Hi! At the end of April I am giving an hour-long presentation/demo for about 30 colleagues at our annual retreat. While the presentation will be done via PowerPoint, I will be showing them a couple of Storyline 2 courses I built. What I'm curious about is how have you made PPT presentations interactive while speaking to a group? Asking questions & polling I have built in already.
I'm not sure what sort of content you're presenting, but maybe you could use a story/scenario and have volunteers play the characters? Or ask people for examples or personal stories they can share that support a point you're trying to make. I know I tend to remember something if there's a story or some humor associated with it. Good luck with your presentation!
Whenever I give a PPT presentation in person, I try to remember that people don't like to be read to. Save the real estate on your slides for visuals, graphs, bullet points, things like that, but the meat of the presentation you should say out loud. Maybe put it in the notes section of the PPT. If people want the notes to read later, you'll have them, but the fewer words on the slides mean the less distracted people will be when you're speaking. Hope that helps, and good luck!
Don't use small text and put large paragraphs on the slide then read them. Use large contrasting text and bullet points then talk. I sat through one presentation with small dark red text paragraphs on a light red background; it was torture :-)
The questions are a good idea, "What are some of the things..." type questions allow several people to chime in answers.
Your meeting actually sounds like fun; though I may be biased in favor of the topic. :)
I'm a big fan of predictive presentations. I'd suggest that as you go along you periodically present them with a problem you were trying to solve (big or small), then ask them what they would have done to solve it. Could be done individually, in pairs, or in groups - then get some of their ideas before you dazzle them with what you ended up doing in your Storyline course. It'll focus them and lead to a very on-point discussion - and they may come up with lots things you hadn't thought of that can be used in your next project!
Fun but professional images, presentation zen has some great examples.
Use is as an opportunity to get them to give their opinion on the learning and what constitutes good learning.
I used to send round a pack of M&Ms (try and avoid peanut) and ask them to take some but not eat them, then when everyone has them put a slide up with questions (normally icebreaker questions) then tell them they have to answer the questions for each colour M&M and if they took more than one they need to answer more questions!
You could use something like NearPod - It does polling, but also allows users to interact in other ways (e.g. brainstorming with pin boards providing long-form responses, allowing the facilitator to pull responses to present (anonymously) to discuss as a group, etc.).
Any chance they can access your course as you speak about it? (or a limited version of it). They can follow along with their own experience, especially if its scenario based.
Recently we developed a presentation where we too the content presented and turned it into a jeopardy style game. Divided the group into a couple teams and had each group buzz to answer. Had a slide with the topics and point values. That might be a little much but the more you can get your audience engaged and participating the better experiences I have had.
If you have anything "lists" of anything...sometimes it's nice to have the audience pair off and try to guess the things on your list. They might actually come up with some ideas you didn't list! And then you can reveal all your answers, including any they missed???
If you have access to a SmartBoard or another type of touch screen, you could encourage engagement with audience participation. Participants can come to the screen to answer questions in whatever format you choose. You could also explore Prezi instead of powerpoint. When done correctly, Prezis can encourage engagement in a class. But as long as you focus on the audience, their learning and their experiences, then you should have an engaged group.
Oh my goodness! This community continues to amaze and impress me! Thank you so much for these AMAZING ideas; I'm so excited to put them into practice. :)
12 Replies
I'm not sure what sort of content you're presenting, but maybe you could use a story/scenario and have volunteers play the characters? Or ask people for examples or personal stories they can share that support a point you're trying to make. I know I tend to remember something if there's a story or some humor associated with it. Good luck with your presentation!
Whenever I give a PPT presentation in person, I try to remember that people don't like to be read to. Save the real estate on your slides for visuals, graphs, bullet points, things like that, but the meat of the presentation you should say out loud. Maybe put it in the notes section of the PPT. If people want the notes to read later, you'll have them, but the fewer words on the slides mean the less distracted people will be when you're speaking. Hope that helps, and good luck!
Don't use small text and put large paragraphs on the slide then read them. Use large contrasting text and bullet points then talk. I sat through one presentation with small dark red text paragraphs on a light red background; it was torture :-)
The questions are a good idea, "What are some of the things..." type questions allow several people to chime in answers.
Hi Erin!
Your meeting actually sounds like fun; though I may be biased in favor of the topic. :)
I'm a big fan of predictive presentations. I'd suggest that as you go along you periodically present them with a problem you were trying to solve (big or small), then ask them what they would have done to solve it. Could be done individually, in pairs, or in groups - then get some of their ideas before you dazzle them with what you ended up doing in your Storyline course. It'll focus them and lead to a very on-point discussion - and they may come up with lots things you hadn't thought of that can be used in your next project!
Best of luck and have fun!
Fun but professional images, presentation zen has some great examples.
Use is as an opportunity to get them to give their opinion on the learning and what constitutes good learning.
I used to send round a pack of M&Ms (try and avoid peanut) and ask them to take some but not eat them, then when everyone has them put a slide up with questions (normally icebreaker questions) then tell them they have to answer the questions for each colour M&M and if they took more than one they need to answer more questions!
I would say keep it fun!
You could use something like NearPod - It does polling, but also allows users to interact in other ways (e.g. brainstorming with pin boards providing long-form responses, allowing the facilitator to pull responses to present (anonymously) to discuss as a group, etc.).
You can create a bingo game sheet with content from the slides and have them play along (maybe use Phil Mayor's suggestion of m&m's)
Any chance they can access your course as you speak about it? (or a limited version of it). They can follow along with their own experience, especially if its scenario based.
Recently we developed a presentation where we too the content presented and turned it into a jeopardy style game. Divided the group into a couple teams and had each group buzz to answer. Had a slide with the topics and point values. That might be a little much but the more you can get your audience engaged and participating the better experiences I have had.
If you have anything "lists" of anything...sometimes it's nice to have the audience pair off and try to guess the things on your list. They might actually come up with some ideas you didn't list! And then you can reveal all your answers, including any they missed???
I love all these great game ideas too!!
If you have access to a SmartBoard or another type of touch screen, you could encourage engagement with audience participation. Participants can come to the screen to answer questions in whatever format you choose. You could also explore Prezi instead of powerpoint. When done correctly, Prezis can encourage engagement in a class. But as long as you focus on the audience, their learning and their experiences, then you should have an engaged group.
Oh my goodness! This community continues to amaze and impress me! Thank you so much for these AMAZING ideas; I'm so excited to put them into practice. :)
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