5 PowerPoint Mistakes Professors Make in Class

Norman Eng
Sep 3, 2018 · 6 min read

It’s much more than just a list. It goes to the heart of good teaching.

1. “Repackaging” What Students Read Last Night

Take one of your existing slide decks. Go through them slide by slide, skimming the titles and bullet points. Is it basically your lecture?

If it is, you’re doing PowerPoint* wrong. Yet that’s how I used to plan lectures:

STEP 1. Highlight important sections in the textbook chapter.

STEP 2. Turn them into slide titles.

STEP 3. Insert three to five bullet points.

STEP 4. Upload pictures or videos (if necessary).

Slides were the dumping ground for my notes. During class, I heard myself saying, “OK, what this slide is trying to say is …”

That’s when I knew I was repackaging. Not teaching. And students hate that. Why bother doing the readings?

Here’s what I learned to do instead. Focus on one complex idea (or two). Have students grapple with it.

Let’s say students read about the major theories in education— perennialism, essentialism, progressivism, and critical theory. Instead of spending the first 20 minutes of class going over each one (boring!), why not focus on the underlying idea behind each theory — and get students to explore it? For instance, the major theories in education are all about the best way to learn:

  1. by reading/discussing classics (perennialism)
  2. by developing foundational skills like reading, writing, and ‘rithmatic (essentialism)
  3. through hands-on experiences (progressivism)
  4. by reflecting on and evaluating the past (critical theory)

What if students had to defend each one as the best way to learn? Imagine the deep processing and critical thinking that would take place. It would be so much more meaningful than if you defined each theory on slides. Notice you could do this whole exercise without ever bringing up the terms perennialism, essentialism, progressivism, or critical theory.

Try that with your own topics. How can you focus on the underlying idea without using the term — and get students to grapple with it?


2. Jamming Each Slide with Text

Marketing guru Seth Godin never uses more than 6 words per slide.

Let that sink in.

Talking about pollution in Houston? Instead of giving me four bullet points of EPA data, why not show me a photo of a bunch of dead birds, some smog and even a diseased lung? Amazingly, it’s more fun than doing it the old way. But it’s effective communication.

Godin’s point is clear. Whether your audience is made up of clients or students, how can we communicate better?

My students used to ask, “Professor, can you go back a slide?” When they copy the slide word-for-word, I know I’ve failed.

Now, I use videos as a jumping point for discussions. Other times I tell a story based on a provocative photo or illustration. Once in a while I show them a quotation (“Rousseau said, ‘Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.’ Let’s talk about this …”).

I’m not saying Don’t use words in PowerPoint. Just don’t make it the default approach.


3. Finding Images on Google

Most images on the Internet shouldn’t be used for your PowerPoint. Technically, the owner of these images can ask you to take them down or even sue (however unlikely). While it’s not such a big deal in a closed environment like the classroom, I would get into the habit of using Creative Commons licensed images. They are free to use, distribute, or modify for your purposes.

(NOTE: I am not a legal expert in these matters, so please check any questions you have with the proper sources).

When you present outside the classroom, such as in conferences or other professional settings, it matters. If you run a blog or website, same deal.

So next time you’re searching for images, filter Google searches by usage rights (Google search → Advanced → Usage rights). You can then select for images that are free to use, share, or modify — even commercially, if needed.

Another way is to directly search images from the Creative Commons website: https://search.creativecommons.org. They aggregate platforms like Google, Pixabay, SoundCloud, YouTube, Flikr, Open Clip Art Library, and more.

It’s so easy to unknowingly share non-permissioned digital media these days. Why risk problems?


4. Reading from the Slides

This is by far audiences’ biggest complaint, as captured in this one tweet:

I hate when a professor makes class mandatory and reads straight from the PowerPoint instead of actually teaching…I can do that at home. (@Breannedwards)

Students are perfectly capable of reading the slides without you. My purpose as instructor is grander.

Here’s an example of a bad slide I used to describe instructional scaffolding:

Boring and unengaging, right? Here’s the slide I start with now:

I would ask, “How do we help children when they first learn how to ride a bike?”

When students suggest using training wheels, we discuss why temporary supports are important.

Teachers do the same thing. They provide temporary supports — like an essay template — until students can write on their own.

I then ask students to brainstorm other ways to support children’s learning (e.g., providing sentence starters, graphic organizers, etc.). Only afterward do I bring up the term instructional scaffolding. Now the term means something.


5. Being Boring

During my first year teaching higher ed, I used the PowerPoint template that came with the instructor’s copy of the textbook. I didn’t know any better. It gave me a much-needed lesson structure. But the slides took 45 minutes to cover. Students were nodding off, checking their phones and yawning. They would “go to the bathroom.” Even though the class liked me (I think), they wanted more “hands-on” work (read: practice and experience), according to evaluations. That hit me hard, because I take criticisms personally.

If you’re boring, even 10 minutes can seem long.

How do you avoid being boring? First, avoid what I discussed in #1, 2, and 4 above: Don’t “repackage;” don’t jam your slide with text; and don’t read from the slide. That’s obvious by now. Now what?

Dare I repeat: Don’t bring up terms or theories — or anything abstract — in the beginning of class.

If you’re explaining supply and demand (economics), the theory of cognitive development (psychology), debits and credits (accounting), or the Yalta Conference (world history), make it real to the students.

Supply and demand is about fluctuating commodity prices based on how many people want a product or service. Students experience price change all the time when they buy tickets. Why not start with that universal experience? The Yalta Conference was about shaping a post-war peace among nations. Why not have students develop their own solutions for peace?

Other times, making ideas concrete is harder. How do you make the theory of relativity real? How about the math concept of slope?


The Bottom Line

Everyone says PowerPoint is just a tool, and they’re right. And I hope you detected a theme in this article: When you teach with slides, start with the “experience,” not with the term or theory. But so often, professors start with the term. “Today, let’s go over attribution theory…”

Yawn.

But once you’ve made that connection to students, planning your slides is easier. So go ahead, get to know these 5 PowerPoint mistakes. Just remember they’re (almost) all related to the inability to connect with students. That’s the real problem of slide presentations. Fix that, and you’ll teach more effectively.


[*Note: In this article, the use of the word PowerPoint refers to any slide presentation tool, whether it is Microsoft’s PowerPoint, Apple’s Keynote, Prezi, or the like.]

Norman Eng

Written by

I help new professors teach effectively. Get my FREE quick-start guide, “7 Proven Steps to Planning, Teaching, and Engaging Your Students” at NormanEng.org.

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