PowerPoint can be a very useful tool in an online course - if it's used properly. PowerPoint was designed to augment a live presentation. However, in many online courses, it's used as a substitute for Word documents; instructors simply upload a deck of PowerPoint slides and call it "good," without any explanation for the bullet points included in the slides.
Some things to keep in mind:
- When viewing a PowerPoint presentation, people can either read what is on the screen or listen to the audio. They cannot process both simultaneously. So, when adding audio, make sure people have time to read/view what is on the slide before you start giving explanations.
- PowerPoint is a tool for presenting visuals in a course. Visuals should support the presentation.
- Just posting text PowerPoint slides is not useful. If the PowerPoint has audio, the transcript of the audio along with posting of the slides is necessary for ADA compliance. If there is not audio, the PowerPoint should be converted to a regular text document.
