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Learning and TeachingEnhancement Unit
PowerPoint:avoiding death by bullet point
Adam Warren
[email protected] 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