"WE CAN read." This is the statement that escapes too many students' mouths after leaving a lecture dominated by Microsoft PowerPoint. Rather than engage, PowerPoint often bores students when professors do little more than read their PowerPoint presentations to the class. Though many professors misuse PowerPoint in lecture, it is a tool that can be used effectively to improve learning, but it is not the only tool. Through policy change and course evaluations, the University and students can point out professors' mistakes and improve the level of teaching.
The best professors engage. Professors engage through discussion and active eye contact with students. Often, the best professors use PowerPoint to convey images, but few words. When some of these professors display images, there will be no explanation of the image on display, so students are forced to look at the image carefully to understand the points the professor is making verbally.
Instead, many professors choose to use PowerPoint as the lecture's foundation. PowerPoint slides contain all the necessary information, so professors essentially read the slides aloud to the class. Such a teaching style has the exact opposite effect of the style mentioned before. By cramming all relevant information on a PowerPoint slide, professors simply bore students. Furthermore, because students know they can access the slides online, there is little incentive to pay attention or attend class at all.
PowerPoint presentations are not always so poor. Professors can still engage students using Microsoft PowerPoint, but it takes practice. William Booz, an instructional technology specialist in the Education School, told me of two faculty members in the Educational School who use PowerPoint effectively. Prof. Harry Strange uses complete PowerPoint presentations with embedded movies and transitions throughout and Prof. Herb Richards integrates movie clips of interviews of famous people in education. Both, Booz said, involved learning theory. Both go beyond the traditional uses of PowerPoint and certainly sound more engaging than most.
Unfortunately, few professors have had formal education in learning theory like those in the Education School. Professors without such training could benefit from the University's Teaching Resource Center. Michael Palmer, a faculty consultant for the Teaching Resource Center, wrote by e-mail that interactive workshops and one-on-one consultations about teaching are provided by the TRC to professors. Some of these workshops deal with technology, and many professors would be better off understanding other available resources. More sophisticated resources, such as advanced modeling or simulation computer programs, could be more effective learning tools for professors.
The University is limited in what action it can take, but it could mandate that new professors use the feedback consultation TRC provides. The feedback consultation comes in several forms, but one asks students for feedback during class time and another analyzes a videotape of the professor's lecture. Both would provide aspects where the professor could improve immediately, but the mandate could strain the resources of TRC.
Short of that, professors must initiate their own improvement. Few students, with good reason, would tell a professor he or she should consult with the Teaching Resource Center to improve his or her lectures. Often, the only action students can take is to write a detailed, constructive teacher evaluation at the end of the semester.
PowerPoint is a software program not evil unto itself, but evil in its misuse. It forces students to sit through lectures lacking substance by becoming, as one education writer put it, a "crutch" for educators. Through honest, specific course evaluations, current University students could help professors realize they need to improve in the future. Without University action, however, students can do little more than hope that our professors want to improve.
Rajesh Jain's columns appear Wednesday in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at rjain@cavalierdaily.com.
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