We all know how PowerPoint works. It's #4 on the list! I know most of us have engaged with this tool already either as a presenter, or have listened and watched Powerpoint in our professional and academic lives. With that being said, for the purposes of this class, I've discovered there are some valuable tools in PowerPoint that I did not know existed, and wanted to pass along to you all in hopes that it will help you with your doctoral studies, or with your future students! ---Annie
PowerPoint Coaching
Now that I'm almost done with grad school, I figured I was pretty competent in presenting. However, for fun, I used the presenting coaching tool in PowerPoint and it was extremely eye opening. Something that it told me was that I was using "um" a lot as a filler word when I didn't remember what to say or didn't know what the next subject was. The coaching tool is very aggressive and would "ding" me every time this would happen. In addition, it would guide me if I was talking too fast or too slow. Lastly, it would remind me to not simply just read from the PowerPoint slides. I'm attaching a photo below of how to use this tool along with some directions:
When you are in PowerPoint, make sure you are in the "Slide Show" tab.
Click on the "rehearse with coach" button
Begin practicing your presentation!
I tried to record myself doing the coaching, but unfortunately PowerPoint does not allow for you to do both at the same time. What it can do though is record a talking head of yourself if you would like to superimpose over the slides. This could be helpful for those of you who want to do that for your Capstone Presentations. Here is a photo of Todd below: