Comments on: Why do 60% of students find their lectures boring?

By: How do you convince your colleagues to present well? « PowerPoint Tips Blog

How do you convince your colleagues to present well? « PowerPoint Tips Blog — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:07:47 +0000

[...] Results,” that lists some of the academic research and I’ve discussed research here and [...]

By: Oliver (ReThink Presentations)

Oliver (ReThink Presentations) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 22:49:07 +0000

Hi Ellen,

interesting article you found there! I’ll also be doing a short review in about a week’s time (I won’t forget to mention you, of course ).

The presentations at universities ARE mostly really bad, and the worst thing is, that students pick up the things they’ve learnt at university and continue to carry this presentation style into the business world. On the other hand, it’s also good news: There will be enough for us to do!.

Have a nice week,

Oliver

By: admin

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:50:57 +0000

Richard,
I e-mailed her, asking for a copy of the article. Maybe she’ll send it to me! I’m always interested in articles relating to PowerPoint, presenting, and education. Thanks for mentioning it.

By: Richard I. Garber

Richard I. Garber — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:29:33 +0000

Ellen:

There was an interesting 15-page article in the November 2009 issue of Technical Communication magazine by Joanna K. Garner et al. on “Common Use of PowerPoint Versus the Assertion-Evidence Structure: A Cognitive Psychology Perspective.” (Vol. 56, No. 4, p. 331). I don’t think it’s out in the open on the Web, but it’s worth finding and reading.

Richard

By: admin

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:55:54 +0000

Mark, I agree that it isn’t PowerPoint’s fault. But it is the fault of teachers who use it as a crutch and put up slide after slide of text. That specific type of slide is described in the article. My guess is that you don’t do that.

I’ve contacted the researcher to ask for more details, but my understanding of the article was that PowerPoint was felt to be a major issue in lectures (as opposed to labs and computer sessions, which probably don’t use PowerPoint). It’s clear that teachers need to improve their skills overall, but since I teach presentation skills and not teaching skills, I only try to address what I know. Hopefully, someone else is talking about how to make labs and computer sessions more interesting!

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:25:30 +0000

The author states that lab work and computer sessions — practical sessions which required the students to be fully engaged with the material — received the highest boredom ratings. Thus it is an unfounded conclusion to say that PowerPoint is one of the main reasons students found lectures boring. No evidence is presented to justify this conclusion. Good teachers will always be good teachers no matter whether they use PowerPoint or not — are they able to keep students’ attention? I use PowerPoint in all my classes and students often tell me how interesting the classes are. It’s not the PowerPoint that makes students bored…