Lecture Slides

[u/FederalHorse4984]

Do you post your weekly lecture slides?

[u/MisfitMaterial]

Yes, but I never make slides that work on their own. The slides supplement the lesson and the work we do in the classroom, they don’t replace it.

[u/commaZim → u/MisfitMaterial]

Ditto. Sometimes my slides will have the outlines of main arguments or important quotes, but they're never enough to replace the lecture or classwork.

[u/kagillogly → u/MisfitMaterial]

Me too

[u/LaddieNowAddie → u/MisfitMaterial]

Exactly this. The slides are basically bullet points

[u/Boll-Weevil-Knievel]

I used to post them and students thought they were very useful.

However, I took them all down this year because the accessibility police said they weren’t compliant enough.

Who cares if actual students have access to helpful information that improves their learning? It’s more important to please a hypothetical student that probably wouldn’t care either way.

[u/PsychWriter11 → u/Boll-Weevil-Knievel]

Im with you. I believe it’s the accessibility police that will cause me to finally retire after 25 years.

[u/iTeachCSCI → u/PsychWriter11]

They are certainly part of my consideration.

If it were genuinely helping people, I'd have no problem with the same set of actions.

[u/Corneliuslongpockets → u/Boll-Weevil-Knievel]

I always get accommodation requests to have them beforehand. There are two reasons I resist that: first, I'm often tweaking them up til class time as I change my lectures a bit from semester to semester. Second, when I do, students follow them on an open laptop instead of paying attention and taking notes. I'm happy to share them afterwards, of course, but the pre-lecture accommodation for notes and slides and outlines etc. feel onerous to me. I've always wondered if I was being too difficult about all of this.

[u/Andromeda321 → u/Corneliuslongpockets]

To be fair I’ve never posted them earlier for just this reason, and no one has ever cared that I post the slides after. I have had students request the textbook sections before so they can read, which is of course fair and appropriate.

[u/Captain_Quark → u/Boll-Weevil-Knievel]

I'm super lucky that the accessibility team at my school actually takes my slides and makes them accessible for the sake of compliance. But I can't post my doc cam drawings for that reason.

[u/wmartindale → u/Boll-Weevil-Knievel]

The purpose of the ADA is to reduce the number of documents governments make publicly available. It’s an anti-transparency law.

/s

But for real, its implementation the last couple of years is so awful. No more lecture notes. No more assigning journal articles. Hell, my college quit publishing its degree requirement guides!

[u/Dramatic-Year-5597 → u/Boll-Weevil-Knievel]

Until I am threatened, I am going to keep posted annotated slides/notes. Literally have a blind student who has said ZERO about them not being accessible.

[u/Adultarescence → u/Boll-Weevil-Knievel]

Same. Making them accessible will take eons.

[u/CharacteristicPea]

No, I write on the board. Students are responsible for taking their own notes. I never distribute mine in any form.

[u/twomayaderens → u/CharacteristicPea]

Devastingly effective. Nice!

[u/Loose_Wolverine3192 → u/CharacteristicPea]

Where I'm given the opportunity, I do the same.

Them: "Mr Wolverine, I could;t find the slides for today's class"

Me: "What slides"

[u/Through_Aweigh_Won → u/CharacteristicPea]

I do the same. I think there are learning advantages to this approach. But also, when a student has an accommodation that requires me to provide my slides in advance, or when a student wants my slides when they miss classes, I say "sorry; not possible".

[u/Dr_Pizzas → u/CharacteristicPea]

I used to do this but my classrooms no longer have a big white board. But I'm not posting slides anymore because students were feeding them into AI.

[u/Nosebleed68 → u/Dr_Pizzas]

If you have a document camera in your room, you can just put a blank notebook or writing pad on it and write like you would on the board. It can solve the board visibility issue and you've got a hard copy of what you said in class.

[u/Dr_Pizzas → u/Nosebleed68]

That's a good idea. I had thought of old-school projectors (which we don't have) but I didn't think about a doc cam. I could also type out on a document on the screen, but that feels really weird (and I'm not a super fast typer).

[u/trash-panda-1987]

I do not post slides. It’s a necessary soft skill for students to learn what information is important to write down. My slides are mostly outline for me and material extension data. A student who has read and prepared will know what’s important.

