International and Intercultural Communication Commons^™

International Graduate Student Powerpoint Presentation Designs: A Reality Check, Alla Zareva

English Faculty Publications

The present study set out to examine what novice international graduate student presenters consider to be effective PowerPoint slide design practices and the extent to which these practices are in agreement with experts’ advice. The analysis focused on three main features of students’ PowerPoint presentations – organisation, style and typography. The general conclusion is that we can mostly rely on students’ intuitions concerning ‘relevance’ and ‘simplicity’ of PowerPoint presentation designs, but we should draw their attention to ‘consistency’, i.e., the systematic application of the organisation, style and typological features to their PowerPoint presentations.