Logan Freeman

Professor Ruth Benander

English 2089

29 September 2022

Literature Review

The topic I will be researching is the idea of helping a community of high school students in IT classes grow the important skill of creating proper slideshow or Powerpoint presentations. This concept is of great importance due to the effectiveness slideshow presentations can have when presenting information and portraying thoughts. Therefore, the earlier this skill can be taught the more students can develop it over time. From my interview and prior experience, I am aware of many pitfalls students may have when they are creating these presentations. Although, there is certainly a lot I can learn and improve on myself by performing some research. My goal in this literature review is to find specific sources in order to develop a better understanding of my topic. This process will effectively lead to a better overall project when it comes to that time.

SOURCES AND EVALUATION

When searching for sources, I input specific search terms into the search engine known as Google Scholar. I also confirmed that these sources met the standard I needed for this Literacy Review.

Source 1. Beginning with my first research point, I discovered an interesting article. The article I found, “Using Cognitive Load Theory to improve the use of slideshow presentations and support a more efficient learning process”, published in University of Hertfordshire, by Shibli demonstrates the important process of creating more effective slideshow presentations. While combing through research articles, this piece stood out to me as potentially very useful in my ambition for this course. Shibli starts off the abstract by stating, “Improving slideshow presentations can have positive effects on the learning process. Simple adjustments to the design of slides can focus the learner’s attention and reduce the demand on the learner to process the information,” (Shibli). As I have noticed in my own experience with this format of presentations, putting focus on how your slideshow is developed is important. With proper rules and design decisions, which this article goes into, one may produce a much more successful degree of learning. This article specifically focuses on an interesting aspect, as “information can be lost due to distraction or being presented in a way that is not sympathetic to how the mind works, ” (Shibli). The overall idea of this research article was to connect how we think humans learn to the presentation format of slideshows. Selecting from the most interesting pieces of information, in “Figure 1: A simple model of the mind”, a chart is used to describe how we believe memory in the mind operates. Ultimately, information in the working or long-term memory can be forgotten. Therefore when making slideshows, we can harness this idea and work to prevent the process of forgetting. This connects to the idea of Cognitive Load Theory where Shibli then defines three particular examples of how cognitive load can take effect. These examples of Cognitive Load Theory are known as Intrinsic, Extraneous, and Germane. The idea taken from this example is that “to encourage the storage of information in the long-term memory a teacher/lecturer must consider how they can manage the intrinsic load and reduce the extraneous load,” (Shibli). As well as this, in figure 2 they define the equation “cognitive overload = task demand / available resources”. This is certainly an interesting way to look at this idea of cognitive overload. As the more a work task requires demand and processing, the more you are limited by your available resources. Then, Shibli gave some examples of producing a good slideshow. The first is that “Too much writing is another example of excessive extraneous cognitive load in a slide,” (Shibli). As well as this, “Many slideshows are littered with these irrelevant images which are used with the good intention of engaging the learner. But it is important to select images that are appropriate to the group being taught and remove irrelevant information,” (Shibli). Personally, I have seen this all of the time, as many students end up using irrelevant images since they are told to use images in general. Too, often they do not realize how much more effective a presentation may be with relevant images where needed. The article then goes into more interesting theories that are involved in producing better slideshows. Finally, Shibli concludes with these recommendations, “1. Keep the amount of text on a slide to a minimum. 2. Think carefully about the images used and ask yourself if they support the development of a concept. 3. Ensure that every detail on the slide can be read by the audience. 4. Use animations to reveal text or images one at a time to focus attention,” (Shibli). Overall, this article provides a multitude of interesting data and concepts that should be used in order to create more engaging and effective slideshows.

Source 2. While searching through sources I could use to improve my goal, I came across one which I felt could give interesting data regarding the program I plan to use. The article, “Learning using the google slides mobile application and its impact on attitude, motivation and achievement for industrial design subjects in the tve”, published by University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, by Ahmad et al. describe the effectiveness of Google Slide as a teaching application. Their work particularly pertains to the software Google Slides, which is what I plan to explore while teaching my community of students. Although this article focuses on how Google Slides is used in non face-to-face teaching situations, I believe the information is relevant in displaying the effectiveness of Google Slides. In this research, “A total of 39 students were selected as the study sample… Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, i.e. mean and standard deviation to see the influence of learning using google slides mobile application on the level of attitude, motivation, and student achievement,” (Ahmad et al.). When considering my goal for change in this course, I feel as though this may be valuable information to know. As Ahmad et al. state, “The teaching and learning process can be improved in quality and diversified delivery and acceptance through several techniques such as computer and software assistance,” (Ahmad et al.). With today’s amount of development in technology, there is a multitude of software that may aid in the process of teaching. This was a starting point in my goal for this course, to define the usefulness of slideshow presentations as a format, particularly in teaching others. Alternatively, this format is successful in better portraying one's thoughts and ideas. Ahmad et al. claim that “The results of the study found that the level of students' attitude towards the use of Google Slides for Industrial Design subjects as a whole was at a high level,” (Ahmad et al.). An example of the study was table four which was meant to represent the “Levels of Student Attitudes in the Use of Google Slides”. These results for table four show that the course of Industrial Design, which operates using Google Slides, is effective in promoting critical and engaging learning. Following this, there are similar examples that cover the motivation and achievement of students using Google Slides. Both then conclude that the application of Google slides produces a response level that is high. Overall, the article concludes with, “Therefore, readiness for the use of Google Slides mobile application is very important for lecturers and students to be able to master… Attitudes, motivations and student achievement in the use of Google Slides are at a high level,” (Ahmad et al.). There is a lot to take from this journal, though it provides data that suggests the effectiveness of Google Slides as an application in terms of presenting and relaying information.