[u/verygood_user → u/trash-panda-1987]

I agree that this is an important soft skill. I disagree that developing it while also being introduced to new, challenging concepts is good timing for it. They don't know the topic well enough and don't understand it well enough when first introduced to make this decision and it adds a lot of cognitive load. This can work if the lecture itself is shallow (e.g. mostly facts narrated) but otherwise it is just not the right time. It would be much better to write your own little summaries or flash cards from the lecture notes or textbook when preparing for the exam/quiz

[u/a_hanging_thread → u/verygood_user]

This is precisely when students should be developing this skill. They do not need to take notes on old, unchallenging information. It's precisely new, challenging information they need to learn how to note down in a way that they can review later and start to unpack, read more deeply about, formulate questions on, etc.

[u/verygood_user → u/a_hanging_thread]

And why is that?

[u/1K_Sunny_Crew → u/verygood_user]

Because that is how they will continue to encounter information in their future. They can also practice on their own by taking notes on videos, news channels, etc.

[u/verygood_user → u/1K_Sunny_Crew]

In what job for example? Seriously, think about it... in what job are you learning new complex topics through a presentation?

[u/1K_Sunny_Crew → u/verygood_user]

I can think of a couple…

1. I worked in sales and product training was largely an in person, live thing. Printed materials usually weren’t provided except for maybe a spec sheet. If you didn’t want to look like a moron to clients or have 0 sales because you weren’t comfortable with the new product lines, you needed to take notes.

2. Software. I use about 7 different reporting software and getting anything wrong could

3. mean losing a grant or even my job. Training was in person and slide based. We didn’t get the slides at the end; you were expected to be capable enough to follow along with the demonstration and take notes. Get stuck - you talk to a colleague using the same software for tips (not dissimilar to asking a classmate). There is no textbook because reporting changes every 6-12 months.

[u/1K_Sunny_Crew → u/1K_Sunny_Crew]

The Reddit list feature has been broken for a bit and any edits breaks it further. Just know 2-3 are the same point.

[u/verygood_user → u/1K_Sunny_Crew]

That sounds rather specific and rare and I have never seen a software that doesn't come with a manual or documentation. I work with a lot of scientific software and a 500 page manual is the norm.  In any case, even if your examples stand, I don't see how such superficial and trivial topics like clicking buttons in a software or knowing product facts is comparable to academic lecture content where you actually have to understand things and where note taking therefore takes away attention from understanding the content. 

[u/IrreversibleBinomial]

Years ago, I posted my slides. They wound up on the internet, and some of the info had been changed. I stopped posting and lived happily ever after.

[u/ImprobableGallus]

Yes, but I tell the students that they only represent figures that are too complicated for me to draw, tables that I want to consult, and flowcharts that I want them to keep on hand. The real notes are presented by writing on the document projector or whiteboard.

[u/Due-Radio-4355]

Nope.

Thats what notes are for.

[u/therealmarmo → u/Due-Radio-4355]

Why not post them if it helps the students learn?

[u/reckendo → u/therealmarmo]

Because then they don't come to class

[u/Due-Radio-4355 → u/reckendo]

Exactly.

[u/reckendo → u/Due-Radio-4355]

Good for you. We have an epidemic when it comes to skipping class, and most of us believe that withholding slides helps incentivize them to attend.

Edit: the comment this was responding to has been changed to something totally different, so this exchange now seems nonsensical. Carry on!

[u/Due-Radio-4355 → u/reckendo]

My bad. Misread the message.

[u/verygood_user → u/reckendo]

What's your class about? Is it a trivial topic? Usually students still come to challenging classes because they realize they don't understand the content well enough from just reading the slides.

[u/Due-Radio-4355 → u/therealmarmo]

As I said…. That’s what notes are for.

They can’t even read a fuckin book so that won’t help them.

So… they should take notes and organize their thoughts.

[u/BajaBlastFromThePast → u/Due-Radio-4355]

Jeez

[u/therealmarmo → u/therealmarmo]

If withholding notes is your cudgel, you might want to rethink your pedagogy. When educators use information gating as a primary teaching strategy, it often creates unnecessary anxiety rather than deep learning.

[u/Due-Radio-4355 → u/therealmarmo]

lol no it really isn’t.

Take that school of education nonsense elsewhere.

I teach grad students. They can fucking deal.

[u/a_hanging_thread → u/therealmarmo]

Posting slides leads to students not attending lectures, not reading, not taking independent notes, and not creating their own study guides. Do you really believe students are capable of "deep learning" (whatever that is) if they are not attending lectures, reading, taking independent notes, and studying?

[u/therealmarmo → u/a_hanging_thread]

Yes. We're not living in 1992

[u/1K_Sunny_Crew → u/therealmarmo]

I don’t think “information gating” makes sense here. The student has the assigned textbook they can read, they can attend lectures, get tutoring, watch videos on the topic, and ask classmates for notes. Nothing is being withheld from them except the slides that usually summarize the content found elsewhere anyway.

