Beyond PowerPoint: Visual Presentation Tools for Online Learning

In the mid-1990s, the University Of North Carolina (UNC) School of Dentistry entered the digital era by publishing curricula, syllabi, and modules on the Web. The School took this step in part to give students greater access to materials that supplement the lecture-based courses in the program, and in part to help students prepare for examinations more thoroughly than they would have been able to otherwise. By the late 1990s, the primary medium for visual delivery in the classroom shifted from traditional carousel slideshow presentations to Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. One of the primary advantages of the latter was that they could be reproduced and easily posted within online course modules, such that students could review the presentations outside of class at any point during the semester. Soon afterward, the dental school began to explore other forms of multimedia content delivery for their potential value as instructional tools and as further enhancements to the online component of various dental courses.