The presentations have been hard to follow because students are scanning figures from journal articles and using them as presentation slides. As discussed on this blog (see October 1, 2015 "tip") journal article figures generally are too complicated to be effective overhead slides. The axes are too small to read, more information is reported than what the speaker discusses, the figures were not designed for projection on a screen, etc. The talks would be much easier to understand if students would redraw the slides with only the critical information they plan to talk about. No need to make the audience strain their eyes to figure out what is relevant and what is not.
But on to the main point of this "tip." One of this week's talks focused on the following system of pathways.
This figure was shown at the end of the talk and as such, it was only at the end that the proceeding slides were placed in the appropriate context. The first 90% of the talk, where individual pathways were discussed, was difficult to understand. Had this "system" been shown at the beginning, the discussion of the individual pathways would have been far more meaningful. In reality, the main thematic points of the talk could have been summarized in 2 minutes using this figure. After that the details would have been far more comprehensible and meaningful.
The "bottom line" is that the audience generally doesn't know where you are going unless you tell them. They don't understand the significance of individual measurements unless those measurements are explained within the context of an overarching biological problem. They need the big picture summarized up front so they can place details in the appropriate context. See September 21, 2015 "tip" for techniques to help you do this.
One other note, the above figure could be used as a very innovative outline slide. After discussing a particular pathway, the speaker could then return to the above figure with the next pathway highlighted in some way (e.g. a big red circle around it). This would provide the audience a reminder of why the next few slides are important and how they related to the big picture.
