tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/powerpoint-17919/articlesPowerPoint – The Conversation2017-09-27T17:03:47Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/839992017-09-27T17:03:47Z2017-09-27T17:03:47ZTurning traditional teaching on its head helps rural science students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187165/original/file-20170922-17306-19qgk6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When the usual way of doing things is flipped around, students can benefit.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When I started lecturing full-time a little over five years ago, I knew what everybody does: that we all learn better by doing. I knew that “<a href="https://cei.umn.edu/support-services/tutorials/what-active-learning">active learning</a>” – literally doing anything apart from just talking through a PowerPoint presentation – is the way to go. </p>
<p>I’d also been introduced to the “<a href="http://2016conference.ascilite.org/wp-content/uploads/ascilite2016_huber_concise.pdf">flipped classroom</a>” concept, an idea that has taken North America and Western Europe by storm. The flipped classroom means turning traditional teaching upside down. Instead of introducing concepts in class, then sending students off to do homework, you make them do some online work first (introducing themselves to the basic concepts) and use class time to tackle complex questions, working in small groups. </p>
<p>Despite this knowledge, I started off lecturing the way I was taught. I was the traditional “sage on the stage” presenting PowerPoint lectures to students silently taking notes. </p>
<p>Neither I nor my third-year students in a Marine and Freshwater Ecology course speak English as a first language. This added a layer of difficulty to understanding complex scientific concepts. And, top it off, I was teaching this course in a rural South African area called <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/places/qwaqwa">Qwaqwa</a> – quite a distance from the nearest ocean.</p>
<p>After a year of teaching, I put my trepidation aside and tried a partially flipped classroom, hoping to boost my students’ learning and experiences. The results, documented in <a href="http://journals.co.za/docserver/fulltext/newgen_v14_n1_a4.pdf?expires=1505988947&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=5720DEFD27F3DB007877CD05D725397A">an article</a> for the <a href="https://journals.co.za/content/journal/newgen">Journal for New Generation Sciences</a>, have been extremely encouraging.</p>
<h2>Taking a different approach</h2>
<p>The “flipped classroom” approach is less common in Africa; my research turned up almost nothing.</p>
<p>There are probably several reasons for the slow uptake. Academics on this continent don’t often have <a href="http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=163787">access to the technology</a> to create videos for students. Our students are not technologically savvy and nor are many of their lecturers. Students have come largely from <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/too-little-access-not-enough-learning-africas-twin-deficit-in-education/">poor educational backgrounds</a> and are used to a particular way of learning. Adapting may be tough.</p>
<p>Using technology in science, technology and engineering and maths (STEM) education is a <a href="http://blog.iat.com/2014/12/29/25-stem-education-apps-you-need-in-2015/">popular</a> and effective way of boosting learning. But the vital aspect of a flipped classroom is combining technology with collaboration. Yes, students use technology to become familiar with complex concepts. True understanding, though, comes through interaction with each other and with the lecturer in the classroom. This is what gives them the real engagement with theories and ideas that can’t be shown in a laboratory or static textbook. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187040/original/file-20170921-8185-1up7elv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187040/original/file-20170921-8185-1up7elv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187040/original/file-20170921-8185-1up7elv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187040/original/file-20170921-8185-1up7elv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187040/original/file-20170921-8185-1up7elv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187040/original/file-20170921-8185-1up7elv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187040/original/file-20170921-8185-1up7elv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Collaborative problem-solving can get quite active in Qwaqwa’s classrooms.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I decided not to flip my entire course. Instead, I kept using PowerPoints for much of the 6-month long semester but picked a few key concepts I’ve seen students struggle to understand. These concepts became the focus of my flip.</p>
<p>I either found or created videos that students had to watch before class, making sure they did this by posting easy quizzes on <a href="http://blog.capterra.com/moodle-vs-edmodo-vs-blackboard-the-ultimate-lms-comparison/">Blackboard</a>; an online platform on which course material, videos, quizzes, and so forth can be placed). In class, about 30 minutes of lecturing time were given over to worksheets that required a collaborative “<a href="http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/using-think-pair-share-30626.html">think-pair-share</a>” approach.</p>
