Self-Contained Multimedia Activity: Creating a PowerPoint Presentation (No additional research required)

You are a consultant who has been hired to improve the effectiveness of corporate trainers. These trainers frequently make presentations to employees on topics such as conflict management, teamwork, time management, problem solving, performance appraisals, and employment interviewing. Your goal is to teach these trainers how to make better presentations.

Your Task. Create six visually appealing slides.* Base the slides on the following content, which will be spoken during the presentation titled Effective Employee Training. The comments shown here are only a portion of a longer presentation.

Trainers have two options when they make presentations. The first option is to use one-way communication: the trainer basically dumps the information on the employees and leaves. The second option is to use a two-way audience involvement approach. The two-way approach can accomplish many purposes, such as connecting the trainer with the employees, reinforcing key points, increasing employees' retention rates, changing the pace, and adding variety. The two-way approach also encourages employees to get to know each other better. Because today's employees demand more than just a "talking head," trainers must engage their audiences by involving them in a dialogue.

When you include interactivity in your training sessions, choose approaches that suit your delivery style. Also, think about which options your employees would be likely to respond to most positively. Let's consider some interactivity approaches now. Realize, though, that these ideas are presented to help you get your creative juices flowing. After I present the list, we will think about situations in which these options might be effective. We will also brainstorm to come up with creative ideas we can add to this list.

· Ask employees to guess at statistics before revealing them.

· Ask an employee to share examples or experiences.

· Ask a volunteer to help you demonstrate something.

· Ask the audience to complete a questionnaire or worksheet.

· Ask the audience to brainstorm or list something as fast as possible.

· Ask a variety of question types to achieve different purposes.

· Invite the audience to work through a process or examine an object.

· Survey the audience.

· Pause to let the audience members read something to themselves.

· Divide the audience into small groups to discuss an issue.