Sources 3&4. Next, when researching for articles pertaining to my goal for this course, I came across an article that immediately caught my attention. This article, “PowerPoint Is Evil”, published by Wired, by Tufte acts as a historical reference for the adoption of slideshow presentations and offers advice on their use. Beginning with the article in question, Tufte identifies the origin of slideshow presentations. As stated in the article, “the format has become ubiquitous under PowerPoint, which was created in 1984 and later acquired by Microsoft,” (Tufte). Followed by this definition, the idea of the Powerpoint format is put under a very critical view. Stating that PowerPoint “may help speakers outline their talks, but convenience for the speaker can be punishing to both content and audience,” (Tufte). This can certainly be true, as this highlights the fact that some situations simply are not ideal for the format of a slideshow. A quote that shows this is, “When information is stacked in time, it is difficult to understand context and evaluate relationships. Visual reasoning usually works more effectively when relevant information is shown side by side,” (Tufte). When making a slideshow you are limited to one slide at a time, with the proper word count, you can’t necessarily implement much information on each individual slide. This may be a situation where information is not best presented like this, and other methods of presenting could be used instead. Slideshows aren’t a solution for all presentations, but often data can be adapted to work in its format. The article then provides some examples of faulty slide design, of course with the capabilities in 2003. This demonstrates the fact that clustered and incoherent slides are not effective ways to create slides. This leads to the absolute best takeaway from this retrospective, “But rather than supplementing a presentation, it has become a substitute for it. Such misuse ignores the most important rule of speaking: Respect your audience,” (Tufte). This quote makes the necessity of using a slideshow as a tool and not as the entire presentation piece clear. It also defines the other major rule, to keep your audience in mind at all times when giving a slideshow presentation. Otherwise, you are not reaching your full potential and probably only focusing on getting a good grade. At the end of this article, there was a reference to the previous story titled, “Learning to Love PowerPoint”, published by Wired, by the Wired Staff, which offers a second historical viewpoint. One particular piece of opinion the author gives is that, “Having never used the program before, I found it limiting, inflexible, and biased, like most software. On top of that, PowerPoint makes hilariously bad-looking visuals. But that's a small price to pay for ease and utility,” (Wired Staff). This is simply a bit of a historical report of how slideshows used to look and operate. As well as, “Although I began by making fun of the medium, I soon realized I could actually create things that were beautiful. I could bend the program to my own whim and use it as an artistic agent,” (Wired Staff). This idea represents one of my favorite parts of the formats of slideshows as a whole, the visual part. With slideshows, the visual aspect can be harnessed as a tool to engage the audience's retention of information to a whole other level. Apparently even back in 2003. This kind of data’s real application is a time capsule, to compare how much this format has improved more than 18 years later. Even then, most of the information still holds up and can be applied to modern-day situations.

Source 5. Next, I pursued an article that defined some rules on proper presentation skills. The article, “Learning oral presentation skills”, published in Journal of General Internal Medicine by Haber and Lingard, which focused on how students and professors communicate with oral presentations. This caught my attention as proper presentation skills are one half the information I plan to teach. Harber et al. wrote this article in 2001, although I believe it still presents interesting data and conclusions. When using slideshows to give presentations, it is best to present information regarding the topic while using slides as a tool. This dense research piece included “Twelve third-year medical students during their internal medicine clerkship and 14 teachers… One-hundred sixty hours of ethnographic observation, including 73 oral presentations on rounds. Discourse-based interviews of 8 students and 10 teachers,” (Haber et al.). Although this article focuses on students and professors who are physicians,, the overall data in this research is still valid to the goal I wish to achieve in this course. When considering the idea of how presentation skills are developed, this article claims it has a lot to do with the idea of rhetoric. They state that this concept is “social science which studies communication in terms of context and explores the action of language on knowledge, attitudes, and values,” (Haber et al.5). When applying rhetoric to a situation involving oral presentations, you must remain aware of the content’s context in your delivery. Considering the main results of this study, it concludes with the main idea that “students and teachers had different perceptions of the purpose of oral presentations,” (Haber et al.). They determined that teachers tended to be more contextual with the information they presented, while students were more contextual. This can apply to my project because the idea represents a solution in order to better present information and thoughts. According to this research, presenting it may be best to develop and consider the context of the information you are giving. One main quote I took away from this article was, “Students learn oral presentation by trial and error rather than through teaching of an explicit rhetorical model. This may delay development of effective communication skills and result in acquisition of unintended professional values. Teaching and learning of oral presentation skills may be improved by emphasizing that context determines content and by making explicit the tacit rules of presentation,” (Haber et al.). From past experiences, this is often what I have picked up. As I’ve noticed no student was ever taught the proper way to create slideshows and importantly how effectively present them. They operate through trial and error, whereas teaching proper techniques may lead to a better understanding overall. This concept is why I believe my goal for this course holds value in terms of creating change in a community. I believe the information put forth in this source can certainly aid me in developing a better way of giving and teaching oral communication.

