furthering and reinvigorating
the course so that it gets better each time they teach the topic.
The Hide Slide Feature
Slide decks for a given topic tend to grow over time when a
presentation is repeatedly given. This can occasionally produce
the problem of having too much content. This problem of having
too much presentation material is especially serious when
teaching time is lost due to school cancellations for inclement
weather or other problems. A presentation that typically covers
topics X, Y, and Z might need to be reduced to just topics X and
Y in order to fit into the shrunken time window. A simple
solution would be to delete the extra slides from topic Z, but the
loss of slides would create a new problem for future semesters
when topic Z might need to be covered again.
The elegant solution to having too many slides for the
available time period is the “hide slide” feature. This feature
renders selected

263
slides invisible to the audience without actually deleting them
from the slide deck. The slides that need to be skipped are
selected by right clicking on the undesired slide thumbnail
images and then choosing the “hide slide” command from the
pop-up menu. The ability to hide slides as needed can be a
quick way to customize a presentation to fit a shorter time
period, without sacrificing the long-term structure and content of
a carefully prepared slide deck.
Good Teaching Requires Technical Excellence
Good educational presentations are a kind of performance art,
just like a concert or a play. The information, ideas, and
intentions are important starting points, but they ultimately
count for nothing if the final product cannot be delivered in front
of an audience. Teachers must be able to effectively implement
the technology in the classroom in order to succeed.
The numerous ideas outlined here may seem somewhat
overwhelming at first. However, instructors need not implement
all of these ideas in order to achieve better presentations. They
can pick and choose the strategies and technical elements that
seem to be the most important. Also worthwhile is thinking of
powerpoint- use as a technical skill that can be developed slowly
over time. Consistently following this approach over a few years
will lead to a dramatic improvement in presentations, one that
may result in recognition on campus for being a masterful
speaker.

16
A CLASSROOM PRESENTATION
EXAMPLE
“Example isn’t another way to teach, it is the only way to
teach.” Albert Einstein
After reviewing a wide range of possibilities to improve the
educational quality of powerpoint presentations, we will now
consider how to put these ideas into practice. To do so, I will
show an educational powerpoint presentation, accompanying
it with commentary describing the reasoning behind each slide’s
design. This approach will assemble various ideas into a single
example that illustrates important ideas about designing slides
for students. This slide deck comes from my Psychological
Statistics class. I chose Statistics and the specific topic, which is
variability, because it seems to be the epitome of a boring class
that students dread taking. Rather than considering it a hopeless
topic, we can view this

A Classroom Presentation Example |
265
situation as a challenge. Let’s see if it is possible to breathe some
life into a dull topic by using powerpoint in an effective manner.
Setting the Stage for Student Interest
The beginning of a successful presentation must accomplish
two important goals. The first goal, which is arguably the most
important, is to spark student interest in the topic. A second goal
of the opening is provide students with an overview of the topic.
This preview may have cognitive benefits by preparing the
students for the direction that the class will take.
Let’s begin with a brief summary of the guiding principles
that went into the general design of this presentation. For high-
contrast visibility, the slides have black text on a white
background (Figure 16.1). I used the assertion-evidence layout
for most of the slides in order to provide complete ideas to the
students rather than fragmented phrases. The main message of
each slide is positioned at the top of the screen to maximize the
visibility in a classroom setting. The font formatting of the slide
titles follows the recommendations for evidence-assertion
layouts: Calibri font (from the sans-serif font family), 28-point
size, and bold weight (Alley, 2013). Formatting the shape of the
slide for a widescreen aspect ratio (16:9) takes advantage of all of
the space on the classroom screen.
The opening slide is a “two content” type layout in
PowerPoint terminology (Figure 16.1). On the left, the slide
contains the title of the topic, plus an overview of what
students can expect. On the right, an image of students from my
university appears. This graphic, which is from the university
web site, has an attribution

below the image to document the source. Students find these local
images to be interesting. The students may even know a few
of the people in the photo. The unstated point of this graphic is
that students have a wide variety of characteristics: sex, race,
size, clothing, hair style, etc. This image sets the stage for the
topic, which is describing human variations with statistics.
Figure 16.1: Introductory slide with overview and interesting image
The class might start with a brief reminder announcement or
two, followed by a verbal description of what variability is about.
The title slide image can help make a quick point about
variability: Students can have many different characteristics that
distinguish them from each other. Discussing a simple example
prepares the students for the more quantitative methods that will
follow. This point about the importance of human variability can
be followed by a short overview of where the class is headed.
The timing of this opening slide is also important. The aim is
to start displaying this slide a few minutes before the actual class
lecture begins. While the students are waiting for class to start,
they can begin looking at the slide and start wondering about

267
the topic. This is an effortless way powerpoint can help draw the
audience into the presentation topic (Kosslyn, 2007).
The opening slide is important for sparking some interest in
the topic, but it is rarely sufficient by itself to really set the stage
for learning. We need to go a little bit deeper to lay a foundation
with the students about why this topic is interesting and
important. For the topic of variability, I ask the students to do a
simple thought experiment: What would the world be like if
everyone was exactly the same, down to the smallest detail? This
second slide (Figure 16.2) illustrates the question’s concept by
showing an image of identical gingerbread man cookies. The idea
is to ask students to think about the opposite of variability, a
world in which everyone is identical, just like cookies stamped
out by a cookie cutter. The typical student reactions to this
thought experiment is that a world with identical people would
be quite boring. Human variability is special and valued.
This slide has an assertion-evidence structure with the
important idea stated at the top. The evidence part of this slide
is an image of gingerbread men that are identical, which provides
the visual means to reinforce the verbal message. This image
helps the students grasp the concept of my thought experiment.
It also helps to make an emotional point about the thought
experiment, which might help to make it more memorable.
Almost everyone likes cookies. Maybe some of these positive
associations transfer to the topic of statistics by showing a slide
that pairs them together.

268 | Slides for
Students
Figure 16.2: Establishing why the topic is important. This free image
is from publicdomainpictures.net.
The conclusion of this thought exercise is that variability is an
important reason why we must use statistics. The assertion
part of the next slide (Figure 16.3) provides the key term
“variability” and a definition of the key term (individual
differences between people). The evidence part of the slide is a
large family from South Africa that has a wide range of skin
tones. It’s quite a contrast from the preceding slide with the
identical gingerbread man cookies. I chose this image because
this simple physical evidence can quickly and easily make an
important point about human variability. This image can also
serve as a jumping off point for class discussions. An instructor
could ask the class for other examples of human variability that
are occurr in this image. They could also discuss how we can only
see physical differences in this image. The social or psychological
differences between these family members must be equally large.

