PowerPoint presentations are typically designed to complement spoken instruction and can be an effective tool to support learning in the face-to-face classroom. However, uploading a PowerPoint file to your course to serve as a lecture and the main source of module content is not recommended since it will not provide the context and information students need when reading the presentation on their own. Providing a PowerPoint as a supplementary resource is fine as long as you ensure that it is accessible to students.

Strategies and tools are provided below to help you think creatively about how you might present your PowerPoint content in another format that will support student learning in your digital learning course. You may want to consider using a combination of the options provided below.

Preferred Delivery Method - Canvas Pages

Watch the short video below (1:38) to learn about the benefits of using Pages to present content to students.

Options to Adapt Content from a PowerPoint

Convert your PowerPoint to a Page

You may import your PowerPoint content directly into a Page in your course and then re-organize and format the content to support student learning and ensure accessibility. If your institution has access to Import DOCX or HTML Tool (formerly known as ZAPT) it can also be helpful.

Create Video or Audio Mini-Lectures

Divide your lecture into smaller segments or chunks, and record multiple mini-lectures and embed them on a Page in your course. Did you know that student's attention span for a video is, at most, six (6) minutes (Guo, Kim, & Rubin, 2014)? Recording full lectures and posting them in your online course is not advised. Unless your recorded lecture is action-packed, students will most likely will not watch the entire video.

A few of the different options for you to record a video or audio mini-lecture are provided below:

Screen Recording

Use screen recording software to record a video that combines your PowerPoint slides, your webcam (optional), and your voice. Before you start using a screen recording software, make sure it will allow you to export it and/or share it in an accessible format for students.

Note about using Zoom to create screen recordings:

Zoom recordings cannot be embedded into your course. You can only link to these videos.
Zoom recordings are deleted one year after creation. Although you may have the option to extend this timeframe don't risk losing any recordings you created!

Export Narrated PowerPoint as a Video

Record audio in PowerPoint and then export the presentation as a video. Uploading a PowerPoint file (e.g., .pptx) with embedded audio clips to your course may cause access issues for students and is not recommended. Make sure you upload your script as a transcript for this recording.

Note for Mac Users: Check to make sure you have access to this feature based on the version of PowerPoint you are using.