DE Oracle @ UMUC

Designing PowerPoint Presentations for the Online Classroom

David Johnson

Assistant Academic Director - IFSM

School of Undergraduate Studies

Published: May-June 2005

Category: » Online-pedagogy » Teaching-strategies

I am sure you've heard the adage, "just because you put instruction online doesn't make it online instruction." 

Simply posting content that was originally designed for use in a face-to-face classroom does not often guarantee it will be effective in the online environment. There are things we need to do to with Web content that will maximize learning outcomes.

This is especially true in the case of PowerPoint presentations. Even a well-designed PowerPoint prepared for the face-to-face environment can fail online unless we carefully consider the challenges of the new instructional terrain.

The Online Learning Space

Online learning space is still primarily asynchronous. This means that you lose the student-teacher interactivity synonymous with the face-to-face classroom, including the ability to visually gauge interest, provide immediate feedback, digress, embellish, and redirect focus – all very critical features of the face-to-face environment.

The PowerPoint Paradigm

PowerPoint presentations given in the face-to-face classroom are normally instructor-driven. The instructor accompanies the presentation with narrative, stopping to field questions or add depth to a point by exiting the presentation to display additional content (e.g. a Web page or application). Well-crafted presentations often adhere to general design conventions, which call for a limit of words-per-line and lines-per-slide.

As opposed to being used as a face-to-face lecture enhancement, a PowerPoint presentation posted on the Web loses the element of instructor-student interaction. Online presentations become stand-alone, student-driven learning episodes.

How do we compensate for the loss of face-to-face interaction in the online environment?

The answer is by supplementation. Below are five effective practices you can use to supplement your online PowerPoint presentations.

Discussion

Create a discussion conference, not only for students to ask questions, but also for the instructor to fortify the discussion with comment and feedback. This simulates instructor-student and student-student interaction in the face-to-face environment.

Content

PowerPoint presentations prepared for the face-to-face environment can be somewhat cryptic. Concepts, ideas, and complex thoughts are often condensed into smaller segments. Add more detail to the online version of your presentation, especially if your students will be using it as a study guide.

Narration

Including narration can bring an online PowerPoint presentation to life. The addition of spoken voice adds tremendous value. A good way to do this is by using Impatica for PowerPoint. Impatica compresses PowerPoint presentations and allows them to be displayed in any Java-enabled browser. The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) provides online Impatica workshops for all UMUC faculty.

Alternative Formats

Provide alternative versions of your presentation (e.g. PDF, Flash, or PowerPoint outline). Formats that can be downloaded and viewed offline are highly desirably for many students, especially those outside of the U.S. who pay for Internet access by the minute.

Presentation Size

Consider the needs of your audience. The larger the file, the longer it takes to download. PowerPoint files can become quite large, especially after adding static images, animation, sound, and/or video. In a face-to-face classroom, just about any bell and whistle is possible, but in the online environment we still need to design for the the student with dial-up access.

We hope that these five tips will help you more effectively prepare your face-to-face PowerPoint presentations for online delivery.

Happy PowerPointing!