This module has been refreshed and will be retired soon. Access our Creating Effective Presentations module for updated information and content.
Before you're in front of a real audience, you can benefit from rehearsing your presentation out loud. Rehearsing will work best if you can make it as real as possible, going through your presentation as if there were an audience.
You may be given a specific time limit for your online presentation. When rehearsing you can check on the timing of your presentation. You may find that your presentation is too long or too short, so may need to edit your material.
It's common to find small things that you may want to change after rehearsing your presentation. You may end up making changes to what you say out loud or the content or the order of your slides. You can take advantage of rehearsing to make these changes before testing with an audience.
If your presentation materials are in PowerPoint, you can try Microsoft's Presenter Coach. This tool is available through Office 365, which Seneca students and employees can access free of charge. The Presenter Coach will provide you with notes on aspects of your presentation including your pacing, vocal pitch and word choices and will tell you if you're using too many words or spending too much time reading off the screen.
Instructions and technical requirements for Presenter Coach
Presenter Coach is currently only compatible for presentations in English and works best with presentations with only one person speaking. If you are using Google Slides you can save your presentation in PowerPoint format to use Presenter Coach.