<p>A question was posed that each student had to think about individually, and answer. They paired up to discuss their answers. Then they were asked a second question – closely related to the first – which they had to consider alone again. This ensures that students can mentally “translate” the recent discussion into their own words, in the same way they would have to answer questions during an exam.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187039/original/file-20170921-8194-h8rc2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187039/original/file-20170921-8194-h8rc2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187039/original/file-20170921-8194-h8rc2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187039/original/file-20170921-8194-h8rc2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187039/original/file-20170921-8194-h8rc2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187039/original/file-20170921-8194-h8rc2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187039/original/file-20170921-8194-h8rc2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An example of the first question in a think-pair-share activity.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Marrying technology and collaboration</h2>
<p>Students loved the partial flip. They talked more and asked more questions in class; they requested <em>more</em> videos and <em>more</em> Blackboard quizzes. Their marks suggested that the videos helped: those that did watch the videos beforehand had significantly higher marks in the initial question during think-pair-share exercises. </p>
<p>The sharing – talking with a friend, in one’s mother tongue – made an even more profound difference. On this rural campus, with faulty internet and often disinterested students, I found that students really engaged with complex ecological material. Even more remarkable is that they could understand concepts like the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/coriolis-effect/">Coriolis effect</a> and <a href="http://www.marbef.org/wiki/Rocky_shore_habitat#Zonation">rocky shore zonation patterns</a> without having seen the ocean. </p>
<p>One student, giving anonymous feedback at the end of the semester, wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think much better than before …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Since that initial experiment, I’ve started using partial flips in all my courses. I honestly don’t think I ever want to do a fully-fledged flipped classroom, as just a week of Internet issues or power cuts – sadly common in <a href="https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Unlocking-Rural-Coverage-enablers-for-commercially-sustainable-mobile-network-expansion_English.pdf">rural areas</a> in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent – could potentially ruin an entire module. </p>
<p>But a partial flip is possible. It’s easy to find video material on key challenging concepts related to any scientific discipline, so academics don’t have to record all their lectures exhaustively. I highly recommend it, and challenge other academics to try this approach, too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aliza le Roux receives funding from the National Research Foundation and the Afromontane Research Unit. She is part of the South African Young Academy of Science and the Africa Science Leadership Program. Both of these professional groups aim to improve the connection between science and the society it serves.</span></em></p>“Flipped classrooms” aren’t yet common around Africa, but a partial flip that marries technology and collaboration has real potential.Aliza le Roux, Senior Lecturer, University of the Free StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/451462015-09-24T09:40:32Z2015-09-24T09:40:32ZLearning from PowerPoint: is it time for teachers to move on?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95718/original/image-20150922-25752-1gck4o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How well do students learn when a lesson is mainly in PowerPoint?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkb4dawn/3390585399/in/photolist-65hVoy-4abWCw-4uyiv9-Hzh4d-6mDHa9-4Xgrs9-QWNVK-5CzJan-5uDuTA-kfGx2-6RhrHq-4zajqc-6vtS7X-JtPRd-JtSUr-JtPFL-JtPzf-bvVygY-66bWgT-7y2hn8-255BTY-ALww-6RhsFY-6Rhs3f-9JPK7V-61xZHf-5K8jjS-5uz87R-6M4rhU-5uJ2Dq-4ejQjH-tWwoe-69jS8b-5pn6cM-6tTwn3-5mHeUA-HMKKg-HMKJr-GVrf6-6LZgux-6M4r2J-6aBCUX-jcXEE-Hzgyb-Hzg8G-HzfxY-Hzj3B-Hzajf-Hz7Jc-XNkBr">Henrik Berger Jørgensen</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For a brief period in the history of teaching, using PowerPoint automatically qualified you as a tech-savvy professor – an innovator who wouldn’t settle for the usual combination of staticky black-and-white overhead films and hand-scrawled chalkboard notes. </p>
<p>Now, it’s hard to believe that PowerPoint was once considered innovative by anyone. Popular criticism includes everything from tongue-in-cheek comments about <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2014/11/14/six-ways-to-avoid-death-by-powerpoint/">death by PowerPoint</a>
to serious claims that it <a href="http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/powerpoint">fundamentally degrades</a> how we think and communicate.</p>
<p>But much of today’s college instruction isn’t in face-to-face classrooms, a setting in which PowerPoint was traditionally used. It’s in the <a href="http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/changingcourse.pdf">burgeoning field of online learning</a>. </p>
<p>So if more learning is moving online, does that mean that teaching with PowerPoint is becoming a thing of the past? </p>
<p>Surprisingly, the answer is no. </p>
<h2>Passive learning through PowerPoint?</h2>
<p>Even though there’s <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10755-006-9017-5">little research</a> that directly addresses whether PowerPoint affects learning in college students, critics have <a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-ban-powerpoint-in-lectures-it-makes-students-more-stupid-and-professors-more-boring-36183">questioned its value</a> in educational settings. </p>
<p>Some ask whether PowerPoint might indirectly undermine the quality of teaching by <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265381218_PowerPoint_An_Overused_Technology_Deserving_of_Criticism_but_Indispensable%20%E2%80%93%20one%20centered%20around%20the%20lecture%20rather%20than%20active%20student%20involvement">reinforcing a passive learning approach</a>. </p>
