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Making Better PowerPoint Presentations

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☉ Baddeley and Hitch’s model of working memory.

☉ Research about student preferences for PowerPoint
☉ Resources for making better PowerPoint presentations
☉ Bibliography
We have all experienced the pain of a bad PowerPoint presentation. And even though we
promise ourselves never to make the same mistakes, we can still fall prey to common
design pitfalls. The good news is that your PowerPoint presentation doesn’t have to be
ordinary. By keeping in mind a few guidelines, your classroom presentations can stand
above the crowd!

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“IT IS EASY TO DISMISS DESIGN – TO

RELEGATE IT TO MERE ORNAMENT, THE
PRETTIFYING OF PLACES AND OBJECTS TO
DISGUISE THEIR BANALITY. BUT THAT IS A SERIOUS
MISUNDERSTANDING OF WHAT DESIGN IS AND WHY
IT MATTERS.”
DANIEL PINK

Baddeley and Hitch’s model of working memory.

One framework that can be useful when making design decisions about your PowerPoint
slide design is Baddeley and Hitch’s model of working memory
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baddeley%27s_model_of_working_memory).

As illustrated in the diagram above, the Central Executive coordinates the work of three
systems by organizing the information we hear, see, and store into working memory.

The Phonological Loop deals with any auditory information. Students in a classroom are
potentially listening to a variety of things: the instructor, questions from their peers,
sound effects or audio from the PowerPoint presentation, and their own “inner voice.”

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The Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad deals with information we see. This involves such aspects
as form, color, size, space between objects, and their movement. For students this would
include: the size and color of fonts, the relationship between images and text on the
screen, the motion path of text animation and slide transitions, as well as any hand
gestures, facial expressions, or classroom demonstrations made by the instructor.

The Episodic Buffer integrates the information across these sensory domains and
communicates with long-term memory. All of these elements are being deposited into a
holding tank called the “episodic buffer.” This buffer has a limited capacity and can
become “overloaded” thereby, setting limits on how much information students can take
in at once.

Research about student preferences for PowerPoint

Laura Edelman (https://www.muhlenberg.edu/academics/psychology/faculty/lauraedelman/) and Kathleen Harring

(https://www.muhlenberg.edu/main/academics/psychology/faculty/kathleenharring/)from Muhlenberg College
(http://www.muhlenberg.edu/), Allentown, Pennsylvania have developed an approach to
PowerPoint design using Baddeley and Hitch’s model. During the course of their work,
they conducted a survey of students at the college asking what they liked and didn’t like
about their professor’s PowerPoint presentations. They discovered the following:

CHARACTERISTICS STUDENTS DON’T LIKE ABOUT

PROFESSORS’ POWERPOINT SLIDES

☉ Too many words on a slide

☉ Clip art
☉ Movement (slide transitions or word animations)
☉ Templates with too many colors
CHARACTERISTICS STUDENTS LIKE LIKE ABOUT
PROFESSORS’ POWERPOINT SLIDES

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4/10/2020 Making Better PowerPoint Presentations | Center for Teaching | Vanderbilt University

☉ Graphs increase understanding of content

☉ Bulleted lists help them organize ideas
☉ PowerPoint can help to structure lectures
☉ Verbal explanations of pictures/graphs help more than written clari cations
According to Edelman and Harring, some conclusions
from the research at Muhlenberg are that students learn
more when:
☉ material is presented in short phrases rather than full paragraphs.
☉ the professor talks about the information on the slide rather than having
students read it on their own.
☉ relevant pictures are used. Irrelevant pictures decrease learning compared to
PowerPoint slides with no picture
☉ they take notes (if the professor is not talking). But if the professor is lecturing,
note-taking and listening decreased learning.
☉ they are given the PowerPoint slides before the class.
Advice from Edelman and Harring on leveraging the
working memory with PowerPoint:
☉ Leverage the working memory by dividing the information between the visual
and auditory modality. Doing this reduces the likelihood of one system
becoming overloaded. For instance, spoken words with pictures are better than
pictures with text, as integrating an image and narration takes less cognitive
effort than integrating an image and text.