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Extended family from South Africa showing some spectrum of human skin coloration
Source: By Henry M.Trotter at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., Public
Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1673062
This photo was chosen because it is a hightly visible example of human variability.
Figure 16.3: Establishing importance, with documentation and notes.
This visual evidence makes a compelling point that human
variability is important. The combination of the definition
with a powerful supporting image is a good use of multimedia
learning. The two sources of information combine in a
synergistic way to make a strong and memorable impression on
students. This feature is arguably powerpoint’s strongest: It
provides the opportunity to combine words and images in ways
that are informative, emotional, and memorable. This slide helps
to establish the idea that describing variability is an important
part of a statistician’s mission.
The image for the slide in Figure 16.3 came from Wikipedia,
which only uses images that have open licenses for sharing and
reuse. The presenter’s notes document this source information

(Figure 16.3, bottom). Again, this note area hides content from
the audience during a presentation. The teacher can benefit from
this documentation, especially in future semesters. The notes can
serve as a memory aid to help the teacher recall why this image
fits this slide’s purpose. In future semesters, the teacher can revisit
the source information to see if an update might be needed. In
addition, the students who read these notes on a handout (see
below) will get an idea of the image’s importance in relation to the
slide’s topic. In this way, the handout will be more informative
than simply providing the same slides that were shown during
class.
Using Transitions
The introduction ends when the discussion about the
variability example is complete. This transition from the
introduction to the body of the presentation may be useful to
mark. It can be helpful to the audience as they mentally track the
progress of the presentation. The teacher could use vocal cues to
notify the class of this transition. Let’s be more dramatic though
and use powerpoint to send a clear signal about the transition to
a new topic. The slide in Figure 16.4 shows a simple transition
that marks a turning point in the course. Only a few seconds will
be needed to communicate that a shift in purpose is about to
occur. The formatting of this slide is different from the
assertion-evidence format. The text is positioned in the center
and is highlighted differently from the other slides. These
subtle visual cues inform the students that this slide does not
contain important content and does not necessarily
need to be recorded in their notes.

271
Figure 16.4:Transition slide to a new part of the presentation
The use of a special slide to mark presentation transitions may
not be absolutely necessary, but some cognitive benefits may be
derived by marking these topic changes. It sends the clear signal
that the introduction is over and the body of the presentation is
about to start. The segmentation principle from multimedia
learning suggests that it is beneficial to break down educational
content into groups or chunks (Mayer, 2009). Doing so will help
to prevent the possibility of overloading the audience with too
much information. The audience will also appreciate knowing
the transition points in a presentation (Duarte, 2010). Another
transition possibility is to show the outline from the opening slide
again and cue the new subtopic to show students the overall
progress through the topic.
Establishing a Key Concept
The body of the presentation begins by relating new ideas to
concepts that were covered in a previous class to provide some
background. The next two slides (Figures 16.5 and 16.6) are
aimed at establishing this relationship. Figure 16.5 is a brief
review of topics—central tendency and frequency distributions—
from

the previous class period. Figure 16.6 shows the same image (a
frequency distribution graph) but adds new information about
variability. This slide sequence shows the students where the
new topic fits into their existing understanding and gradually
builds the students’ cognitive schemata about statistics. The brief
repetition of material from a previous class may also be helpful
for strengthening the memory for this previous topic.
Figure 16.5: Establishing context: A refresher of ideas from the
previous class
Figure 16.6: Establishing context:The current topic in relation to the previous class
Because no commercially available images exactly capture the
ideas these slides are trying to convey, my simple solution was to

273
hand draw a special graphic for this situation (Figures 16.5 and
16.6). I drew the basic graph design with a Sharpie pen on regular
printer paper, scanned the drawing into the computer with an
inexpensive scanner, and then inserted it into the powerpoint file.
The black/white scanned image blends seamlessly into the black/
white theme of the slide. I added the terms like “frequency,”
“central tendency,” and “scores” to the scanned image in
powerpoint. Because it’s the key concept for this slide, I placed
the term “central tendency” at the top of Figure 16.5. I colored the
arrows blue to help draw student attention to key features of the
graph. The color blue minimizes potential problems for people
with red-green color insensitivity might experience. Creating this
image might seem like a lot of extra work, but it involves little
more work than drawing a diagram on a chalkboard. The benefit
of putting this diagram in powerpoint is the availability for future
classes.
Critics might fault images like the ones in Figures 16.5 and
16.6 for looking amateurish or homemade. They might also look
down on using images from web sites like Wikipedia that have
open licenses for sharing. These are valid opinions. It is
undeniable that hand-drawn images lack the professional quality
of images made by expert artists and graphic designers. My
opinion, however, is that teacher-made resources like these are
certainly acceptable for classroom use. Moreover, I feel that such
do-it-yourself graphics are commendable for expressing teacher
creativity and special efforts to promote learning. Most educators
simply do not have enough time to make highly polished artwork
on the computer. They may lack the specialized hardware,
software, and training that might be required to make
publication-quality graphics. Therefore, the guiding spirit for
classroom content should be a

pragmatic approach that emphasizes the quick and easy creation
of effective teaching materials over the painstaking production
of professional-looking graphics. It is sufficient to scan a drawn
diagram or take a picture and highlight key areas, if these
materials are successful in promoting student understanding. It
is unrealistic to expect that every instructional aid will have the
professional polish of textbook graphics. The students, who are
the real audience, will appreciate these homemade creations even
if they look less than perfect. They understand that their mission
is to learn rather than being art or design critics. My overall
suggestion is to not worry about graphic perfection in classroom
materials unless you are creating materials for publication.
Teachers should design powerpoint presentations as an
individual expression of teaching creativity without worries
about having the appearance look like textbook-quality images.
The examples in this chapter follow this creative spirit to show
teacher creativity in action.
Multimedia Instruction through
Informative Images
The beginning of the presentation body covered the basic
concept of variability through the use of pictures. I avoided
numbers because they might be more difficult (and potentially
scary) to some math-phobic students. This next part of the body
aims to establish a more abstract understanding of variability.
Fortunately, this purpose can be achieved through visual images
as well. We can rely on frequency distribution graphs to
communicate concepts about variability without having to do any
mathematical operations yet. Doing so keeps the topic on an
intuitive level because the images

275
are much easier to understand. The mathematical operations are
saved for later in the presentation.
Figure 16.7 shows graph examples that represent two
frequency distributions that differ in regard to variability (low or
high). Using the techniques described above, I made the
frequency distribution graphs as freehand drawings. One
difference is that I made these graphics entirely by hand,
including the labels on the graphs. Doing so sped up the
development time a bit, although the downside is that the images
are more crude. The students don’t seem to mind that these were
drawn by hand. Again, it’s a practice not much different than
drawing on a whiteboard.
Figure 16.7: Visualizing the Main Concept
Figure 16.8 shows that one way to understand variability is
to think of it as the opposite of consistency. These are the same
graphs as Figure 16.7, but they now have the labels “consistent”
and “inconsistent” on the bottom. The aim is that teaching the
same concept in a slightly different manner might help some
students to better grasp the concept of variability. In Figure 16.9,
the same images are used again, but with a new terminology to

describe the spread of distributions (kurtosis). The same graphs
work again to provide two examples that differ in degrees.
Figure 16.8: A variation that builds the concept from the
previous slide
Figure 16.9: New key terms related to the preceding concept (Figure 16.8)
The intention of the layout designs in Figures 16.7 through
16.9 is to help students understand the topic. The side-by-side
layouts help students see the differences between low and high
variability, consistency, and kurtosis. These key terms are closely
related, and the repeated graphics hopefully help students
understand this close degree of relationship. A second
educational feature of this

