Susan,

Two thoughts, that you actually may have already tried:

How about actually showing them the difference. Take a part of a presentation and show them what it could look--if they took some time to redesign the presentations.

Or, ask them to sit in on a session that has what you would consider a clean presentation--show them the difference.

I would also suggest that just changing the layout of a powerpoint won't have a huge impact on the training itself. --My company is very powerpoint centric for training, and I am trying to change that attitude, but the thought of our director is that if it's not in powerpoint, it's not training--maybe you're fighting the same type of battle, but I would caution about getting too wrapped up in just fixing the powerpoints.

Most of the rules about PowerPoints were developed when we just used overheads and did everything manually. Many relate to lecturing off a PowerPoint.

It's more important that what you are doing with the PowerPoint fits how you are doing your instruction. For example, if you want to project a discussion document I think that's okay especially if all the participants have a copy.

quote:

It's more important that what you are doing with the PowerPoint fits how you are doing your instruction.

An excelnt point and one that is all too ofen ovelookd.

PowerPoint or simlar software is only one of many tools in the trainer toolkit.

Jack

Perhaps you're looking at the surface of the problem, and not the underlying cause.

What I mean by that is, this person wants to do it there way. Okay, fine. But it's fairly clear that they don't understand the advantages of progressively displaying information for the sake of their students. They don't understand that information displayed too early is a distraction and a hinderance to training rather than - well, whatever they think it is. My guess, is it's just easier for them as a presenter to only have to interact with the slide once, rather than several times to present the information in bite sized pieces.

My suggestion is to look into providing this person some insight into adult learning theory. Those who understand this subject well, are easily convinced of what you are attempting to do with the PP slides, and see the benefit of making it easy for the students, not for the presenter.

Just my two cents.

If I can help, poke the link below and contact me.

Regards and best of luck,

Del Laughery
President, Instructional Dynamics

I completely agree with Del on this one. We are going through the same type of resistance (although a bit further ahead in the process) and what has done wonder is to teach the SME basic instructional design as well as put them through train-the-trainer sessions to give them tools to diversify their trainings.

Another nail on which I keep hammering is influencing managers and up about the use of PowerPoint as a training tool: it is not the only one. Again, “training” the management team about training is of great help as it trickles back down the “food chain” and eventually ends up at the SME level.