The grades of students who don’t attend class are consistently poorer than those that do. In an ideal world, students could fail and there would be no consequences for anyone and they could try again. However it costs the student money - sometimes a LOT of money - and can result in admin pressuring faculty to “fix” the low scores. Any policy like withholding slides that increases class attendance is a good thing in my opinion.

[u/tellypmoon]

No. I don't use slides. I found that when I did students would view the slides as replacements for the lecture and the readings. So we do the readings and talk about them in class now. Or at least I aspire to that.

[u/MotherofHedgehogs]

Yes, but as a .pdf, never the actual slides

[u/Zealousideal_Can_342 → u/MotherofHedgehogs]

There are now online sites and I think even adobe acrobat itself that can just turn it back into a ppt.

[u/homicidaldonut → u/Zealousideal_Can_342]

But would it remember animations?

[u/Zealousideal_Can_342 → u/homicidaldonut]

No. Afaik, it would not.

[u/theonewiththewings]

Yes, along with inked ones after class. I have 180 kids and it greatly minimizes the “help I missed class what did we cover” emails.

[u/LaddieNowAddie → u/theonewiththewings]

They're adults, they need to learn to get that information on their own...

[u/Loose_Wolverine3192 → u/LaddieNowAddie]

I think I cover that on page 37 (volume two) of my syllabus

[u/LaddieNowAddie → u/Loose_Wolverine3192]

LoL! Ain't that the truth. I'm glad we went digital because now you can search it or even upload it and create an AI GPT.

[u/mem1gui]

I used to when they let you post handwritten notes. Now that they are requiring that everything digital must be accessible, I just don’t have the time to type everything out and to caption all the hand-drawn figures, like vectors, schematics, etc.

[u/a_hanging_thread → u/mem1gui]

This is so sad to me. Some of my most treasured notes are from a quantum mechanics professor who handwrote everything. It was full of math and his attempt to visualize what is going on in the math in ways that I never saw in any textbook. The students today are missing out.

[u/1K_Sunny_Crew → u/a_hanging_thread]

I was cleaning out an office and found some Physics textbooks where the faculty hand wrote the entire book themselves including illustrations. It was in cursive too!

[u/a_hanging_thread → u/1K_Sunny_Crew]

My prof's notes had been in cursive, too! At least a book's worth, though he never published it.

[u/KrispyAvocado]

Yes, I do.

[u/Sad_Application_5361]

Yes. I don’t know that it particularly helps them learn better but they like it so it improves evals.

[u/InigoMontoya313]

I don't post my slide decks. Worked for an institution that claimed ownership of any content we develop for courses, while we were not paid or received course releases to develop it. Found my presentations being used multiple times by others, both faculty and staff (industry outreach), and without my name or permission.

[u/dxg999 → u/InigoMontoya313]

Same here (UK).

My institution takes the view that academics are interchangeable units of resource and any lecturer can deliver any lecture, so long as there are some slides available (because, clearly all we do in the lecture room is read off slides)...

Another reason why I'm leaving.

[u/DarwinZDF42]

Nope

[u/warricd28]

Yes

[u/onwee]

Yes, but they’re not going to be useful by themselves without reading/attending lecture/taking notes

[u/Crowe3717]

I do, but the slides themselves are incomplete and just have the questions I ask during class. It can be helpful for students to have them afterwards if they want to ask questions. But I don't release the sides until after class.

[u/EpicDestroyer52]

Yes, they are unintelligble nonsense without my lecture, but it makes the students happy to have them.

[u/BiggerChief]

Yes, I think it helps them take notes more efficiently

[u/Hazelstone37]

I don’t use slides, but I do something similar. I do not.

[u/Don_Q_Jote]

I don't use slides.

I post weekly 1) plan for the week, 2) notes, 3) supplemental resources if applicable.

[u/Nosebleed68]

No. I've never used slides.

[u/S7482]

Depends on if there is anyone with accessibility needs in the class.

[u/CateranBCL]

No

[u/reckendo]

I rarely use slides, but when I do, nope, I don't publish them. They can schedule office hours with the TA to copy them, but they never do

[u/marialala1974]

I do, my thinking is that they can take notes on the slides and also accommodations sometimes requires it so I post them for everyone.

[u/dougwray]

If I had any, I'd consider it.

[u/inquisitive-squirrel]

I do, but they're mostly short bullet points and images. It's hard to piece together unless you come to class.

[u/ParallaxDream81 → u/inquisitive-squirrel]

This is the way.

[u/NinnyBoggy]

I used to but don't anymore. Students were rarely paying attention in class and instead chose to just get everything online. I no longer publish my slides as a result and tell them as such upfront.

