Thoughts On Presenting & Design

Many of the experts have been saying for quite some time that slides do not work well as handouts.  An end to the practice was even one of my wishes for slide design in 2009.  I have seen the benefits of not having dual-purpose slides, both in comprehension during the presentation and in retention afterwards.

Unfortunately, I have encountered resistance to this approach, some of which can be quite animated or angry in nature.  Well, even if we were foolish enough to ignore the advice of experts, we apparently have research on our side.  Though the research itself was not specifically designed to test the effectiveness of slides as handouts vs. more properly formatted documents per se, it does support two key principles:

1. Slides can’t possibly provide the wealth of information necessary to aid retention of the content, which is the spoken part of the presentation.
2. Information retention is improved when multiple senses are involved, an impossibility with handouts.

The research was conducted at the State University of New York (SUNY) Fredonia by psychologist Dani McKinney.  Her study suggested that students who downloaded the video podcast, which synchronized the audio of the presentation with the slides, retained the information better than students who received just slides printed as handouts.  The “podcast” students scored an average of 71/100 on a test on the material while the “slideument” students scored an average of 62/100.  Of the podcast students who reviewed the podcast more than once, their average was 77/100.

One detail that was noticed was that handouts served as substitutes for notes.  Given the poor scores received, they were not good notes, either.  The podcast students were able to review the actual content itself and take better notes.  This doesn’t mean we need to create video podcasts of our own for our presentations, though if you have the opportunity, it sure couldn’t hurt.  However, it does speak to the poor excuse that slide handouts are.  You can’t possibly have enough information them to be effective handouts, but you can all too easily have too much information for them to be effective slides.

The other lesson that can be taken away from this study is that information retention is improved when multiple senses are involved, a point made by Dr. John Medina in his book, “Brain Rules.”  The slide handouts engage only the visual senses.  A live (or recorded) presentation with well-designed slides engages both sight and hearing, boosting the brain’s ability to effectively store the information for later use.  If printed slides themselves could serve as a replacement for the presentation itself, then there would be no need for the school lecture or the office presentation.  However, the “multimedia” (multi-senses) presentation is more effective.

So, what can we do if we can’t provide video or audio to our audience after the presenatation?  Well, for starters, don’t use slideware (e.g. PowerPoint, Keynote, etc.) to create handouts.  Use a word processing or page layout program to create honest to goodness documents where you use narrative to present your content in written form.  Also, don’t forget the visuals that you included in your slides.  There was a reason you used them in the first place.  Don’t waste the opportunity to provide the text and visual reinforcement that aids comprehension and retention.  One side benefit of creating this document is that it helps you prepare by practicing your presentation delivery in your mind.  Just don’t use it as an alternative to honest to goodness practice.

Tags: comprehension, handouts, retention, slides, visuals