How to Use PowerPoint -- and How Not to Use It!

This was posted on a forum by a site member. I decided to post it here, so that my Search engine can find it -- G.N.

My perspective from the last couple of years at the Simon busines school...

There are good ways to use Power Point, and there are bad ways. And it isn't all dependant on what's on the Power Point slide.

I had one professor for an accounting class who didn't assign a textbook, but basically made his Power Point slides the text. There was no mystery to what his slide, you didn't have to figure anything out. I think this was good, for a few reasons: (1) Don't have to buy a textbook; (2) For review; (3) If you miss a class (although I didn't). However, he didn't simply read from the Power-Point slides. Those were often the core points -- although detailed -- but he would explain things, and wouldn't simply read from the slides. Nothing could be more boring than that.

For technical things, I hate professors who hand out skeletal one-page outlines, and then lecture from that. Especially if they're monotonous. I was going to take an Options and Futures class, but the professor was still one who lectured on the chalkboard, and had a kind of rambling style, making it difficult to know what to focus on. He didn't have clear outlines, and didn't clearly explain where he was going. He was also extremely boring. If a professor is boring, they at least need to be clear and easy to follow. To keep paying attention, students need to be able to focus like a laser on the topic, and take notes on it. I dropped this class immediately, as the professor added nothing that wasn't available via reading from a textbook.

I also had professors who provided more less skeletal note outlines (in power point), but also not as extremely detailed previously mentioned accounting teacher's notes. He would have a slide on transaction costs (for example), and then list the four main subpoints. He was very engaging, entertaining even, and clearly explained everything, in ways that made it "stick". The downside of his strategy was if you missed something, there was some detail, but not enough to have a deep understanding. I recorded all of my classes, and took copious notes, so that wasn't a problem for me. But it might have been for other people.

And I also had a professor who read from his notes, was monotonous and unengaging, and didn't even have detailed notes. This is a horrible combination.

I certainly understand that for certain topics, audiences can be much more engaged if there aren't power-points on the screen. However, I question retention afterwards, and reference back. Less of a problem for copious note-takers and recorders like myself, but still a problem none-the-less (time-cost of re-listening, and also always the possibility to miss something). When I attended Mises University, I took extremely copious notes, and liked all of the lectures, but none-the-less think PowerPoint handouts would have been a good thing. (although papers largely cover the topics).

So, my personal idea is this: there are 5 separate things to a great presentation:

(1) The lecturer's personal notes, which are for him only. These are for topics he will cover, to provide organization.

(2) What the lecturer says and how he says it. He should obviously know his topic, and be engaging. Think Steve Jobs.

(3) Presentation outlines, for the audience's benefit to follow along. These are titled slides with bullet-points. They help prime the audience's mind, and give them space to take notes. The act of taking notes helps in retention.

(4) What is displayed on the screen. This should correspond to what's on the presentation outlines, but not include bullet-points, only titles. It should also include graphics that need to be referred to.

(5) Detailed lecture note handouts, which are exhaustive. These may even include things that weren't covered. Imo, these should be like an informal, note-version, of either a text-book or paper, relevant to the lecture; with references to formals papers and texts.

Ideally, #5 and #4 should be integrated, in a way that the user can "click to expand" to details, or "unhide slides" (or something of that nature), so as not to get overwhelmed by information-overload. That way, when taking notes, their notes are integrated with the material. Makes it more convenient when going back to review. Of course, this is only feasible (if that) on a computer, and not in the actual handouts (since you can't "hide" and expand paper). I am not aware of a way that this can be done in PowerPoint.

And, of course, ideally, for those recording lectures, various segments of the recorded MP3s should be linked with various slides, or at least files. Again, integration. I also don't think this is possible. Of course, you can always listen to a lecture and follow along in the notes.

To the person referring to Tufte's work, he makes some good points, but isn't infallible, and engages in a few confusions.

Relevant articles:

Research Points the Finger at PowerPoint http://snipurl.com/1f4fh

Presentation Zen: Gates, Jobs, and the Zen aesthetic http://snipurl.com/q5w3

In Defense of PowerPoint http://snipurl.com/DefendingPowerPoint

Presentation helper: How to give a bad presentation -- Ten commandments http://snipurl.com/BadPresentations