by Norman Eng
BONUS. CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER SUMMARY. Looking for the book highlights all in one place? Keep this chapter handy. Not only is there a short paragraph summary for each chapter, this bonus section distills my top insights, "Pro Tips," and quotes from the book that have transformed presentations across thousands of classrooms, conferences, and meetings.
Note that each chapter starts with one key insight. I absolutely hate when the big takeaway is revealed at the end or buried in the text, which forces your students to hunt. To make it easier, I also summarize these insights at the end of each chapter (referred to as "The Bottom Line") and support them with highlighted quotes, "Pro Tips," and videos throughout—all of which are captured in one easy-to-reference Bonus section at the end of the book.
FINAL NOTES.
Most of the PowerPoint slides in this book were created by the author—me. I am not a designer, either self-taught or professional. Anyone with basic knowledge of slideware programs can do this with just a little fortitude. While I do offer insights (and examples) from an instructional designer in Chapter 5, most of my recommendations are based on years of trial-and-error in two industries (marketing and education) and on the latest research in communication, education, media and marketing, and neuroscience. I conduct workshops and teach online courses to professors who want to engage audiences. These are based on my book, Teaching College: The Ultimate Guide to Lecturing, Presenting, and Engaging Students, which has regularly topped the Amazon bestseller list in several education categories.
While I cover some mechanics of PowerPoint (e.g., how to highlight certain parts of a data table, how to use the eyedropper tool), this book does not show you how to actually use PowerPoint. I won't go over issues like how to create animations or transitions, for instance. For that, I recommend going to the Microsoft Office support site: https://support.office.com/en-us/powerpoint.
This book helps you deal with far more fundamental challenges, such as:
How do I move my audience? Engage with them?
What are the components of an effective presentation? How do I outline it?
What should I include and not include?
How do I build instant credibility?
Do I have to follow PowerPoint convention?
How do I "knock it out of the park"?
If you're a professor looking to dramatically transform the way you engage audiences in a short amount of time, PRESENTING. is for you. Presenters of any kind who deliver tons of data and content, such as trainers, will also benefit.
Who is this book not for? It's not for those who prefer the "old-school" way of presenting. You know, the ones who stand behind the podium and dutifully present the bullet points as laid out on the screen. If that's you, there are plenty of books out there that go into the mechanics of PowerPoint.
PRESENTING. is also not for professors who say they have little time to design slides. Although my system is easy to absorb, it takes time to perfect. And time is always a function of priority. If you want audiences to leave the room transformed, then you will make it a priority.
Finally, you'll notice I interchange the word "students" with the word "audiences" throughout the book. This is because, as I'm sure you can guess, professors' audiences tend to be made up of students. However, I also include audience members who are conference attendees or colleagues.
As you read, just apply the term I use to your particular audience, and you'll be fine.
Ready to turn up your presentation?
Let's start with your mindset in Chapter 1.
1 This includes sending text messages (28%), emails (27%), and falling asleep (17%). See Nakano (2016): https://blog.prezi.com/presentation-habits-presenters-dont-like-to-admit/
2 From here on, I use the terms PowerPoint and slide presentations interchangeably. The former has become synonymous with the latter. I'm simply referring to any slideware one might use, including popular tools like Keynote (Apple's slideware application), Google Slides, and Prezi.
01
YOUR MINDSET
KEY INSIGHT:
THINK OF POWERPOINT AS DOCUMENTARIES
I'll bet you never thought of slides this way. But let's take a step back and start with your one goal as presenter: to make sure the audience gets your message in the shortest time possible.
Let's start with the first part—to make sure audiences get your message. Here, professors often fail right off the bat. They think the goal is singularly to convey information, whether they're in the classroom, department meetings, or at conferences.
Your goal is to make sure audiences get your message in the shortest time possible.
The problem is that audiences can and will forget everything you say.
One study found that psychology students who took an intro class ended up knowing only 8 percent more than students who never took the course.3 Another study found that anatomy and biochemistry students who earned high grades knew no more than students who received a lower grade—after a short period of time.4 Or this longitudinal study that found most knowledge gained from a marketing course is lost within two years.5
That's depressing. And yet, I'm betting none of this surprises you.
People hear (and see) thousands of messages a day. Their brain can't handle all that info. It's cognitive overload. After all, processing information burns a lot of calories.6 And to preserve itself, the brain tries to save energy whenever possible.
One way it does this is to shut down. So when students see something like this . . .
their brains go, There's too much information in this slide, so I'm just going to shut down. To save energy.
This is why students check their phones during class.
And really, are we, as professors, any different? All those conference presentations we see can be just as draining. Audiences tune out the details—like the "research methodology" and "conceptual framework"—because they just want the major takeaway so they can be on their way. It's easy to see why most presenters fail in their goal to make sure audiences simply get the message.
