I teach part-time for an online university in which students are frequently required to submit Power Point Presentations. I have taught numerous classes and usually students arrive in the class with some exposure to Microsoft Power Point. Even if there are students who have not been exposed to Power Point, there is usually someone who is a member of their Learning Team that is able to guide the rest of the team to victory on the assignment due. In this case however, no one on the team knew anything about speaker notes. So, in their memory, I want to take a moment to define exactly what speaker notes are and their purpose.

In the online environment, speaker notes basically serve as your voice to the viewer of your presentation. Remember, there is not a crowded room of students present to hang on your every word. Your slides can only communicate so much in the online environment or in a classroom setting, no one wants to click through a hundred slides.

To create speaker notes, complete the following steps:

1. Open Power Point Presentation

2. You will note that the screen first opens in what is known as "normal view"

3. There is a section located right beneath the slide area that reads "click here to add notes." This is where you will add your speaker notes.

Key things to remember about speaker notes:

1. They should not restate the contents of the slide.

2. Speaker notes should support the content of the slide with in-depth information.

3. Keep them interesting.

Hopefully you are now ready to make use of speaker notes in Power Point.