I decided to write a couple of words in regards to topic that frequently arises in discussions about training, that is the utilization of PowerPoint slides. I’ve got received many emails, had many discussions and attended many meetings the place that the subject of PowerPoint in training is raised. What the heck is obvious is that often you will find people that are strong advocates yet others that aren’t so convinced through PowerPoint. Personally, I belong to aforementioned category.

I would begin by announcing which i think PowerPoint is a wonderful oral appliance its use helps presenters and trainers immensely over the last 20 years. The thinking behind returning to acetates with an OHP fill me with dread. That being said, In my opinion the amazing ability and usability of PowerPoint suggests that those very users have become too dependent upon the tool and training has suffered for that reason.

PowerPoint Course

To be a trainer and training designer, I buy very aggravated while people that equate a very good path with how many slides are included. I have got even recently read an exercise design company’s view which a days training includes between 60 - 100 slides. I apologize, but this is poppycock! This can imply that you will be displaying at best 10 slides an hour or 1 every six minutes. If you’re showing slides as well rate, well then, your simply providing no time for activities, review, discussion or maybe any meaningful commentary through the trainer.

This point brings me for the important element of importance regarding PowerPoint during training that is certainly the statement, ‘PowerPoint should retain the message, not the trainer supporting PowerPoint’. Without after that critical element you fit in the trap of letting the technology, not this content, become primary.

PowerPoint Class

Training should be interactive and indulgent for any learner. It will allow time for that participants to research the practicalities of an issue in addition to absorb the idea inside a relaxed environment. Whenever we simply present information to participants inside of a slide format we become lecturers, not trainers. To reiterate, PowerPoint should support training materials and the trainer as a way to assist the learner learn. This implies making use of the tool for a reference point, an approach to highlighting a spot with an image or where it isn’t possible to show a time without having a graphic or text based representation.

Some argue that they will use PowerPoint like a approach to ‘sorting their thoughts’ and although their program has 2698 slides along with it, ‘I probably will not be showing most of those’. Well, great, but there is however always the that an intruder else training your course will and on top of that, surely you will find possible ways of installing the dwelling on the course? That, for me, is the reason we invented Trainer Notes.

A regular study that’s done by a website called, ‘Think Away from Slide’, shows the hazards of PowerPoint and the way it is perceived from the audience. While the stats are directed at presentations in lieu of training It shows perfectly how problematic PowerPoint is usually. The information reveals what annoys people most about PowerPoint.

The speaker look at the slides to us 69.2%
Text so small I couldn’t see clearly 48.2%
Full sentences instead of bullet points 48.0%
Slides tough to see as a consequence of colour choice 33.0%
Overly complex diagrams or charts 27.9%

As you can tell, the speaker reading slides is considered the most annoying thing to the people and of course this study was consumed in 2009, a similar point have been top for each bi-annual study as it started. The article author reads a good deal into this and it’s really worth a read, but my thinking would be that the participants aren’t keen on finding the slides read in their mind since they will do that for their own end. As someone using one of my courses recently said of a previous course, ‘The trainer am intent on putting his notes about the slides, I couldn’t help but feel he must have just emailed his notes to us.’ This brings me returning to the matter that training ought to be interactive and involve the participants throughout. PowerPoint limits the possibility to accomplish this.

Over a typical Trainer Bubble program you will discover something from the selection of 12 - 24 slides a day. It will are the ‘title’ slide in addition to two ‘objectives’ slides (you to definitely open then one to close the session). PowerPoint advocates might think that is a bit sparse understanding that consequently the education course lacks content. This is certainly not the case and our countless customers will testify to that. The fact is, our training submissions are based in the Trainers Notes, where it needs to be, and the participants that attend our courses will gain knowledge throughout the information given by the trainer, the actions they explore, the exercises they execute, the discussions they experience and after that finally the supporting materials they see and receive. After all, as Confucius said, “Tell Me we Will Forget; Show Me so i May Remember; Involve Me and I Will Understand.”

Confucius probably been there right too, because from various research sources we know that individuals remember from: the Lecture (5%); Reading (10%); Av (20%); Demonstration (30%); Discussion group (50%); Practice by doing (75%) and Teaching others (90%). Just a good range of slides will only fulfill the Audio Visual aspect of this and at 20%, this is not an amazing return. Obviously it’s not possible to make teachers out of all our participants and therefore the aim should be to involve areas from every one of these principles. A fantastic training curriculum can do this and allocates just as much commitment to each principle because output justifies.

In conclusion, PowerPoint is a great tool to work with in a study course, but it is only as well as the individual working with it. Give it time to support your study course, in addition to give it time to Become your path.