Start from what students should be able to do. Write the learning outcomes first and plan the slides backwards from them. Every slide should earn its place by moving students towards an outcome, and anything that doesn’t is a candidate for the notes, a reading or the cutting-room floor.
One idea per slide, with a title that states it. A title such as “Beta-Blockers Reduce Mortality in HFrEF” tells students what to take away; “Treatment” doesn’t. Specific titles also make the deck far easier to revise from and to navigate with a screen reader.
Slides support your talk; they don’t replace it. Students can’t read dense text and listen to you at the same time, so keep to a few short points per slide and put the explanation in your speaker notes. Reading your slides aloud word for word tends to lose an audience quickly. Mayer’s well-established principles of multimedia learning point the same way: cut what doesn’t support the point (coherence), highlight what matters (signalling), and present information in manageable segments.
Use pictures that explain, not decorate. A labelled diagram of a mechanism, process or structure usually teaches more than a paragraph describing it, while decorative images compete for attention. Place labels next to what they describe. Credit every image’s author and licence, and only use images you’re licensed to use, such as openly licensed ones from Wikimedia Commons or your institution’s licensed collections.
Build in active learning. Long stretches of uninterrupted talk work against attention and retention. Break the session with short tasks: a question to the group, think–pair–share, a quick poll, a worked example or a case to discuss. Plan these as part of the session rather than as extras to fit in “if there’s time”.
Be honest about timing. Most content slides take one to two minutes to present well, and activities take longer than they look on paper. Plan the minutes slide by slide, protect time for activities and questions, and cut content rather than rush the end.
Design for everyone in the room. Use large type (at least 18 pt for body text and 28 pt for titles), strong colour contrast, and plain backgrounds behind text. Don’t rely on colour alone to carry meaning. Give every picture meaningful alt text, and make the slides available before the session so students can follow along, annotate and use assistive technology. These choices help every student, not only those with a disclosed need.
Check accuracy and currency before you teach. Verify every fact, figure and recommendation against current guidance in your discipline, especially in fields where practice changes quickly. Prefer measured wording (“often”, “needs urgent review”) over absolutes, and note in your speaker notes where guidance varies between countries or institutions. AI-generated content in particular should be treated as a strong first draft for you to check, not a finished product.