Learning and TeachingEnhancement Unit

PowerPoint:avoiding death by bullet point

Adam Warren

a.j.warren@soton.ac.uk02380 594486

Edward Tufte

"Particularly disturbing is the adoption of the PowerPoint cognitive style in our schools. Rather than learning to write a report using sentences, children are being taught how to formulate client pitches and infomercials.”

emergent properties

• deep hierarchy– slide headings

• bullet points

simplisic thinking

enforced linear sequence

and also…

• too many slides• bad slide design• unreadable text• poor use of colour• plain text only• distracting effects

a crutch for presenters instead of a scaffold for

learners

a seductive technology that

encourages style over content

a crutch for presenters instead of a scaffold for learners

Why use PowerPoint?

• Provide structure

• Emphasise key points

• Show visual information

• Integrate multimedia

• Look professional

• Assist delivery

• Create handouts

How many slides?

• One slide = two minutes

• Plus Title and End slide

• Too many slides = ?

Too much text!

• One slide = two minutes talking– this is a guideline, not a rule – but

having 20 slides for a 20 minute talk:• increases the risk that your ‘talk’ is reduced

to you reading out a list of bullet points• increases the risk that you talk too long

about the earlier slides and run out of time• increases the risk that you have to skip

over some slides to reach your conclusions

Keep it simple

• Six points per slide

• Six words per point

• Don’t overload slides

– use more, simple slides

Keep it readable

• Font size = 28 points

– 24 points is OK– 18 point is too small

• Use easy-to-read fonts:

– Serif fonts like Palatino or Georgia

– Sans Serif fonts like Arial or Verdana

– Cursive fonts like Comic Sans

Keep it clear

• Use high-contrast colours

– mid-tones do not show up well

– avoid bright red

– colour-blind people confuse red and green

• Use colour or bold or italic for emphasis

– CAPITALS and underline are hard to read

Black on white

• Very high contrast

• Visual stress

• Glare with data projectors

Off-white background

• Reduces contrast

• Reduces glare

• Gradients look good

White on blue

• Classic choice

• Minimal glare

• Yellow text also good

Be consistent

• Backgrounds

• Fonts

• Colours

• Transitions

• Less is More

Use strong images

75% of the world’s people

6% of the world health expenditure

You don’t need to be an artist to create simple graphics – this is just circles and rectangles

Use photographs

Make sure they are relevant to your talk and are not simply decoration

This sculpture on the Highfield campus is Two Figures by Barbara Hepworth (Bronze, 1968)

Show trends, not data

e-Learning Techniques

0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0

static admin info

resources to support f2f

resources that deliver syllabus

resources that support syllabus

course admin comms

comms to support learning

formative assessment

summative assessment

e-Learning in f2f sessions

% of tutors who use e-learning

useful %

not useful %

This chart was imported from Excel.It needed some editing to make the text large enough to read