277
slide sequence is the gradual build of information. We are taking
the same basic graphs and progressively adding more or different
characteristics over the course of several slides. The progressive
nature breaks down the complexity into smaller pieces that are
far more manageable to learn. This strategy helps avoid the
information overload problem.
The term platykurtosis refers to flat frequency distributions.
This term is unusual and rarely used, so students might have
difficulty remembering it. The joke in the next slide (Figure 16.10)
is that a platykurtic distribution is shaped like a platypus. This
joke usually gets some eye rolling and a few groans, but the
students seem to appreciate the attempt to introduce humor to
the topic. Although this joke may seem like pointless fun, it has a
serious reason behind it. The combination of emotion with the
information, as well as the association with a familiar and
distinctive animal, should strengthen student memory for an
obscure technical term. The use of humor should also help
maintain student engagement with the presentation.
Figure 16.10: Making a memorable point with humor
.The platypus image was
made by Pearson Scott Foresman and downloaded from
commons.wikimedia.org.

We will skip the remaining part of the presentation body in
order to keep this chapter brief, but a few more slides will be
discussed to exemplify good practices. One slide from the body of
this presentation concerns the coverage of complex topics, which
is spread out over multiple slides to prevent information
overload. Figures 16.11 and 16.12 cover the concept of deviation
scores in two ways. The first approach is graphical in nature
(Figure 16.11). The assertion part of the slide defines the concept
of a deviation score, while the evidence part of the slide
illustrates what this concept looks like in regard to a frequency
distribution. The next slide (Figure 16.12) shows what deviation
score calculations will look like in a simple data set. Overall, the
use of two different methods— visual and numerical—to
illustrate the same idea should improve student understanding.
Figure 16.11: Deviation scores explained by a graphic
illustration

279
Figure 16.12: Deviation scores explained by numerical example
The graphics in Figures 16.11 and 16.12 were created for this
presentation, with the graphic in Figure 16.11 being inspired by a
textbook illustration that was useful but somewhat ambiguous. I
made the graphics in Figure 16.12 with PowerPoint’s formula and
table tools. The deviation score part of the table in Figure 16.12
uses color (yellow) to direct attention to the most important part.
Because it is the only color shown on the slide, the highlighting
effectively draws attention. Using black and white for the basic
formatting allows any color to stand out to the viewers, so
applying color intentionally can highlight key features of the
graphic.
The body of the presentation finishes with an example that
involves calculations. This example takes the information that
was presented and illustrates how it should be worked. This
part of the class involves modeling the behavior that students
will need to do on the exams. It also provides a practical
application of the concept covered during the body of the lecture.

Moving to an Active Learning Exercise
The body of the presentation is a lecture that walks the
students through the basic concepts and finishes with an
example of calculating standard deviation. This part of class takes
about forty minutes, which is all the statistics lecturing that most
students can handle. During this part, the students have been
taking notes and occasionally participating by asking questions.
They have seen an example of the calculations. Most of the
students have been nodding their heads up and down throughout
the lecture, suggesting that they understand the class content
(although experienced teachers know that this nodding can be
deceiving). They have not, however, been challenged very much.
This is a good time to shift the pedagogy strategy away from
lecturing and towards active learning. The general strategy for my
statistics course is to begin by lecturing and then follow-up with
active learning exercises when student attention is nearly
exhausted. After the lecture part, the students must do the same
calculations by themselves to see if they can master the topic. This
is the student- centered, active learning part of the class. This
general approach of mixing lecturing with other kinds of active
learning exercises is well supported by research studies (Bligh,
2000). This active learning part of the class provides important
feedback to the students about their understanding of the topic.
Students who are struggling can get assistance from their
colleagues or the instructor.
At this point, I distribute a handout that contains short
exercises similar to the example covered in the lecture. These
exercises also correspond with computational questions students
will find on future examinations, so it is important for them to be

281
proficient in this exercise. The handout is the major focus during
this part of the class, but powerpoint will still play a useful and
supportive role. The slide in Figure 16.13 signals to the class that
the instruction method has changed over to the hands-on
learning activity. This slide briefly summarizes the goals of the
handout and informs students about what they should be doing.
This slide remains on the screen while the students are working
on their handout problems. Students will find the specific
information they need for the exercise, such as the exam scores
from six students, on the handout that complements the
powerpoint slide.
Figure 16.13: Challenging the students with an active learning exercise
After the students complete their work, they see feedback
about the handout problems on the next presentation slides
(Figure 16.14). After creating the graphic in this slide by doing
the handout in pencil, I scanned the relevant part of the handout
into the computer. This is, once again, an example of teacher
creativity in action. A quick but effective graphic was made to
satisfy the educational need rather than typing all of these details
into the computer. A potential benefit beyond the time savings

is that the students perhaps feel some reassurance in knowing
that their professor also does these problems by hand. Spreading
the computation feedback over several slides gradually builds
this information. Once again, the powerpoint slide supports the
active learning exercise during this feedback stage by enabling an
instructor to provide the answers to the entire class.
Figure 16.14: Feedback for the active learning
exercise
Seeking Closure at the End of the Class
The class ending needs to finish in a meaningful way. Perhaps
summarizing the lecture with its essential take-home message
will work. Maybe we could loop back to the starting message and
see how our new information answers a critical question. For
some classes, this ending might be a good occasion for a take-
home point or possibly even a humorous example. Yet another
possibility is briefly describing upcoming events, such as
assignments, quizzes, and exams. The important part, though, is
that we should not just stop suddenly at the end of the main
content. Closure is needed to make the most of the lesson.

283
For the present example, the main goal of the class was to
find ways of describing human variability. After spending some
time on calculating standard deviation, the students need to know
more about what we could possibly do with this statistical tool.
The slide in Figure 16.15 shows that standard deviation is useful
for describing where the scores of most people in a group are
located. The hope is that this slide can establish the usefulness
of what we have accomplished in class. Figure 16.16 shows that
standard deviation can also be used as a form of measurement.
This slide uses Shaquille O’Neal as an example of someone who is
extremely tall and thus reinforces the concept of his being an
outlier, which is a concept that was introduced in the previous
class period. The new wrinkle at the end of this lecture is that his
height could be expressed with standard deviation as a form of
measurement. This topic will be covered in a future class, so
introducing it briefly here will help prepare students for an
upcoming idea, which is an example of foreshadowing.
Figure 16.15: Closure at the end of the
lecture

284 | Slides for
Students
Figure 16.16: Foreshadowing a new topic
The slides in Figures 16.15 and 16.16 follow an assertion-
evidence layout with open-licensed images from Wikipedia. I
highlighted the key part of the graph in Figure 16.15 by drawing
a box with a yellow fill, with its transparency set to 80% in
order to allow the underlying graph to show through. This
method effectively highlights a particular feature in a complex
object. The text box next to Shaquille O’Neal explains why he is
relevant to the assertion used in this slide.
Handouts as the Second Life of the Slide
Deck
The powerpoint slide deck is often provided to the students
as a file in an online course management system to support note-
taking activities or to review before an examination. Student
access to the presentation slide deck is particularly helpful in
Statistics to provide the students with the details from the
classroom examples without the need to copy down all of this
information. I converted

