Action point Projects in Computing and Information Systems A Student's Guide 0273721313 Pearson 2009

226 Chapter 9 n Presentation skills Although white boards and blackboards are used extensively within teaching environ- ments, they are not always well suited to presentations. You will find yourself continually turning your back to the audience to draw or write something; you may find yourself talking to the board rather than the audience and if your handwriting isn’t particularly neat, your jottings may be illegible. However, white boards and blackboards can be useful if you have previously drawn or written something on them before you start your presentation, or if you plan to develop an idea or a list with audience participation. Having said this, unless you are confident with these media, it is best to avoid the use of white boards and blackboards during presentations. For presentations using overhead transparencies or a computer program like PowerPoint, keep in mind these simple considerations: n Detail. Make sure your slides are not too detailed or too sparse. Rogerson 1989: 95 suggests 40 to 50 words per transparency can be absorbed in one go, while Berndtsson et al. 2008: 95 suggest a maximum of seven lines of text with no more than seven words per line. Avoid long paragraphs. Figure 9.1 gives an example of a slide that is too detailed and contains too much text. Figure 9.2 shows a better example, following the advice of Berndtsson et al., and presenting the information as a bulleted list the presenter can talk around. n Pictures. Remember that a picture paints a thousand words. Try to strike a balance between images and text in your presentation. People are more likely to focus on and remember images than long textual explanations. n Font. Use a clear font and, in general, avoid fonts with serifs the added strokes at the ends of letters. Make sure the text is large enough to be read easily from the back of the room. To decide on a suitable font, try out a sample in the room before- hand. In a smaller room you might get away with 24-point text, but in larger audito- riums you will need at least 36 point for the text and 48 point for the headlines. n Colour. Be careful when using colour in your slides. Some colours clash quite badly and others do not show up well when projected. Once again, experiment to find out which combinations are most suitable. As a general rule, bold, deep colours stand out best of all and contrasting colours between foreground text and background should be used. Computer-based presentations can usually get away with more varied colours than those based on transparencies as the projection equipment used is normally more powerful. n Hand writing. If at all possible, avoid using hand-written or hand-drawn diagrams on transparencies. Word-processed and computer-generated transparencies look far more professional and appear much clearer. n Multimedia. If you are delivering a computer-based presentation, consider including video clips, sound, computer graphics and music in your presentation. These can take time to prepare and they can also ‘pad out’ your presentation when the audience has really come to listen to you. However, there are certain aspects of student projects that can be presented in a better way through multimedia. For example, a video clip of a software system being used in the field; a short animation of some graphics gen- erated by your software package and so on. Be careful when using these multimedia systems make sure they are portable and will work on the presentation laptop but be aware that they can ‘spice up’ otherwise dull presentations. 9.2 Oral presentations 227 Figure 9.1 A slide with too much detail Figure 9.2 A clear slide n Orientation. It is often argued that transparencies should be presented in landscape rather than portrait format. This will clearly depend on the content of the trans- parency. Try to be consistent and stick with a landscape layout if possible. n Bullet points. Some of the clearest slides are like the one depicted in Figure 9.2, with only a few bullet points that you ‘speak to’ during your presentation. These 228 Chapter 9 n Presentation skills points provide focus for the talk but are not so detailed that the audience spends more time reading the slide than listening to you. n Style. Try to produce a consistent style for your slides – a consistent background, text colour and font; and a border style perhaps including your name, affiliation and presentation title. A consistent style looks more professional and the audience members don’t have to keep ‘acclimatising’ themselves to ever-changing formats. If you are using a computer-based system like PowerPoint, you can set up a ‘slide mas- ter’ that applies a consistent style across all the slides you produce. n Curling. Although not a problem with computer-based presentations, transparencies can often curl when placed on the hot surface of overhead projectors. To alleviate this problem, transparencies can be ‘framed’ with cardboard. However, others, partic- ularly those on which you have left a paper strip attached, curl almost in half. The solution is simply to carry a few coins to place on the edges of the transparency to weigh it down or, alternatively, use a pen. n Slide transitions. If you are using a presentation program like PowerPoint, you can vary the transition from one slide to the next as the program offers dozens of choices. There are no rules regarding which transitions are ‘best’, so select the one or ones that seem most professional to you. You might consider varying the transitions from one slide to the next to make it more interesting for the audience, or stick with one style. The important thing is, don’t overdo the transition effects. Audiences tire of an endless parade of different effects. Remember, keep it simple. Two other aids you might wish to consider are handouts and objects that can be passed around the audience. Before you pass out handouts you should be aware of their purpose. If the audience will need to refer to the handouts during your presentation, you should pass them out before you begin. If not, it is best to leave them until the end as they can cause a lot of distraction to you and the audience during your presentation. Handouts of your presentation can easily be generated with computer-based systems like PowerPoint ® . They allow you to put two, four or six copies of your slides on a single sheet of paper or even note-based pages that have copy of the slide and a space for annotating notes. Be careful that your audience members do not lose interest in your talk because they have all they need on the handouts. To avoid this you might like to give the copies of your slides on handouts after your talk is completed. Passing around objects for example, circuit boards is quite interesting for the audience as it gives them a hands-on, close-up view of what you are talking about. They can, however, cause an unwelcome distraction so be careful as to the number of objects you pass around especially if they are fragile and when you do it. Try to hand objects around during less intense periods of your talk, when the audiences complete attention is not required.

9.2.5 Slide content

Organise your presentation into three distinct components:

1. Introduction. One or two slides that introduce you and your talk.