Presentations

1. Definition of a Presentation

A presentation involves talking or delivering information, to a group of people with the objective to explain an idea, a system, a process, recent performance/s, forecast/s or any other topic of interest to that group. The person who does the explaining is the presenter and may use visual aids to help convey his or her message more effectively.

2. The Question to ask Before any Lesson/Presentation

Why am I conducting this Lesson/ Presentation? This is one of the most important questions to ask before you commence creating your lesson/presentation. Is it to urge an students to embrace some type of action or change? Is it to inform, educate, motivate, inspire, persuade, entertain the students ? And be equally as clear as to your expected outcome/s. It is your responsibility as a trainer to ensure that each presentation delivers the intended information and/or message and that it has clear intentions and objectives expressed and delivered.

3. The Different Types of Lesson/Lessons/presentations

There are many different types of Lessons/presentations that can be delivered.Following are several of the most common examples of types of Lessons/Lessons/presentations:

a. Informative Lessons/presentations

Informative lessons/presentation’s sole purpose is to educate. These types of lessons/presentations include: assessment overviews or summaries, assessment results reports or any other information that your students may need to receive. These lessons/presentations generally begin with an overall mission statement or goal, followed by specifics and action plans. Training lessons/presentations fall in this category and feature information that the recipient must learn to meet college goals. You may conduct a session, for example, on a case study, which is part of the assessment tasks, for your students so they can better complete the assessment competently with confidence.

b. Persuasive Lessons/presentations

The objective of persuasive lessons/presentations is usually to convince the students to support a certain viewpoint that is being presented.
The format of this type of presentation is often to first outline the students goal/s or problem/s. This is then followed by a situation analysis — a series of statements that outlines the current state of affairs. The presentation then is followed with various scenario/s and solution/s, Lessons/presentations – 2 highlighting the pros and cons of each scenario/s and solution/s. In a very structured and well-organized manner, the presentation will lead the students to the specific solution that the presenter wants the listeners to be aware of for a positive decision to be made.
The use of facts and figures is a high point of interest, as well as examples from similar college situations. Examples of persuasive lessons/presentations include introducing a new product or service to a college.
Motivational lessons/presentations can also fall in this category given that they seek to convince the students to act in a certain way.

c. Celebration Lessons/presentations

This type of presentation/s serve the purpose of celebrating something important that has happened in the college . Some examples of these are a positive (or negative) change in the college culture or a success story of an individual/group in the college community. Celebratory college lessons/presentations include toasts (usually delivered at dinners and events), goodwill speeches made on historically significant dates or milestones, inspirational speeches given during a memorial or even a eulogy, and congratulatory messages recognizing achievements of an individual studentor a group of staffs.
These lessons/presentations help to demonstrate to students and groups that their commitment to the college was recognized. They highlight the college’s commitment to its staff and students and its ideals. Developing celebratory college lessons/presentations often involves researching your subject and practicing your delivery, as well as considering the needs and concerns of your students.

d. Elevator Pitch Lessons/Presentations

The Elevator Pitch would be considered as one of the most common types of lessons/presentations that would be conducted in a college. It is normally quick, informative and incredibly versatile.
You are introducing a new unit so you imagine that you are in an elevator and you have the ear of a potential investor for the duration of the ride. It is basically a short speech that explains your topic and its benefits. Traditionally this session does not require a PowerPoint slide show to reinforce the message. However, if we consider this type of presentation from a broader perspective – it is a name used for lessons/presentations that are delivered in a short time and is up to 10 slides. Its objective is to deliver the main points of the subject matter using as minimal visual support as possible. The lessons/presentations rely mainly of simple infographics/graphs.

e. Storytelling Lessons/presentations

People love listening to stories, especially stories that have a great message and that’s where storytelling lessons/presentations comes in.
Basically, you are presenting your information as if it was a story. Your main points are delivered using examples from your life experiences or from experiences of others that you have heard about. This presentation style is usually heavy on detailed content, however, you can use visuals aids to further support your presentation as it enhances the message and can make for a much more engaging listening experience for the students. The ideal technique with this presentation type is to keep it relatively short and then finish with a relevant message. Even the most interesting story could sound boring and dull if it was too long.
Use of some form of aids to conduct the storytelling is great, however, if the media used was over-powering or overwhelming, then it could act as an unnecessary distraction for your students.

f. Roadmap Lessons/presentations

In general, students are much more receptive if they know the end objective – the expected outcome. A Roadmap presentation achieves this result. You would use this presentation type to share with your students how to get to a particular objective that is of interest to them.
Typically, the end objective is mentioned right at the beginning of the presentation, eg, “Allow me to share with you what needs to be done to achieve a competent pass”. This then allows all students to know exactly what is expected of them. The body of the presentation is then broken down into various sections (consider calling them milestones) that need to be covered so as to allow students to achieve objective. This type of presentation relies heavily on infographics.
Given the name of the presentation, you can be quite creative with the presentation aids that are used, for example, you can use a road or highway image on all your slides to present your information.

