Why Not Use PowerPoint for Interactive Training?

PowerPoint is one of the most widely used applications in the world of e-learning. With its help and a little imagination, you can create presentations containing a variety of multimedia elements.

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But is PowerPoint the best choice if you want to create interactive e-learning?

Let’s first define the main interactive actions that can be created in an e-learning course, and then we’ll assess how well PowerPoint handles them.

In general, there are 3 main types of onscreen interactions: clicking, pointing with the mouse, and dragging. Which of these interaction types can you create with PowerPoint? The answer is only one. That means you have only 1/3 of the possible interactions and no option to program more.

Below we have presented two examples of interactive scenarios. One was created with PowerPoint, and the other – with Articulate Storyline. The two scenarios are identical. The main difference is in the creation process and the time it took to complete them.

See the interactive scenario created with PowerPoint and the one created with Articulate.

Both versions fulfill the main idea of the scenario. But do you notice how many slides the PowerPoint presentation consists of? A full 31. In contrast, the scenario created with Articulate Storyline consists of only 5 slides.

In fact, if the author had not used the initial PowerPoint scenario and had worked directly in Articulate Storyline, he would most likely have used 3 slides per interaction. And since the slides are almost identical, he could have created just one slide with 3 feedback options to reuse multiple times. If we do not count the content, building the structure of the interactive scenario would have taken only a few minutes.

Another advantage of Storyline is that the slides created in it can be saved as templates and easily reused.

Why not use PowerPoint to create interactive e-learning courses?

• In PowerPoint, the number of interactions is limited.

• Creating interactions in PowerPoint takes a lot of time.

• Interactions in PowerPoint are more complicated than they need to be. They contain links to slides, so creating an interaction of, say, 5 steps requires 6 slides.

As we said earlier, PowerPoint is a great tool for creating multimedia training, but if you want to develop a high-quality interactive e-learning course, it is better to choose another, more suitable tool. This will save you many hours of work, effort, and resources.

Source: http://bit.ly/1OxPu9g.

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Why is PowerPoint not the best choice for interactive e-learning?

PowerPoint can be useful for multimedia training, but it is not well suited for high-quality interactive e-learning. The main reason is that it offers only one of the three common on-screen interaction types: clicking. If you need more advanced interactions, PowerPoint quickly becomes limited and inefficient.

What types of on-screen interactions can PowerPoint create?

The page identifies three main interaction types in e-learning: clicking, pointing with the mouse, and dragging. PowerPoint can create only one of these. That means it covers only a fraction of the interaction possibilities needed for more engaging e-learning courses.

Why do PowerPoint interactions take so much time to build?

Interactions in PowerPoint are built through links between slides, which makes them more complicated than they need to be. For example, a five-step interaction may require six slides to work properly. This extra structure adds time, effort, and complexity to the creation process.

How does PowerPoint compare with Articulate Storyline for interactive scenarios?

The page compares two identical scenarios: one created in PowerPoint and one in Articulate Storyline. The PowerPoint version contains 31 slides, while the Storyline version uses only 5. This shows that Storyline can achieve the same result with a much simpler and faster build process.

Can interactive slides be reused in other e-learning courses?

With Storyline, slides can be saved as templates and reused easily. The page suggests that this makes development more efficient, especially when similar interactions are needed multiple times. PowerPoint does not offer the same level of flexibility for reusable interactive structures.

When should you choose a tool other than PowerPoint?

If your goal is to create a high-quality interactive e-learning course, the page recommends using a more suitable tool than PowerPoint. PowerPoint is fine for multimedia presentations, but its interaction limits and extra slide work can waste time and resources. A dedicated e-learning authoring tool is better for this kind of project.