285
the present slide deck into an Adobe pdf file for the students by
printing the PowerPoint presentation to the pdf printer driver. To
give the students access, I uploaded the subsequent pdf file to the
course management system. This upload comprises the second
life of the powerpoint presentation as a document.
An example of a handout for the current presentation
appears in Figure 16.17 for the slide that defines variability.
This particular handout was printed with the “notes page”
option to put the presenter’s notes on the handout. Providing
this additional information gave the slides a context that would
help students understand the key point of the slide after the
presentation. Another useful function of the slide notes is, again,
to provide documentation for the images or other information.
The documentation for this image was not shown to the students
on the projection screen, though it is available in the handout.
A possible indirect benefit of including the documentation for
the image is that it sets a good example to students about the
importance of documenting the information sources, and thereby
helps to communicate expectations for academic writing. The
notes feature might also be useful for other kinds of
documentation, like technical details or citing page numbers
from the textbook. Plenty of space is available at the bottom of
the page for students to add their own notes.

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|
Slides for
Students
Figure 16.17: An example slide from a handout pdf document that was printed
with the “notes page” option
Some teachers might not use or need the “notes” feature. For
this situation, it would probably be best to print the presentation
as a handout, with three or four slides per page. In Figure 16.18,
the appearance of this handout for “3 slides” illustrates what
the same slide deck would look like in a handout format. The “3

287
slides” option has the nice feature of providing an area that is
specifically formatted for handwritten notes. The blank lines may
help communicate to students that they are expected to take their
own notes that go beyond the information on the slides.
Figure 16.18:The slide deck printed with a “3 slides” handout
format

The Successful Classroom Presentation
Let’s summarize the overall goals to see how they were
achieved in the above presentation. The first goal of high
visibility was achieved through a black/white color combination,
large sans-serif font, and positioning the most important text
high on the slide. A second goal was to direct student attention to
areas of the slide that were particularly important. It was
achieved by using arrows, colors, and highlighting. A third goal
was to maintain emotional engagement throughout class. Using
images that were visually interesting yet relevant and
informative were achieved this goal. Humor, sparingly used
during the lecture, alleviated the tedium of a strictly-lecture
approach. Switching from lecturing to an active learning exercise
was used to increase student engagement at a time when the
students’ ability to maintain attention on the lecture reached a
low point. In regard to behavioral goals, the slides were made
available as an Adobe pdf file before class for students to use as a
note-taking resource. Using the “notes” feature of powerpoint
provided context for the slide and documented the sources of the
images.
The overall structure of the class is also worthy of review.
The first slide, which is on-screen before the lecture begins,
is a critical point for getting the class started by stimulating
interest in the topic. This first slide introduces the topic, lays out
a roadmap for the class, and stimulates student interest through
an intriguing picture. After this, two introductory slides aim to
establish the importance of the topic. The body of the
presentation focused on the key ideas that were presented in a
logical sequence. Complex information in this part of the
lecture distributed over

289
several slides gradually built student understanding. The lecture
part transitioned into an active learning situation followed by
feedback. The class ending emphasized important take-home
ideas, including some ideas that students will encounter again in
future classes. Altogether, a presentation like this has a coherent,
logical story line. It gently leads the students through a topic that
most people find to be difficult and uninteresting.
The most important goal of any class is to improve student
cognition. In this example, powerpoint features used in strategic
ways effectively helped promote understanding of content that
students often struggle with. The assertion-evidence slide
layout in most of the slides provided text complemented by
relevant instructional graphics. In this example, a
mathematical concept (variability) was often illustrated with
graphs exemplifying this concept. Some of the graphics
appeared side by side so as to facilitate comparisons. Complex
topics, like calculating variance and standard deviation, were
broken down into smaller parts that were gradually introduced to
students over a sequence of several slides. Using this gradual
build approach prevented cognitive overload. Powerpoint also
supported an active learning exercise by communicating
instructions and providing feedback on student answers. The
format and structure of this powerpoint example uses
multimedia learning principles to help students make important
connections. The assertion-evidence structure pairs
statements with visual images, which is an example of
multimedia learning (or dual coding). Some of these images
were used to stimulate student interest, but most served to
support and reinforce the concepts stated in the title of the
slide. The signaling principle was used to point out features of
interest with arrows or colored

highlighting. In a few instances, applying the spatial contiguity
principle effectively provided useful labels in close association to
the graphic features that they represented. The information was
carefully segmented by spreading the information over multiple
slides. The use of transition slides also segmented the parts of
the presentation into related groups. An effort was made to avoid
using the slides as a teleprompter, which follows the redundancy
principle. Finally, the slides in this example presentation have
only the minimal features needed for education: text and
instructional images. Leaving out unnecessary colors,
decorations, animations, and transitions exemplifies the
coherence principle.
At this point, some readers may be having a negative
reaction: This is the most boring slide deck ever! It had no
colorful slide themes, no zooming bullet points, and no exploding
slide transitions. For these concerns, consider the potential
benefits of the Spartan slide deck. The absence of these
commonly used and abused powerpoint features makes the
critical information stand out on the slide, which focuses student
attention. Every single feature on the slide is prominent because
it has no extraneous information to compete with. All of the slide
elements are carefully and intentionally planned in order to
contribute in some meaningful way to student learning. The
positive result is that the slide deck has an effortless and
transparent quality which focuses on learning rather than on
superficial presentation gimmicks. Powerpoint technology only
needs to support the goals of teaching. Anything else is
superfluous and detracts from the educational value of the
presentation.
The example in this chapter shows how much more can
be done with powerpoint than simply listing information. The

291
powerpoint presentation had an important organizing function
for coordinating class activities, including supporting active
learning exercises. It paired images and text synergistically to
benefit student comprehension. Some of the graphics were
created by me, the instructor, to clarify specific ideas to students
rather than merely describing them with words. The student
note-taking efforts benefitted from handouts that were
information-rich or had spaces to take notes. There are also
benefits for the instructor, such as space in the “notes” area to
document sources and make useful comments. This medium
offers abundant means for instructors to be creative and find
new ways to promote student learning. Part of the fun of using
powerpoint is coming up with creative new ways to illustrate
ideas and engage student thinking.

