community education teaching

Oral Presentation Best Practices•Plan the presentation to have a logical flow depending on the situation.Is it a phase review of project status and path forward? Does it have a sub-theme of a proposal? Is it a final report?Make an outline first, which ideally can be extracted from the written form of the communication process for which the oral form is intended.•Speak clearly, and confidently (but not so confidently as to appear “cocky”)The best way to achieve the above is to ‘know your subject’ thoroughly, and through practice•Visual support materials should be just that: “support for you message” vs. the message itself•Visual support materials should be kept as simple as possible in helping you to make your key points and tell the story you want to tell.- One key point per slide is sufficient.Know what the key point is!- A rule of thumb for word slides is “the 6×7 rule” : no more than 6 lines per slide and 7 words per line.If you don’t talk about a point don’t include it on a slide.- Too many colors, font changes, and automation can be a distraction.- Make sure your audience can actually see what’s on the slide.Check the venue for the presentation and adjust font size, etc. accordingly.•Speak to the audience, but when referring to specifics on a support slide, clearly identify the place on the slide that contains the information you are speaking about.Pointers, including electronic pointers help, but if you are nervous, a shaky “point” can be a distraction.•Plan overall timing given schedule constraints.Allocate about 1 minute per slide on average, but allow more time for conceptual slides; less for transition slides.Conceptual slides include design concepts; graphs and tables; etc.•Have professional but friendly bearing – especially when answering questions.Have straightforward and honest answers. If you don’t know – say so.•Some things not to do:-Talk excessively to the blackboard/screen- Apologize frequently- Read your presentation