The second part of your goal as presenter is to get to your point quickly—before their brain shuts down.
In my child development class, students know the point of the class on the first day.7 I tell them, "Your goal in this course is to answer the question: How do you develop children into successful adults?"
And every class I remind them.
Again . . . and again . . . and again.
Until they get tired of it.
It's no different with PowerPoint. That's where this chapter's key insight comes in: Think of PowerPoints as documentaries.
With documentaries, a narrator talks over the visuals. You are the narrator. You present (narrate), and slides enhance what you say (visuals).
The key word is enhance. Slides aren't supposed to stand on their own. (Remember the Redundancy Test? Go back to the introduction.) They're designed to make your point obvious. Audiences aren't reading on-screen text while watching documentaries! What you hear and what you see is seamless.
STOP AND WATCH
Watch the preview of Ken Burn's documentary, The Civil War (1:03). See how the narration and visuals integrate into a seamless learning experience? View at: https://youtu.be/IztrtVmthfM
That's why presentation experts advise using more visuals and less words. Our brains process pictures faster than text—in fact, one study found it's as fast as thirteen milliseconds.8 The Picture Superiority Effect in full effect, so to speak. With visuals, we don't have to read the slide and listen to the speaker at the same time.
Many presentation experts compare slides to billboards. Billboards, after all, use short, catchy headlines and visuals to attract people's attention. A billboard has mere seconds to communicate its message. Given our parsimonious tendencies, shouldn't slides do the same?
A Coca-Cola billboard with a simple phrase: Taste the feeling.
Yet I prefer comparing slides to documentaries than to billboards. The latter is inte
nded to stand on their own. They don't require narrators. In that way, billboards don't mirror the experience of presenting.
Documentaries, on the other hand, do—and so much more.
Unlike billboards, documentaries use a variety of media, such as videos and music. This can help you think outside the box. Should you use videos? Music? Or maybe consider not using PowerPoint at all? After all, some of the best presenters simply talk.
STOP AND WATCH
Watch Sir Ken Robinson's "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" TED Talks speech without slides, which has been viewed over 53,000,000 times—one of the most popular talks of all times. View at:
https://youtu.be/iG9CE55wbtY
PRESENTING. When Should You Use (or Not Use) Slides?
Speaking of which, let's tackle this question. The answer is simple: Use slides only when they help get your point across more quickly. Otherwise, you're better off just talking.
Use slides only when they help get your point across more quickly. Otherwise, you're better off just talking.
Remember your goal as presenter? To make sure the audience gets your message in the shortest time possible (see Chapter 1).
If you think your slides will help you accomplish this goal, then use them. Most presenters, however, don't approach slides that way. They don't think about how to blend what they say with what they show on the screen—as documentarians do. Instead, most professors unintentionally duplicate the message, by stating their point out loud and showing that same point on the slide.
The result? Both messages compete for the audience's attention and ends up slowing understanding. That's Richard Mayer's Redundancy Principle in effect: People learn better from just graphics and narration than from graphics, narration, and on-screen text.9
People learn better from just graphics and narration than from graphics, narration, and on-screen text.
Since most people use slides wrong, experts often suggest minimizing (or avoiding altogether) the use of slides. This way, the audience has no choice but to focus on you.
Unfortunately, such advice is misplaced. Just because one doesn't know how to properly season a dish doesn't mean he or she should simply avoid using salt—especially when it makes the dish that much more appetizing.
The solution isn't to advise people to avoid slides. It's far better to show them how to use it. When done correctly, visuals can add weight to your presentation. That's the bottom line.
But aren't there some occasions where it's better off not using slides? Sure.
First, slides don't generally allow for analysis or scrutiny, so if you have a lot of information to convey, consider other ways. Let's say you're teaching faculty members how to navigate a new learning management system (LMS) like Blackboard or Canvas,10 and you need to show the steps to setting it up. That's information users will likely refer to over and over again.
Wouldn't a handout be more effective? This way, audiences can analyze the details on their own. They're going to request for a copy of your slides anyway (which indicates that there are better ways to communicate your information).
Another alternative is to simply show users how to use the LMS. As the presenter, you might say, "OK, I'm going to walk you through exactly how to set up Canvas. You may follow along if you have a laptop or tablet. First, let's look at your navigation bar on the left-hand side of the page. Click on the top link first . . ."
No PowerPoint needed. (If you're really thinking about your audience, then provide both a handout and a "how-to" video link as reference. You might decide to go over the finer points from the handout right then and there, which allows audience members to follow along and take notes. They can also refer back to it later. Same with the video.11)
I'll show you some ways to tackle this issue in Chapter 6, Frequently Asked Questions.
