Want your audience to learn more from your PowerPoint presentations? Following are some tips, based on Mayer’s (Cambridge Press, 2001) Principles of Multimedia Design that will help you create more engaging, and effective presentations, whether you are using PowerPoint or any other multimedia presentation tool.
First, you should use pictures and words to convey your message rather than just words alone. This first tip probably seems obvious, but how many of us have seen (or created) PowerPoint slides that simply include text for the audience to read – or text which the presenter reads aloud to the audience as the audience reads along silently? (Ugh . . Ok, I will admit I’ve done that – how about you?) However, according to Mayer’s multimedia principle, people learn better from words and pictures rather than from just words alone. So, adding images to slides deepens the learning experience for the viewers.
In fact, presenters should only words on a slide sparingly. This is known as the modality principle. Presenting words as speech, namely, as narration, rather than as text on a slide promotes deeper learning for viewers – this is especially true if the material is complex for the viewers and the slide includes images to help the viewers understand the material. It’s OK to include some words on the slide to reinforce specific points, but try to avoid including entire sentences that essentially say the same thing you are stating in your narration. Including narration, images AND script-like text on a slide results in what Mayer refers to as cognitive overload. According to Mayer’s redundancy principle, presenters should strive to help viewers avoid cognitive overload by allowing them to focus their viewing senses on the images and their auditory senses on the words they hear. Making viewers look at the images, listen to the script and read the script requires too much extraneous processing and takes away from the essential processing that the viewer needs to understand the core message.
To further clean up your slides, try to leave out all extraneous material from your slides so viewers can focus on your core message. Mayer refers to this as the coherence principle. Extraneous material could include extra images that are not related to your core message, distracting backgrounds (and even some colors are distracting – I’m looking at you, magenta) extra words, or extra movement. Animation can help enhance points that are related to your core message, but use animation sparingly to highlight key information and not just as a special effect.
Another key principle to remember when using words and images on your slides is to position the words and their corresponding images close to one another rather than far from one another. This is known as the spatial contiguity principle. It is easier for viewers to process the information you are trying to convey if words and their corresponding images are positioned close to one another. If you are labeling something on your slide, make sure the label is close to the object it is naming. Making the viewer decode a key or chart to match a label with an object is distracting and inhibits learning.
There are a few more things you can do to promote deeper learning from your presentations:
According to Mayer’s temporal contiguity principle, deeper learning occurs when narration and corresponding pictures or animation are presented simultaneously rather than successively. For example, if you use animation to illustrate an idea, the animation should occur as the narration is describing it, not before or after you have mentioned it.
Two more ways you can make your presentations more effective are to use the signaling principle and the personalization principle. The signaling principle states that people learn better when the narrator includes clues about the organization of the presentation. So, when you are narrating a presentation, use signal words, such as “Next, I’m going to talk to you about . . .”, or “An example of this would be . . .” These signal words and phrases provide the viewer with a road map to help him or her follow the presentation more easily. The personalization principle states that people learn better when words used in a presentation are conversational rather than formal. Make your presentations personal, draw the viewer in; use the 2nd person, “you.” Have a conversation with the viewer.
Also, if your viewers are unfamiliar with the material you are presenting, you should adhere to the pre-teaching or pre-training principle. Provide the viewers with any necessary background information they need to know to be able to understand names and characteristics of any ideas you are going to talk about. In other words, if you are presenting information about tax policy to viewers who may not be familiar with some of the terminology or concepts related to tax policy, you should provide the viewer with a handout or study guide before you begin the presentation, so they can familiarize themselves with the ideas that you will present.
The last four principles are applicable to any presentation, but the techniques mentioned may be used primarily in online presentations.
The first principle is known as the voice principle. This principle states that people learn better when words are spoken in a standard-accented, human voice than in a machine voice or a voice with an accent that may be foreign to the viewer. This, again, probably has to do with lessening the amount of distraction for the viewer. Using a standard –accented, human voice requires less cognitive processing for the viewer.
The next two principles are known as the interactivity principle and the segmenting principle. The interactivity principle states that deeper learning occurs when learners are allowed to control the presentation rather than when they are not. For an online presentation or a self-viewed presentation shown at a kiosk, for example, allow the viewer to stop, start, pause and rewind the presentation. In a face-to-face situation, audience members may feel more control if they are allowed to interrupt the presentation to ask questions or make comments. In other words, the presentation is interactive and audience members are not just passive recipients of information.
This also relates to the segmenting principle, which states that people learn better when a multimedia lesson is presented in learner-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit. Viewers should be able to sense distinct sections or segments of information. For example, a presentation may be broken down into steps, phases, parts, principles, etc. This way, the viewer can organize the information he or she is receiving into segments, and can stop after each segment or section is presented to process the information in that segment before moving on to the next section of information.
The final two principles are the image principle and the individual differences principle. The image principle simply states that people do not learn better when a speaker’s image is added to the screen in a presentation. In some online formats, the speaker adds his or her image in a corner of the screen to act as a “presence” on the screen as he or she narrates the presentation. According to Mayer, this is not necessary and in fact, may be distracting for the viewer (again, extra processing). So, presenters should not include an image of themselves on the screen when presenting. Use the space for images to illustrate your points instead.
Finally, Mayer discusses the idea of the individual differences principle. This principle suggests that presentation design should always take into consideration the viewer and that different viewers will have different needs – in other words – know your audience, and tailor your presentation accordingly.
For example – for viewers who are familiar with the material you are going to present, the design effects you use in your presentation won’t really matter. They already know the material. However, if viewers are not familiar with the material you are going to present, the elements you incorporate into your presentation design and the way you present the material matter a lot!
Also, adult viewers can handle more complex design elements than children, so children may need more straightforward language and simpler design.
Use Mayer’s 14 principles of multimedia learning to help make your next presentation a successful and enjoyable experience for both you and your audience.
References:
Mayer, R.E. (2001). Multimedia Learning. Cambridge Press.
Moreno, R., & Mayer, R. E. (2003). Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 43-52.
Sato, Koichi. [e-learningExpert]. (2012, August 9). 14 Principles of Multimedia Learning. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsI8h7qErc0&feature=youtu.be.