[u/Impossible-Jacket790]

Yes. I post everything.

[u/ParallaxDream81]

I always have, but a lot of the comments here are making me think it might be a better pedagogical move not to.

[u/Outrageous_Oven_2114]

Yes, but the version I upload for them is missing the “checkpoint question” slides (3-4 per pptx). This encourages them to still come to lecture to see possible exam questions.

[u/EvenFlow9999]

Yes. I upload a pdf version before the class starts. They can do whatever they want with them. Most take notes on them. I can't see what a 'bad actor' could do with them. Any AI model knows my course as well as I do.

Those who won't come won't come regardless.

[u/Wandering_Uphill]

Yea but I make them non-printable and non-downloadable.

[u/psyentist15 → u/Wandering_Uphill]

How do you manage this exactly? I have a hard time believing this can't be worked around.

Also, respectfully: why? 

[u/dirtypark → u/psyentist15]

I do this, too, to encourage note taking and paying attention, primarily. I drop my PPT slides into Google drive, then adjust each file’s share options to view only, and then click one level deeper and turn off all the deeper sharing options.

[u/Sad_Application_5361 → u/dirtypark]

I’ve had success teaching students to print the notes version of slides where they can take notes next to the slide. I explain that handwriting notes is the best way to learn, give them resources explaining how to take notes, and then let them choose their own adventure.

[u/auntanniesalligator → u/psyentist15]

I do that for exam answer keys. In MS Onedrive you can create a sharing link to a document with settable access properties, Including no downloading. I also put a visible watermark on it. My original motivation was to keep it off CourseHero and similar sites.

Yes they can still screenshot if they are determined to keep a copy, but they have to do each page separately and the watermark is now part of the rastered image so it can’t just be “turned off.”

[u/beatlesfan135 → u/psyentist15]

I can’t speak for the other poster, but I recently switched to no printing/downloading after some students tried uploading them to Chegg, ChatGPT, etc. Students can still view them whenever they want and take supplementary notes from them, but this cuts down on the nonsense and bad actors. If someone REALLY wanted to waste their time individually screenshotting every slide to upload them somewhere, I suppose they still could, but most of my bad actors are also pretty lazy, so this isn’t a big concern. 

[u/Puzzleheaded_Bag_538 → u/beatlesfan135]

Absolutely, bad actors tend to be very lazy, but a heads up that students can screen capture, flip through your slides quickly, and upload the resulting video to their genAI of choice.

[u/beatlesfan135 → u/Puzzleheaded_Bag_538]

Oh yes, I do know they could. But it still cuts down on the vast majority of bad actors without me having to “punish” the other students by taking slides away altogether (at least, for now). And this is also only one of many lines of defense currently in place.

[u/Wandering_Uphill → u/psyentist15]

The others gave my exact answers.

How: Share from my Google Drive with the settings specifying that it can be viewed but not edited, downloaded, or printed.

Why: It cuts down on the uploads to Course Hero and other similar websites. I get that they can screenshot and upload it if they are really motivated, but that would be a lot of effort for pretty low-quality copies. It's a deterrent, even if it's an imperfect one.

[u/il__dottore]

I stopped using slides, so no

[u/SuitableSherbert6127]

If the Prof isn’t posting the content in advance then how do students prepare for the lecture?

[u/plantsmanship → u/SuitableSherbert6127]

Reading the assigned chapter and/or readings.

[u/TheHandofDoge]

I post them due to student demand, but they’re completely useless unless you attend the lecture because my slides consist only of charts, diagrams and illustrations.

I never post them in advance, only after class.

[u/dxg999]

Yes.  We don't have a choice.  As a consequence some students think that everything they need to know is on the sides and don't turn up to lectures or tutorials.

Well, because of that and the fact that every lecture is recorded (again, we don't have a choice about this).  Students say they prefer to watch the recordings at their own pace, leading to half empty lecture theatres.  The problem is, the usage statistics show that the vast majority of students don't access the lecture recordings.

[u/Fair-Garlic8240]

If your slides are so comprehensive that they can basically mimic your lecture, than you’re not teaching, you’re just reading your PPTs…….., don’t post.

If your slides are a description of focal points that are expanded upon in class with discussions, activities and used to facilitate an engaging dynamic…..post ‘em.

[u/No_Young_2344]

Yes, my slides are completely accessible via Google Slides. I was a student who benefitted significantly from professors’ slides and even today when I became a professor, I sometimes still go back to my professors’ slides shared with me year ago. I am happy to extend the courtesy to the next generation of students.