17
THE BRIGHT FUTURE OF
POWERPOINT IN EDUCATION
“Everyone has sat through a presentation in which the
presenter’s knowledge of the subject was far greater than
their ability to design and produce an effective message. . . .
To enhance our presentations, we need to improve our
understanding of visual design and use of the technology we
have available.” (Shackelford and Griffis, 2007, p. 19)
Throughout this book, I have carefully evaluated powerpoint
presentations from the perspective of the student. In order to
see how they might be influenced by powerpoint presentations,
I examined psychological functions such as vision, emotion,
attention, cognition, and behavior. From this student-centered
focus, I derived some practical recommendations for improving
the educational effectiveness of powerpoint. Through the
intentional

The Bright Future of Powerpoint in Education |
293
and skillful design of powerpoint slide features, the accomplished
instructor should be able to enhance the necessary components
and thereby achieve the optimal slide deck for student learning.
The design recommendations here should, hopefully, avoid the
dreaded “death by powerpoint” experience in the classroom.
Powerpoint presentations have some positive attributes, but
the quality of the actual presentations often falls short of the
potential that this medium has to offer. The challenge, then, is to
harness these positive features and use them intentionally to
support student learning. Altogether, it seems that the future of
powerpoint in education is not as dark as some critics have
suggested. Multimedia presenations have an amazing educational
potential provided that we use it in a skillful way. The future of
powerpoint and multimedia- based learning in education is really
quite optimistic.
In order to offer now some big-picture thoughts about
powerpoint and the future of powerpoint in education, I will start
with future directions for research, which is needed to better
understand how powerpoint works in an educational setting.
Next, I will consider the standards that surround powerpoint with
the aim of going beyond the current standards, which are often
weak presentation practices. I will close with thoughts about the
relationship between powerpoint and pedagogy and the potential
of powerpoint as a medium for creative teaching.
Productive Directions for Further
Research
No academic review project would be complete without
looking towards the future. New research will be essential for
making improvements and providing further guidance to
educators.

When powerpoint was introduced to the classroom, a wave
of studies compared the new powerpoint technology to older
classroom technology, typically blackboards and overhead
projectors. These initial comparison studies produced a mixed
bag of results, with most studies showing no measurable
improvement (see Chapter 3 and Appendix A). It would be
somewhat inaccurate to say that these studies demonstrated that
powerpoint had failed in the classroom. Rather, these media
studies were misguided by focusing too much on technology,
rather than concentrating on the teaching methods that the
technologies supported (R. E. Clark, 1983, 1991). A general fault
of these studies is their tendency to say very little about the
pedagogy, such as the details of how the instructors used
powerpoint to teach students. Clearly, we need no further
media comparison studies (see Appendix A) or surveys about
students’ general feelings towards powerpoint presentations (see
Appendix B). When combined, at least 140 studies have been
published on media effectiveness and/or student attitudes
towards powerpoint. It seems unlikely that further studies of this
nature will reveal anything useful.
A powerpoint research area that needs more attention is the
understanding of how different slide layouts might affect
learning. Clearly, an endless stream of slides with numerous
bullet point lists is very ineffective. In spite of this common
knowledge, relatively little progress has been made towards
making slides with better designs. Research on the assertion-
evidence slide layout suggests it is more effective than the
usual bullet point list, but more work needs to be done in this
area. The use of instructional images in support of reading has
been thoroughly examined by educational psychologists, but a
corresponding

295
analysis of images in presentations seems lacking. We need a
new generation of powerpoint studies that focuses specifically on
the structure, layouts, and images used in powerpoint slides and
how these might help or hinder learning. Diving into the details
of slide formatting might seem rather dull and technical, but this
area is the most likely source for the greatest possibility of future
educational gains.
A second area for future research concerns the research
methodologies employed in the study of powerpoint. A desirable
approach would be to use highly focused outcome measurements
that are more sensitive than global assessments (e.g., quizzes or
exam scores) to gain a higher degree of sensitivity. Research on
effectiveness could achieve such higher sensitivity through fine-
grained analyses of how educational slides directly impact specific
questions on examinations. For example, a study by Diesel and
colleagues used seventeen multiple-choice questions (that were
individually analyzed in a comparison of standard slides) to
slides with the assertion-evidence format (Diesel et al., 2006).
This item-level analysis allowed the investigators to make specific
conclusions about how a topic from a particular slide impacted
the correct response rate on the quiz item related to that slide.
This kind of highly focused link between specific slides and
specific quiz questions might be much more sensitive—and
hopefully more illuminating—than making global comparisons
from overall quiz or exam scores.
A third possible area for future research might lie in what
the medical research community calls translational research.
These research efforts attempt to bring ideas out of carefully
constructed, artificial laboratory environments and apply them

to solving problems in the real world. In education, a wealth of
research has been conducted in the lab, particularly in cognitive
psychology. However, the results from this research have not had
much impact on educational uses of powerpoint. The results from
a few translational research studies are promising (Garner and
Alley, 2013; Issa et al., 2011; Overson, 2014), but clearly we need
more work in this area.
Past studies on powerpoint in education seem to have been
hampered by misguided research questions and insensitive
outcome measures. Fortunately, some signs of progress point
in the direction of possibilities that might make powerpoint
presentations more productive. We can hope that the
combination of focusing on specific issues, such as slide layouts
and instructional images, in carefully designed experiments and
classroom-based studies will yield new insights into the best
practices for using powerpoint.
Fixing Our Slides
Most educators can use powerpoint software with little
training, yet they often do not know much about making
powerpoint presentations work well. This lack of knowledge and
training causes the average teacher to passively follow the default
settings of powerpoint, which is the path of least resistance.
These defaults invisibly guide teachers and other presenters into
presentation practices that may be counterproductive (C. Adams,
2006, 2009; Alley, 2013). Most presenters assume that following
the default settings of powerpoint will lead to a good
presentation, but their assumption is mistaken.

297
The widespread adoption of powerpoint in our culture is
another form of a powerpoint default. The ubiquity of powerpoint
presentations in modern culture has defined the conventions
for presentations to follow (Knoblauch, 2012). The previous
powerpoint presentations that a teacher has witnessed sets
expectations and standards—use bullet point lists!—that teachers
may unconsciously copy when they author their slide decks.
When these software and cultural defaults combine, the end
result is a conglomeration of ineffective practices: too much text,
too many bullet points, and—unfortunately—too many students
who fall asleep during a presentation. Fortunately, we have a cure
for powerpoint mediocrity. If we want to improve our
presentations, we must overcome the ineffective, default ways of
using powerpoint. The following is a brief summary of
problematic powerpoint defaults in order to to reinforce our
awareness of these sometimes implicit guides that influence
powerpoint presentations.
1. The default settings. The typical uses of powerpoint, like
bullet point lists, are based on historical standards, such
as the text-focused computers of the 1980s (Alley, 2013).
These standards were neither designed by presentation
experts, nor scientifically tested for effectiveness. Bullet
point lists have their place, but the overuse of this feature
leads to mediocrity.
2. Unnecessary decorations. A common default approach
of using powerpoint is the idea that colors, decorations,
and lots of motion will make our presentations better
by exciting the audience. The truth, however, is just the
opposite.

