Episode 109: Content Overload: How to Avoid Overwhelming Your Students with Too Much Data with Dr. Echo Rivera

Description:

In episode 109 of the Lecture Breakers podcast, I’m excited to welcome Dr. Echo Rivera to the show again! Echo is on a mission to end death by PowerPoint. Echo is so awesome when it comes to creating engaging presentations and well-designed slides. She was a guest all the way back on episode 14 where she shattered all the myths about slide design and PowerPoint.

If you need to share data and/or present complex information to your students, you know it can get overwhelming if slide after slide after slide just shows more and more information. Echo calls this a “data dump” and it can lead to overwhelm, confusion, and frustration.

In this episode, Echo shares advice about how to avoid "data dumps" which can lead to overwhelm and frustration. She also discusses how to use the elements of storytelling to create a more engaging, well-designed presentation that breaks up all of your content and makes it more meaningful, relevant, memorable, and valuable to students.

Show Notes:

• Take Echo's free training to create more effective and engaging slides. Note: Echo updates this free training every year, and it will be closed temporarily in December 2021/January 2022 for these updates.
  
  Sign up for the waitlist now and you'll be the first to know when it opens!
  
  
• Listen to episode 14 of the Lecture Breakers podcast to learn more about creating effective and engaging presentations and slides.
  
  
• Learn more about how Echo uses dialog in her presentations. She explains:
  
  "I wanted to share an example of how I use dialogue in my slides to add some fun variety and storytelling elements into what would otherwise be a standard way of presenting information. Years ago, I was in a pickle. I needed to share the results of an evaluation and a key aspect of our finding was related to inter-rater reliability.
  
  I needed to explain inter-rater reliability to a group of people who had probably never heard that term before and weren't familiar with the concept, but I also couldn't take a long time to explain it due to limited time (and the need to focus on the results). So, I used some pics of my dogs and made them have a "dialogue" to represent inter-rater reliability."
  
  You can learn more about this and how the audience reacted in this blog post about 7 types of visuals you can use in a presentation.
  
  
  
  
  
• Here's another example of how Echo uses dialog in her slides. She explains:
  
  "In this example, it's one slide out of a section where I'm combatting the myth that visually engaging presentations are unprofessional and am making the argument that they are, in fact, more professional than the text-heavy status quo presentations we often see. I could have just used a standard text slide saying that, but instead I'm (a) showing it visually, while (b) making the images "speak" the words to make it seem more like a dialogue. A very simple thing that takes a second to design, but adds some fun to the topic."
  
  
  
  
  
• Check out Echo's website.
  
  
• Follow Echo on Twitter.
  
  
• Subscribe to Echo's YouTube channel.
  
  
• Connect with Echo on LinkedIn.
  
  
• Don't miss an episode! Be sure to subscribe to the show!

Transcript:

Some of these resources contain affiliate links (indicated by *). If you purchase a product or sign up for a program through one of these links, I receive a commission at no additional cost to you. I only endorse products and services that I think will be helpful for you and that I have used myself. Thank you for your support.