The Continuing Education Committee reviews all PDC evaluations and comments, the top and bottom twenty rated courses are reviewed for common traits – good and bad. The most common suggestions are listed below. These suggestions are intended to assist you and insure a quality and effective PDC.

Commercialism

PDCs are educational. Instructors are not permitted to sell, promote/display, or advertise services, products, materials, books, tapes, etc. Presentations or handouts that suggest commercialism are not acceptable. Use caution to ensure that examples do not resemble or sound like trade names, i.e., “ABC Company.” Do not use company logos in printed handout materials.

If you possess the content copyright, please place organization name and the copyright notice on the first page of the presentation and the handout only. If you are using other’s copyright content, you must include copyright permission use with your submitted handouts.

Conducting the Course and Content

• Arrive before the course begins to become familiar with the room, lighting and audiovisual equipment. Introduce yourself to the monitor who is there to assist you and the participants.
• Provide the monitor with one complete set of all course materials and inform them of any questions/concerns related to the operation of equipment, lights, handouts, support materials, etc.
• Start your PDC with administrative announcements including those of the monitor.
• Stated course description and learning level should match the delivered PDC.
• Review/discuss
  
  • course outcomes at both the beginning and end of the PDC
  • indicate what will/will not be covered
  • adhere to the schedule and agenda.
• Provide a reference and resource list; make certain all URLs are current and correct.
• If you:
  
  • introduce members of the audience; be very brief so as not to lose instruction time.
  • solicit a list of learning outcomes, questions, issues, etc. from students at the beginning of the class, be sure to allow time for review and wrap up at the end of the course
  • break into small groups, consisting of eight or less students, be sure instructions are clearly understood before breaking into the groups
• Incorporate demonstrations, hands-on exercises, case studies, and relevant practical information as frequently as possible.
• Room sets and load in/load out requirements must be coordinated with AIHA staff in advance.

Presentation Tips

• Always face the audience and speak in a clear, strong voice.
• An informal conversational style is the most effective and comfortable style for delivery.
• Avoid jargon, highly specialized vocabulary, and abbreviations (define all acronyms).
• Do NOT read the presentation word for word.
• Repeat student’s questions for all to hear before answering.
• Provide appropriate tie-ins between speakers. PDC’s are not a series of unconnected speakers.

PowerPoint Slides – Instructors are required to provide personal laptops

• Keep style and spacing consistent.
• Use a plain font such as Arial or Times Roman in a minimum of 18-point type;
• Number all slides.
• Follow the ‘light on dark’ rule.
  
  • Light colors such as white/yellow should be used for text (never use red/blue/green).
  • Dark colors such as black or blue should be used as a background color.
  • Avoid background graphics.
• Keep slides simple, limit each slide to
  
  • uncomplicated tables or graphs, use a series of slides to expand a single point
  • one idea with a maximum of five or six lines, double-spaced
  • three bullets per slide for effect,
• Plan for margins facilitating participant note taking.
• Produce all slides in the same direction, all either landscape or portrait (horizontally or vertically).
• Update all slide images – avoid dated pictures or images which look out of date.

Innovative Learning Aids

Offer participants:

• New tools and job skills they can implement immediately.
• Creative thought process and new ideas.
• Pre- and post-conference inter-activity with real world, on the job, applications.
• Reading materials and/or surveys in advance to prepare participants by using innovative delivery methods, i.e. blogs, electronic handouts, listserv postings etc.

Preparing Handouts

• Handouts should not be excessive; they should only include materials used by participants during the PDC. All other pre-read and reference documents should be distributed electronically.
• Instructors must obtain permission for any copyrighted materials – regardless of format.
• The first pages of the handout should contain:
  
  • the course agenda
  • instructor(s): names, contact information and biography(ies)
  • A table of contents and glossary for unfamiliar terms.
• ALL slides presented must be included in handouts and should follow the order of the PDC
• Handouts will be printed in “pure” black and white. Pictures and images will print grayscale; insure a good contrast in all images and/or graphics. Test print a “pure black and white” version to ensure all graphic images appear correctly.

Printing Handouts

If you have NOT chosen to provide your handout electronically or submitted your handout to be printed in advance you will be responsible for printing appropriate quantities and all associated costs.

On-site reproduction capabilities are limited and often cannot meet short deadlines or desired quality. Please keep the following in mind when printing your materials:

• Addendums/late breaking information, articles, tables, etc. can be provided electronically.
• Content may be made available electronically
• Slides should be printed no more than three to a page (AIHce standard is two per page)
• Pages should be double-sided and if possible printed on recycled paper
• Materials must be presentable; avoid smudged, hard to read pages.
• Number all pages consecutively, with no number gaps or omissions.
• Include the PDC course number in the footer.

Members of the Communications and Training Methods Committee have offered their assistance to any PDC instructor who may wish to improve their presentation skills.
See AIHA staff for details.