Advanced Project: Build an 18-Slide Interactive Tutoring Module in PowerPoint

This project brings the whole Advanced path together. You'll design one interactive tutoring module that a tutor can present live and a learner can complete alone, with a menu, a branching check for understanding, a Morph explanation, and a recorded segment.

The page gives you the scenario, the required slides, a requirements checklist, a build plan, a rubric, and reflection prompts. Plan on several work sessions: the storyboard alone deserves one.

The scenario

A tutoring program wants one module it can use two ways: a tutor presents it live to a small group, and learners who missed the session work through it alone on the program's website. You're designing that module as an 18-slide interactive PowerPoint deck.

Pick a topic you can teach in about 15 minutes, with one clear skill at the end. The worked example on this page uses absolute cell references in spreadsheets ("lock a cell with $ so a formula copies correctly"), but a science concept, a grammar rule, or a workplace procedure works just as well.

Before you open PowerPoint, write three lines:

• Learner: who they are and what they already know. Adults who can write a simple formula but get wrong results when they copy it.
• Promise: what they'll be able to do at the end. Write a formula that copies down a column without breaking.
• Two modes: what changes when no tutor is present. Instructions, navigation, and feedback must live on the slides.

This capstone pulls together the whole Advanced path: narrative, a design system, image treatment, Morph, interactivity, linked or tabular data, recording, and QA.

Required slides

Your module must contain these nine sections. The slide numbers below are one way to reach 18; you can rebalance as long as every section is present.

Every content slide also carries a small Menu button, so a learner can always return to slide 3.

Requirements checklist

Tick each item before you call the module finished:

• A title-only storyboard of all 18 slides, written before any design work.
• A custom design system: theme colors, theme fonts, and a short style note (spacing, chart style, button style).
• At least six custom layouts on the slide master (for example: Title, Menu, Concept with image, Question, Feedback, Practice).
• One image-led section with treated, consistently cropped images.
• One chart or table with a source line.
• One interactive menu that jumps to sections.
• One branching quiz path: each answer links to its own feedback slide, and wrong answers lead to a short reteach before retrying.
• One Morph sequence that explains something (not decoration).
• One recorded or self-paced segment: narration on at least the example sequence, or the whole module set up to run without a presenter.
• A full QA checklist covering content, visual, technical, and accessibility passes.
• An accessibility review: checker run, reading order fixed, alt text written, captions or transcript for narration.

Copy this list onto a hidden slide at the end of the deck, so reviewers can see what you claimed to deliver.

Step-by-step build plan

Work in this order. Design comes after structure on purpose: it's much cheaper to move a sticky note than a finished slide.

1. Storyboard. In Outline view, type all 18 titles as full-sentence takeaways. Read them in order. If they don't teach the idea on their own, fix the titles first.
2. Map the branches. Sketch where every button goes: menu to sections, each quiz answer to its feedback slide, try-again feedback back to a reteach slide, then back to the question.
3. Build the design system. Set theme colors and fonts, then create your six or more custom layouts in View› then Slide Master. Include fixed positions for the instruction line and navigation buttons.
4. Draft content into layouts. Apply a layout to every slide. Add text, then the image-led section, then the chart or table with its source line.
5. Add Morph. Duplicate the concept slide, change the object positions or sizes on the copy, and apply Transitions› then Morph to the second slide. Make sure the motion shows the idea, such as a $ sign sliding in front of the column letter.
6. Wire the interactivity. Add links or action buttons for the menu, the diagnostic, and the branching quiz. Hide feedback slides so they're only reachable by button.
7. Record. Script prompts in the notes and record narration for the example sequence (or more) with Slide Show› then Record. Re-record any weak slide.
8. Set up both modes. For self-paced use, test with Slide Show› then Set Up Slide Show › Browsed at a kiosk (full screen) so only your buttons and timings move the learner.
9. QA. Run the content, visual, technical, and accessibility passes. Log issues in a QA table and fix every High issue.
10. Rehearse the live version with Rehearse with Coach and a real person, then revise.

Rubric

Score yourself (or ask a peer to score you) on each row. Aim for Ready everywhere and Strong in at least two rows.

Reflection prompts

Answer these in the notes of your final slide or in a short paragraph you submit with the deck. Explaining your choices is part of the skill.

1. Which title in your storyboard changed the most once you started building, and why?
2. How does your design system make the 19th slide faster to build than the 1st?
3. Where does your Morph sequence explain something that a static slide couldn't?
4. Walk through the branch for a learner who picks the wrong answer. Is the reteach slide enough to get them right on the retry?
5. What did your QA find that you would never have noticed by just scrolling through?
6. What would you change if this module had to work on a phone, with no sound?

Common mistakes in advanced projects

• Designing before storyboarding. Polished slides with a weak sequence are the most expensive thing to fix. Titles first, always.
• Feature collecting. Morph, triggers, and menus added because the brief lists them, not because they help the learner. Every feature should answer: what does this make clearer or easier?
• Dead-end branches. A feedback slide with no button forward traps a self-paced learner. Test every path in kiosk mode, not just the correct one.
• Feedback that only says right or wrong. Good feedback says why, and wrong-answer feedback points to a short reteach.
• Layouts in name only. Six layouts that differ only by background color aren't a system. Each layout should hold a different kind of content.
• Narration without a transcript. The recorded segment must still work for someone who can't listen.
• QA as a final glance. Log issues in a table, rate them, fix the High ones, and re-test what you changed.

If you hit Ready on every rubric row, you're working at a professional level. The Expert path builds from here: template kits, automation, governance, and publishing one module across many formats.

Practice