USING VISUAL AIDS IN CLASSROOM

Things To Do:

• Avoid clip art and extraneous graphics that have nothing to do with the visual message. Remember, visual aids are meant to be educational, not entertaining in a classroom condition.
• Check and double-check for spelling and grammatical errors.  
• Make letters and graphics LARGE enough for everyone in the audience to understand. Even those in the back of the room will need to appreciate your visual  aid.
•  Be sure that information on the presentational aid can be understood and comprehended by your audience in 10-20 seconds.
• Keep presentational or visual aids covered until they are needed. Don’t let the visual aid detract from the speaker’s message.
• Practice with the equipment before your actual presentation.

Things To Aviod:

• If providing a handout or other material, avoid passing it out during the presentation. Your audience’s interest will shift immediately from YOU to the handout!
• If using pictures, photos, etc., be sure they are LARGE enough for everyone to see from their seats. Blow them up or use the overhead transparency machine. NEVER pass pictures around the audience.
• Don’t mix fonts or use too many colours.
• Talk to the audience, not the presentational aid.

Sources:http://www.clark.edu/Library/PDF/presentations.pdf

Visual Aids In Business

Visual aids are important in business reports. They make reports more exciting and interesting to read. Visual aids can improve the professional quality and readability of business documents. The book Successful Writing at Work lists these reasons for using graphics.
Visuals arouse reader immediate interest:Because many readers are visually oriented, visuals unlock doors of meaning. Readers who place great emphasis on visual thinking will pay special attention to the visuals. Visuals catch the reader’s eye quickly by setting important information apart and by giving them relief from looking at sentences and paragraphs. Because of their size, shape, colour and arrangement, visuals are dramatic and maintain reader interest.
Visuals increase reader understanding by simplifying concepts: A visual shows ideas whereas a verbal description only tells them. Visuals are especially important and helpful if you have to explain a technical process to a nonspecialist audience. Moreover, visuals can simplify densely packed statistical data, making a complex set of numbers easier to comprehend. Visuals help readers see percentages, trends, comparisons and contrasts
Visuals are especially important for non-native English speaking and multicultural audiences:
Visuals speak a universal language and so can readily be understood. Because visuals pose fewer problems in interpretation, they can help reduce ambiguities and misunderstanding.
Visuals condense and summarize a large quantity of information into a relatively small space:The saying, "A picture says a thousand words," is true. Enormous amounts of statistical or financial data, over many weeks, months, and even years, can be incorporated concisely into one compact visual. A visual also results in streamlined messages by saving words. It can record data in far less space than it would take to describe these facts in words alone.

Sources:
http://emedia.leeward.hawaii.edu/hurley/modules/mod4/4_docs/visual_aids.pdf

Designing Visual Aids

Effective visuals help your audience understand and remember the key points of your presentation. Overhead projectors and slides, blackboards, handouts, and computer programs like PowerPoint can greatly enhance your message if they are used effectively. The following tips will help you design effective visual aids.

Make each visual stand on its own
Each visual needs to be clear and understandable on its own. To help you accomplish this, consider using the following tips:
-Limit each slide to only one topic, and give it a relevant title
-State sources where appropriate – for statistics, figures, pictures, etc.
-Number headings to clearly illustrate where you are in your presentation
-Know your audience: avoid abbreviations and jargon unfamiliar to them

Achieve balanced and consistent layouts
Balance and consistency are important when creating a presentation package. While your visuals should be able to stand alone, they also need to fit together into a coherent whole. The following tips should help:
-Keep type sizes and fonts consistent on all visuals in a presentation
-Format headings consistently (e.g., use bold text and increased font size)
-Spread the information out so that it fills the screen
-Choose contrasting colours (e.g., dark background with light lettering)

Make visuals easy to read 
-If writing by hand on overhead slides, make your letters at least 1/2” (1.0 cm) high
-Avoid distracting, unnecessary graphics and excessively complex backgrounds
-Use clear, standard fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial, or Helvetica
 -Consider using boldface lettering to make text thicker

Sources:
http://cte.uwaterloo.ca/teaching_resources/tips/designing_visualaids.html

Using Visual Aids

There are effective and ineffective ways to use visual aids in presentations. Ineffective use is very common in both academia and industry. Good visuals used in the right way can help your audience stay attentive and retain information. The tips below will help you decide when and how to effectively use visual aids.

To make visuals effective,
use them to:

Reinforce the key components of your verbal message

Illustrate complex concepts that are difficult to visualize

Increase retention

Aid the audience’s comprehension

Focus the audience’s attention

Avoid using them to:

Limit interaction with your audience

Present simple ideas that are easily stated verbally

Serve as your cue cards

Impress your audience with overly detailed text, charts, or animations

Avoid information overload

Sources:
http://cte.uwaterloo.ca/teaching_resources/tips/using_visual_aids.html

Avoid Visual Distractions When Using Viisual Aids

Don't make your Visual Aids visual distractions.
Avoid the following visual aid blunders.

