This isn’t to say that PowerPoint should never be used. There are some benefits to be had from it such as any easy way to keep notes from class to class, which is certainly a boon to professors with busy schedules. But there are some things that need to be done if a professor is going to be doing his lectures in a slide format, things that I’ve seen classes do, and things that I wish classes would do.

Firstly, make sure the slides are all available online before the class so students can get to them outside of class. PowerPoint, like I said, makes it very easy to stop paying attention, so if you’re going to use it, make sure your students can find the information if they missed it. Something that I’ve successfully seen used before is making them available online and handing out copies of the slides to students during lecture.

Make sure that the slides are easily interpretable when a student reads them. Posting a diagram on a slide is fine, but if I’m rereading slides for clarification and all I have is a picture without any sort of description, the slides are useless.

Secondly, pay attention to the students taking notes off the screen. Far too often, I’ve been taking notes on a topic, then been only two-thirds of the way through a slide when the professor moves on, and then I copy only part of the next slide, too. Soon it becomes futile to take notes. This problem could be partly remedied by making the slides available, but copying the material down while the professor is talking is useful in clarifying vague points in the slides.

Third, do examples in addition to using PowerPoint. Nothing compares to the old way of a professor talking while writing on the board. I still consider this optimal, but I know people are going to want to use PowerPoint, so my advice is to do at least part of the lecture on a board.