The Slides (with student comments in quotes)

The slides

Part of building a challenge into class and keeping things lively have been my exceedingly controversial PowerPoint slides. I can promise you that they are not boring, and my hope is that they might hopefully train up students’ ability to keep pace with a heavy flow of information. A major recent change has been to my class has been to release course slides for download at any time in the semester in response to student requests.

Before I released course slides for download, some people liked them:

“The powerpoints he makes are really amazing. I found them interesting and never have I paid so much attention in class.”

“Loved the class powerpoint slides! They were very engaging!”

"All the lectures were like a Ted talk, they were so interesting I didn't even realize how much I was learning"

"The lectures were amazingly interesting and enjoyable."

"Damian is very good at ensuring students are engaged in course content by presenting psychological concepts through thought provoking means."

But also, before I released course slides for download, the slides could also turn people off:

“The visual aid (PowerPoints) used in class were often much too dense, difficult to understand, and addressed a bit rapidly.”

“Less info on each slide, please! Overload”

“Sometimes the lecture was tangential and convoluted.” Okay about that.

“The slides were…for lack of a better term, kind of an information clusterf**k at times.”

But THEN after I released the slides for download at any time in the semester, students who found them overwhelming and then found the slides more engaging and more useful for navigating the class:

“I used the downloadable slides because they are especially helpful in explaining examples that help me understand concepts.”

“Yes, I used the uploaded lecture slides. They helped a lot, since I could fill in the gaps in lecture knowledge before tests, or if I was confused with a specific topic. It also helps frame content and ideas, and grasp bigger pictures.”

“Yes, they were helpful once I could download them anytime. I tried to read the slides and refer to my class notes together after class, to bring back what you mentioned in the lecture. I could then focus more on your explanations during lectures and not trying to copy down as much information as I can.”

“As I said above, the slides have really helped me understand the material better. Studying the slides with a friend was even more helpful, as we can make sense out of the slide, even if we don't remember it exactly.”

“I was using the downloadable slides and really feel like they helped with this past exam.”

Once they were freely downloadable, I think students could see better--without the stress of trying to catch all the details in class--how the slides framed and supported the flow of the class over the semester. Students were excited to use the slides as a new tool they could for exploring class content:

“Yes and yes. I missed one day of class so I looked back at the slides for that day to see what the class talked about. It also helped in preparing for the exam to find specific wording and examples.”

“Yes, I used the slide to supplement my in class notes and using them to ensure that I am not missing any key points in class.”

“Yes, I used them when I needed to catch up, when I miss something in lecture and theoretically for review before exams (although that didn't happen last time). I think the slides are useful just as a backup in case the exact wording you used in class or definitions are important to understand later.”

“Yes!! I use d them if I needed to look at an image, figure, table, etc. longer to better understand it or just because I couldn't see it clearly on the big screen. I also used it near the end of the unit to go over the broad ideas in lecture that I needed to cover for the exam.”

“I was using the slides because they are especially helpful in explaining examples that help me understand concepts.”

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