Module 4 Book: Designing PowerPoint Presentations for All

Redundancy Principle

People learn better from graphics and narration rather than from graphics, narration, and on-screen text. This means avoid adding text to a graphic that is narrated (Clark & Mayer, 2016, p. 131). This way, the visual channel is not overloaded with both graphic and printed word information to process.

For example, let's say a student is presented with the following slide that contains text, a graphic, and is being narrated by the instructor. Play the audio clip to hear an example of what is happening in the student's visual and verbal channels:

So, what's the takeaway message here? If you are narrating a slide that contains graphics and text, this may be too much information to comprehend since students can only focus on limited things at one time. Instead, consider the redundancy principle and thoughtfully consider what text to include on each slide (if any) and what content you will be narrating.

Now, the following slide has been redesigned to better consider the learning experience. Play the audio clip to hear an example of how a student may be processing the new slide design: 

Using Text Purposefully

Text-based information may be helpful for a variety of students, including English language learners. However, presenting text on a slide while talking about it may not be the most effective way to get that message across, according to the redundancy principle. So, what are other ways that this text-based information can be shared with students? Examples include:

• Provide students with brief lecture notes pre or post lecture

• Create close notes (a framework with guiding prompts that students fill in during the lecture)

• Share a version of the slides that contain text-based information in the slide notes for students to review before or after the lecture

This way, students will be focused on listening to you talk rather than scribbling down what’s on the slide.

However, if some slides do need to contain a large amount of text, provide students with focused time to read the text before verbally elaborating on it. This way, students aren’t trying to do two things at one time.