Lesson 1: The Circulatory System
This sample presentation covers the circulatory system as taught in some medical trade schools.
A Complex Topic
Teaching the circulatory system is a challenge for any educator, as it touches on and impacts every other bodily system on a cell-by-cell basis. This presentation uses plain language, dynamic visuals, and support for mnemonic-based learning to create a workable flow that eases the process of teaching and learning.
Bold Visuals
This sample presentation uses simplified graphics, bold color choices, and detailed explanations of each step of the blood cycle, highlighting important vocabulary terms and reinforcing them with appropriate images. Highlighted notes are used to remind learners of mnemonics, while chapter and topic information is readily visible without being the center of focus.
A Holistic Approach
Presentations like these are best paired with handouts for students and slide notes for instructors that touch on the overall material while highlighting any topics that should be reinforced or reiterated. When developing for other instructors, I utilize slide notes to keep the information on screen concise and manageable while still prompting instructors to address important supporting topics.
Lesson 2:
Order of Draw
The Order of Draw is a fundamental concept in Phlebotomy, as failing to follow the order when drawing blood samples will lead to laboratory errors. This is traditionally a sticking point for phlebotomy students who struggle with rote memorization.
Clean, Clinical Design
A bright background combined with noticeable color accents helps make this presentation stand out to medical students. Because the content is heavily linked with colors, each slide contains accents that help link these elements together. They can be seen in the background, subtitle, and information labels.
Modern Research for Timeless Results
Modern presentation design centers the information to be learned, contrasting with past styles that tend to highlight chapter titles and information headers.
The body of the text is larger than most other elements on the slide with headers remaining noticeable, but out of the way.
Brevity Over Protraction
Rather than covering slides in paragraphs of text, this presentation uses quick, brief notes designed to be expounded upon verbally, encouraging students to listen to instructor insights rather than passively taking notes off a screen.
This presentation helps organize complex information for the students without replacing the instructor.
Lesson 3: The Mechanics of
Dungeons & Dragons
Collaborative gaming has numerous benefits to adults and kids alike, but they can be difficult to learn due to expansive rules. Cheat sheets like this are helpful to learners who need quick access to information on the fly, reducing repetitive questions and letting role play experiences flow more naturally.
Detailed Information
Dungeons & Dragons is a complex game with textbooks worth of rules, examples, and mechanics. These specially-crafted cheat sheets are built with that complexity in mind, dividing up facts into broad categories for quick and easy searching.
Dynamic Design
These handouts use bold colors that help differentiate sections, draw the eye, and make the handout easy to identify when shuffled in with a stack of paper, irrespective of whether a student or instructor prefers the light or dark options.
Learning as a Manageable Challenge
Students need to be challenged – the educational process isn’t intended to be easy. Students learn through adversity and remember more from failure than from success. Thus, educational materials shouldn’t hold the learners’ hands, but shouldn’t obfuscate either. Instructional Design is all about student outcomes and setting learners up for success.