The Applied Weighted Slide Metric (AWSM) Tool: Creation of a Standard Slide Design Rubric

Lectures are a standard aspect across all realms of medical education. Previous studies have shown that visual design of presentation slides can affect learner outcomes. The purpose of this study was to develop a slide design rubric grounded in evidence-based, multimedia principles to enable objective evaluation of slide design.

Using the principles described in Mayers' Principles of Multimedia Learning and Duarte's Slide:ology, the authors extracted nineteen items important for slide design. We developed an online, rank-item, survey tool to identify the importance of each item among medical educators. Respondents selected which slide design principles they felt were important when attending a lecture/didactic session and ranked their relative importance.

We received 225 responses to the survey. When asked to specifically rank elements from most important to least important, participants gave the most weight to "readability of figures and data" and "[lack of] busy-ness of slide." The lowest ranked elements were "transitions and animations" and "color schemes". Using the results of the survey, including the free response, we developed a rubric with relative weighting that followed our survey data.

With this information we have applied values to the various aspects of the rubric for a total score of 100. We hope that this rubric can be used for self-assessment or to evaluate and improve slides for educators. Future research will be focused on implementing and validating the slide design survey and ensuring it is easily usable with a high inter-rater reliability and whether self-assessment with the rubric improves presentation design and education quality.