Adapting PowerPoints for Online Presentations

Adapt your PowerPoints for online using the tips below. When done well, online narrated presentations can have a big impact on student learning and make content much more interesting, meaningful, and memorable.

Clear and Concise

There is no chance for hand raises or questions in an online presentation so be as explicit and as clear as possible

Organized

Presentations need a solid structure
Have a clear message or point

Include stories and examples

Examples and specifics on how to create story in your presentation: https://www.presentationzen.com/
Make the audience care “Make me care. Please - emotionally, intellectually, aesthetically - just make me care” – Andrew Stanton (Pixar)

Emphasize the visual and limit the text

Make use of the online environment’s power to communicate things visually
Use a few words per screen
Think of the slides like a storyboard
Use relevant pictures, not simply clipart or decorative images which actually decrease learning
Leverage the working memory by dividing the information between the visual and auditory modality. Doing this reduces the likelihood of one system becoming overloaded. For instance, spoken words with pictures are better than pictures with text, as integrating an image and narration takes less cognitive effort than integrating an image and text.

Minimize the opportunity for distraction by removing any irrelevant material such as music, sound effects, animations, and background images.

Graphics

Use high quality graphics
Canva for Educators is a great resource for slides

Shorter Segments

Students will not watch a screen for as long as they will watch a live human
Chunk material into shorter segments

Create a script

Writing a script can be an effective way to create concise, focused educational videos. By following a script, redundant and extraneous information can be weeded out, and you can be sure to not forget any lecture points. Scripts can reduce the stress of “being on-camera” and minimize “uh” and “um”. Furthermore, writing a script makes it much easier to incorporate effective teaching techniques such as clearly summarizing key ideas and signaling section divisions in the lecture.

Writing a script does require an investment of time and can be a daunting task. One approach is to make an audio recording of the lecture and use text-to-speech software to create a draft script which can be edited. Keep in mind that it often takes just as long when you don't write a script due to the many retakes and rerecordings that must occur.

If writing a script is too time-consuming, or if reading from a script feels too artificial, at least prepare a lecture outline to refer to during recording. Outlines can help to keep things on track and avoid tangents. You may already have lecture notes included in their Powerpoint presentation, which can be accessed during recording in Presenter view.

12 Great Principles with Visual Examples

(Scroll through the information)

References:

Adapting PowerPoint Lectures for Online Delivery: Best Practices (Faculty Focus) /

Vanderbilt Center for Teaching /

Garr Reynolds-The Presentation Zen approach /

How to use Mayer’s 12 Principles of Multimedia [Examples Included] By Andrew DeBell