Using IT in the undergraduate classroom: should we replace the blackboard with PowerPoint? Attila Szabo a, *, Nigel Hastings b a Department of Life Sciences, The Nottingham Trent University, Clifton Lane, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK b Department of Primary Education, The Nottingham Trent University, Clifton Lane, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK Abstract Three studies were performed to investigate the ecacy of digital PowerPoint lecturing in undergraduate classrooms. In the ®rst study, students' opinion about PowerPoint lectures was surveyed after receiving all their lectures in one module in PowerPoint. Grades of one cohort were then compared with the grades of another taking the same test one year earlier. No signi®cant dierences were found. In another study, students received a mock test 1 week following: (1) an overhead lecture, (2) a PowerPoint lecture and (3) a PowerPoint lecture with lecture notes. There were no signi®cant dierences between the two PowerPoint lectures both of which resulted in higher grades than the overhead lecture. In the third study, two cohorts had two identical lectures, in a counterbalanced order, presented either with PowerPoint or by using overheads. The results revealed that the lecture diculty, but not the method of lecturing, contributed to the grade dierences on two mock tests. It is suggested that the ecacy of PowerPoint lecturing may be case speci®c rather than universal. 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Classroom; IT; Lectures; Overhead; PowerPoint 1. Introduction The PowerPoint software, included in the `Microsoft Oce' package is a powerful presentation tool. Nowadays it has replaced the traditionally used colour slides and overheads Computers & Education 35 (2000) 175±187 0360-1315/00/$ - see front matter 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0360-1315(00)00030-0 www.elsevier.com/locate/compedu * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44-115-848-3362. E-mail address: attila.szabo@ntu.ac.uk (A. Szabo).