Slide-based Presentation
Faculty projected slides, images, web-pages, or other visual media while providing narration.
About
Slide-Based Presentations are extremely popular at Bucknell, with high rates across all variables. Faculty find they are helpful to students in apprehending complex concepts due to the gestalt of the visual. They also like their versatility, as they can help organize a lecture, function as interactive notes if handed out, and become a class record if archived online. Faculty also acknowledge that they can be just as boring and passive as any lecture, and encourage faculty to add and then blast through too much material, go too fast, and feel compelled show everything. There is also some concern that the oversimplified bullet points are considered by students as the totality of the known. It is recommended that faculty using slides make use of these suggestions, and break things up by periodically adding in active learning exercises that can allow processing and reflection.
The original study's data and analysis for "Slide-based Presentation" can be found on this link.
What Faculty Have To Say
Strengths (11)
- Excellent for showing diagrams, figures, and images
- Demonstrates complex connection
- Allow for close group analysis
- Combine with lecture and discussion
- Better than drawing on the board
- Holds music, videos, and animations
- Provide an outline of the lesson
- Structure efficient content delivery
- Can show partially worked out examples that they finish
- Handouts aid note-taking and review
- Archives can serve as a workbook
Weaknesses (6)
- Boring, repetitive, linear, predictable, passive and soporific
- Encourages “coverage” and speeding through material
- Makes students reliant on teacher explanations
- Can oversimplify complex issues
- Outlines of knowledge assumed to be “sufficient”
- Relies on student note-taking for full effect
Pedagogy Usage
Bucknell faculty was asked their best estimate for how often in the semester they used Slide-based Presentation and the average class time it took.
Average Duration: 24 min (mode=30)
Remote Suggestions
Many faculty have evolved sophisticated slide presentation styles, and that variety may still serve well for both face to face and remote teaching. One of the highest values of the slide presentation is that it provides a digital record of the highlights of the lecture, allowing students to review them later or use them as study notes. Some faculty create a different version for students, perhaps only partially filled in or blank, with the expectation that students will complete them with information from the lecture.
Resources for Additional Learning
Articles & Books
- Pedagogy Meets PowerPoint: A Research Review of the Effects of Computer-Generated Slides in the Classroom, David G. Levasseur & J. Kanan Sawyer.
- PowerPoint, Communication, and the Knowledge Society. Knoblauch, Hubert (2012).
- The cognitive style of PowerPoint: Pitching out corrupts within (2nd ed.). Edward Tufte (2006).