PowerPoint Presentations: UC Irvine Libraries Training and Organizational Development Program Cathy Palmer, Head of Education and Outreach June 8, 2010 the Good,the Bad,and the Ugly 1

Learning objective: By the end of today’s session, participants will be able to employ best practices (and avoid worst practices!) when using PowerPoint for presentations. 2

Session outline: o What are the PowerPoint features that audiences find most annoying? o Best practices in using PowerPoint o Advanced PowerPoint features 3

What do you hate the most about PowerPoint Presentations? A. Presenter reads the slides. B.Text is too small to read. C.There is too much text. D.Slides are hard to see because of color choices. E. Overly complex diagrams or charts. 4

Results from 2009 Annoying PowerPoint Presentations Survey: 1.The speaker read the slides to us. (69.2%) 2.Text so small I couldn’t read it. (48.2%) 3.Full sentences instead of bullet points. (48%) 4.Slides are hard to see because of color choice. (33%) 5.Overly complex diagrams or charts. (27.9%) from 5

More PowerPoint annoyances o Gratuitous use of animations o Bad clip art o Ugly pre-made templates o Others? 6

PowerPoint annoyances 1.Presenter reads the slides. Why? 7

Presenter reads the slides: 1.Fear of public speaking 2.Lack of preparation 3.Not clear on the message they want to convey 8

Know your message. Do you really need to use PowerPoint? 9

Know your message. o Know the context. o Know the audience. o Know the content. o Prepare, prepare, prepare! o Practice, practice, practice! 10

PowerPoint annoyances 2. Text is hard to read. Why? 11

Avoid poor design. o Make sure the text is large enough to be legible. o Use fonts that are easy to read on the screen. o Stick with a simple color palate. o You don’t have to use every PowerPoint feature. Honest! 12

Your mantra Simple, clean, clear, concise 13

PowerPoint annoyances 3. There is too much text! Why? 14

Think of writing for the web. Krug’s 3 rd law of usability: “Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what's left.” o Leave in just enough to be clear. o Give people only what they need. o Saying less communicates more. 15

But... If you do have text that you would like your audience to read, then at least give them the gift of silence so that they can read it without being distracted by the sound of your voice. 16

PowerPoint annoyances 4. Slides are hard to see. o View your slide show on the projection screen in advance. o Prepare, prepare, prepare! o Practice, practice, practice! 17

Use good design principles. o Simple, clean, concise, and clear. o Decoration is not design. o Don’t let visuals distract from the message. o Visuals are more powerful than text. 18

UC Irvine Libraries Dept. of Education & Outreach Mission:  Addresses student learning developmentally and sequentially as appropriate to the student's level and discipline in order to build information literacy and life-long learning skills.  Provides a variety of venues, modes, opportunities, and activities in order to recognize and accommodate different learning styles and capitalize on the teachable moment.  Actively seeks and responds to outreach opportunities in order to have a positive influence on the academic careers of students. 19

Dept. of Education & Outreach Mission:  Build information literacy and life-long learning skills  Capitalize on the teachable moment  Reach out to students 20

Writing for Web Principles Nation Shudders at Large Block of Uninterrupted Text 21

Primary Sources Out of Special Collections and into the Curriculum Becky Imamoto Research Librarian for History Cathy PalmerHead of Education and Outreach Steve MacLeodPublic Services Librarian, Special Collections and Archives 22

What is a Primary Source? Original data, images, or artifacts created at the time an event occurred or at a later date by a participant in the events being studied Provide direct evidence about events, phenomena, or a person’s thoughts or actions Original creative works Raw materials that help interpret the past Definition can vary by discipline 23

PowerPoint annoyances 5. Incomprehensible charts and graphs Why? 24

PowerPoint doesn’t play well with complex diagrams or charts. o Visuals are more powerful than text, but only if you can read and make sense of them. o Distribute handouts if your audience needs to understand complex data. o Sometimes the problem is not PowerPoint. 25

A spectacularly bad graphic. o Don’t delete this slide! 26

Evaluation 1.0 Overall Value of Session to Student Very Useful59144% Useful62146% Somewhat Useful1159% Not Useful101% No Response00% Total

Google Books Project: 18,000,000 Books 16% public domain 75% out-of-print © 9% ip © 28

Library Finances Library Expenditures 2007/08 (Dollars) Salaries & Wages 10,083,397 Library Materials 9,508,339 Other Operating Expenses 2,768,102 29

To handout or not to handout? 30

What else should I avoid? Fumbling with the technology. Silly clip art. Distracting PowerPoint animation effects. 31

Are there other PowerPoint Do’s that I should remember? o Prroof read! o Use the notes field. o Watch the experts. o Prepare! o Practice! 32

Watch the experts. Slate article: No More Bullet Points, No More Clip Art Presentation Zen Ted: Ideas worth spreading Edward Tufte 33

Advanced techniques. o Effective animations. o Number your slides. o Use with the audience response system (i>Clickers). 34

35 “If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know if you’ve gotten there?” Why do you need to revise the Learning Objectives and Outcomes in order to revise the evaluation?

Fall 2009Writing 39C Library Introduction36 What is the most important question you want answered today? A. How do I get help when I need it? B. How do I find scholarly journal articles on my topic? C. What services and resources are available from the UCI Libraries? D. How do I find books on my topic? E. How can library research can help me chose a topic? Writing 39C Library Research Skills Session Outline

37 Uses of an ARS in Meetings Build the agenda What topic should we address first? A. How to Handle Incidents in the Library [Discussion] – C. Hughes B. Undergraduate Perceptions of the UCI Libraries and Librarians [Discussion] – K. Ruminson

38 Uses of an ARS in Meetings Polling to get feedback, especially for controversial or difficult issues The UC Library System should begin using OCLC WorldCat instead of the MELVLY catalog immediately. A. I agree. B. I disagree.

What was the most useful information you learned from today’s session? A.Prooofread your slides. B.Understand the rhetorical context in order to prepare effectively. C.Annoying PPT practices and how to avoid them. D.Use animations sparingly. E.Employ good design principles in PPT. 39

What will you never do again when using PowerPoint for presentations? A.Use many font types and colors. B.Read the slides to the audience! C.Include overly complex graphics. D.Not prepare and practice. E.I’ll never do any of those things ever again! 40

Thank you for coming! 41