<p>We know that <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/111/23/8410">lecturing is less effective</a> than alternative methods. It therefore makes sense for teachers in face-to-face classrooms to question how much of their class time ought to be spent on slideshows.</p>
<p>But the fact is “slideshows” remain a popular method for presenting content in today’s online courses.</p>
<p>Technically, these are often not PowerPoints, but decks generated using other types of <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate.html">specialized programs</a>. </p>
<p>And they may differ from standard in-class PowerPoint presentations in important ways. </p>
<p>For example, taking advantage of the increased flexibility of the online environment, they give students more control over how quickly to go through the material and when to backtrack. They can also have more interactive features, such as quizzes, that ask students to apply material while they are learning it. </p>
<p>Even so, the basic – and flawed – idea is the same: put the material in front of students, and learning will happen. </p>
<h2>What’s wrong with slideshows in online courses</h2>
<p>As a psychologist specializing in teaching techniques and course design, when I talk to faculty about <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674368248">teaching effectively with technology</a>, I sometimes tell them to follow the ABS principle: anything but slideshows.</p>
<p>I’m only half-kidding with that blanket statement. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95720/original/image-20150922-25773-105n5uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95720/original/image-20150922-25773-105n5uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95720/original/image-20150922-25773-105n5uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95720/original/image-20150922-25773-105n5uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95720/original/image-20150922-25773-105n5uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95720/original/image-20150922-25773-105n5uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95720/original/image-20150922-25773-105n5uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are alternatives to using only PowerPoint for instruction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dkeats/4600373827/in/photolist-7NLVGj-4xxcoh-4TJVAC-4B38kY-72M76r-pjGMBh-4B37XL-81w7S8-9AnmG-4U84p6-513e4n-513dMa-4B2WZS-4B2VH9-4B2GBS-4AXqUr-5nghwZ-dQdZxD-65VMrK-aE5UnQ-aE5SCf-aE5KYd-5mH8ks-axzyGx-axzucX-4vXanA-4xeHjH-4iWMs-4uVjyH-39cZ3A-5FJKjk-4AXrge-5PA4Ke-4eWiki-4uubp6-517r5U-513emp-axCdQU-aE2QWD-5PzLLx-4B2YMG-axA9qK-axCjnL-axzze4-axzphg-4uuhbM-axCcGq-4eWhTr-4DkBmh-4uyjjA">Derek Keats</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After all, we learn with the same brains in online environments as we do face-to-face; the principles of learning don’t change just because the medium changes. And <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470484101.html">today’s learning theorists</a> agree: active involvement trumps passive viewing.</p>
<p>Students need to grapple with challenging problems, practice skills, discuss and defend viewpoints. But for this kind of active learning to happen, instructors need to ensure they do not rely too heavily on slides.</p>
<p>There are alternatives: <a href="http://www.phil.cmu.edu/projects/causality-lab/">simulations</a>, <a href="https://pblc.nss.udel.edu/Pbl//">problem-based learning</a>, even <a href="https://reacting.barnard.edu/about">educational games</a> are all proven methods for drawing students in. They also <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674368248">transplant well into online learning</a>.</p>
<h2>Using slideshows the right way</h2>
<p>So do slideshows have any place in a well-designed online course? Possibly.</p>
<p>They can be used strategically for things they are best at: giving students an overview of new material, or providing a refresher on concepts students will need for an upcoming activity. </p>
<p>Slides are also great for for integrating visual illustrations. This is important because visuals – diagrams, figures, photos and the like – have a powerful impact on learning. </p>
<p>Visual information is almost always more memorable than sound, text or other modalities. </p>
<p>This isn’t because of the <a href="http://www.changemag.org/archives/back%20issues/september-october%202010/the-myth-of-learning-full.html">now-debunked</a> idea that some people are “visual learners,” but more likely stems from <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/mental-representations-9780195066661?cc=us&lang=en&">how the brain codes images</a>. There are separate systems for representing verbal and visual information in the brain. When we save information in both places, it is easier to recall. </p>
<p>Teachers don’t have to stick with static images, either. Even <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ940536">basic animations</a> can illuminate conceptual relationships – such as cause and effect, or the unfolding of a process over time – in ways that text can’t. </p>
<p>Furthermore, as University of California, Santa Barbara researcher <a href="https://www.psych.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/mayer">Richard Mayer</a> has <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/US/academic/subjects/psychology/educational-psychology/multimedia-learning-2nd-edition">discovered</a>, visuals and the spoken word pair up in powerful ways, so that audio plus visuals produce better learning than either alone. </p>
<p>Research also tells teachers some things <em>not</em> to do with visuals. Instructors should avoid purely decorative graphics, as these can actually <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563212000921">hamper learning</a>. </p>
