Crafting Evidence-Based Academic Presentations: Practical Guidelines for Medical Science Educators

Formal presentations continue to play a central role in medical education courses and in academic traditions such as grand rounds and conference sessions. While lectures are an efficient and cost-effective instructional practice, efforts to train medical educators on how to design presentations tend to be limited to discussions of techniques that facilitate active or engaged learning. In this article, we elucidate additional learning theories that should also inform our instructional practice including cognitive apprenticeship, cognitive load, the principles of multi-media learning, the assertion-evidence approach to slide design, explicit instruction, and retrieval practice. We offer practical guidance for improving the design and delivery of academic presentations that is grounded in the cognitive psychology and education literature on how adults learn and that, if adopted, will improve the communication of biomedical content and enhance the experience of biomedical audiences.