3. Presenting too fast. The third powerpoint default is the
tendency to go too fast. Powerpoint does not cause
teachers to slow down like the more organic chalkboard.
A related possibility is that powerpoint might encourage
an attitude that instructors must achieve maximum
efficiency in every teaching moment (C. Adams, 2009),
which could promote a fast pace and impatience with
student questions.
4. Being too linear. Powerpoint imposes a rigid order on the
presentation, which makes the presentation default to a
linear progression through the slide deck. Instructors may
need to break with the predetermined order to encourage
nonlinear exploration of a topic, especially in regard to
student questions.
5. Tired bullet point lists. The default powerpoint slide
layout is a bullet point list. The problem, however, is that
presenters often overuse bullet points or use them in an
ineffective manner. Educators can benefit from replacing
the overused bullet point lists with slides based upon the
assertion-evidence format, which combines statements
and informative graphics. Slides that focus on
instructional images rather than text may also be an
improvement. Bullet point list layouts can have a
beneficial role, but presenters must be careful to avoid
making every slide follow this structure.
6. Overreliance on lecturing. The default teaching mode of
many college professors is the lecture method, and
powerpoint-use may encourage this style of teaching.
Overuse of lecturing leads to the problem of student
inattention and passive learning. Accordingly, the
successful powerpoint lecture

299
needs to be supplemented with active learning as a part of
the overall instructional plan.
7. Student expectations. Modern students expect their
teachers to use powerpoint in the classroom, as well as
make the slide decks available online. The modern
educator needs to pay close attention to how powerpoint
might be affecting the students. Does powerpoint seem to
encourage a joyless march through a fact-filled slide
deck? Does attendance decline because students are just
downloading the slide deck? If powerpoint seems to be
having adverse effects, it might need to be changed in
some substantive way to make it more effective.
As the above examples show, powerpoint users—both
presenters and audiences—are subtly guided by the software
defaults and social expectations that surround the medium.
These guiding expectations are often invisible to teachers, who
uncritically accept these defaults. The end result is mediocre
powerpoint presentations that are similar to everyone else’s
mediocre powerpoint presentations. In contrast, excellence in
using powerpoint requires us to go beyond these defaults. Users
must use powerpoint in a thoughtful and intentional manner.
With careful evaluation and intentional design, it’s possible to
make presentations with a higher educational value than the
current standards. It simply takes a knowledge of design issues
and the effort to do more than settle for the current standards.

300 | Slides for
Students
The Need to Emphasize Pedagogy
Over Technology
A long-standing trend in education is to view the latest
communications technology as a force that will revolutionize
learning. As we saw with the 1960’s, many educators thought
television would revolutionize the field of education. More
recently, the introduction of personal computers and the Internet
have received much attention and enthusiasm from educators.
Perhaps this viewpoint—that technology will be an educational
game-changer—is itself a default cultural value in the field of
education. We continuously search for the next silver bullet
technology that will improve education. One thing that
psychology research tells us, though, is that this search may be
futile because certain human-based aspects of the educational
context, such as visual perception and cognition, have remained
constant despite these changes in technology.
The use of powerpoint is certainly an example of the
enthusiasm for technology in the field of education. However,
even though powerpoint technology has advantages, it does not
necessarily lead to better instruction. The potential for improved
instruction is there, but it needs to match with the fairly constant
human potential to learn.
The cautious conclusion we must always keep in mind is
that powerpoint and related technologies are simply tools.
There is no teaching magic in the technology. Powerpoint is
not a panacea for the various challenges teachers face in their
classes. Powerpoint technology is simply an instrumental means
for achieving particular educational goals. Therefore, educators

301
must always place their pedagogy and instructional methods first
when it comes to intentional design approached for instructional
use. The technology tools, in contrast, should be a secondary
consideration. The ideal powerpoint presentation does some
heavy lifting in regard to achieving instructional goals, yet its use
should be intuitive, effortless, and almost invisible to the
students. The powerpoint presentation can be a canvas for the
expression of ideas. We should not, in contrast, notice the canvas
itself.
The overemphasis of technology solutions in education
suggests a needed practical change in regard to how teachers
work. Sitting down at the computer and typing out the
powerpoint presentation may seem natural if our default way of
thinking equates the technology as the center of instruction. It
may be better to begin preparing for a class by thinking about the
educational goals of the day, and how to best achieve those goals.
Once instructors establish these goals and methods, then it
might be worth considering how powerpoint would support the
instruction. In other words, powerpoint slide development
should be the third or maybe even the fourth step in preparing
for a class.
Making technology the star of the educational show creates
a technological dependency, but little emphasis is often given to
training the teachers who run the technology. University or
school administrators often believe that purchasing technology
completes the objective of integrating technology into the
classroom. The teacher training is an afterthought that is
typically given no time, attention, or funding. However,
purchasing technology is only the start of the process.
Powerpoint software is relatively easy to use, especially for
people who have some background in office-related software
programs, like Microsoft Word. They are presumed to

have software training already, so many educators are forced to
learn about the technology on their own. The end result is that
the majority of powerpoint users learn the most basic
features, but then fail to develop any further mastery of the
software. They remain perpetual beginners in the use of
powerpoint. It seems peculiar to focus on the technology, yet
ignore the training of the human beings who run it.
Nevertheless, teacher training is relatively neglected.
To improve the effectiveness of powerpoint presentations, we
must begin to treate this situation in a different manner. It’s not
enough to assume that teachers will master complex technologies
on their own. This situation can only be improved by emphasizing
more training for educators, so they can use the software features
to their fullest potential. In the future, training educators to make
the most out of the existing technology may be the area in need of
emphasis most.
A parting idea is to approach powerpoint technology with
enthusiasm, but still appreciate that it must always be in the
back seat of the educational car. Pedagogy must be in the driver’s
seat. We can hope that educational researchers and professionals
begin approaching technologies like powerpoint with a more
sophisticated appreciation of what the technology can and cannot
do for us.
The Bright Future of Powerpoint in
Education
This thoughtful investigation of powerpoint presentations
began with a paradox. Powerpoint seems to have so much
potential, yet it is often used in counterproductive or ineffective

303
ways. Powerpoint presentations have received strong words and
condemnation, with some critics even calling for a complete
ban. As we have seen, powerpoint in education is sometimes
criticized as being a teacher-centered technology that promotes
mere information delivery and passive learning. This technology
may diminish the instructional dialogue between teachers and
students, so that students ultimately submitting to the authority
of powerpoint, merely transcribe information from powerpoint
slides. Teachers are left offering little more than a modern,
boring, traditional lecture.
These views of powerpoint presentations are rather dark.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way.
First, it is important to acknowledge that computer
technology has played a progressively increasing role in our
society over the last several decades. We spend much of our
contemporary life looking at computer screens in some form or
another, such as televisions, tablets, smart phones, and
computer displays. In this cultural context, we should expect
that computer-based information displays will play an essential
role in the classroom environment. Suggestions to eliminate
powerpoint in order to get “back to the basics” seem woefully
out-of-step with our computer- based society. Powerpoint
presentations may have their faults, but there are more
advantages than problems. Computer technology is simply not
going to disappear from the classroom.
The next step in this powerpoint revolution is to admit that
we have been using powerpoint in all the wrong ways. Death
by powerpoint occurrs because our cultural expectation for
presentations have gradually changed. The previous standard for
presentations was to use 3 x 5 inch notecards to provide memory

cues for the speaker. The audience did not see this information.
These memory cues were restricted to the presenter. With
powerpoint, the presenter’s notes generally turned into bullet
points for the audience to see. As we have seen, this new standard
fails due to placing too much text on the projected slide, which
leads to a cognitive overload. Reading from the slide also
conflicts with the students’ attempt to listen to their instructor’s
spoken words. And the presenter typically ends up facing the
screen instead of the audience, another presentation failure.
These changes in our cultural expectations for presentations have
led to a decline in the overall quality of modern presentations.
The path forward to better powerpoint presentations should
now seem clear. Eliminating unnecessary slide features and
decreasing the amount of text will be useful. For content, students
will benefit from presentations that express entire thoughts
as statements. These statements should be accompanied by
supporting visual evidence. Instructional images may promote
efficient processing of information and promote student interest
more than text-based information. The effective learning
environment will need to switch from pure information delivery
to other methods that promote more active pedagogy.
Incorporating question points and seeking student feedback
(either by raised hands or by response systems) will promote
better communication between the teacher and the students.
Instructors can encourage better note-taking by sending students
unambiguous indicators of the important material they need to
learn. The annotation of slides from a handout may be helpful for
the note-taking process. These are some of the many ways we can
better use powerpoint in the classroom than our current
standard.

