PowerPoint in Training - Each time a Good Thing is Not a Advantage I decided to write a couple of words about a topic that often comes up in discussions about training, that is the use 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 on earth is obvious is always that there are actually people who are strong advocates and the like aren't so convinced by the use of PowerPoint. Personally, I get caught in rogues category.
I would start with announcing which i think PowerPoint is an excellent oral appliance its use has helped presenters and trainers immensely over the last two full decades. The thought of time for acetates and an OHP fill me with dread. Having said that, I do believe the truly great ability and usability of PowerPoint means that those very users are getting to be too dependent upon the tool and training has suffered for that reason.
PowerPoint CoursesTo be a trainer and training designer, I am very annoyed by people who equate a good path with the number of slides are included. I've even recently read a dog training design company's view that a days training includes between 60 - 100 slides. Apologies, but this is simply poppycock! This will suggest that you are displaying at best 10 slides by the hour or 1 every six minutes. Should you be showing slides during that rate, you will be simply providing no time at all for activities, review, discussion and even any meaningful commentary on the trainer.
This point brings me for the key point worth addressing regarding PowerPoint during training that is certainly the statement, 'PowerPoint should support the message, not the trainer supporting PowerPoint'. Without after this critical element you fall under the trap of letting the technology, not this content, become primary.
PowerPoint ClassesTraining should be interactive and indulgent for any learner. It should allow time with the participants to look around the practicalities of issue as well as to absorb the idea in the relaxed environment. As we simply present information to participants within a slide format we become lecturers, not trainers. To reiterate, PowerPoint should support training materials as well as trainer in an effort to profit the learner learn. What this means is while using tool as being a reference point, a method of highlighting a place with the image or where it's not necessarily possible to demonstrate a spot without a graphic or text based representation.
Some believe they'll use PowerPoint to be a means of 'sorting their thoughts' and although their program has 2698 slides about it, 'I will not be showing most of those'. Well, great, but there is always danger that someone else training your course will and in addition, surely you will find possible ways of installation of the dwelling of your course? That, with me, is the reason we invented Trainer Notes.
A consistent study that is definitely carried out by a web site called, 'Think Away from the Slide', shows the hazards of PowerPoint and ways in which it's perceived through the audience. However the results are directed at presentations as an alternative to training It shows very well how problematic PowerPoint is often. The info reveals what annoys people most about PowerPoint.
The speaker look at slides to us 69.2%
Text so small I could not see clearly 48.2%
Full sentences rather then bullet points 48.0%
Slides tough to see as a result of colour choice 33.0%
Overly complex diagrams or charts 27.9%
As you can see, the speaker reading slides is easily the most annoying thing to individuals and of course this study was consumed 2009, precisely the same point has become top for every bi-annual study because it started. The author reads considerably into this and it's also worthy of a read, but my thinking is the fact that participants dislike keeping the slides read in their eyes primarily because they can achieve that on their own. As someone on a single of my courses recently said in regards to previous course, 'The trainer was intent on putting his notes for the slides, I couldn't help but feel he really should have just emailed his notes to us.' This brings me back to the reality that training need to be interactive and involve the participants throughout. PowerPoint limits the opportunity to make this happen.
With a typical Trainer Bubble path you can find something in the choice of 12 - 24 slides a day. This will add 'title' slide in addition to two 'objectives' slides (you to definitely open and another to seal the session). PowerPoint advocates might feel like this is a bit sparse knowning that consequently the education course lacks content. This is certainly not the case and our countless customers will testify to that. The truth is, our training submissions are based in the Trainers Notes, where it has to be, plus the participants that attend a courses will gain knowledge throughout the information offered by the trainer, the actions they explore, the exercises they accomplish, the discussions they get involved in and then finally the supporting materials they see and receive. In fact, as Confucius said, "Tell Me i Will Forget; Show Me so i May Remember; Involve Me we Will Understand."
Confucius probably been there right too, because from various research sources we understand that we remember from: the Lecture (5%); Reading (10%); Av (20%); Demonstration (30%); Discussion group (50%); Practice by doing (75%) and Teaching others (90%). A good set of slides will undoubtedly fulfill the Av aspect of this possibly at 20%, that was not a very good return. Certainly you cannot make teachers in the our participants therefore, the aim is to involve areas from all these principles. An excellent path can do this and allocates equally as much commitment to every one principle for the reason that output justifies.
Experts, PowerPoint is a superb tool to work with on a path, however it is only as good as the individual deploying it. Allow it to support your program, but try not to allow it to needlessly BE your training program.