Development and impact of a simplified approach to didactic powerpoint presentations performed in a drug information course.

Introduction: To describe multimedia presentation development and assess impact of use on student and educator performance in a drug information course.

Methods: Slides were modified from bullet-point format to simplified pictorial format and three-slide handouts became outlined Word documents. Student performance, via exam scores and class average, and educator evaluation scores were compared between 2013 and 2014.

Results: Presentation revision resulted in a similar number of slides per presentation and smaller handout packets. Class average and final exam scores decreased (86.65% vs. 85.91%, p = 0.222; 84.88% vs. 84.08%, p = 0.053) while midterm exam scores improved (85.81% vs. 87.80%, p = 0.007). Assessment of teacher effectiveness (scale of 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree) rose from a median of 3-4 (p = 0.06).

Conclusion: Simplifying presentations provided anecdotal value but did not impact student performance nor student perception of educator effectiveness.