305
These positive changes will not happen easily or quickly.
The defaults of powerpoint and our cultural expectations of this
medium combine to easily make ineffective presentations. We
will need to actively aim our efforts and overcome these easy
approaches in order to achieve more engaging and educationally
sound presentations. It’s not just needing to change our own
ineffective habits. We also need to gradually change the cultural
standards and expectations for good presentations.
Overall, the future of powerpoint in education is rather bright.
Using practices based in research evidence will show us the way
forward. We can use powerpoint effectively as a tool to support
our pedagogical techniques and ultimately leads to better
learning. It is up to us to work together and help make this
positive future come about.

A
APPENDIX A
Efficacy Studies
Students learning outcomes with powerpoint were better/
same/worse when compared to traditional forms of instruction
(chalkboards, projectors, or no technology).
Better outcomes
Blalock & Montgomery,
2005 Blokzijl & Andeweg,
2005 Erwin & Rieppi, 1999
Evans, 1998
Hove & Corcoran, 2008
Kunkel, 2004
Lowry, 1999
Mantei, 2000
Massery, 2008
Morrison & Vogel, 1998
Szabo & Hastings,
2000 Weinraub, 1998

Neutral or mixed
outcomes
Ahmed, 1998
Apperson et al., 2006
Avila, Biner, Bink, & Dean, 1995
Bartlett & Strough, 2003
Beets & Lobinger, 2001
Brewster, 1995
Buchko, Buchko, & Meyer, 2012
Bushong, 1998
Butler & Mautz, 1996
Carrell & Menzel, 2001; #1 and #2
Chou et al., 2015
Daniels, 1999
DeBord, Aruguete, & Muhlig, 2004; #1
Forsyth & Archer, C.R., 1997
Hardin, 2007
Jandaghi & Matin, 2009
Koeber, 2005
Kunkel, 2004; Crime Theory
Larson, 2001
Luna & McKenzie, J., 1997
Meo et al., 2013
Nouri & Shahid, 2005
Pippert & Moore, 1999

Appendix A | 309
Prabhu, Pai, Prabhu, & Shrilatha, 2014
Rankin & Hoaas, 2001
Ricer, Filak, & Short, 2005
Seth, Upadhyaya, Ahmad, & Kumar, 2010
Sidman & Jones, 2007
Smith & Woody, 2000
Stoloff, 1995
Susskind, 2005, 2008
Swati, Suresh, & Sachin, 2014
Szabo & Hastings, 2000; #1, #3
Wecker, 2012
Worse outcomes
Amare, 2006
Bartsch & Cobern, 2003; #1
Casanova & Casanova, 1991
deSa & Keny, 2014
El Khoury & Mattar, 2012
Rokade & Bahetee, 2013
Savoy, Proctor, &
Salvendy, 2009
Sosin, Blecha, Agarwal,
Bartlett, & Daniel, 2004

B
APPENDIX B
Perception Studies
Student attitudes towards powerpoint lecture presentations
from survey research.
Positive attitude
Ahmadi, Dileepan, & Raiszadeh,
2007 Amare, 2006
Apperson et al., 2006
Atkins-Sayre, Hopkins, Mohundro, & Sayre,
1998 Bartsch & Cobern, 2003
Beets & Lobinger,
2001 Blokzijl & Naeff,
2004
L. A. Burke &
James, 2008
L. A. Burke, James, & Ahmadi,
2009 Cassady, 1998
J. Clark, 2008

Appendix B | 311
D’Angelo & Woosley, 2007
Daniels, 1999
Daniels et al., 2008
Davis, 1998
DeBord et al., 2004; #1
Erdemir & Topcu,
2012 Feldkamp, 2008
Ferrell & Ferrell, 2002
Fifield & Peifer, 1994
Forsyth & Archer, C.R., 1997
Frey & Birnbaum, 2002
Gurrie & Fair, 2008
Harknett & Cobane, 1997
K. E. James, Burke, & Hutchins, 2006
Kahraman, Cevik, & Kodan, 2011
Koeber, 2005
Kumar, 2013
Lavin, Korte, & Davies, 2010
Loisel & Galer, 2004
Lowry, 1999
Luna & McKenzie, J., 1997
Luttig, 1998
Mantei, 2000
McConnell, 1996
Milliken & Barnes, 2002

Morrison & Vogel, 1998
O’Dwyer, 2008
O’Quigley, 2011
R. E. Parker, Bianchi, &
Cheah, 2008
T. Perry & Perry, 1998
Pippert & Moore, 1999
Rickman & Grudzinski, 2000
Roehling & Trent-Brown, 2011
Sammons, 1995
Savoy et al., 2009
Seth, Upadhyaya, Ahmad, & Kumar, 2010
Shittu, Basha, Ahmad, & Liman, 2011
Shuell & Farber, 2001
Simpson, Pollacia, Speers, Willis, & Tarver, 2003
Sugahara & Boland, 2006
Susskind, 2005, 2008
Swati et al., 2014
Szabo & Hastings, 2000; #1
Tang & Austin, 2009
Thareja, Jayjee, Dhawan, & Singla, 2011
Treleven et al., 2012, 2014
Weinraub, 1998
I. Wilson, 2016

Appendix B | 313
Neutral or mixed
El Khoury & Mattar, 2012 Hardin, 2007
Jandaghi & Matin, 2009 Nouri & Shahid, 2005 Prabhu, Pai,
Prabhu, & Shrilatha, 2014
Rosenthal et al., 2002 Selimoglu & Arsoy, 2009 Seth, Upadhyaya,
Ahmad, & Moghe, 2010
Shallcross & Harrison, 2007 Thomas & Raju, 2012 Yilmazel-
Sahin, 2009
Negative attitude
Abdelrahman, Attaran, & Hai-Leng, 2013
Bushong, 1998
deSa & Keny, 2014 Hashemzadeh & Wilson, 2007 Kardes &
Poroy, 2009
Mann & Robinson, 2009
Novelli & Fernandes, 2007 Rokade & Bahetee, 2013

