Effective PowerPoint Lectures
How to Create Educational Presentations that Capture Attention
Many educators have access to excellent technologies that can help make course material more dynamic and effective. Here are some tips for creating a great lecture.
Technology has certainly expanded the resources that instructors have available to help their students learn. But the availability of computers and LCD projectors in the classroom does not automatically translate into a better educational experience for the student. There are certainly some “Do’s and Don’ts” for creating an effective PowerPoint presentation. The following are a few ideas to make your techno lectures work.
Reading Your Slides
Problem: This is one thing that students familiar with projected lectures will always complain about. But the first time you teach a new topic or class, it is sometimes necessary to include more text to guide you through the material.
Solution: Wherever possible, use your slides as brief summaries or lists of subtopics that you can elaborate on. If it is new material that you aren’t comfortable with yet, use the Notes feature in PowerPoint. You can make elaborate and detailed notes that you can print out with your slides, without having to include the material directly on the slides.
Don’t Make Slides Text Heavy
Problem: Even if you don’t read from your slides, too much text and too few graphics often make a presentation boring and difficult to follow. You students’ attention will drift without engaging graphics.
Solution: If you have a lot of material, divide it between several slides and be generous with photos and other graphics. For visual learners in particular, educational graphics like charts, diagrams and photographs can make it easier to retain the material. Beyond PowerPoint, computer technologies also allow instructors to incorporate online movies and animated graphics that are very helpful when trying to explain complex processes or ideas.
Don’t Give Them Everything They Need
Problem: If you provide college students with the PowerPoint file prior to lecture, and everything the student needs is right there on the slide, some may be disinclined to attend class.
Solution: Put fill-in-the-blanks in your slides! Blanks in the place of key terminology encourage the students to pay attention and to attend class. Blanks also provide the added benefit of forcing fast-talking instructors to slow it down so that students can more easily keep up with the lecture.
Starting From Scratch
Problem: The first time you teach a course, the idea of creating Power Point presentations of all of your lectures can be daunting, particularly if you re not familiar with the PowerPoint program.
Solution: First of all, PowerPoint is very easy to learn, so don’t be put off by the thought of learning a new software tool. And with respect to creating presentations from scratch, free prepared PowerPoint presentations on a variety of topicsw can be found on the internet. Just search “PowerPoint” and the topic of your lecture, and you can find existing presentations. The lectures that you find may not be exactly what you need, or organized in the way that you would like to present that material, but modifying an existing lecture is much easier than starting from scratch.
Online PowerPoint Lecture Resources
There are many educational sites out there providing free Power Point lecture files. A couple of excellent science resources include Science Prof Online Science Power Point Presentations and BioEd Online. For general science and genetics teaching tips see the Suite101 article Genetics Education Teaching Tools
