EDU221RubricTimeLimits

Considerations:
 * If you have 20 students and they each present for 10 minutes, that's 200 minutes of presentations = 3 hours and 20 minutes not counting transition time. Do you have 3 full 80-minute class periods to dedicate to presentations? And will your audience really pay attention to all the presentations for that long?
 * The "skirt length" analogy: The presentation should be "short enough to be interesting, long enough to cover everything."
 * Some research on the topic shared by a member of the Learning Technologies Forum Listserv:

From: James Lerman  Subject: Re: [Itforum] Optimal Number of Slides per Hour for Instructor Led Online Courses? Date: March 20, 2014 12:06:16 AM EDT

I recently came across research (perhaps on this listserv) that looked into the optimal length for videos in flipped classroom or other online learning situations. It was 6 minutes. Basically, after that length of time, attention begins to waver and learning impact plummets. It may not be appropriate to equate videos with slides 100%, but my guess is that even in a slide-based situation (or perhaps even moreso in a slide-based situation) there needs to be some sort of mental "rest" after the 6 minute mark before new information can be presented efficiently and effectively.

I think it is not a good measure to count the number of slides, but rather the "density" of the information presented. I'm a strong believer of no more than 1 idea per slide AND in using the visual approach advocated by Garr Reynolds in "Presentation Zen". It is much more effective, in Reynolds' and my view, to have more slides with less information on each, than to have fewer slides with more information per slide.

Slides should be viewed only as visual aids in support of the presentation. The presenter should be the main focus of the preso, whether in person or online. If there is important information or ideas to convey beyond the slide, this should be offered in handouts or similar materials such as pdfs that can be downloaded for reading either before or after the presentation -- certainly not during. Many have written, including Reynolds, that the mind cannot process written material and speech effectively in a simultaneous fashion, whereas pictures and words are easily processed at the same time. This is why vivid images help viewers to remember while dense text accompanied by the spoken word rarely leads to understanding or easy recall.

So, the way to use slides and narration is to "chunk" them in brief, 6-minute "bites" if you will. Then examples, problems, or other types of reinforcement should be offered before proceeding to the next chunk of information. I would suggest perhaps 5 to 7 of these chunks in an hour's time, divided by 4 to 6 reinforcements. Sandwiched around the chunks and reinforcements should be advance organizers in the beginning and summaries at the end.

Just my 2 cents.

Jim Lerman