Acolorversionofthishandoutisavailableathttp://aaude.org/documents/public/air2010.pdf
Twelve Tips for Creating Effective Presentations
Mary Harrington, University of Mississippi
Rebecca Carr, AAU Data Exchange
Communication is at the core of what institutional research is all about, whether it be data in a fact book or a
presentation at professionaldevelopmentvenues,suchastheupcomingAIRForuminChicago.Creating
effective presentationsisanimportantskillforIRprofessionals.
PowerPointhasbecomethedefactopresentationtoolformostofus.However,whenusedimproperly,
PowerPointslidescanactuallyinterferewithcommunication,ratherthanpromoteit.Communications
researchershaveidentifiedconceptsthathavesubstantialimplicationsforhowwecancreatethemost
effectivepresentations:
1. Peoplelearnbetterfromvisualsandnarrativethanfromwordsalone.Thisisbecausethebrainhas
separatechannelsforprocessingvisualandverbalmaterials,resultinginahigherlevelof
understanding.(Mayer,2009)
2. Communicationis
actuallyinhibitedwhenthesamewordsarespokenanddisplayedonthescreen
becausepeoplecannotlistenandreadatthesametime.(Paivio,2007)
3. Peoplearecapableofholdingonlyafewpiecesofinformationintheirshort‐termmemoryatatime.
Ourjobaspresentersisto
makethemessageclear,memorable,andentertaining.
Thesethreeconceptsshouldinspireyou,asapresenter,toabandonslideafterslideofbulletpointsand
replacethemwithslidesthatusevisualsinanengagingandmeaningfulway.Theseresearchresultsshould
alsoencourageyoutoidentifyyourkeymessageandensurethatitisdeliveredeffectively.
Considerthefollowingthreeslides:
Thisslideisnoteffectivevisually;
theaudiencecanreadthetext
morequicklythanthespeakercan
discussit,resultinginconfusion
andboredom.
Thisslideisbetterbecauseituses
avisualdisplayandtheheading
outlinesthemainmessage.Butit
lacksanemotionalconnectionto
improvemessageretention.
Thisslideisthebestexample
becauseitclearlydisplaysthe
messageandgetstheaudience’s
attention.Theaccompanying
handoutshouldprovidedetails.
Thefollowingaresometipswithgoodandbadvisualexamplestohelppresentersidentifyandavoidbad
PowerPointhabits,andtopromoteawarenessofhowbesttousePowerPointtocreateeffective,meaningful
presentations.
Note:The iconinthecornerindicatestheslideisanexampleofbaddesignwithgoodcontent.