WEEK 7: presentation planning

STEP 1 | Begin your week by joining us for our live lecture

This week’s lecture on Monday, February 24 at 11AM ET will get you thinking about the overall structure of your presentations—bringing the low-tech strategies we’ve explored to life using your slideware application. Your assignments are focused on factors related to content design. Combine these aspects to plan and create the materials you will ultimately present.

You can watch the presentation planning lecture recording below:

STEP 2 | Review learning materials

choose a format that will help you learn best–select at least one from the section below

READ | storytelling with you chapter 5
set the style & structure (pages 91–126)
Transition from planning your content to creating it. We begin with an overview of general design considerations, then establish the framework for your presentation. This includes a pragmatic process for transforming your low-tech preparation into slides.

LISTEN | SWD podcast episode 31: presenting virtually with Andy Cotgreave
listening time 46:14
Cole chats with Andy Cotgreave about optimizing presentation content and style for the virtual environment. Learn how refining your approach through practice, feedback, and thoughtful experimentation can help you increase your effectiveness—in the virtual setting and beyond.

WATCH | modes & methods for sharing data
viewing time 58:37
Alex shares how she modifies her output depending on her mode of delivery. This will get you thinking about how to optimize the materials you create for how you’ll present—a topic that we’ll dive into further in next week’s lecture.

STEP 3 | Submit the weekly synthesize activity

required for certificate of completion

SYNTHESIZE | apply this week’s learnings to your course project
It’s time to combine the low-tech planning you worked on in earlier weeks and the design principles covered last week as you build the framework for your course project. Complete the set the style & structure exercise (only visible to course participants). Also, spend time reviewing the work your classmates share and offer your input.

STEP 4 | Explore optional resources to support your learning

OFFICE HOURS

We’ll have two sessions of office hours this week. These are optional sessions that you can join to ask questions or chat. Alternatively, if you aren’t able to attend a session this week you can pre-submit a question here.

Additional recommended resources
following lecture dive deeper into topics of your choosing

WATCH | PowerPoint tutorials
viewing time (videos range from 7:07 to 14:26)
Learn Powerpoint tips, tricks, and tutorials to deliver compelling presentations in this YouTube playlist including, PowerPoint animations and how to create a color pallette.

READ | tactical tip for virtual engagement
Presenting virtually is a reality today for many people, and in this short post, you’ll learn a practical trick to make existing content work in a virtual environment.

READ | connecting the slide title to the graph
Use color to connect the slide title to the graph. This simple change ensures that the audience is more likely to immediately understand the results of all the hard work we’ve done.

WATCH | avoid the teleprompter slide
viewing time 7:18
Using short, pithy phrases and breaking content into multiple slides can transform a slide filled with bulleted text into materials that will better support your in-person or virtual presentation.

WATCH | avoid these 5 slide mistakes
viewing time 9:10
This video shares five common slide issues and how to easily fix them, including; the point is unclear, too many colors, multiple graphs, poor attention to detail and too much text

PRACTICE | resolve common slide slip-ups
In this exercise, you will review what is required for good slide design and then apply these techniques to redesign a provided example. You’ll choose your preferred method of sharing and then make changes to transform the example into a stellar slide.

Great work! Through lecture, you saw behind-the-scenes tactics that can be used to structure your presentation. You explored a number of examples this week, plus started to think about the delivery of your content and how that can be taken into account in the materials you create. Finally, in the synthesize activity, you brought the low-tech planning you tackled earlier in the course into your tools and started to create presentable content.

Next week… Is our final lecture—can you believe it?!? We’ll discuss presenting data stories as we continue to assimilate the various themes we’ve explored throughout the course.