The Instructor as Stagehand

Abstract

In this article, the authors present the results of a survey of students at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands concerning the students’ opinions about how PowerPoint should be used in university lectures. The most important outcome of the survey is that a vast majority of the respondents prefer a modest layout. Most students dislike sounds and animations in a slide show. Another outcome, however, is that audiences may be inclined to evaluate as positive any feature they were exposed to. Still, this apparent compliance does not mean that speakers can do whatever they like. Audience preferences do affect their evaluation of a lecture, and thus instructors should, as always, keep their audience in mind when they choose to use PowerPoint.