How to Deliver Effective PowerPoint Lectures
The Microsoft PowerPoint software includes templates to have you creating a presentation in minutes, but the actual slideshow can only get you so far. As soon as you're in front of the audience you created the presentation for, you'll need to pay attention to a number of factors to keep them engaged in your lecture materials. A PowerPoint presentation is an ideal way to make a point, but doing so effectively takes slightly more than just adding text boxes to a virtual slide.
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Instructions
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Design the actual PowerPoint presentation with your audience in mind. Ask ahead of time how much time you have to give the lecture because you don't want to rush through the slides or end too early.
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Start the presentation with a slide outlining what the audience can expect, such as a summary of the agenda to be presented and the key points of the slideshow.
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Use the keyboard or an autoclicker to deliver the presentation instead of setting the slides to scroll automatically. This allows you to stop and lecture on a specific slide for as long as required, rather than having to pace yourself and possibly cut off an audience question or statement.
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Refer to the text on the slides as a jumping off point for your lecture. Do not stand, with your back to the audience and your head facing the screen, and read verbatim from the PowerPoint slides. The audience could do that themselves. The slides should be short bullet points or small paragraphs upon which you will elaborate.
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Add special effects with an extremely light touch. Although PowerPoint comes with animations and transitions that make slides and text boxes jump, fade and fizzle, these things are unnecessary and distracting in most lectures. Let your text speak for itself.
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Insert visual aids to help the audience better picture what you're trying to lecture them about. For example, use charts and graphs when lecturing about financial patterns, and photographs when describing experiments and location-specific information. Although PowerPoint does come with a large collection of in-program clip art, use it sparingly. Most clip art is cartoonish and jokey and won't benefit your presentation or the audience that much. Another option is to insert a video clip, such as a product demonstration.
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Leave enough time at the end of the lecture for a question-and-answer period. You may even want to build in a Questions? slide as the last slide within the presentation itself. If attendees ask questions about specific slides, scroll back through the slide deck to refer to the information.
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