Error identification in presentation slides

Information systems professionals are frequently called upon to make presentations. Among the important factors that impact the effectiveness of a presentation is the quality of presentation slides. The purpose of this study was to access individuals' abilities to identify errors in presentation slides. Students in a systems analysis and design course were asked to critique presentation slides before and after course coverage of principles of effective presentations. The results indicate that students significantly improved their overall performance in identifying errors on the post-survey. Subjects showed a marked improvement in identifying errors related to consistency and the proper use of bullets. However, students' performance in identifying English usage errors showed no significant improvement between the "before" and "after" surveys. These results suggest that course discussion and experience with presentations in the context of a systems analysis and design course can lead to students improving their ability to develop more effective presentation slides.