Powerpoint for Panopto

Paired with Panopto, PowerPoint can be a powerful tool in your remote teaching toolbox. Creating a presentation that works well with Panopto demands attention to two things: the formatting of your PowerPoint (or Keynote) slides and the composition of the content.

Color and Contrast

For reasons of accessibility and the range of devices that might be used to view your Panopto presentation, using a high contrast color scheme and judicious use of background images and colors to maintain high contrast is important.

Fonts

It is quite likely that some students will be viewing your presentation on smaller devices, including phones. So use non-ornamental fonts at 24pts or larger.

Images

Images—photos, illustrations, infographics, charts, graphs, concept maps, etc.—facilitate engagement and convey complex topics concisely. To keep images useful on smaller devices, they should be large enough to use at least 1/2 of the slide area. And you don’t need to explain images on the slide, that is your job with your audio.

Road Maps

Provide students with an overview of your presentation at the beginning, but resist the temptation to meander into topics when presenting the overview!

Use Slide Titles

Panopto uses your slide titles the entries in the list of bookmarks presented to students to navigate through your presentation. If your slide doesn’t have text that is designated as a title, its entry will be blank. An easy way to check this is to view your presentation in Outline View and verify that each slide has title. If you don’t see one, here are instructions for titling slides in PowerPoint Links to an external site..

Topics, Chapters, Emphasis

Use slides to indicate major topics, chapters, units, or to provide emphasis for essential points. This is not just conducive to a more coherent presentation, but Panopto automatically provides bookmarks to each slide for easy navigation, which makes these simple slides even more valuable!

Lists, Columns and Formatting

Make use of lists, columns and other formatting features to make slides more understandable as you present. Variety helps keep students engaged and naturally assists in “chunking” ideas in a way suitable for your lecture.

Slides are Not Documents

The 24pt or larger guideline for fonts can seem limiting. When it does, consider how you are providing information. The point of using slides is to provide waypoint for navigation, emphasis on important points, and to guide the audio lecture. They are not meant to replace sharing documents and expanded information in your class site. If you find yourself chafing at the restriction because you want more text on your slide, relocate that to your supporting modules, pages and documents.

Contacts and Links

It is extremely useful for students to provide a reminder of where they can get more information (usually pointing back to Canvas) and how to contact you, at least through email and office hours. These can be generic pointers, making the presentation useful in multiple or successive classes.