SOFTENG 702 Literature Review: Presentation Software Raoul D’Cunha ID: 1845734 UPI: rdcu001 ABSTRACT of this software has any impact on the learning ability of the The rising popularity of computers have resulted in the devel- audience. The context of a religious sermon was used to con- duct an evaluative study on this topic. opment of a multitude of tools that aim to simplify complex task to the end users. Delivering effective presentations is one [2] developed two Hypothesises that were used to evaluate of the tasks faced by millions of users worldwide, for a wide the problem. The first one proposed that Individuals will have variety of scenarios ranging from education to business. Mi- greater recall of content of PowerPoint slides that incorporate crosoft PowerPoint is a widely used presentation tool that is visual images along with words than for PowerPoint presen- used by people in a wide variety of fields to create presen- tations that use only visual images or only words. The sec- tations. The rising popularity and market dominance of the ond Hypothesis proposed the use of PowerPoint visual graph- Microsoft Office suite has helped boost the popularity and ics will have no effect on individual recall of general sermon use of this tool in recent years. content; subjects will not demonstrate greater recall of gen- eral information from sermons that incorporate PowerPoint The widespread use of PowerPoint however raises multiples graphics than from those sermons that do not make use of questions regarding its use and abuse. This literature review such support. will aim to address two of the main ones. The first issue that will be addressed will be about how to increase the effec- The study tested the retention and recall of the weekly ser- tiveness of a PowerPoint presentation. This review will also mons delivered by the pastor by quizzing the subjects with look at other alternative to PowerPoint which aim to provide the help of a questionnaire a week a week after the deliv- a dynamic and nonlinear way of creating and delivering pre- ery of each sermon. The study examined the effectiveness of sentations. delivering a PowerPoint presentation containing only words to presentations that contained only visual images and also INTRODUCTION with presentations containing both words and images. A con- Microsoft PowerPoint is a widely used presentation tool that trol group was also formed and the participants of this group is used by people in a wide variety of fields to create presenta- were subjected to presentations without the use of PowerPoint tions. PowerPoint was developed as a replacement for tradi- Software. The questionnaires tested the recall of the content tional overhead and 35mm slides by a Silicon Valley startup of the slides and of general sermon information on the sub- named Forethought. This startup was then acquired by Mi- jects. crosoft who bundled the tool in their popular Microsoft Office suite. The results of the study provide an interesting perspective on the effectiveness of PowerPoint presentations. The re- The rising popularity and market dominance of the Microsoft searchers concluded PowerPoint presentation form had an Office suite has helped boost the popularity and use of this insubstantial effect of the recall of information from the tool in recent years. PowerPoint has become so widespread sermons. Subjects participating in text only presentations and commonplace, that the term PowerPoint has become syn- demonstrated recall of seminar information when compared onymous with presentations. The widespread use of Pow- to subjects participation in visual images only and text and erPoint presentations however raise multiple questions and visual images presentations. An important finding from this issues mainly about how PowerPoint presentations can be study was the fact that there was no increase in the recall of made more effective (described in [2], [6] and [4]) and also the PowerPoint subjects when compared to the control group. about suitable alternatives to PowerPoint, which break away Poorly formatted PowerPoint presentations caused a decline from its linear and static nature to produce compelling non- in the recall of the subjects. However, positive PowerPoint linear and dynamic presentations( described in [5], [1] and formats had no effect. [3]). The limitations of this study primarily stem from the context IS THERE POWER IN POWERPOINT? A FIELD TEST OF of the study. There is usually very little motivation for the THE EFFICACY OF POWERPOINT ON MEMORY AND RE- audience to remember the contents of a Presentation in a reli- gious sermon setting. Hence these findings cannot be applied CALL OF RELIGIOUS SERMONS to scenarios where the subjects are motivated to focus and re- [2] evaluates the effectiveness of PowerPoint presentations in member the presentation, such as in a classroom setting. In a non-classroom field setting and determines whether the use a classroom scenario, the students usually take down notes to supplement their learning, and it would be useful to evaluate
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