Effects of PowerPoint slides on attendance and learning: If you share it, they will (still) come.

Abstract

This study tested the effect of access to instructor-provided (IP) notes in the form of PowerPoint slides on attendance and learning. Participants (N = 89) either had access or did not have access to IP notes for an entire semester. Attendance and learning (i.e., correct answers to multiple-choice test items) were assessed. Results revealed that neither attendance nor learning was significantly affected by access to IP notes. Interestingly, however, when participants were asked retrospectively whether access (or lack of access) to IP notes affected their attendance and grades, participants with access to IP notes erroneously believed that IP notes affected their grades. These results suggest that instructors can provide notes to students without negatively affecting attendance. Moreover, despite oft-stated student preferences for IP notes, these results suggest that instructors can limit access to IP notes with no deleterious effects on learning.