<p>They should also eschew <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2013-09151-001/">reading text verbatim</a>, instead using a <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/US/academic/subjects/psychology/educational-psychology/multimedia-learning-2nd-edition">conversational, natural speaking style</a> for voiceovers and verbal explanations.</p>
<h2>What this means in the larger context of online learning</h2>
<p>In sum, slideshows can be a useful part of online instruction, when used for the right things and designed in the right way. But they shouldn’t be the main, or the only, method of instruction – any more than lectures should dominate face-to-face classes.</p>
<p>But it’s not just instructors who need to hear this message. </p>
<p>Publishing and educational technology companies, who provide many of the tools that educators rely on, can do more to develop products that push beyond familiar formulas and draw on the latest learning science.</p>
<p>We need tools that make it easy to create assignments that ask students to apply what they have learned, in scenarios that are as realistic and challenging as possible. </p>
<p>These learning tools also need to be adaptive, adjusting the material and pace to the individual learner. This kind of educational technology <a href="http://oli.stanford.edu">does exist</a>, but far more can be done to expand the available options.</p>
<p>Teaching in the age of technology comes with its own set of opportunities as well as challenges. And online education presents educators and tech developers with a rare opportunity to fundamentally rethink what we do. </p>
<p>Will we use it to explore new avenues for learning, or will we fall back on the the same old techniques that don’t work well in face-to-face classrooms?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45146/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Denise Miller is a partner in Rhizome Learn LLC and consults for Minds-Online.com.</span></em></p>Slideshows, when designed right, can be a useful part of online instruction. But they shouldn’t be the main, or the only, method of instruction.Michelle Denise Miller, Director, First Year Learning Initiative at University College and Professor of Psychological Sciences, Northern Arizona UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/437832015-06-26T01:37:04Z2015-06-26T01:37:04ZIt’s not PowerPoint’s fault, you’re just using it wrong<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86201/original/image-20150624-827-15jczzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">PowerPoint isn't the problem, it's the way it has come to be used</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/garethjmsaunders/748083829/">Gareth Saunders/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine seeing a young student attempt to twist in a screw using a hammer. I think we can all agree that angrily grabbing the hammer from the student and throwing it away would be a mistake. A more constructive response would to be to simply clarify the true purpose of a hammer.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-universities-should-get-rid-of-powerpoint-and-why-they-wont-43323">Recent articles</a> calling for <a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-ban-powerpoint-in-lectures-it-makes-students-more-stupid-and-professors-more-boring-36183">blanket removal of PowerPoint</a> from education make the same mistake as banning the hammer: they erroneously blame the tool for mistakes made by the user.</p>
<p>PowerPoint is a tool built for a very specific purpose: to display visual aids meant to complement verbally delivered content. Somewhere along the line, however, this purpose was forgotten and the tool was co-opted to achieve ends it was simply never meant to address.</p>
<p>So rather than outright abolishing PowerPoint, here’s <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mbe.12052/abstract">a short refresher</a> on how PowerPoint should be used.</p>
<h2>PowerPoint faux pas</h2>
<p><strong>Using slides as speaker notes</strong></p>
<p>Many people use PowerPoint as a substitute for speaker notes – filling each slide with text, which they then proceed to read aloud to the audience. The practice of using slides to guide the speaker rather than to aid the learner is not only tedious and redundant, but also has been shown to <a href="http://bcq.sagepub.com/content/69/4/374.short">diminish audience engagement and learning</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Including too many words</strong></p>
<p>A quick experiment: try to listen to the TV news or talk-back radio while you read this article. Don’t be surprised if you can’t pay attention to both at the same time – it turns out, silent reading <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982213000055">requires the same brain regions</a> as listening to someone speak aloud.</p>
<p>This means that when a PowerPoint presentation contains too many words, the audience must choose whether to read the slides or listen to the speaker. They <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131512000140">cannot do both simultaneously</a>. Even when slides <a href="http://hfs.sagepub.com/content/46/3/567.short">contain the same words as those being spoken</a>, comprehension and memory decrease when both are presented simultaneously.</p>
<p><strong>Suddenly presenting dense graphs and/or tables</strong></p>
