Narrating a PowerPoint Slide Deck
By Dick Evans
Most faculty using technology in the classroom depend on PowerPoint to give the students a visual to representation of their lecture. The slides supplement their talk. Posting = them on WebCT is helpful to the student, but does not replace the lecture.
When I create the slide deck, I include detail speaker= notes on each slide. The student does not view these as I lecture, but I use a printed set to lecture from; not to read word for word, but for reminders. = When I post the slide deck to WebCT, the student has the means to review the sli= des and the notes.
As we consider moving our courses online, we must cons= ider how to present the material to an off campus audience. The slide deck with notes is a good start. Better is to provide some type of lecture (audio) al= ong with the still pictures.
![](3D"NarratingaPowerPointSlideDeck_files/image002.gif")
You will also need speakers connected a=
nd a
microphone. Most notebook computers come with both. Many desktops in a busi=
ness
environment are missing speakers including faculty offices. However, even if
you have both the speakers and the microphone, I suggest obtaining a headset
with a boom microphone. You will find two types; one has two plugs to plug =
into
your sound card found somewhere in the back of your machine. These are often
difficult to get to and may not be setup. I suggest finding one that plugs =
into
a USB port. Windows XP will install it automatically and you probably have a
front USB port to plug into.
I am using The Logitech Premium USB Headset model 356A= [1]
Bear in mind, audio clips take large amounts of storag= e and therefore take a long time for a student off campus to download and execute= on his home machine. With most having broadband connections, the size is not as critical as it was years ago. However, many ISP (Internet Service Providers) limit the maximum size file.
The moral of this is to keep your slide deck and the narration of each slide short. It is better to have multiple short files to cover one lecture, than to have one long one.
Create your slide deck in advance of adding voice. I s= uggest including a script to read as speaker notes for each slide. Before continui= ng, print out the speaker notes to use in the next step.
![](3D"NarratingaPowerPointSlideDeck_files/image004.gif")
Plug in your headset (earphone and microphone combinat= ion), then from your open PowerPoint presentation, select Slide Show > Record Narration…
![](3D"NarratingaPowerPointSlideDeck_files/image006.gif")
![](3D"NarratingaPowerPointSlideDeck_files/image008.jpg")
On the Record Narration dialog box, click Set Microphone Level…
![](3D"NarratingaPowerPointSlideDeck_files/image010.jpg")
Using the slider control as you speak into the microph= one, set the volume (green bars) so th= ere is enough volume. Mine gets up about half way on the scale.
When you click OK, slide 1 displays and you are in record mode. So do not hesitate, begin spea= king right away.
Speak as each slide appears. Press the right arrow key= to advance to a new slide and keep talking, reading the script prepared in your speakers notes section. When done, press the Esc key. At the message asking= if you want to save your slide timings, click Yes.<= /p>
![](3D"NarratingaPowerPointSlideDeck_files/image012.jpg")
The Slide Sorter view appears showing the timing of ea= ch slide. This is the amount of time you spoke for each slide.
Press F5 to view and hear the presentation.
![](3D"NarratingaPowerPointSlideDeck_files/image014.jpg")
Notice the size of the file. Before adding the voice o= ver, it was 675kb. Adding narration to four slides (and really only to a couple = of them at length) tripled the amount of disk space necessary—new size 2= .2mb
If you save this presentation as a .pps file (PowerPoint Show), it will run by itself without the user needing to h= ave PowerPoint installed on their machine. The resulting size is the same as th= e .ppt
Cl= ick to view/hear the above sample created with PowerPoint