☉ Minimize the opportunity for distraction by removing any irrelevant material such
as music, sound effects, animations, and background images.

☉ Use simple cues to direct learners to important points or content. Using text size,
bolding, italics, or placing content in a highlighted or shaded text box is all that is
required to convey the signi cance of key ideas in your presentation.

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☉ Don’t put every word you intend to speak on your PowerPoint slide. Instead, keep
information displayed in short chunks that are easily read and comprehended.

Resources for making better PowerPoint presentations

☉ One of the mostly widely accessed websites about PowerPoint design is Garr
Reynolds’ blog, Presentation Zen (http://www.presentationzen.com/). In his blog entry:
“What is Good PowerPoint Design?
(http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/09/whats_good_powe.html)” Reynolds explains
how to keep the slide design simple, yet not simplistic, and includes a few slide
examples that he has ‘made-over’ to demonstrate how to improve its readability
and effectiveness. He also includes sample slides
(http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/sample1.html) from his own presentation about
PowerPoint slide design.
☉ Another presentation guru, David Paradi, author of “The Visual Slide Revolution:
Transforming Overloaded Text Slides into Persuasive Presentations
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0969875185?ie=UTF8&tag=thinkoutsidet-

20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0969875185)” maintains a video podcast

series called “Think Outside the Slide (http://www.youtube.com/user/ThinkOutsideTheSlide)” where
he also demonstrates PowerPoint slide makeovers. Examples on this site are
typically from the corporate perspective, but the process by which content
decisions are made is still relevant for higher education. Paradi has also
developed a ve step method, called KWICK (https://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/lesson-4-the-
kwick-method-for-creating-persuasive-visuals/), that can be used as a simple guide when
designing PowerPoint presentations.
☉ In the video clip below, Comedian Don McMillan (http://www.technicallyfunny.com/) talks
about some of the common misuses of PowerPoint in his routine called “Life
After Death by PowerPoint.”

Life After Death by PowerPoint (Corporate …

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☉ This article from The Chronicle of Higher Education

(http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/improving-powerpoint-style-presentations/32126?

sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en) highlights a blog moderated by Microsoft’s Doug

Thomas (http://blogs.o ce.com/b/o ce_casual/archive/2010/10/11/better-powerpoint-presentations-the-o ce-

casual-way-video.aspx) that compiles practical PowerPoint advice gathered from

presentation masters like Seth Godin (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/), Guy Kawasaki
(http://www.guykawasaki.com/), and Garr Reynolds (http://www.presentationzen.com/).

Bibliography

Presenting to Win: (http://acorn.library.vanderbilt.edu/cgi-bin/isbn-search/9780768668810)The Art of Telling

Your Story (http://acorn.library.vanderbilt.edu/cgi-bin/isbn-search/9780768668810), by Jerry Weissman,
Prentice Hall, 2006

Presentation Zen: (http://acorn.library.vanderbilt.edu/cgi-bin/isbn-search/9780321525659)Simple Ideas on

Presentation Design and Delivery (http://acorn.library.vanderbilt.edu/cgi-bin/isbn-search/9780321525659), by
Garr Reynolds, New Riders Press, 2008

Solving the PowerPoint Predicament: using digital media for effective

communication (http://acorn.library.vanderbilt.edu/cgi-bin/isbn-search/9780321423443), by Tom Bunzel,
Que, 2006

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4/10/2020 Making Better PowerPoint Presentations | Center for Teaching | Vanderbilt University

The Cognitive Style of Power Point (http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Style-Power-Point/dp/0961392150),

by Edward R. Tufte, Graphics Pr, 2003

The Visual Slide Revolution: Transforming Overloaded Text Slides into Persuasive
Presentations (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0969875185?ie=UTF8&tag=thinkoutsidet-
20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0969875185), by Dave Paradi, Communications
Skills Press, 2000

Why Most PowerPoint Presentations Suck: (http://www.amazon.com/Why-Most-PowerPoint-

Presentations-Suck/dp/0615142230)And How You Can Make Them Better (http://www.amazon.com/Why-
Most-PowerPoint-Presentations-Suck/dp/0615142230), by Rick Altman, Harvest Books, 2007

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