Self-assessment of my presentation skills

In light of my talk about open education yesterday I want to spend some time thinking about areas where I can improve in my performance, because honestly I don’t feel like I am a particularly solid presenter.

Rather than this be a laundry list of inadequacies though I want to target my shortcomings in a proactive way so I can start to improve in the future. One reason why I present is to get better at doing it; and you can’t really improve if you don’t reflect, review, and evaluate your performance.

Why this is important to me

Sharing of information and engagement in discussion is not just an online activity. This is perhaps a silly statement to make because of how obvious it is, but it’s also important to emphasise. Indeed, face to face interaction, and the presence of live, breathing people is extremely effective in coming together on a topic.

Furthermore, particularly in my field of endeavour, face-to-face interaction with and presentations for the wider academic community are critical; not just to increase awareness of various online elements or activities, but to maintain a holistic perspective on where topics sit – or are perceived – by different demographics. I don’t think you can gain an adequate picture of the true status of online learning relative to the wider subject of education without looking offline first. Otherwise the picture is disproportionately skewed towards people who already recognise the value of the medium, and you perhaps start making assumptions on how many use new media and what their levels of proficiency are.

The skills I want/need to develop and/or attributes I want to cultivate are:

• Speaking more slowly
• Staying on topic
• Engaging more with others

Speaking more slowly

Bad habit number one for me is the fact that, when I get nervous, I talk really, really fast. It’s as if I’m trying to make it through a topic as quickly as possible, or that I feel what I have to say is far less significant or interesting than what other people have to say. From the standpoint of someone watching the presentation this habit causes several problems.

First, the subject matter becomes very difficult to follow. Particularly when you’re covering a topic that is either technical or philosophical in nature (which much of my stuff is), people need to have plenty of time to digest your points in a piecemeal fashion. Firing off point after point in rapid succession is only going to lose people amidst a tsunami of information which worsens over time.

Secondly, speaking too quickly drastically undermines the opportunity for group participation and discussion because it eats up the empty space people need to synthesise what has been discussed. Questions that arise during the course of a talk can really add to its interest, and enable people to tie in a topic to their personal context or circumstances – which in turn can increase the degree of engagement they have and how much attention they’re paying.

Personally, I’m not interested in playing the expert and lecturing a passively attentive audience. I want discussion, debate, expressions of alternative viewpoints, and an overall sense of a group or network activity that just so happens to incorporate a presentation element at the beginning to set the stage and help frame the discussion.

Staying on topic

Bad habit number two for me is I ramble, sometimes badly. What this entails in my case is much like riding in a bumper car. I’ll start with one topic, my sights set firmly on a destination, and then, upon colliding with an unrelated point, suddenly head off in another direction, frequently never to return.

Arguably this is worse for a presentation than talking too quickly, because rambling effectively prevents you from making a concise, cohesive point. Instead people are left trying to figure out what you are trying to say, and how the topics relate to one another. All of which are highly distracting since they take attention away from the original topic.

In the instance of my presentation yesterday, a clear example of rambling can be heard in my discussion on Wikieducator and Wikiversity. I begin by explaining what the communities are and the opportunities they help facilitate, but then suddenly diverge towards the topic of Creative Commons and what the various licenses are. Effectively both topics are highly undermined, because people aren’t sure which topic was the focal point.

Engaging with others

Slightly less damaging to a presentation than the last two habits but nonetheless critical is connecting with people. In my view this incorporates a few different factors, not the least of which include leaving room for others to inject points or share their experiences, and paying attention to the vibe of the room.

The first aspect – leaving room for discussion – I’ve mentioned already. This may not be relevant to everyone of course, since some people like to have a passively attentive audience hanging on to every word they say. I’m not one of those people though, and see myself as just one individual in a room full of people, each of whom have something valuable to contribute, or relevant experiences they can share, which add an element of context to the discussion. In this case it’s important to leave space for them to jump in – and especially to cultivate an environment or atmosphere where people feel comfortable and confident enough to speak up.

Paying attention to the vibe of the room is important because it lets you assess whether people understand what you’re trying to say, whether there are areas of confusion that need to be tackled, whether they find what you’re saying interesting, or whether you’ve lost them completely and need to shift your momentum to re-invigorate the discussion.

What I did well

No self-assessment is complete, I think, without mention of what you think you did well. So along those lines I wanted to briefly cover a few things regarding yesterday’s talk that I’m particularly happy about.

First and foremost, I maintained my composure and focus despite being absolutely petrified. In listening to the recording I was actually amazed how relaxed I sounded relative to the whirlwind of anxiety that was actually going on inside my head. This did require pausing on occasion and taking a few audible breaths during the course of the presentation, but compared to previous experiences with public speaking in which I let nervousness become debilitating, I’m quite pleased with the fact I continued on in the face of serious stage-fright.

Secondly, during the discussion I was able to step back and let others have their say rather than trying to get the last word in every time, while in other instances I recognised when the discussion was starting to die down and was able to inject a point to rejuvenate the conversation.

Certainly there are still areas of weakness in my presentation skills, but looking at yesterday in a holistic way it is clear that I’ve greatly improved from where I’ve been previously. If I had to give myself a mark for my performance, I’d say yesterday was a pretty solid “B.” (American marking standard I know.)

As always I welcome feedback or critique; it’s great to hear other people’s perspectives on things.