<p>Graphs and tables compactly present data that, otherwise, might take many pages to outline and explain. As such, they take <a href="http://web.simmons.edu/%7Ebenoit/infovis/huang2009.pdf">time and a great deal of mental effort</a> to interpret. This means that if a complex graph or table suddenly appears on a PowerPoint slide, the audience must choose whether to <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02461643">decipher the figure or listen to the speaker</a>: they can’t do both.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86202/original/image-20150624-780-6ui4cv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86202/original/image-20150624-780-6ui4cv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86202/original/image-20150624-780-6ui4cv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86202/original/image-20150624-780-6ui4cv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86202/original/image-20150624-780-6ui4cv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86202/original/image-20150624-780-6ui4cv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86202/original/image-20150624-780-6ui4cv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86202/original/image-20150624-780-6ui4cv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lots of words and slides = disengaged audience.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lockergnome/6258696195/">Chris Pirillo/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How to use PowerPoint</h2>
<p><strong>Include relevant images</strong></p>
<p>It is not an accident that PowerPoint was developed as an image-presentation tool. Psychological and educational research has long demonstrated that including relevant images during an oral talk <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Cvw6BAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA227&dq=modality+principle+review&ots=HuTcP8xX3Z&sig=viP61A0ieoukP4XvCzt2Lg0Xd_0#v=onepage&q=modality%20principle%20review&f=false">enhances audience engagement and improves learning</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Reveal graphs and/or tables</strong></p>
<p>With PowerPoint, it is a trivial matter to segment graphs/tables into digestible bits and present each in a piecemeal format. For instance, a presenter can first display the empty axes of a graph, then overlay the internal grid, then build up each experimental condition. </p>
<p>In this way, the speaker can walk the audience through each component of a figure. In turn, this ensures the audience can listen to the speech as the complex visual image builds to completion.</p>
<p><strong>Spatial predictability</strong> </p>
<p>Each time the mouse button is pressed to advance a presentation, the audience must devote attention to and decipher each new slide. This means they may tune out and no longer hear the speaker as they orient themselves to the newly presented material. </p>
<p>If each slide is spatially and visually organised in the same way (images, titles and/or references located in the same position on each slide, perhaps with an explicit box), audience members will <a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2254576">covertly learn the layout</a>, increasing audience attention and learning.</p>
<h2>Putting it all together</h2>
<p>There are very good reasons why the <a href="http://content.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,1202862953001_2096268,00.html">presentations delivered by the late Steve Jobs</a> became so revered. Aside from his personal charisma and gravitas, Jobs and his team were masters of the use of visual aids for emphasis. Slides were used sparingly, had little to no extraneous detail, and were easy for the audience to process.</p>
<p>Slides are visual aids and should be designed with this purpose in mind. Notes, study aids and other supplementary material should be produced separately, using tools that have been designed for those purposes.</p>
<p>Don’t ban the hammer - simply use it for what it was meant for.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86203/original/image-20150624-786-5huxdg.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86203/original/image-20150624-786-5huxdg.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86203/original/image-20150624-786-5huxdg.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86203/original/image-20150624-786-5huxdg.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86203/original/image-20150624-786-5huxdg.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86203/original/image-20150624-786-5huxdg.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86203/original/image-20150624-786-5huxdg.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/deathtogutenberg/2490043869/">Austin Kleon/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43783/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jared Cooney Horvath works for the Science of Learning Research Centre (SLRC) at the University of Melbourne. The SLRC is funded through a Special Research Initiative of the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Lodge works for the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education and the Science of Learning Research Centre (SLRC) at the University of Melbourne. The SLRC is funded through a Special Research Initiative of the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Recent articles calling for blanket removal of PowerPoint from education erroneously blame the tool for mistakes made by the user.Jared Cooney Horvath, PhD Student - Neuroscience, Psychology, and Education, The University of MelbourneJason M Lodge, Research Fellow, Science of Learning Research Centre & Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/433232015-06-23T20:08:47Z2015-06-23T20:08:47ZWhy universities should get rid of PowerPoint and why they won’t<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85139/original/image-20150616-5835-1g75zyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Reading off a PowerPoint slide doesn't make you a teacher</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Do you really believe that watching a lecturer read hundreds of PowerPoint slides is making you smarter?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I asked this of a class of 105 computer science and software engineering students last semester. </p>
