slide:ology by Nancy Duarte

September 2, 2008

I strongly believe that good presentation design and understanding good eLearning design are two sides of the same coin. If you’re horrible at one, you’ll probably fail at the other. And if you have a firm grasp on one, you’ll probably excel at the other. Sure, there are some technical differences between the two delivery methods, but ultimately they are two similar means to the same end: conveying a message or imparting information to your viewer.

Personally, for eLearning development, I find more value in studying good presentation design than I do in studying good eLearning design. Why? Because there seem to be more folks out there sharing their knowledge about good presentation design than there are sharing good eLearning design. Which is slightly baffling to me, as we’ve all been exposed (overexposed?) to more than our fair share of horrible presentations and eLearning.

So why should presentations get all the meds when eLearning is just as ill?

I’ve mentioned Presentation Zen before, which is one of my favorite blogs (hence its spot in my blogroll). Garr Reynolds does a fantastic job in his efforts to purge the world of horrible visual presentations.

Nancy Duarte (slide:ology) and Cliff Atkinson (Beyond Bullet Points) deserve equal attention. Nancy’s new book slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations (which shares the name of her blog, which is also going on my blogroll), should be on the must-buy list of every eLearning developer.

Too many eLearning developers’ bookshelves are filled with thick tomes on adult learning theory and precious few (if any) on how to really visually communicate information to your learner. And that needs to change.

Posted in Presentations, eLearning Design