Clear written material to support lectures: hand-outs, PowerPoint slides etc

One of the best ways of thinking about support material is to think about how you can design this material to support the kind of learning you would, ideally, like your students to engage in. Students are often advised to: prepare for lectures, listen actively in lectures, and then spend time after the lecture focussing on the lecture in some way (often reviewing notes, but possibly discussing lecture content with friends or some other activity). The Student Learning Support Service at VUW gives exactly this advice in their Suggested Study Routine hand-out. One of the international students we talked to also talked about what kind of material is useful before, during and after the lecture.

What is useful before the lecture?

'Because it is hard for me to follow the lectures and get the key ideas, it is helpful if I can have the PowerPoint slides beforehand' All students will benefit from doing some preparation before the lecture but many international students and students with a hearing, visual or learning disability will particularly benefit from being able to check vocabulary, and identify key concepts or ideas before the lecture.

What is useful during the lecture?

'Some lecturers put almost everything they say on the slide, that is helpful before and during the lecture – I can follow whereabouts in the lecture we have got to and it also helps if I don’t understand what the lecturer is saying.'

'I wish more lecturers would put their key points on the slides. Even when I read them before the lecture and listen hard in the lecture I find it hard to tell which are the key points. All my attention (in the lecture) goes on trying to understand the English. Sometimes I understand every sentence by itself but I still don’t get the key point. It would be great if they would put them on the slides but even if they just tell you then it would help.'read more

What is useful after the lecture

'Pictures, diagrams and animation are not so helpful after the lecture'

'If they don’t make it clear what the key points are then, for example, after the lecture I might have some PowerPoint slides with a whole lot of graphs on them, but I’ve got no idea why the graphs are important.' read more

Some of the lecturers spoken to for this webpage article had developed their own answers to these questions.

I put a lot of information in powerpoint which I know is not always regarded as good practice but I think it really helps people who speak English as a second language, or have hearing difficulties or have problems with keeping concentration. Then they have two sources of information – what you are saying and the Powerpoint. Of course it does mean, that for it to be really useful, you need to make sure that what you’re saying and the Powerpoint display are aligned. Marcela Palomino-Schalscha, Lecturer

I try to encourage students to not take notes in class. Everything is available on powerpoint. They have access to the notes before the lecture and I encourage them to have the notes in front of them during the lecture. They either print them off or sit in class with their laptops with the notes opened up. They use onenote or another programme to add their own comments to the notes. They don’t like not having or taking notes though. I’ve tried Prezi – but the students don’t like it – they can’t print it off and it doesn't provide them with a set of study notes they can use later for revision or for assessment. In one course I tried not using powerpoint for three weeks. One week I scanned a picture book and spoke to that – the images illustrated my points and we discussed practice. Chris Bowden, Lecturer

Chris Bowden is not the only lecturer to have mixed feelings about using powerpoint.

Picking up on the powerpoint issue. I’m not a great fan of powerpoint. I didn’t use it until 2008. I resisted. I and picked up a teaching award in 2006 – so obviously powerpoint isn’t essential for good teaching even though students can demand it – demand the notes – sometimes. Powerpoint can be well used – but often it isn’t. There’s not much point in having pretty pictures that aren’t connected to anything in particular. Professor Warwick Murray

Obviously different lecturers in different disciplinary areas will develop different solutions to these issues but it is well worth keeping these questions in mind:

• How do I want students to study/prepare for lectures?
• How do I want students to listen/attend/take notes in lectures?
• How do I want students to engage with lecture content after lectures?
• Do my support materials work for all students including those who do not speak English as their first language, come from a very different learning culture, or have a physical or learning disability?

(See Disability Services page on inclusive teaching and learning).

This video clip provides a useful introduction to some of the issues around using Powerpoint in the university classroom (note, it runs for 60 minutes).