Recommended Readings
Critical evaluation of PowerPoint shortcomings
Tufte, Edward R. The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching
Out Corrupts Within. 2nd ed. Cheshire, Connecticut:
Graphics Press LLC, 2006.
Developing an emotionally compelling message
Duarte, Nancy. Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform
Audiences. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2010.
PowerPoint recommendations from a design expert
Duarte, Nancy. Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Great
Presentations. Canada: O’Reilly Media, 2008.
Recommendations for scientific and engineering presentations
Alley, Michael. The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical
Steps to Succeed and Critical Errors to Avoid. 2nd ed. New
York: Springer, 2013.
C
APPENDIX C
Resources

Appendix C | 315
Applying cognitive psychology to PowerPoint
Kosslyn, Stephen M. “Graphics and Human Information
Processing: A Review of Five Books.” Journal of the
American Statistical Association 80 (1985): 499–512.
A comprehensive review of multimedia learning principles
Mayer, Richard E. Multimedia learning. 2nd ed. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2009.
A review of student response system technology studies
Keough, Shawn M. “Clickers in the Classroom: A Review and a
Replication.” Journal of Management Education 36 (2012):
822–847, https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562912454808
Powerpoint design recommendations based on multimedia
learning research
Atkinson, Cliff and Richard E. Mayer. Five Ways to Reduce
PowerPoint Overload. PDF: https://cit.duke.edu/wp-
content/uploads/2012/07/atkinson_mayer_powerpoint.pdf
Web sites
Assertion-evidence.com
Examples and guidelines for using the assertion-evidence
slide format.
Cloudconvert.com
Converts Apple Keynote and other file formats into
PowerPoint files and vice versa.
Images.google.com
Search for images. Try using “tools” and “usage rights” for
“labeled for reuse” to find images with open licenses for
reuse.

Pechakucha.org
Examples of the pecha kucha presentation style.
Pixabay.com; publicdomainpictures.net
Images with open licenses for
reuse.
Thinkoutsidetheslide.com
Free resources for evaluating color,
fonts, and more.
Accessibility
Vischeck.com
Evaluates color images by simulating
color blindness.
www.section508.va.gov/support/tutori
als/powerpoint/index.asp
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs guidelines for creating
accessible documents with PowerPoint 2010.
www.ncdae.org/resources/cheatsheets/#msppt
Quick guides to PowerPoint accessibility from the National
Center on Disability and Access to Education.
References
3M. A Century of Innovation: The 3M Story. 3M, 2002, http://
multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/171240O/3m-coi-book-
tif. pdf
Abdelrahman, Limia Ali Mohomed, Mohammad Attaran, and
Chin Hai-Leng. “What Does PowerPoint Mean to You? A
Phenomenological Study.” Procedia - Social and Behavioral
Sciences 103 (2013): 1319–1326, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
sbspro.2013.10.462

Appendix C | 317
Abeysekera, Lakmal and Phillip Dawson. “Motivation and
Cognitive Load in the Flipped Classroom: Definition,
Rationale and a Call for Research.” Higher Education
Research & Development, 103, no. 1 (2015): 1–14, https://
doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2014.934336
Adams, Catherine. “PowerPoint, Habits of Mind, and Classroom
Culture.” Journal of Curriculum Studies 38, no. 4 (2006):
---. “PowerPoint and the Pedagogy of Digital Media
Technologies.” In Annual Proceedings on the Practice of
Educational Communications and Technology (vol. 2).
Louisville, KY: 2009.
Adams, Scott. “PowerPoint” poisoning [Cartoon]. August 16,
2000, http://dilbert.com/strip/2000-08-16
Ahmadi, Mohammad, Parthasarati Dileepan, and Farhad
Raiszadeh. “Is PowerPoint Evil? Students’ Perceptions.”
Review of Business Research 7 no. 4 (2007): 15–19.
Ahmed, Christine. “Powerpoint versus Traditional
Overheads.
Which is more Effective for Learning?” Presented at the
Conference of the South Dakota Association for Health,
Physical Education and Recreation, Souix Falls, SD, 1998.
Alley, Michael. The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical
Steps to Succeed and Critical Errors to Avoid. 2nd ed. New
York: Springer, 2013.
Alley, Michael, Madeline Schreiber and John Muffo. “Pilot
Testing of a New Design for Presentation Slides to Teach
Science and Engineering.” In ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in
Education, S3G–7 to SG3–12. Indianapolis, IN: IEEE, 2005.

Alley, Michael, Madeline Schreiber, Katrina Ramsdell and John
Muffo. “How the Design of Headlines in Presentation
Slides Affects Audience Retention.” Technical
Communication 43 (2006): 225–234.
Altman, Rick. Why Most PowerPoint Presentations Suck and
How You Can Make Them Better. 3rd ed. Pleasanton,
CA: Harvest Books, 2012.
Amare, Nicole. “To Slideware or to not Slideware: Student
Experiences with PowerPoint vs. Lecture.” Journal of
Technical Writing and Communication 36 no. 3 (2006):
297–308.
Anderson, Joe S., and Susan K. Williams. “Pecha Kucha for Lean
and Sticky Presentations in Business Classes.” In Working
Paper Series—12-03. Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona
University, 2012.
Annis, Linda Ferrill. “Effect of Preference for Assigned Lecture
Notes on Student Achievement.” Journal of Education
Research 74 (1981): 179–182.
https://doi.org/10.1080/0022
0671.1981.10885306
Anthis, Kristine. “Is it the Clicker, or is it the Question?
Untangling the Effects of Student Response System Use.”
Teaching of Psychology 38(2011): 189–193, https://doi.
org/10.1177/0098628311411895
Apperson, Jennifer M., Eric L. Laws, and James A.
Scepansky. “The Impact of Presentation Graphics on
Students’ Experience in the Classroom.” Computers and
Education 47(2006): 116–126,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j. compedu.2004.09.003

Appendix C | 319
Atkinson, Cliff. Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft
PowerPoint to Create Presentations that Inform, Motivate,
and Inspire. 3rd ed. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 2011.
Atkinson, Cliff and Richard E. Mayer. Five Ways to Reduce
PowerPoint Overload. PDF: https://cit.duke.edu/wp-
content/uploads/2012/07/atkinson_mayer_powerpoint.pdf
Atkinson, Richard C. and Richard M. Shiffrin. “Human Memory:
A Proposed System and its Control Processes.” Psychology
of Learning and Motivation 2 (1968): 89–195, https://doi.
org/10.1016/S0079-7421(08)60422-3
Atkins-Sayre, Wendy, Sonya Hopkins, Sarah Mohundro, and
Ward Sayre. “Rewards and Liabilities of Presentation
Software as an Ancillary Tool: Prison or Paradise?”
Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the National
Communication Association, New York, NY: 1998.
Austin, Jennifer L., Melissa Lee, and Jeffrey P. Carr. “The Effects
of Guided Notes on Undergraduate Students’ Recording of
Lecture Content.” Journal of Instructional Psychology 31
(2004): 314–320.
Avila, Ramon A., Paul M. Biner, Martin L. Bink, and Raymond
S. Dean. “Course Materials Presentation Using Video- Based
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