PowerPoint slides are a useful means of introducing new information to students.  However, they can also be utilized to allow students to make choices, test knowledge, and give immediate feedback.  To make a presentation interactive, you must first develop a plan.  The plan would involve a basic presentation in which you either give the user a choice or test the user's knowledge.  If the purpose of the presentation is to test knowledge, the next step would be to create a feedback slide.  The feedback slide would be hyperlinked.  To make the presentation more entertaining, animation and images and sounds from the Internet may be inserted.

Start with your plan.  Decide on an objective for the presentation and develop an introductory slide that explains that objective. 

 Next develop a procedure slide to show the user how to progress through the presentation.

Create slides that test the user's ability to master the objective. 

After these slides have been created you are ready to develop the feedback slides.   The feedback slides will tell the user if their responses are correct or incorrect. 

This information could be relayed to the user visually, through verbal signals, or a combination of both.  It is strongly recommended if a verbal feedback response is given, users wear headphones.  This prevents the user from disturbing others and also prevents possible embarrassment from incorrect responses.  There should be one correct and incorrect slide per question.  The feedback slides are hyperlinked.  If the user is correct, the feedback slide will prompt the user to the next slide.  If the user is incorrect, the feedback slide can be hyperlinked to send the user back to the question to try again.

Hyperlinks can be created in slide shows to: 

• send the user to any slide in the presentation 

• send the user to a slide in another presentation

• send the user to a web site (the computer must be online in order to do so)

• open another program on the computer

How to Create A Hyperlink

Hyperlinks can be created from any object on a slide (text or an image).  To do so, click the object (text or image) to activate it.  From the top menu click Slide Show…Action Settings.  The following window will appear.

Click hyperlink to: and click the dropdown triangle.  Choose Slide…Click the appropriate feedback slide (Correct or Incorrect) and click OK.

Continue this process for each text answer choosing to hyperlink to the correct or incorrect feedback slide.  There is also an option to select a sound in addition to the feedback.  This option is at the bottom of the Action Settings window.

Animation can be added to specific objects in PowerPoint slides.  This includes images, Word Art, and text boxes.  In order for an object to be animated, it must be activated or selected first.  To select an object, simply click it once with the mouse.  The animation can be selected by activating the object, clicking Slide Show from the top menu line, and clicking the Custom Animation Button. 

An entire slide can be animated through Slide Transitions which are found under Slide Show in the menu line.