Online presentations

Descriptive transcript

Welcome back to Episode 4 of UTS Student Hacks with Avi and Kelly.

Today we’ll be talking about the dreaded topic of presentations. As most, if not all, of our classes have gone online, we will be discussing specifically how to engage a group of people when you are not in the room. The information we present to you could also be applied to future video interviews.

It isn’t always easy to project yourself as calm, cool and collected in front of an audience. I used to get nervous, sweaty palms, my voice might begin to break – essentially, my whole body decided to backfire on me. As much as I would like to say there’s a quick fix for it, there isn’t. Like the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Remember, it’s also A-OK to mess up.

Same, Kelly. I remember that I wasn’t always calm, cool and collected when presenting in front of an audience. But after some practice, I could already see some improvements in myself. And there are only a few lucky people that are natural presenters. The rest of us have to practise, learn from our mistakes and muddle through. But it doesn’t have to be that way, does it Kelly?

No, it doesn’t. That is why we are here with three main resources to help you to improve your presentations. They are UTS Careers to help you practise talking in high-pressure situations and engaging an audience online, UTS HELPS to make sure you are prepared and set for your presentation, and LinkedIn Learning for videos about projecting confidence even when you are nervous.

Essentially, be prepared, practise and project confidence! Fake it till you make it! Let’s jump into UTS Careers.

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Presenting to a group of people is a lot like going for a job interview, and there are lots of skills that are applicable across both situations. UTS Careers provides all UTS students with a Video Interview Practice Tool. This tool can help you build those interview skills that you can also use to ace your online presentation. Your submitted interview gets sent for review by one of the UTS Careers experts and you’ll get really helpful feedback on what to work on for the future. Also, check out the UTS Careers Blog to learn more about do’s and don’ts to deliver an outstanding online presentation, tips to boost your presence during a presentation and how to avoid common mistakes that can help you to ace any presentation or interview. So definitely check the resources section to learn more about them.

As Avi and I are current U:PASS Leaders, which is under UTS HELPS, we know how helpful UTS HELPS can be. Just like its name, UTS HELPS can really help you academically. There are three key resources, but we strongly recommend Group Presentation Skills and the Presentation Checklist. Avi, take it away with Group Presentation Skills.

A helpful resource from UTS HELPS that is worth your time is David Sotir’s video that highlights the key points to remember for executing an excellent presentation. He talks about the benefit of reflecting on your presentations from the past and making notes on what went well and what did not, so that you can learn from previous experiences. He also emphasises the importance of being well prepared on the topic that you are going to present. This particular video is like a visual guide. Personally, any time I have a presentation due, I would make sure to start my preparation by going through this video and other helpful resources offered by UTS HELPS, as it helps me to be more focused and think clearly on how to keep my presentation material engaging, and be better prepared to deliver in front of large audiences.

After checking out the Group Presentation Skills, take a look at the Presentation Checklist. This checklist is broken down into three main sections: content, organisation of information, and delivery of presentation.

Content focuses on whether what you have prepared actually answers the question and is written to be pitched to the audience you are presenting to. This means using the right academic language.

Organisation of information ensures you have an introduction, body, and conclusion. As silly as it might sound, sometimes we forget that presentations do need structure, and with structure comes logically presented ideas and arguments. One checkbox that I found really useful in the organisation of information section is making sure you have at least the minimum required number of academic resources. That small requirement has flown right over my head one too many times.

Lastly, delivery of presentation is making sure you are speaking clearly and at a steady pace, and not swinging around regardless of whether you are speaking or not. If you have slides, make sure they are relevant and used to help your presentation, and double checking you are familiar with them.

This checklist ends with three useful links for additional advice on delivering a successful presentation.

If you have listened to any of our past episodes – which you should get onto if you haven’t already, wink wink – you’ll know our love for LinkedIn Learning. A brief intro to LinkedIn Learning: it’s a platform filled with videos from industry experts on how to tackle basically any problem. The video we recommend to ace your presentations is How to Convey Power and Authority, which is about the topic of noticing and controlling your body language. For example, noticing when you are slumping over and correcting it, or even doing some power poses like Wonder Woman and Superman to make you feel confident. Check out the description below for the links to the videos about body language and other useful videos to help give you an awesome presentation.

Thank you so much for sticking to the end of episode four with Kelly and I. Once again, all the resources mentioned are linked in the description down below with the other resources.

Hope you’ve been enjoying the podcast so far. We’ll see you next week for episode five about self-care and looking out for others with Rebecca and myself. Until then, go ace that presentation.