PowerPoint+Overload

The information on this page is based on the article: "Five Ways to Reduce PowerPoint Overload" by Cliff Atkinson and Richard Mayer (2004). You can access the article at [].

The segmentation principal encourages PowerPoint users to stay away from large pieces of information and break up the slides in smaller bits. It also encourages users to use an even pace to make sure that the PowerPoint flows smoothly and limit the number of slides you use. The research finding states that "People learn better when information is presented in bite-size segments" (Atkinson & Mayer, p. 11).

 Bad Example of Segmentation: This powerpoint is about Islam and the elements of the religion. It describes what the main beliefs and morals of the religion are, what kind of literature they use, and the '5 pillars' that are unique to Islam. While it does hold a lot of useful information, it is entirley too wordy and there is too much information on each slide. The introduction is simply a paragraph, and from there, the different slides have paragraphs or many bullet points to explain the topic. The author tried to use bullets to break up the information, which helps a little, but it is stilll not segmented enough. Though the goal is to limit how many slides you have, there are only 11 slides in this PowerPoint and the author would have been better off using a couple more slides and breaking up the information into "bite-sized segments". -MMT

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Good Example of Segmentation: I think that this powerpoint is a pretty good example of segmentation. This powerpoint was about different ways of prewriting strategies and how to use them effectively. It doesn't crowd everything onto one page. It also separates different sections onto different slides. It doesn't seem to crowd all of the information together. The information was written that could be easily understood by the audience. It would make it easy for a student to learn this information without having prior knowledge and exposure to the content. JKT

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Bad Example of Segmentation: I believe that this is a bad example for segmentaion. This powerpoint is filled with good information about WWII but all of its slides are too wordy and some are even out of place. Another problem with this slides are that some of them have wording that you can't see because of the background making it impossible to read. RLJ

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