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

Introduction: 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. methods: 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. results: 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. conclusion: 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.