Effective PP

Megan Houlihan
Number of Words (wrong)
• It is not a good idea to write out all of your ideas word for
word because then your students will spend all of their time
reading your slides and not spend any time actually listening
to what you’re saying. Instead, you should bullet a few of
your main points so that your students will be able to focus
on what you’re saying.
Number of Words (right)
• Don’t put ideas word for word
• No long paragraphs on a slide
• You want your students to listen to YOU, not read the slide
Color (wrong)
• Don’t make color of slide too distracting
Color (right)
• Stick to neutral colors that aren’t too bright
Pictures (wrong)
• You don’t want to add so many pictures that it becomes distracting to
students
Pictures (right)
• Pictures are a nice touch, but in moderation
Font (wrong)
• Make the font an easy one to read!
• Do not pick fonts that students will not be able to understand.
• Simpler is better in this case.
Font (right)
• Times new roman or Calibri are always a good choice
• Fancy fonts can become hard to read, especially for students sitting
far away from the screen
Size of Font (wrong)

• You need to make font big enough for students to see

• Students that sit far away from the screen will have an extra hard time reading this
• Many students already have a difficult time reading the screen

•You also don’t want

your font too big
Size of Font (right)
• Size 30 font is always my go to while making a PowerPoint
• You don’t want your font so small that students can’t see it
• You also don’t want your font so big that you can’t fit more than a few
words on a slide
Bad transitions
• Don’t make the transitions of the slides the focus of your presentation
• Simple transitions are much more effective
Consistency
• Keep the same background on each slide
• Keep all the slides the same color
• Use the same font consistently throughout the PowerPoint
• Use the same font size throughout the PowerPoint
• Use the same transition for every slide