g. Problem Solving Lessons/presentations

You present a problem to your students and your content would be built around that problem and they are charged with creating a solution or strategy for solving that problem. This presentation type is regularly used at almost every opportunity in every type of college. What is especially good is that it does not really matter the type of problem that needs solving, this presentation type will be suitable. And more exciting is that you can be really be flexible in terms of structure. And even more exciting is the fact that the problem ideally resonates with the students , which then increases their involvement and interest in the problem.

h. Text Only Lessons/presentations

If there is one rule that you will almost always be given when discussing lessons/presentations and that this ‘Text Only Sucks!” However, with a little creativeness tossed in – text can become acceptable.
Text only types of lessons/presentations allow you to eliminate all the unnecessary clutter and elements that distracts your students and forces the students to focus entirely on your content. To be clear on this type of presentation – you don’t use blobs of text and bore your students.
Reality dictates that they will not read a page or slide covered in text. However, a well-designed slide, with bullet points made up of a few words, maybe one-sentence statements, with a relevant image included, could be enough to create a great aid to your lesson.

4. BEWARE! A Note of Caution!

Many trainers suffer from (what I call) – Analysis Paralysis.Trainers sometimes find that they feel paralyzed when crafting a Lesson. They can’t think of the right topic, right introduction, right content, right perspective or even the right conclusion…. They are unable to put fingers on a keyboard or pen to paper … They just stop thinking – Analysis Paralysis! The trainers, before they even start crafting their lessons/presentations, have already started over-thinking their lessons/presentations – they over-think it so much that they paralyze their brains – they experience what is similar to a brain-freeze – they are unable to think about what to write. Therefore, it is essential that during this process of a presentation, you learn to
Train your Brain to Stop Thinking … and just Start Writing.

5. Secret to Overcoming Nervousness

When people are asked to speak in public, in any scenario, they will usually refuse, making the statement that they simply can’t speak in public. In fact, if they were asked to deliver a eulogy (speech at a funeral about the deceased) many people will say that they would much prefer to be in the coffin than to present the eulogy.
Following are techniques that you could help you to better control your nerves. They are tried and proven by many trainers anxious about presenting a lesson:

Breathe Deeply – Several VERY deep breathes before you about to present. This delivers more oxygen into your blood stream, which makes its way to your brain, which will help you to relax.

Practice – A very effective way to control your nerves is ample practice of your lesson material. The more you practice the more you understand what you are presenting. This places you in your best comfort zone.

Control – the more you practice and understand your presentation, the more control you have over the presentation. The majority of stress and nerves that nervous trainers suffer from are as a result of lack of control. Taking control of your presentation gives you power – it puts you in charge.

Remove the Word – NERVOUS – from your vocabulary and replace it with the term – EXCITED! Definitely my foremost favorite way of controlling nerves. When the majority of people are asked to present, they think to themselves, “I’m nervous!” I suggest that you simply replace the word ‘nervous’ when asked to conduct a presentation with the word – EXCITED! Reposition your minds perspective about your presenting your lesson.

6. What are the Main Components of a Presentation?

The majority of lessons/presentations conducted have a similar format to their construction, which usually consists of the following sections:

• Introduction
• Agenda
• Body (content)
• Summary
• Call to Action

 

Following is a brief outline of what is involved in each section:

Introduction – The Hook!

All good lessons/presentations start with an introduction. The introduction is directly related to the ‘topic’ or ‘message’ of the presentation. The objective of the introduction is ‘hook’ your students right from the start and create a big level of interest in your lesson. The introduction could consist of a:

• Quote – always name the person that gave that quote
• Story – ideally short and to the point and directly related to the topic you are presenting
• Personal – the more you personalize your story the more your students will listen to it and remember it.
• Rhetorical Question – You ask a question that you do not expect students members to actually answer out loud.

 

Students Engagement

You have the students participate in following instructions that you give, eg, “Put your hand up if you would like to retire in 5-years time?” This brings your students directly into your presentation.

Agenda

Before you commence presenting your presentation very briefly outline what you will be covering during your presentation. This is essential for any good presentation as it allows the students to feel comfortable with the journey that you are about to take them on.

Body (Content)

This is where the students hears the information in detail that you need to present. Ideally, and it is only a rule of thumb, you should consider limiting this information to three (3) main points. With each point you should explain the point then provide an example of that point. This gives the students two ways of listening to each point.

Summary

Summarise what you just shared with the students. This section is reworded version of the agenda. In the agenda you said something like – “Today I WILL share with the following 3-points….” In your summary you simply change the tense and you will say something like – “Today, I SHARED the following 3-points…”

Call to Action

This section is usually considered by all professional trainers as the most important section of the lesson. This is where you plant the seed of what you want your students to do; What action they should undertake when they leave the room? How you want them to think?

The following is a graphic view of the information about the structure of a presentation.