Slide Decks
All Themes Slide Deck Template
OER Promotion Slide Deck Template
Explore the OER California Slide Deck Series templates and customize them for presentations, workshops, showcases, and conference sessions about your OER. (Flip through the templates by selecting the arrows above, or select the four arrows at top right to see the full screen. Scroll down to access the template.)
Introduction
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” — Seth Godin
A slide deck can help tell the story behind an OER as much as the OER itself. It can introduce the resource, explain why it was created, highlight who it serves, and show its impact on access and equity. This slide deck template is designed to support that kind of storytelling in a polished, professional, and conference-ready format.
Below you will find ideas for how to use the slide decks, real examples of OER slide decks and presentation templates, and guidance for adapting the template for your own campus or project.
Ideas for Use
This slide deck template can be used in different ways depending on the audience and setting. Here are a few simple ideas.
For Faculty
- Use it to introduce your OER at the start of a lecture presentation. Share what the resource is, why you created it, and how it supports your students.
- Use it at conferences or showcases. Highlight your process, design decisions, student impact, and lessons learned.
- Use it in workshops or department meetings. Explain how your OER fits your teaching, your program, or your institution’s strategic goals.
For Staff
- Use it for campus or library television display screens. Adapt selected slides into an auto-advancing display that highlights OER and sparks curiosity in shared spaces.
- Use it in outreach or professional development. Adapt the template for OER workshops, information sessions, or campus events.
- Use it to create a visually connected campaign. Pair the deck with posters, bookmarks, postcards, or Zoom backgrounds so the outreach materials feel cohesive.
For Students
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Use slides to advocate for OER at a campus event. Help students, faculty, and administrators understand what OER is and how the cost-saving measure supports student learning, retention, and degree completion.
- Use impact or quote slides to highlight student voices. Show how open access affects cost, confidence, and participation.
Inspirations
Here is a real example of slide decks and presentation templates being used in open education work.
Staff Example: Open Education Network
Who did it: The Open Education Network
What they did: The Open Education Network created an adaptable Introduction to OER Adoption Workshop Slide Deck for faculty workshops. The deck is openly shared as the foundation for a one-hour workshop introducing faculty to OER adoption and its benefits for affordability, pedagogy, and student engagement.
Why it worked: The slide deck gave campuses a ready-made, adaptable structure for talking about OER in a professional setting. Instead of starting from scratch, facilitators could localize an existing deck and focus on audience needs.
How to adapt it with this slide deck template:
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- Start with the title, section divider, and content slides that best fit your presentation.
- Add examples, screenshots, or impact data from your own OER.
- Keep the structure flexible so faculty can use it for workshops, showcases, or conference sessions.
- Use the template as a starting point, then localize the language, branding, and examples for your campus.
Quick Tips for Using Slide Decks Well
Keep slides focused. Use one main idea per slide whenever possible.
Prioritize readability. Use clear headings, simple fonts (sans serif fonts are best), and generous spacing so the slide can be read on a projector, laptop, or phone.
Use visuals with purpose. Screenshots, charts, and images should support the story of the OER rather than crowd the slide.
Leave space. Use margins and spacing to help the presentation feel cleaner and easier to follow.
Tell a clear story. Organize the deck so viewers understand the what, the who, the why, the how, and the so what of what you are sharing.
Make it accessible. Use the Accessibility Guidance in the Appendix to ensure your marketing materials are as accessible as possible.
Guidance and Templates
View the video or select the arrows to read the steps for customizing your own slide deck.
Get the template
Slide Deck Template in Canva

Select the slide deck design from the Canva link below to open the editable template. The templates are free to use and adapt, but you’ll need to create and sign in to a free Canva account to customize and download your slide deck. To begin using the template, select View template. Once you sign in to your account, you may then be prompted to Open in Editor.
Need more options for adapting your asset template?
Once you’ve created your free Canva account and signed in, you can open the Growing Your OER Starter Kit alongside any asset template to copy and paste colors, graphics, icons, photos, and design elements to help your version stay within the OER-California branding theme.
Customize your slide deck
Step 1. Open your slide deck template in Canva and begin adapting.
Use the Canva link above to open your slide deck template and easily customize it for your own OER, presentation, workshop, or event. You can update the text, swap images, change colors if needed using the Growing Your OER Starter Kit, and add your own screenshots, charts, or examples.
Step 2. Choose the slides you want to use.
You do not need to use every slide in the template. Choose the layouts that fit your purpose and audience and delete the others.
To keep the slides interesting and engaging, include a variety of slides, such as:
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- A title slide
- Section divider slides
- Text and image slides
- Text-only slides
- Image-only slides
- Two-column slides
- A quote or impact slide
- A closing slide
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For a short presentation, you may only need a few of these. For a conference session or workshop, you may want to build out a longer sequence.
Step 3. Adapt it to your purpose.
Add your own OER story.
Faculty creators might use the Slidedeck_AboutOER template to tell the story of their OER in a clear and engaging way. You might include:
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- The title of your OER
- Your name and institution
- Why you created or adopted the resource
- Who the OER is designed to support
- How it promotes access, equity, or student success
- Screenshots, data, or student feedback
- A closing slide with contact information and licensing information
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Keep the content focused so each slide has a clear purpose.
Adapt it for your setting.
Besides faculty creators, any OER advocate might use the Slidedeck_Allthemes template in several ways. You might adapt it for:
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- A conference presentation
- A faculty workshop
- A campus showcase
- A department meeting
- A library presentation
- A library television display screen with auto-advancing slides
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Note: If you are using selected slides for a library display screen, keep the text short, use large readable headings, and make sure each slide can stand on its own for viewers who may only see it briefly.
Step 4. Check for readability and accessibility.
Before sharing or presenting, review the slides using the Accessibility Guidance in the Appendix to make sure they are easy to read and accessible.
Step 5. Share or download your finished deck.
Once your deck is ready, you can present it directly from Canva or download it in the format that works best for your needs.
To share directly from Canva
Select the Share button from the top right of the screen [1]. Then select Present [2].
Choose the presenter format you prefer [3].
To download your slide deck
To download, select the Share button at the top right of the screen [1] and then select Download [2].
From the File type drop-down menu, select the PPTX to download as a PowerPoint slide deck file [3]. You may also want to download a PDF Standard version for ease of sharing.
From the Select pages drop-down menu [4], select the page or pages of the slide deck you wish to download.
Then, select Download [5], and your file will be downloaded to your device.
The what explains the resource, idea, or project you are sharing so viewers understand what it is.
The who explains who the resource is designed for or who helped create it.
The why explains the purpose, need, or problem behind the work so viewers understand why it matters.
The how explains the process, design choices, or next steps so viewers understand how the work was created, used, or shared.
The so what explains the impact, value, or takeaway so viewers understand why they should care or what they can do next.