The Useless Image:
Images should be designed to please the mind as well as the eye of the viewer. If an image has no specific place or purpose in a presentation other than "it is pretty", it should probably be removed.

Chartjunk:
Closely related to the previous deadly sin, "chartjunk" is a phrase coined to identify confusing elements which really have no place on the image. Many presenters insist on having a glaring colored logo in the corner of every image. While a common element can add continuity to a presentation, blazing logos and distracting objects can detract from the message. And after all, isn't the message what it's all about?

Chartoons:
A first cousin to chartjunk, "chartoons" are overly cute attempts to make a presentation appear more professional by adding lots of distracting, tacky, aggravating symbols and such. These usually appear right after a presenter has discovered a clip art library.

Ransom Note Design:
Just because you have access to 35 fonts does not mean that you are required to use them. A single font throughout an entire presentation is usually quite sufficient. Use bold, italic, underline, quotations and/or color changes to emphasize or subdue key points or words.

Calico or Crazy Quilt Graphics:Keep the colors to a minimum. A single background color throughout a presentation lends an air of continuity. You can separate broad sections of a presentation by changing background colors, but keep the changes to a minimum. Unless your purpose is to shock or grab serious attention, try to keep all background colors within the same color family

Sources:

http://www.hawaii.edu/mauispeech/html/visualdistractions.html

 

Pros and Cons Of Types Of Visual Aid Used When Presenting

Transparencies

Pros:

     Easy to (a) prepare, (b) update and

        maintain, (c) locate reliable equipment

        and (d)limit information shown at one

        time.

Cons:

         Appear to some as an outdated  

         presentation method. Hold speaker

         captive to the machine.

Multimedia Slides

Pros:

       Create professional appearance with 
         colour, art, graphics, and font options. 
         Easy to use and transport via e-mail
         attachment, removable storage media 
         or web download.

Cons:
       Present potential incompatibility issues. Re-
       quire costly projection equipment and 
       practises for smooth delivery. Tempt user to
       include razzle-dezzle features that may fail to
       add value. 

Flip Charts 

Pros:

      Provide inexpensive option available at most sites.

        Easy to (a) create,(b) modify on spot, (c) record

        commentsfrom the audience, and (d) combine with

        more high-tech visuals same presentation.

Cons:
     Require graphics talent. Difficult for larger audiences to see.

       Prepared flip charts are cumbersome to transport and easily              

       worn with use.

Props

 Pros:

      Offer a realistic reinforcement of

        message content.  Increase audience  

        participation with close observation. 

  

Cons:

        Lead to extra work and expense in  

          transporting and  replacing worn

          objects. Limited use with larger 

          audiences.

Handouts

Pros:  

        Encourage audience participation. Easy 

        to maintain  and update. Enhance recall     

        because audience keeps reference

        material.

     

Cons:

     Increase risk of unauthorised duplication of 

      speaker’s materials. Can be difficult to 

      transport.  May cause speaker to lose

      audience’s attention.

  Video

Pros:

        Gives an accurate representation

           of the content.

           Strong indication of forethought and preparation.

Cons:

          Creates potential for compatibility issues  to

          computer video formats.

          Expensive to create and update.

Sources:
Business Comunication,
Process and Product,
Sixth Canadian Edition.

Mary Ellen Guffey,
Kathy Rhodes,
Patricia Rogin.
Chapter 14,  Page 496
http://www.cengage.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20b&product_isbn_issn=0176501592&template=NELSTU

  

              

Visual Aid

Visual aid is an instructional aid, such as a poster, scale model, handouts, overhead transparencies, multimedia slide, video, etc. that presents information visually.

Visual aids help's us with our presentation make things happen. Visual aids help us reach our objectives by providing emphasis to whatever is being said. Clear pictures multiply the audience's level of understanding of the material presented, and they also help us to  reinforce our message, clarify points, and create excitement.

Visual aids involves  our audience and require a change from one activity to another: from hearing to seeing. When you use visual aids, their use tends to encourage gestures and movement on your part. This extra movement reinforces the control that you, the speaker, need over the presentation. The use of visual aids, then, are mutually beneficial to the audience and you.

Visual aids add impact and interest to a presentation. They enable us to appeal to more than one sense at the same time, thereby increasing the audience's understanding and retention level. With pictures, the concepts or ideas you present are no longer simply words - but words plus images. The chart below cites the effectiveness of visual aids on audience retention.

Sources:

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company http://www.thefreedictionary.com/visual+aid

http://www.osha.gov/doc/outreachtraining/htmlfiles/traintec.html