Planning for Teaching With the Web
PowerPoint
Below are some suggestions for effective uses of PowerPoint that came out of the School of Nursing Technology Survey conducted in 2003. You can also view full survey results related to PowerPoint.
Make Powerpoint Slides Available Prior to Lecture
Students find that by printing the notes from a PowerPoint lecture before class they can spend more time actually listening to the lecture and filling in details on their print-outs. If you want students to be able to use the slides in this way, remember to make PowerPoint slides available far enough in advance of the lecture.
You can put the slides on the course website or, in some cases it may make more sense to email them to students.
"My favorite aspect is all the teachers using PowerPoint lecture presentations because it is nice to be able to print off the notes and add more information to it instead of stressing about writing down all the notes."
"Notes downloaded [mean] we don’t spend class time furiously writing away."
"It is great to be able to access PowerPoint lectures on-line. It prevents having to write so much during class. I can focus on what is being said, make a few "enhancement" notes and then review the PP presentation."
Keep Slides Clear and Simple
When slides are overcrowded or presented too quickly, students express frustration with the tool. These comments suggest that PowerPoint is a useful tool for students, but that it requires instructors to learn new strategies for conveying information. Students commented:
"Some of the writing in some of the slides is so small I can’t read it! "
"PowerPoint lecture notes…[are] not useful when slides are detailed to the extent that makes them too hard to see."
"PowerPoint lecture [notes]…are OK if we can print them off, otherwise people talk too fast & flip pages too quick to take notes off of."
"Often, the instructor will overload the individual slides with too much information. They also seem to rely on the slides to convey all of the information and add little else to the lectures."
Consider Alternatives to PowerPoint!
Despite its benefits, some students found that the time it takes to download and print them frustrating. When preparing for a course, consider alternatives to powerpoint
- What information could be made available in a course pack?
- Consider "Copying and Pasting" PowerPoint content into a Word document in cases in which the different format might increase readability or make it easier to print.
"I hate PowerPoint lectures because the slides always print out so small & I waste a lot of $ printing them. I would rather have a course pack w/ all the notes.""I spend a lot of time waiting for PPT slides to download, a lot of time spent printing stuff off."
