16 Feb
A PowerPoint presentation is one of the most popular and essential ways to communicate information to others. Whether the goal is to educate students, pitch to potential stakeholders or a TED talk, PowerPoint is everywhere. When it comes to creating a presentation, the key is to craft a well-designed, visually rich presentation to cast a lasting impression on the audience.
Now, creating a presentation that moves people is no easy task, especially those aimed at catering to eLearning. Why? Well, normally you’d be presenting in front of your audience. Now that you’re presenting remotely, the eLearning presentation must feature more engagement. It is only then the slides can bind the interest of your audience for a long time.
So, how can you create presentations that matter? How can you ensure a superior eLearning experience with your slides?
In this article, we will talk about some of the best tips to make eLearning presentations engaging and informative for your audience.
Know Your Audience:
Before you jump on to PowerPoint and start creating the slides for your online audience, you must think it through. Since one size does not fit all, you must always put the target audience at the top of the priority list. Know about the people, do quality research about their profession. Doing an audience analysis based on age, gender and topics of interest can help you formulate content that hits all the right buttons with the viewers.
For instance, if presenting to corporate executives, the content should feature a subtle appeal, consistent formatting and professional outline. However, if you’re planning to educate students, the presentation should be graphically rich and must feature informative visuals. Additionally, you can also use visually impactful PowerPoint templates to ensure that your presentations are highly comprehensible and effective. Audience analysis helps you discover the vital information that can be used to build a common ground between your and the audience. The goal is to keep them engaged without jeopardizing the learning.
PowerPoint Templates:
When it comes to creating presentations that feature professional graphic design, branding & quick customizations, PowerPoint templates are the way forward. A template is like a ready to use skeleton. You can leverage PowerPoint templates to create engaging, and quick presentations. One should note that in eLearning presentations, the biggest challenge is to get a grip on the interest of the audience.
Using presentation templates can provide you with rich visuals, infographics, flow charts and intuitive typographies. There is no denying that not everyone has the knack for coming up with lucrative presentation designs. Rather than creating slides from scratch, you can use a readymade presentation template and kickstart your presentation goals.
Use Slides Sparingly:
One should understand that a presentation aims to educate the audience through visuals and minimal text. Too many slides containing lengthy paragraphs make one lose interest. Always keep a track on the number of slides incorporated into an eLearning presentation. You can consider using the 10-20-30 slide rule. The rule states that a presentation must not have more than 10 slides, it shouldn’t be more than 20 minutes long and must feature a 30 font size.
Keeping the number of slides minimal yet rich in content helps the presentation in unimaginable ways. The audience tends to focus more when slides have rich content and are not monotonous. The content mentioned in the slides should be short and lucid and shouldn’t jeopardize the learning. Visuals also help in keeping the text minimal and hence, lesser slides. The technique can ensure an overall and intuitive learning experience for the audience.
Source Content from Credible Sources:
When creating an eLearning presentation, it is advised to back your content with reliable sources like reports, case studies, etc. It helps the reader to relate and understand the content with ease, clarity and build the trust. For instance, if your presentation is about the “Benefits of Artificial Intelligence”, you must include the latest trends, facts, revolutionary breakthroughs from official and credible sources.
By following this tip, you can intrigue the audience and make them pay more attention to the subject in discussion. You may also consider adding examples from real-life situations. Real-life stories and examples act as an added advantage in the content. It binds the interest of the audience to the presentation for a considerable time. Orchestrating the content in the form of a storyline ensures a vivid presentation experience for your audience.
Pay Attention To Content Structure:
While creating an eLearning presentation, the focus should be on keeping content as concise as possible. Therefore, presentation creators must eliminate redundant content and segregate sub-topics well for a better understanding. Always try to explain one topic at a time for a better comprehension of the subject.
Slides featuring an untidy mix of content can put off the audience. Rather than covering a plethora of content in all the slides, presenters must keep the slides simple. Assign slides to sub-topics and craft your minimalistic content around the same. It will help in a thorough introduction and explanation of the subject. Therefore, you can avoid unnecessary confusion and ensure your audience gets the message.
Systematic & Consistent Flow:
Keeping the design and content consistent throughout the slides can help you deliver a superior presentation experience. The slides must always be in sync with the forthcoming ones. Hence, making a proper thread of information and connecting the dots across slides is a win-win. This helps create rhythm in the content. And thereby creating a systematic flow of information passed on to the user.
You must reinforce learning while projecting the slides. You can consider highlighting the keywords in the slide. The presentation elements like visuals & transitions must emphasize important areas. The practice helps the audience grasp the vital information and retain the same for a longer duration. Great eLearning presentations feature a consistent reinforced learning experience across the deck.
Leverage The Power Of Visuals:
The slides must feature visuals such as videos, charts, infographics and diagrams in a well-balanced manner. This will help you cover a large audience ground since everyone has different levels of understanding and varied approaches towards learning. Visuals help you eliminate unnecessary text from the presentation.
A presentation is incomplete without data. However, no one likes to read raw numbers from the slides. Too much analytical and numerical information can overwhelm the audience in no time! Infographics, charts and graphs come to your rescue. You can leverage three-dimensional visuals and help your viewers understand the content better.
Wrapping It Up:
An eLearning presentation should be user-friendly. Anything too trivial discourages the viewer from learning. The above-mentioned tips help you craft an engaging presentation for the audience from all walks of life. Be it students, employees, stakeholders or C-level executives, a presentation must feature professional design elements and carefully vetted content.
With remote learning becoming a new normal, presentation creators must use out of the box strategies to craft impactful slides. Using the same slide deck every time you’re presenting can throw the audience off the track. PowerPoint templates, backed by state of the art design elements and rich content, ensure a superior eLearning experience for good.
About the Author:
Germán Viera is an engineer transformed into entrepreneur. Currently focusing on business growth, product improvements, design, marketing and of course support of our valued customers for SlideModel.com. You can get in touch with him via LinkedIn.
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