<p>An article in <a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-ban-powerpoint-in-lectures-it-makes-students-more-stupid-and-professors-more-boring-36183">The Conversation</a> recently argued universities should ban PowerPoint because it makes students stupid and professors boring. I agree entirely. However, most universities will ignore this good advice because rather than measuring success by how much their students learn, universities measure success with student satisfaction surveys, <a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-should-change-the-way-they-measure-success-40071">among other things</a>.</p>
<h2>What is so wrong with PowerPoint?</h2>
<p>Overreliance on slides has contributed to the absurd belief that expecting and requiring students to read books, attend classes, take notes and do homework is unreasonable. </p>
<p>Courses designed around slides therefore propagate the myth that students can become skilled and knowledgeable without working through dozens of books, hundreds of articles and thousands of problems. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85138/original/image-20150616-5829-iurdx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85138/original/image-20150616-5829-iurdx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85138/original/image-20150616-5829-iurdx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85138/original/image-20150616-5829-iurdx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85138/original/image-20150616-5829-iurdx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85138/original/image-20150616-5829-iurdx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85138/original/image-20150616-5829-iurdx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85138/original/image-20150616-5829-iurdx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Courtesy of WeKnowMemes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.weknowmemes.com">weknowmemes.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10755-006-9017-5">review</a> of research on PowerPoint found that while students liked PowerPoint better than overhead transparencies, PowerPoint did not increase learning or grades. Liking something doesn’t make it effective, and there’s nothing to suggest transparencies are especially effective learning tools either. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.cmaj.ca/content/178/1/34.short">Research comparing teaching</a> based on slides against other methods such as problem-based learning - where students develop knowledge and skills by confronting realistic, challenging problems - predominantly supports alternative methods. </p>
<p>PowerPoint slides are toxic to education for three main reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><a href="http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_pp">Slides discourage complex thinking</a>. Slides encourage instructors to present complex topics using bullet points, slogans, abstract figures and oversimplified tables with minimal evidence. They discourage deep analysis of complex, ambiguous situations because it is nearly impossible to present a complex, ambiguous situation on a slide. This gives students the illusion of clarity and understanding. </p></li>
<li><p>Reading evaluations from students has convinced me that when most courses are based on slides, students come to think of a course <em>as</em> a set of slides. Good teachers who present realistic complexity and ambiguity are criticised for being unclear. Teachers who eschew bullet points for graphical slides are criticised for not providing proper notes.</p></li>
<li><p>Slides discourage reasonable expectations. When I used PowerPoint, students expected the slides to contain every detail necessary for projects, tests and assignments. Why would anyone waste time reading a book or going to a class when they can get an A by perusing a slide deck at home in their pyjamas?</p></li>
</ol>
<h2>Measuring the wrong things</h2>
<p>If slide shows are so bad, why are they so popular? </p>
<p>Universities measure student satisfaction but they do not measure learning. Since organisations focus on what they measure and students like PowerPoint, it stays, regardless of its educational effectiveness.</p>
<p>Hospitals measure morbidity and mortality. Corporations measure revenue and profit. Governments measure unemployment and gross domestic product. Even this website measures readership, broken down by article and author. But universities don’t measure learning. </p>
<p>Exams, term papers and group projects ostensibly measure knowledge or ability. Learning is the change in knowledge and skills and therefore must be measured over time. </p>
<p>When we do attempt to measure learning, the results are not pretty. US researchers <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo10327226.html">found</a> that a third of American undergraduates demonstrated no significant improvement in learning over their four-year degree programs. They tested students in the beginning, middle and end of their degrees using the <a href="http://www.cae.org/cla">Collegiate Learning Assessment</a>, an instrument that tests skills any degree should improve – analytic reasoning, critical thinking, problem solving and writing. </p>
<p>Any university can deploy similar testing to measure student learning. Doing so would facilitate rigorous evaluations of different teaching methods. We would be able to quantify the relationship between PowerPoint use and learning. We would be able to investigate dozens of learning correlates and eventually establish what works and what doesn’t. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, many key drivers of learning appear to reduce student satisfaction and vice versa. As long as universities continue to measure satisfaction but not learning, the downward spiral of lower expectations, less hard work and less learning will continue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43323/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Ralph has received funding from Google for research on creativity.</span></em></p>Powerpoint has no proven efficacy in learning, but the kids like it because it seems to make things simpler.Paul Ralph, Lecturer in Computer Science, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.