Best Practices with PowerPoint

Heard of Edward Tufte?

• Too much text• “Shiny Objects”

Pitfalls of PowerPoint

Overview of Presentation• What is NSSE? What is student “engagement”?• How does engagement connect to “student

success”?• What are the primary respondent characteristics?• How do we compare against ourselves in 2004?• How do we compare against 2 benchmark groups:

∙ Carnegie Classification institutions∙ Public Research Universities

• NSSE• Student “Engagement”• Significance • Characteristics • SDSU Standing

Outline

• Template Galleries• Transitions• Animations

“Shiny objects”

Transition Overuse

Didn’t that look cool!

Transition Overuse

That was even better!

Transition Overuse

Do I have to pick just one?

Animation Overuse

Participate in a research project as an undergraduate

Show associated with success in graduate school

Improve professional advancement (Author et al. 2000; Author and Principal 2001)

Suggest most undergraduates not participate in research projects from freshman year

SDSU is “America’s #1 Small Research University”

Study why students party

Helpful undergraduates are very few, and those that do focus almost exclusively on academic success

Where to we go from here?

Read this: it’s very important!

• Choose natural, intuitive colors∙ Not software defaults

• Match PPT color scheme∙ You can change colors in Excel

Colors

Good color palettes

• Dark neutral backgrounds∙ Navy blue, deep green, or black

• Contrasting colors highlight ∙ Pale yellow, orange, red

Descriptive Characteristics of NSSE Respondents 2009

Characteristic SDSU First Year

Students

SDSU Senior Students

Doc -Int First Year

Students

Doc -Int Senior

Students Age 24 or older < 24

0%

100%

40% 60%

3%

97%

31% 69%

Gender Female Male

62% 38%

63% 37%

58% 42%

57% 43%

Race/Ethnicity African American/Black Am. Indian/Native Am. Asian Am./Pacific Islander Caucasian/White Hispanic or Latino Other Multi -racial International

2% 1%

19% 38% 24% 5% 4% 4%

2% 0%

12% 46% 18% 4% 6% 7%

7% 1% 9%

68% 2% 2% 3% 7%

7% 1% 7%

71% 2% 1% 2% 5%

< 24>= 24

female male

African

Ameri

can

America

n Ind

ian

Asian A

merica

n

Cauca

sian,

White

Hispan

ic, La

tino

Other

Multira

cial

Intern

ation

al0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1st yr

seniors

DI 1st yr

DI seniors

Respondent Characteristics

< 24>= 24

female male

African

Ameri

can

America

n Ind

ian

Asian A

merica

n

Cauca

sian,

White

Hispan

ic, La

tino

Other

Multira

cial

Intern

ation

al0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1st yr

seniors

DI 1st yr

DI seniors

Respondent Characteristics

• Images!• Glance and get• Light on dark• 6 bullets max (no wrapping)

Best practices

• Stand alone presentations∙ Add audio∙ Create a movie∙ Create an interactive experience

Online Implementation

• Prezi at prezi.com∙ FREE Educational license∙ Demo

Alternatives to PPT

What do you want to know?

Please complete feedback form and survey

• Contact me:∙ tlarsen@sciences.sdsu.edu∙ tlarsen@scientificliteracy.org