PowerPoint animations
PowerPoint animations reduce retention, from ARS Technica:
Seems turns out to be the key word in that sentence, at least according to the study. The authors created a single PowerPoint presentation, and then eliminated the animations from it (on average, there were 3.4 animations per slide). They then recorded a single sound track and synched it to both presentations, so that the class would be identical except for the animations. Five weeks before the experiment, the class was given a quiz on the topic to provide a baseline assessment of knowledge on the topic (which was information security and privacy issues); the quiz was given a second time following the presentation.
Both presentations dramatically improved the students’ scores, which were a bit below 40 percent correct in the first administration of the quiz. But the animated presentation brought scores up to 71 percent, while the animation-free version got them to 82 percent. Of the nine questions, only one saw the animated group outperform their static peers.
This is facinating. I’ve been guilty of teaching using effects to reveal each bullet point. However, it seems like our brains like the data up front. In the area of PowerPoint, it appears that less equals more.