How to Design Effective Multimedia Presentations

Multimedia has now become the norm wherever presentation of content is to be made such as in lectures, conferences and corporate Continuing Education (CE) sessions. Currently, most universities and schools are equipped with technologies to teach using multimedia. To facilitate creation of multimedia presentations, computer application developers have produced tools with several powerful and user-friendly features. However, encouraging and training teachers to effectively use these tools is an important challenge facing educators. Evidence from several research studies indicates that teachers are not sufficiently using technology devices and computer applications in their teaching. It seems that mere accessibility of technologies and simplification of tools for user-friendly operation are not enough to guarantee creation of effective multimedia presentations. Indeed, a cursory review of existing presentation contents shows that most lecturers and presenters make their presentation with nothing more than words. Even among those presenters who are well experienced, most seem to be using different techniques in their presentations only to make it interesting and not necessarily effective. Since multimedia presentations have been widely accepted as a useful learning tool, it is important to investigate the factors that influence effectiveness of multimedia presentations. Accordingly, this paper attempts to explain some important characteristics of successful multimedia presentations and also provide a practical guidance for presenters in general and teachers in particular to design and create simple but effective presentations to enhance teaching and learning.

کلیدواژه ها:

Effective ، Presentation ، Teaching with technology ، Effective Multimedia