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Slidecasting

• Why you are doing this.• About slidecasting.• Creating your slidecast.

English 317: Technical Writing

© 2015 Karen L. Thompson Department of English University of Idaho

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Why you are doing this.• So, by now, you should know that all things

“casting” are 21st century workplace communication products.

• Slidecasts combine audio with a slideshow that has been created using software such as PowerPoint.

• You can pull up a slideshow and do a screencast to add audio, but there are easier ways. In bblearn, you will see a list of free slidecasting tools.

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Slideware Presentations Can Be Hazardous to Audiences

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How often have you seen a presenter do this?

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Presentations are not documents.

• Audiences don’t want you to read to them.

• Audiences want you to engage them by creating an interesting presentation.

• Mixing the media in your slideshow helps to engage the audience.

– We all learn in different ways, so mix up the media and engage your audience through various senses. See how you can illustrate your points through photos, music, demos, and videos.

– Advice from Forbes magazine

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Have a Clear Purpose and Story• In this project, you are creating a short slidecast that

could be embedded on a web page.

• You may decide to repurpose some of the information from the extended technical definition or work only with the technical description or some combination of both. It's your choice.

• The slidecast cannot be longer than 3 minutes, and it might be much shorter than this depending on what you want to do.

• Do create and deliver an interesting presentation by mixing audio with visuals to convey the content of your presentation. Mixing music or other media is optional.

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Creating and Delivering Your Mixed Media Slideware Presentation

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1. Avoid Templates – Design Your Own Slides

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2. If you use photos, pick ones that look like real people.

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3. If you use clip art, find interesting figures – avoid cartoonish clip art.

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4. Keep text to a minimum.

• Remember, you will be providing audio voice over, so you want to ILLUSTRATE the points you make with interesting visuals.

• The whole point is for the viewer to listen to you while watching visually interesting stuff that support what you are saying.

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5. Keep the Layout Simple.

Complex layouts like this one confuse readers because the layout is not in keeping with our usual eye movements. Notice how we cannot use the

usual eye movement in the complex slide because there is no clear starting point.

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6. To design for natural eye movement, place content in any one direction.

Use the content layouts in the slideware tool you are using to help you with layout. Apply the design principles you learned in the visual communication project such as alignment and proximity.

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7. Use a color palette.

Apply the principles of color theory you learned when designing your billboard or poster when choosing colors for your slides.

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8. Typography Tips

• Choose typefaces with conventional letter forms.

• Keep to two (one for the title of slides, and the other for the body). Test how two fonts look.

• Avoid trite correlations like using Papyrus because you are talking about Egypt.

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9. If you use animations, keep them simple.

• Appear: The object simply pops on the screen.

• Fade: The object fades in or out in a way that’s a bit slicker and more deliberate.

• Wipe: Imagine an invisible eraser wipes the object on or off of the slide.

• Don’t over do it, or your audience will feel like this guy.

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10. Audio Tips

• You will need to choose a tool to create the audio (see bblearn for some options).

• The challenge in doing the audio for slideware is to be certain you voice is in sync with the slides.

• You might want to do a few trial runs.