When preparing my PowerPoint slides for a lecture, I often find myself wondering what to put as the final slide.
For presentations in industry, when not in a university setting, I often have a final slide which simply says "Thank you." The intent is to thank the audience for attending the presentation. However, this feels a little out of place in a university setting, especially where students may not have a choice of attending (well, the choice is attend or definitely fail).
So, I started using a final slide that says "Questions?" However, I recently read something indicating that a teacher should not ask if students have questions (the teacher should either ask a probing question to check for understanding or the teacher should simply expect the students to speak up without prompting).
It seems the final slide should somehow indicate that the slides are done and doing that with a content slide does not seem right either. I recently started using a final slide indicating what homework was expected of the students before the next class session (sometimes the slide simply says 'no homework'). This works several sessions into the semester once students see that every time the homework slide appears it is the final slide; however, it does not really work well at the start of the semester.
Returning to my question, what should I put as the last slide?
Answer
Usually, a 'this is what you should have just learned' bullet point slide not only sums up what your audience has learned, but also reminds them about topics/questions that have come up during your presentation. This is a great way for them to remember and for you to guide questions/following Q&A session along the talk.
Another approach that I personally like is a collection of further resources (or sources) that the audience can look up after your talk if they are interested into more details (or simply didn't have the courage to ask questions).
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