Prezi (guest post)

How to rock a presentation when you can't see your audience

Giving a webinar or remote presentation? These tips will help you engage your audience even when they're halfway around the world.

In this guest post, James White, Managing Director of Media First Ltd, explores how to connect with your audience when delivering web, video or online presentations.

These days more and more of us are finding ourselves presenting to people that we can’t see. Webinars, online presentations and sharing ideas and information on the internet are becoming increasingly popular.

The advantages of remote presentations are obvious – you can talk to far more people than you could ever gather in a single room, and your audience can view and download your presentation long after you’ve finished giving it. Remote presentations are essential for communicating with colleagues and customers around the world who can’t attend an face-to-face meeting.

Without an in-person audience, however, it can be hard for a presenter to react to her listeners and keep a virtual audience engaged. The good news is that you can overcome these new hurdles if you take a moment to follow a few simple guidelines. Take a look at the prezi we've created to highlight these tips, or continue reading below.

1. Remember where to look.

In a conventional presentation, it’s important to sweep the room with your eyes so that the whole audience feels involved. Do this with an online presentation, on the other hand, and you’ll look slightly deranged.

Instead, focus on the camera and imagine that you’re looking through it to talk to one person. Keeping constant eye contact with the camera lens even as you move your head is very important. Don’t forget to maintain high energy and add facial expressions to convey your meaning and keep your audience hooked.

2. Think about the background.

A messy room or a busy office space behind you will distract your audience from you and your message. Choose a plain, professional background for your presentation. Make sure that you’re well-lit, too—if you stand with a window or bright light behind you, you’ll appear silhouetted to the camera, and your audience won’t be able to see you clearly.

3. Make your voice work for you.

Nothing causes an audience to lose focus more quickly than a sleepy, flat speaker. When presenting to a room full of people, you need to add energy to your delivery in order to keep your audience engaged; the same holds true for online presentations. Balance is key—don’t shout, but vary the pace and tone of your voice. Even subtle changes can dramatically improve the attentiveness of an audience.

Remember that your volume and tone should be driven by your content. There are moments when you will want to sound inspiring, times when you will want to sound more like a friend, and points at which you will want to challenge your audience. Your voice needs to change to reflect the goals of your message.

4. Vary the content.

Monotony is boring. Just as varying your tone of voice and expression will improve audience attention and engagement, switching between different types of content will make your presentation more memorable. Use a variety of media to surprise and intrigue your listeners as you take them on a journey through your ideas.

Don’t put too many words in your visual aid. Instead, focus only on key words and phrases, and pair each piece of text with an accompanying image. Graphics keep your audience engaged, especially when those graphics are dynamic or animated.

It’s important not to overlook video as a means for engaging your audience when crafting a presentation. Video can bring your story to life and take your audience to places they’ve never been before. Tools like Prezi make it easy to embed video in your presentations—take advantage of this feature to give audiences a new perspective on your message.

5. Think about your one key message.

People have a limited capacity for remembering information. Whether they are with you in the same room or spread across different time zones, your audience is only going to take one message away with them.

How do you want your listeners to feel—uplifted? Indignant? Energized? Reassured? Be clear about the emotion you want to evoke.

Ultimately, what do you want your audience to do? What is your call to action? You need to make this very clear to them.

Entertaining and moving your audience through storytelling is the key to giving a great speech. This technique traces back to the creators of rhetoric, the ancient Greeks; technology like Prezi offers new, exciting ways for today’s speakers to put these age-old ideas into practice.

Media First are UK-based media and communications training specialists. They deliver practical, realistic and bespoke training using professional TV and conference presenters. For the last 30 years they have travelled the globe presenting, training and sharing their expertise on how to engage audiences.

For more information on Media First and the training they offer, please visitwww.mediafirst.co.uk.

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My First Course in Canvas – A Learning Success!

