Tips for making PowerPoint courseware and how to distribute it

In modern education, PowerPoint is frequently used when preparing courseware. A judicious use of this tool helps guarantee a high-quality class. However, if it is used ineffectively, it can obscure teaching content, turn a great lesson into computer chaos. So using PowerPoint courseware effectively in teaching is very important.

Below are some main tips of ensuring a well-designed PowerPoint courseware.
1. Set Your Goals
Before starting any PowerPoint courseware, ask yourself a question, “What is the goal of this lesson?” Goal is the key. You cannot well organize your class without figuring out the goal of a lesson. Many educators suggest using an outline to list clearly what skill or knowledge is being assessed. Brainstorm in mind, and then outline your ideas in PowerPoint.
And, the most important thing, be sure to weigh content heavily in the assessment tool, don’t let style to take precedence over content.

2. Style Matters
Avoid using too many animations, clip art, backgrounds and so on. But keep in mind that a judicious use of those tools can be effective. Below is a research on under which set of conditions people learn best.
• Hearing spoken text and looking at graphics – 91% more learning,
• Looking at graphics alone – 63% more,
• Reading printed text plus looking at graphics – 56% more,
• Listening to spoken text, reading text, and looking at graphics – 46% more,
• Hearing spoken text plus reading printed text – 32% more,
• Reading printed text alone – 12% more,
• Hearing spoken text alone – 7% more.

3. Other tips of creating teaching presentations• Include only 3-7 points per slide and 3-7 words per bullet
• One theme or background; one font set; one text animation effect
• Avoid using complete sentences, using clause instead
• Don’t show all points on a slide at once, otherwise, students will read ahead and stop listening to the presentation
• Challenge students to use pictures in stead of text, initiate talking with students and among students

According to different teaching contents and teaching goals, pay attention to the tips above, I presume doing a successful PowerPoint courseware is not a hard thing.

After creating your wonderful PowerPoint courseware, you may sometimes receive appeals from your students and colleagues to share it, or you want to make your PowerPoint courseware be available online. The next and more important thing is to present and distribute it in a proper way so that more people can benefit from it. In the following, I would like to introduce some ways to help you distribute your PowerPoint courseware well.
1. Directly e-mail your PowerPoint courseware to others
It is a way that many people could think. And it is also easy to operate, just attach the PPT file and then send it to others via e-mail. But in this way, the people who receive it should have a MS PowerPoint installed computer. Besides, the PPT file sent to others could be modified by others.

2. Burn your PowerPoint courseware to DVD/CD
As DVD discs are convenient for sharing. Burning your PowerPoint to DVD/CD will be ideal for distributing your courseware. You no longer need to worry if others have PowerPoint installed or not because DVD discs are supported by most computers and players. You can click here to learn more about how to burn PowerPoint to DVD, and create eye-catching DVD menus for your presentations.

3. Convert your PowerPoint to video/flash, then upload it to website or blog
You may have your own website or blog, upload your PowerPoint courseware to it can make your students and others see your PowerPoint courseware as long as they visit your web page. In order to do this, you will need to convert your PowerPoint to video or flash first. Tools recommended: Acoolsoft PPT2Video Converter, Wondershare PPT2Flash. You can click here to know more about the benefits of converting your PowerPoint to video.

4. Convert your PowerPoint courseware to PDF
PDF is accepted by many people as it is easy to open and can be printed easily. Convert your PowerPoint courseware to PDF is also a good idea to distribute your PowerPoint. You can click here to get the tool to convert your PowerPoint to PDF.

Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful teaching tool. It can greatly improve the efficiency of teaching. So take the advantages of PowerPoint courseware, make your class more interesting and let more people get your teaching ideas.