Powerpoint spelling errors: Student comprehension and perceived lecture and instructor professionalism

This study examined how note taking and PowerPoint spelling errors impacted college-level students’ memory for lecture information and perceived lecturer and PowerPoint professionalism. There were three error conditions: a) No Spelling Errors (NSE), b) Spelling Errors on Relevant (SER) Words, or c) Spelling Errors on Irrelevant Words (SEI) and approximately half of the participants (n = 51) across all conditions took notes during the lecture. Results showed that spelling error presence did not have a clear impact on participants’ quiz performance, although the NSE condition marginally outperformed those in the SER condition on the multiple-choice portion. Moreover, note-takers believed the slides were more professional, more easily comprehended, and that they learned more from the lecture than non-note-takers. Those in the NSE condition reported higher professionalism of the slides than those with spelling errors. These results fit well within the historical research on note taking, recent research on comprehension in the presence of errors, and set the stage for future research.