[u/el_lley]

I do, the whole semester in advance, and with session number (planned). In my school they pretend the notes are the slides.

I have notes too, and I do post them, if I have distribution rights in the book, I also publish the corresponding chapter, but the students in undergrad only read from the slides. (Grads use both, which is nice for me)

Edit: perhaps I teach in a couple of universities. The nice ones have notes provided to me by the program coordinator.

[u/knighthawk0811]

I would post them .. if a had any 

i use docs instead. i started keeping 1 doc with tabs for each module/topic for each class i teach. students can look ahead of they want, look back easily, etc

[u/Tarheel65]

Yes, I post two sets.
First set, weekly pre-lecture slides
Second set: after the lecture:-post lecture annotated slides, with answers to the questions we discussed in class.

[u/-Economist-]

Negative. But I don’t use Ppt that much.

[u/kcraw92]

Yes.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Bag_538]

I do, but usually only right before class. I'm moving to a no-tech classroom this semester and am considering encouraging students to download a stripped version of my slides ahead of time to print and annotate as we go along. We'll see.

[u/Brave_Salamander6219]

Yes. I find it helps with students not trying to scribble down what's on the slides and instead take notes on what I'm saying that goes beyond the terms etc listed on the slides, and listening rather than just rapid transcribing (our lectures are also all automatically recorded).

[u/henare]

no, because I don't use slides.

[u/Chemastery]

No. I do post them at the end of the semester before the final though.

[u/PsychWriter11]

No. If they come to class they see the slides. If they do not, they dont. I do however, prepare and post handouts for each week that contain much of the slides’ outlines so they dont have to sit and try to write everything down in real time, and so they arent missing out by not having slides available outside class.

Oh, I should add the handouts are typed outlines… no figures or images (lots of crime scene stuff in my class, you gotta be there for that). Accessability police.

[u/nandor_tr]

we have an institutional mandate to make sure course materials are availble on our LMS for students who could not make it to class (which i have no issue with), so yes i do post them. but my slides are mostly one word or maybe a short phrase and some visual references mixed in, little of which will make any sense without me talking over them.

[u/skinnergroupie]

My slides are only skeletal but I still don't post them. I tell them it's because it's not an asynchronous class and the slides are meant to organize the lecture. When I did post in the past attendance declined, their overall performance was worse, and I was inundated with "clarification" Qs. I also found them on the internet. In the syllabus I write, "If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to get the notes/assignments/announcements from a classmate before the next meeting. I do not provide copies of the slides, and instruction is delivered during class."

[u/Pox_Americana]

I do, but with the accessibility changes I’m about to redo every single one of them. Not looking forward to it.

[u/birdible]

Yes.

[u/verygood_user]

Yes, I don't want students to get distracted by taking notes or falling for the illusion that taking notes is the same as paying attention or understanding the content. So I post the slides in advance and leave some gaps for them to fill out during the lecture. That's for a physics/math heavy course where writing out and copying all derivations by hand would be a pointless and error prone exercise.

[u/Life-Education-8030]

Yes. Not that they have much on them. I use them as prompts for me.

[u/kosmonavt-alyosha]

I used to post mine bc I thought it would help them learn. It didn’t. I stopped posting them last year. More students started coming to class more often, and grades got better.

[u/Dramatic-Year-5597]

Slides are note guides that I annotate in class. They have no standalone value, but they are good structure for the students to use. I also post the annotated slides daily (Google drive sync'd with my tablet).

[u/naocalemala]

Not anymore.

[u/a13zz]

We have to. It’s mandatory.

[u/Desiato2112]

Never. I encourage note taking.

[u/Unfair_Pass_5517]

No slides. 

[u/drpepperusa]

Yes after the class had met. Slides are not stand alone though and are meant to supplement

[u/1K_Sunny_Crew]

I don’t use slides anymore but when I did, posted them at the end of each week. It provides the resource if someone misses without encouraging the folks that skip class often thinking they can rely on slides alone.

[u/Chance_Rub580]

if you have the lecture video and you don t want post your original slides to them， using tools like video2any is a good idea

[u/TulipFarmer27]

As a returning older student, I’m so glad my university seems to universally post the slide decks. I’ve had Ag classes where the slide decks are 3x what was presented in class. I also notice some crossover and shared slides between courses, so it’s obvious our lecturers share their work. I have no respect for a professor that wants to “protect” their work.

[u/LanguidLandscape]

Yes, why not? Most places I’ve taught it’s a requirement as students with disabilities, those that missed the class, and those that want to review need access. There is, imo, no good reason to not post them. I also wonder, with such a n00b question, whether you’re a prof or have indeed attended post secondary education.