Source 6. When looking for sources, I needed something that connected the overall format of slideshows and their use in education. The article, “Patterns of PowerPoint Use in Higher Education: a Comparison between the Natural, Medical, and Social Sciences”, published in Innovative Higher Education, by Herting et al. presents a multitude of dense information discussing the place of slideshows in education. This study “was completed by 106 faculty members from different disciplines. The results suggest the existence of different patterns in the use of PowerPoint,” (Herting et al.). Although this article focuses on how slideshows are used in specific kinds of studies, I believe the information gathered is useful to my goal in this course. Within figure 1 of this article, Herting et al. present a chart that lists the percentage compared to different activities involved in learning, studying, reflection, memory, and examples. With each activity, there are four various methods/senses used in learning, Textual, Visual, Auxiliary, and Mixed. These four are then weighted on their effectiveness in each learning activity. In particular, the study gives better context to the uses of PowerPoint and how various learning activities are affected by its use. Although this demonstrates that the format of slideshows is not the best in every scenario, other methods may be better. This is something important that must be considered when wanting to use a specific format in terms of sharing or teaching information. An important quote from the conclusion is, “While we know that the text-image combination seems to be better for critical learning, it is not very clear if this combination works equally well in all contexts,” (Herting et al.). This solidifies the idea that slideshow presentations are not the ultimate formation in all situations, though it has a strong place in some. This article holds a wealth of information, some of which applies to my goal by displaying the importance of knowing and demonstrating slideshows as a format.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the research I was able to conduct has certainly allowed me to understand the material for my goal to a better degree. These six sources I acquired represented and gave different informative information regarding my ambition for this course. The first source provided a multitude of information about improving slideshows using knowledge of the mind that can certainly be used in the future to achieve my goal. The second helps validate the effectiveness of my plan to use Google Slides, which is already strongly established, to teach my community how to create proper slideshows. Sources three & four gave a perspective from the past, as well as relevant information regarding slideshows to produce a better project. Source five can help me with many potential solutions for better oral communication and its development, which is the main half of slideshow presentations. The sixth source suggested the importance of knowing the pros and cons of slideshow presentations as a format. Importantly, the first source “Using Cognitive Load Theory to Improve the Use of Slideshow Presentations and Support a More Efficient Learning Process”, source three “PowerPoint Is Evil”, and source four “Learning to Love Powerpoint” are all connected in a certain way. All of these sources display the grave importance of considering proper slide design and give their own takes on how to implement this better design. These three particular sources and the fifth source “Learning oral presentation skills” are connected as well. These sources represent the two major functions of slideshow presentations, which are the slideshow mechanism itself and the aspect of presenting those slideshows. Then, source two “Learning using the google slides mobile Application and its impact on attitude, Motivation and achievement for industrial Design subjects in the tve” and source six “Patterns of PowerPoint Use in Higher Education: a Comparison between the Natural, Medical, and Social Sciences” hold a particular connection. These two sources represent particular ways slideshow presentations are used and implemented in different scenarios. Overall, I am satisfied with the number of sources I found and the information presented within them. Upon further review and integration, I will certainly be able to use these sources to improve my goal for this course.

Works Cited

F., Ahmad M., et al. “Learning Using the Google Slides Mobile Application and Its Impact on ..." Journal of University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, 11 Nov. 2020, https://jusst.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/LEARNING-USING-THE-GOOGLE-SLIDES-MOBILE-APPLICATION-mAND-ITS-IMPACT-ON-ATTITUDE-MOTIVATION-AND-ACHIEVEMENT-FOR-INDUSTRIAL-DESIGN-SUBJECTS-IN-THE-TVE.pdf.

Haber, R.J., Lingard, L.A. “Learning oral presentation skills.” Journal of General Internal Medicine, May, 2001, https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-1497.2001.00233.x

Herting, Chávez, et al. “Patterns of PowerPoint Use in Higher Education: a Comparison between the Natural, Medical, and Social Sciences.” Journal of Innovative Higher Education, 28 Nov. 2020, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-019-09488-4

Tufte, Edward. “PowerPoint Is Evil.” Wired, Conde Nast, 1 Sept. 2003, https://www.wired.com/2003/09/ppt2/.

Shibli, Dom. “Using Cognitive Load Theory to Improve the Use of Slideshow Presentations and Support a More Efficient Learning Process.” Blended Learning In Practice, 2019, https://www.herts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/246691/BLiP-Spring-2019-Final-Published.pdf#page=50.

Staff, Wired. “Learning to Love Powerpoint.” Wired, Conde Nast, 1 Sept. 2003, https://www.wired.com/2003/09/ppt1/.