Template for slides, plus advice for designing slide presentations Melissa Clarkson Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky mclarkson@uky.edu

Title slide with alternate heading for University of Kentucky Melissa Clarkson Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky mclarkson@uky.edu

These slides will help you create clean and consistent typography Type size and weights: Title on title slide is 44 point, bold weight, black Other text on title slide (name, affiliation, email) is 32 and 24 point, regular weight, black Title at top of each slide is 40 point, bold, wildcat blue (#0033a0) Text in body of slide is 28 point, regular, black Alignment: Align titles and body text to the left Fonts: Use Helvetica or Arial

These slides demonstrate the “assertion-evidence” format Each slide has two parts: An assertion in the headline, formatted as one sentence that occupies one or two lines of text. The evidence in the body of the slide that supports the assertion.

Assertion-evidence is the most effective format for slide design Empirical evidence suggests this approach leads to: better comprehension and recall by the audience a deeper understanding of the content by the presenter JK Garner and MP Alley. (2013) “How the design of presentation slides affects audience comprehension: A case for the assertion-evidence approach” International Journal of Engineering Education, 29(6): 1564–1579. JK Garner and MP Alley. (2016) “Slide structure can influence the presenter’s understanding of the presentation content.” International Journal of Engineering Education, 32(1A): 39–54.

This format requires more effort to prepare The standard slide format of “topic–subtopic” allows the author to type headings and body text without carefully considering what they want the audience to know or why that information is important.

This format requires more effort to prepare The standard slide format of “topic–subtopic” allows the author to type headings and body text without carefully considering what they want the audience to know or why that information is important. The format of “assertion-evidence” requires the author to construct a series of small arguments that build into a larger argument.

This format requires more effort to prepare The standard slide format of “topic–subtopic” allows the author to type headings and body text without carefully considering what they want the audience to know or why that information is important. The format of “assertion-evidence” requires the author to construct a series of small arguments that build into a larger argument. If you find that you cannot make an argument, you may not be ready to present your work.

Slide design vs. Presentation design

Slides are not the presentation Slides are supporting media. A presentation is the process of presenting information to an audience—the presentation is your delivery of the information.

Presentation design has two stages Developing the content What are you going to present?

Presentation design has two stages Developing the content What are you going to present? Developing the methods to present the content How are you going to present it?

The “What” stage consists of four steps Consider these three questions: Who is the audience? What is the context? What are your goals? Collect ideas Storyboard to develop a linear, logical narrative Get feedback, make changes

The “How” stage focuses on communication strategies Developing an effective slide presentation requires you to: Integrate… spoken words, text, and images what your audience is hearing and seeing you and your supporting media (the slides) Get feedback, make changes

Avoiding common blunders in slide presentations

Slide presentations suffer from four common syndromes Presentation-as-document syndrome* Cause: The presenter has created slides crammed with information. Effect: Audience members’ attention bounces awkwardly between the slides and the presenter, with neither communicating clearly. Note: If this slide set was used during a presentation, it would have this syndrome. This slide set is much too text-heavy to be effectively in that way. This information should instead be put into a document with paragraphs of text. You are reading this as slides because I needed content for the slide template, and I hope you read it before you design your presentation. * a term developed by Jerry Weissman

Slide presentations suffer from four common syndromes Slides-as-teleprompter Symptom: The presenter reads his or her slides to the audience. Effect: Because audience members can read slides faster then the presenter can read them out loud, they experience an “out-of-sync” effect that distracts from the flow of the presentation. They may also question whether the presenter has sufficient understanding of the topic to speak without relying on the slides.

Slide presentations suffer from four common syndromes Presentation-as-scripted-performance Symptom: The presenter reads his or her notes to the audience. Effect: Because reading to an audience reduces the expressivity of speech, audience members will find the presentation less interesting and may be lulled to sleep. They may also question whether the presenter has sufficient understanding of the topic to speak without relying on pre-written text.

Slide presentations suffer from four common syndromes Slides-as-showcase-for-clipart-or- stock-photos-or-overly-complicated- graphs Symptom: Slides display images that do not have a clear connection to the topic, are not explained by the presenter, or are much too complex for a slide presentation. Effect: Audience members’ attention is focused on trying to decipher the meaning of the images, instead of following the argument of your presentation.

Melissa Clarkson Assistant Professor University of Kentucky mclarkson@uky.edu