How to Ace Your Presentations Pt.3 (you are the star)

Study Tipping Tuesday
How to Ace Your Presentations Pt.3 (you are the star)

If you missed it – check out Part 1 and Part 2 of How to Ace Your Presentations.

Okay so now you’re ready to start creating your presentation. Have you ever been bored watching a presentation? Good - then you already know what not to do ;) But in case you need a refresher:

• Don’t put too many words on a slide and read straight from them (snooze)
• Don’t put cheesy clip art all over the place
• Don’t go crazy with slide graphics

And the most important…

• Don’t use media as a crutch – the PowerPoint or whatever you use (ever heard of Prezi? Check it out as another cool option that is sure to impress) should be a mere background, like background music in a movie. It sets the tone and gives the audience another mode of embedding the information. A kissing scene in a chick flick without the music? Could be awkward. But add the music and you have chick-flick movie magic. However, the music alone would not bring people to the theater. The stars do.

And you should be the star of your presentation.

Keep this in mind when creating your PowerPoint and you will do great. Let it serve as a background and a visual aid – but not the entire thing. Keep it simple and use visuals whenever possible. I usually prefer 1-2 pictures per slide and a word or two or maybe one short quote. Again, remember, the PowerPoint isn’t giving the presentation – you are.

Now of course every class may be different. Always ask your professor first for his or her PowerPoint presentation guidelines/preferences. These are just rules of thumb that always worked great for me.

So there’s not much to creating the presentation, then, right? In some sense, yes. It should be very simple. A few words, a few pictures, and lots of practice so that you get the delivery right (we’ll talk more about that next week).

But there’s more. In addition to thinking about visuals and other “background music” to set the tone for your presentation, consider going above and beyond and doing something relevant and creative (kind of like what we talked about last week with The Big Bang Theory YouTube videos).

For example, have you ever tried making a movie on Xtranormal.com? I just made my first one for a presentation I’m giving in grad school next week. It’s an educational technology course and our final project is revising a workshop by integrating new technology. 

So I reworked the goal-setting workshop I give to students at colleges around the country, and decided to introduce the workshop with an Xtranormal movie, which you can watch here if you like! (note: I find with Xtranormal it can be best to exaggerate as I think that makes it more entertaining since the characters are so static/robotic. So my movie is hyperbolic on purpose in order to add some humor).

Making this was incredibly fun, and my professor was so excited when she found out I was actually making one and was going to show it in class when I give the presentation on my project. Professors love to see that you are doing something different (and relevant), because it shows that you really care and are the kind of student who goes the extra mile. 

Xtranormal is just one of many options I know you can think of when adding to your presentation “background music.” Share your ideas with our Facebook community. And if you ever make an Xtranormal movie (it’s sooo easy and free) – please also share it on our Facebook. I’d love to see! :)

Stay tuned next Tuesday to learn how to overcome your fears to get up in front of an audience to give your amazing presentation.

Also - while the official media launch date isn't until March 15 - you can order my book on Amazon.com now!! You can get the Kindle version here, or get it on Barnes & Noble.com. Once you read it if you can write a review on Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.com I would appreciate it more than you know. Thank you guys for being with me through all of this!!!

How to Ace Your Presentations - Part 2 (make them entertaining)

Study Tipping Tuesday

How to Ace your Presentations – Pt. 2

If you missed part 1 in the How to AceYour Presentations series you can check it out here.

Once you’ve completed step 1 and have a clear outline of your presentation with a few key points you are ready to start making the presentation entertaining.

And I don’t mean embedding any old YouTube video or dressing up in some kind of weird costume (though these things could work as long as they were relevant).

That is the key word to making your presentation entertaining – relevance.

 

Look at your outline and think about how you can do at least one of the following (if you can hit all 3 you’ve got a home run):

1. How can you make your presentation content relevant to your audience’s lives?

2. How can you add in an entertaining element to your presentation that is relevant to current popular culture and the course/presentation content?

3. How can you do something creative that will  help your audience see your presentation content in a new/deeper way? 

Using these questions you will then want to think of ways to use media, stories, or any other means to take your presentation from boring to memorable. Which, when done right, will take your presentation from a B- to an A+.

As I'm sure you've experienced – boring is not a good teacher. We retain and learn the most when we are entertained and engaged (e.g. I bet you can remember the lyrics to your favorite song faster than you can remember the quadratic equation). 

Do your classmates a favor and don’t bore them to death on presentation day. Give them something to remember.

And always remember it isn’t about entertainment for entertainment’s sake – your professor will not be humored by that (and in the end your goal is of course not to entertain or teach your classmates but to get a good grade). 

But - your professor will be very impressed with your ability to be creative with the course content in a way that further engages the class in whatever it is you are presenting about (e.g. I once created an XtraNormal animation for a grad school presentation that was a huge hit with my professor).

For example, when I co-taught a Life and Career Planning class I was tasked with creating the lesson on social intelligence (the ability to understand and act upon unspoken social rules). I wanted to make this fun and wanted to start with an entertaining and relevant introduction to engage the class right away. So after reading more deeply on the subject (this is the key to adding entertaining elements to your presentations – you have to know your stuff!) I had an idea.

I realized that the best example I saw of social intelligence was in the comedy The Big Bang Theory. The heart of this show is the character Sheldon who possesses a very high IQ and almost no social intelligence (e.g. does not understand how to follow social conventions like how to act in a movie theater, how to choose a formal outfit, how to properly read the emotions of others, etc.) and his (and his other brainy friends’) interactions with Penny – their next-door-neighbor with not-the-highest-IQ but who possesses a high social IQ. Thus, I showed the following clips to the class and it turned it into one of the most engaging classes I taught that semester.

  

1- Sheldon trying to find the perfect spot in the movie theater

2- Penny trying to help Sheldon pick out an appropriate formal outfit

Simple integrations of popular culture or connecting a concept with something your audience can relate to immediately in their own lives will capture their attention, make your material more stimulating, and earn you a better grade.

Engage deeply with your content and think big about how you relate to it. Brainstorm relevant videos, popular culture, news stories, or stories in your own life that could illuminate your key points and create a memorable experience for both you and your audience.

Once you have your key points and the stories and/or media you are going to use to make them interesting, do you just slap a bunch of words and pictures on a PowerPoint? Are there other, more interesting ways than the same old PowerPoint? Oh yes! I’ll share them with you next Tuesday =)