Another situation where you might want to avoid using slides is if you're making a speech. One that is emotionally charged (think Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech) or aimed to project leadership should focus only on you. Part of the reason is that people tend to equate PowerPoints with conveying information—for better or for worse. So, know your audience.
PRESENTING. THE BOTTOM LINE
Your presentation goal (and approach) is to communicate your message in the shortest possible time by thinking of PowerPoints as documentaries.
In the next chapter, we will focus on your presentation.
3 Meyers & Jones (1993)
4 Miller (1962)
5 Bacon & Stewart (2006)
6 Swaminathan (2008)
7 Students often don't know why they're taking a class. Professors know, sure, but do they clearly communicate the purpose, the goal? If it's stated only in the syllabus, under the course description or course objectives section, I bet your students don't read it. To change that, read my ebook, Create an Engaging Syllabus, available in major online bookstores.
8 Potter, Wyble, Hagmann, & McCourt (2014)
9 Mayer (2009)
10 Blackboard and Canvas are two popular electronic software applications for delivering educational content, particularly for online courses.
11 For those who need to show audiences how to navigate a site or use software, most PCs and Macs have built-in software tools to record your voice, the screen, and/or yourself. I also like tools that record and automatically provide a link, like Loom (https://www.loom.com). This frees you from having to upload your recording to a separate site like YouTube or Vimeo. I hit the record button, edit where necessary, and then send viewers the link.
02
YOUR MESSAGE
KEY INSIGHT:
CREATE A "ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY"
So, what's your main message? Whatever it is, capture it in one sentence. This is the best way, by far, to dramatically improve your PowerPoint and your presentation as a whole.
But a bit of caution here: do not boil your message down to sentences such as . . .
Students will learn about the U.S. banking system.
Students will learn about global inequality.
Students will learn about color theory.
These are topics. And topics, by definition, are broad. The minute you teach whole topics, you are covering too much in one class or one conference session. Cognitive overload, right? Students won't remember anything you cover. I always imagine reporters standing outside my classroom, asking exiting students, "So what did you learn today?" Kind of like journalists waiting eagerly for a lawyer's soundbite, like you see in those courtroom dramas.
If the student's response is, "I learned about the U.S. banking system," I've failed as a communicator. That's the topic I covered, but it's not learning. Effective lectures and presentations are not about "covering." They're about uncovering.
Teaching is not about "covering"; it's about uncovering.
You want to uncover the most important thing about that topic—the part that students and audiences need to know. The one message you want students to be able to articulate to waiting reporters, if you will. Textbooks are responsible for "covering" the rest. When you internalize this, you will enhance audience understanding and engagement.
Let's take our "bad" one-sentence messages from above and focus them:
Students will learn how banks make money off your deposits.
Students will learn that systems affect global inequality more than people.
Students will learn that colors can affect moods and feelings.
See how I took one aspect of the topic to deep-dive into?
Here it is spelled out in terms of topic and message:
Think about this! In the last example, the takeaway message—i.e., the one thing you want students to internalize—is the power of color. How it affects people. That using different colors sets moods. Evokes feelings. The point is for these students to eventually create effective designs, no?
So, during this presentation, the emphasis isn't on vocabulary terms like hue, chroma, value, and saturation— even though they'r
e important. The focus is on what they all mean. Ultimately, presentations are about the bottom-line message, not the technical stuff along the way.
Look at our banking topic. The focus isn't on covering terms like expansionary monetary policy or macroprudential policy. It's on helping students "uncover" a system that influences our everyday lives.
The terms merely support your message. Don't let your main message get lost in the terms.
Presenting is like writing a persuasive essay. You always start by connecting with the audience. Never with the technical terms, vocabulary, or details—i.e., the supports. And you always circle back to the main point(s).
But isn't it funny how professors sometimes start with, "OK, today we'll discuss the main theories behind money and banking in the U.S."?
That's a chapter!
What's the main message—the takeaway? What's the one thing you want students to delve into and understand by the end of class? The "post-trial soundbite," so to speak. One message might be, how banks make money off your deposits. Another message might be, how central banks conduct monetary policy to stabilize prices and manage economic fluctuations.
These are choices you make as presenter. But make a choice.
Same with conference presentations. The point isn't to go over that research project you've been working on—the one regarding a new education approach to help bilingual students. It's not about your research (e.g., articulating your framework, hypothesis, methodology, findings, etc.). The takeaway is the finding and what it means! That's what audiences come to hear. So, your presentation should emphasize these things during the beginning, middle, and end. (We'll talk more about the structure of your presentation in Chapter 3, Your Outline.)
