Are you looking for an effective guide on education PowerPoint design?
Nowadays, PowerPoint is a very common presentation tool used by many people across different industries. But to produce a good presentation requires much thought, effort and creativity.
At one time or other, we have come across PowerPoint presentations that have failed to convey their message or information succinctly. In an educational institution, a lecturer's poorly conceived presentation could make it difficult for students to understand their subjects.
For students, a poorly designed presentation could hurt the grades of their project work. Hence, we must never underestimate the importance of an effective PowerPoint design.
However, it is easier to be critical while not knowing our own limitations when embarking on a PowerPoint design. Often, we can still succumb to the many common design pitfalls. But the good news is, this can be mitigated by keeping in mind a few guidelines. One such guideline is using the Baddeley and Hitch’s Model of Working Memory for your education PowerPoint design. This is because it attempts to present a more accurate model of primary memory (often referred to as short-term memory). Utilising its guidelines could improve your classroom presentations significantly.
What is Baddeley and Hitch’s Model of Working Memory
A Baddeley and Hitch’s model is one framework for education PowerPoint design. Below is a brief explanation on how you can utilize it.
As illustrated, the Central Executive coordinates the work of three key systems that organized the information we hear, see, and store into working memory.
The Phonological Loop deals with auditory information. For example, students in a classroom are potentially exposed to a variety sounds. These include talking by the lecturer, questions from the audience, audio and sound effects from PowerPoint presentation, and their own “inner voice.”
The Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad deals with visual information. This includes aspects such as form, colour, size, how objects are arranged, and their movement. For students this would include the colour and font size of the presentation, how images and text interact on the screen, as well as the animation effects used and slide transitions. Also, there are the bodily movements such as hand gestures, facial expressions, or classroom demonstrations made by the lecturer.
The Episodic Buffer integrates the information across all our sensory domains and connects them to our long-term memory. All of these elements are being lodged into a holding tank known as the “episodic buffer.” However, episodic buffer has a limited capacity and can become “overloaded”. Hence, there is a limit on how much information students can take in at once.
Findings about Education PowerPoint Design Using Baddeley and Hitch's Model of Working Memory
To develop its education PowerPoint design using the Baddeley and Hitch’s model, Dr Laura Edelman and Dr Kathleen Harring from Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania conducted a survey on students. Their aim is to find out about what they liked or disliked about their professor’s presentations. They discovered the following:
Characteristics of PowerPoint Slides That Students Dislike
- Slides that contains too many words.
- Use of clip art.
- Movement (slide transitions or word animations).
- Colourful templates.
Characteristics of PowerPoint Slides That Students Like
- Graphs enhance understanding of subject.
- Bulleted points help them to organize ideas.
- PowerPoint can help to structure lectures.
- Verbal explanations with pictures or graphs aid understanding more than written clarifications.
What Research Reveals about Positive Learning
- Present information in short phrases rather than in blocks of text.
- The lecturer talks about the information on the slide instead of students reading it on their own.
- Relevant pictures aid learning and irrelevant pictures decrease it. PowerPoint slides with no picture is better than having irrelevant pictures.
- Students take notes if the lecturer is not talking. But if the lecturer is teaching, note-taking and listening simultaneously decreased learning.
- Students should be given the PowerPoint slides before the class.
How to Leverage on Working Memory for PowerPoint Design
- Divide the information between the visual and auditory modality to leverage on working memory. This will prevent the likelihood of one system being overloaded. For example, spoken words with pictures is better than text with pictures. This is because the integration of narration with an image takes less cognitive effort than that of text and an image.
- Minimize sources of possible distraction. This can be done by removing any unnecessary music, sound effects, fancy animations and fancy transitions, and background images.
- Use simple ways to cue learners towards key points and content. This could include using appropriate font style and size, bolding, italicizing, highlighting or placing content in a shaded text box. Such cues will help to convey the significance of important ideas in your presentation.
- Don’t load your slides full of text. Instead design your presentation with short information that are easily read. Bullet points may help to aid comprehension, but don’t overdo it.
By adopting the above findings and guidelines, you will be able to mitigate many of the PowerPoint design flaws that we often come across. To help you with your visual design, you may wish to download our free PowerPoint diagrams or get some inspiration from our PowerPoint Design Ideas For Your Next Presentation.
Besides the above, presenters must also be equipped with some basic presentation knowledge such as knowing What PowerPoint Slide Size to Use and How to Change PowerPoint Aspect Ratio. Such knowledge will help to overcome unexpected issues when the technical format of your PowerPoint slides do not match the equipment used in your presentation venue. In addition, check out our Effective Presentation Design and Eight Common PowerPoint Presentation Mistakes to avoid and help you kickstart your PowerPoint design process.
You may also want to check out our Presentation Techniques, Public Speaking & Communication Skills on how to speak effectively in public.
However, if you still feel too overwhelmed or lack the required PowerPoint mastery to design a truly mesmerizing presentation, you may consider outsourcing it. This is where PowerPoint Creatives Singapore comes in. We provide very affordable PowerPoint presentation services and offer three design options that will cater to different needs and budgets. To learn more about our PowerPoint design process. please click here.
To further enhance your presentation, we also offer cinemagraph and infographic design services.
And if you are looking to produce cost-effective videos to promote your business, check out our PowerPoint video design services. For more information, please feel free to contact us