My First Course in Canvas – A Learning Success

As some of you know, I had my first full time course experience using the Canvas LMS this summer. The course I taught was The Criminal Justice Systems (CJ 311), and it was a learning success.

Throughout my first experience, I discovered several need to know tips that are (most likely) covered in the user guides as well as in the help menu, but are probably not as prominent as they could be. I’ll share the list here, with some screen shots.

One of the first things the Canvas instructor needs to know is that there are three (3) different ways to access Canvas courses.
1)     Desktop/Laptop
2)     Mobile version (for mobile devices)
3)     Canvas iPad and iPhone Application

Because this was my first experience, I wanted to make the most of it, so I used all three. As you might expect, the Desktop/Laptop version was the most robust, although many of the same features were replicated in the Mobile version. The least robust were the IOS applications, but even they had a lot to offer by way of interaction.

Desktop/Laptop

The difference between desktop vs. laptop for me was the Record/Upload Media function.

Unless your desktop is equipped with webcam and/or microphone, you will not be able to add new media. I attached a webcam and headset and had adequate success in recording both. I didn’t care for the visual look the headset presented (like a telemarketer), so I went with a clip on lavaliere microphone.

My laptop has an integrated webcam, so the video was better, and with the lavaliere microphone, the audio was better, but tended to pick more ambient noises. So I needed to somewhat isolate myself in order to get a quality recording.

Take-away:
1)      For better results, use an integrated webcam and an external lavaliere microphone.
2)     Recognize that you do not have to use video for every response, particularly when audio will do.

Mobile version (for mobile devices)

The “Mobile version” of canvas accessed through mobile devices is different than using the LMS from the desktop, and this can cause some confusion (at least it did for me).
           
The biggest thing is the Record/Upload Media feature does not work for the IOS devices, because (as noted) Flash is required. I don’t currently have a Flash empowered mobile device to try.

Otherwise, I did not notice any significant difference in using the desktop or mobile version of Canvas.

Take-away:
1)      Use the Mobile version when necessary, such as traveling, or as an alternative when you are unable to access the desktop version
2)     Use the Mobile version sparingly because you limit yourself unnecessarily with regard to use of the media function


Canvas iPad and iPhone Application

Here is where I think the value in canvas rests. With either the iPad or the iPhone, you can make video responses to students (or audio alone) from your mobile device pretty seamlessly. The value I see in this application is that the student can receive your messages on virtually any device they can access the Internet on.

I would suggest you not to record more than a few minutes of video or audio to make the interaction more like engagement and less like a lecture. However, there is nothing to prevent you from “shooting on location.” Specifically if you can tie it to an assignment or even an announcement.

While traveling you could record a short video and later upload it to your Canvas course for students to view and comment on. Short videos (3min or less) render and compress faster and are less likely to have any issue with posting. I did not test to see how long I could record a video.

Take-Away:
1)      Bending technology to your will, use the canvas app to extend your communication with your students
2)     Use the video feature to energize your course and bring real-world current events to your online offerings

Canvas Icons Convention/Use

The last point I wanted to briefly touch on is the canvas icons use, specifically the Publish/Unpublish Cloud icon.

In Canvas there are at two places where you must Publish in order for the module or activity to be seen by the student. If you have your activities nested in a Module, you must publish the module by selecting the cloud, which then turns green with a checkmark. Then you must also ensure that the activity is published as well. As a side note, as with most online activities conventions you must ensure that the date Available From and Until are set correctly as well.

Although there were other experiences that I gained through this Learning Success, I really just wanted to make those new (or newer) to Canvas aware of these. If time permits (and if there is any interest) I intend to create a walk-through screen capture for downloading quizzes, exams, and question banks from Moodle and uploading them into your Canvas course.

Thanks for taking time to read through this short guide, I hope you found it helpful and I look forward to reading your comments. I also hope that you will feel comfortable with sharing your successes and challenges in using this remarkable LMS application.
__________
Dr. Eugene Matthews
http://higheredapps.blogspot.com/