Jeff Tunney is a Learning Specialist in the NVU Center for Teaching and Learning. The following appeared as a weekly “teaching tip” that Jeff sent to NVU faculty. More teaching tips can be found on the NVU CTL website.
Many instructors have relied on PowerPoint’s topic/sub-topic design for years as Microsoft’s templates continued to be offered in this format. When PowerPoint was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it mimicked the existing use of transparencies and overhead projectors, which made sense at the time. It was innovative in terms of the technology utilized, but not in its approach to learning.
The assertion-evidence concept was developed by Michael Alley at Penn State and the information in the following video and website provide an explanation of the weaknesses present in typical presentations and templates and the benefits of his model.
This alternative video from the University of Dallas also contains some valuable information:
At a basic level, assertion-evidence, as explained in the guide below, “…is a style of presentation in which a sentence headline states the main message of the slide—this is the “assertion” part. The assertion is then supported with visual evidence—a photograph, chart, diagram, or video clip.”
This approach might not be for everyone or applicable to all subject matter, but it is a viable alternative to the topic-subtopic approach that has been the default format for many years. And, for instructors who are interested in adopting this design, Microsoft released an assertion-evidence template for technical presentations in April 2022, which is available at:
https://templates.office.com/en-us/assertion-evidence-presentation-tm33940113
