Many college students are visual learners.¹ PowerPoint, despite its recent critics,² is an effective way of helping visual learners integrate substantive material. Additionally, the learning environment is enhanced for all students with effective visual presentations. Unfortunately, PowerPoint is often used less effectively by heavy reliance on text. This session models three different ways PowerPoint can be effective in the classroom: fact pattern visualization, opinion autopsy, and decision trees. This trilogy of presentation vignettes will show PowerPoint as an effective learning tool that can be adapted to virtually any procedural topic-indeed any substantive area.

      Fact Pattern Visualization. One of the greatest challenges for the first-year procedure student is mastery of often complicated fact patterns in the leading personal jurisdiction cases. PowerPoint is invaluable in this task. It can illustrate both geography and contacts, as well as movement over time. Additionally, PowerPoint can be used to generate visual reminders of an entire case. This type of paired-associate learning aids retention.

       Opinion autopsy. Fractured Supreme Court opinions in personal jurisdiction, such as Asahi Metal Industry Co. v. Superior Court, provide excellent teaching opportunities. Of course, one of the chief challenges is guiding students in dissecting multiple-opinion cases to determine the Court's holding. PowerPoint can provide visualization of the justices and their alignments. This visual reminder also aids recall.

      Decision trees. The decision tree is a well-known tool for teaching critical thinking. Students are guided through a series of questions with answers branching toward different conclusions. PowerPoint is particularly effective in modeling decision tree analysis because the consequences can be revealed sequentially thereby keeping student focus on the discrete question at hand. The contemporary law of personal jurisdiction, which has developed into a series of discrete questions, lends itself to decision tree application.

¹See, e.g. , Richard S. Velayo, How do Presentation Modality and Strategy Use Influence Memory for Paired Concepts?, 27 J. Instructional Psychol. 126 (2000) (testing 324 college students and concluding the use of the visual modality facilitates learning).

²See, e.g. , Mark Hollands, Time to Pull the Plug on PowerPoint, The Australian, July 21, 2001, at 43; Ian Parker, Absolute PowerPoint, The New Yorker, May 28, 2001, at 76; Kevin Maney, Armed with PowerPoint, Speakers Make Pests of Themselves, USA Today, May 12, 1999, at 3B.