Become a Better Presenter: Improve Your Public Speaking Skills
Learn how to improve your presentation skills and add personality into your presentation style on this three-week course.
- Duration3 weeks
- Weekly study3 hours
Become a Better Presenter: Improve Your Public Speaking Skills
Improve your presentation skills and learn how to engage with your audience
Presenting to an audience, either online or in person, can be a daunting prospect, and requires specific skills in order to be successful.
It doesn’t matter what your level of experience is, this course will help build your confidence and give you the tools you need to improve your presenting style.
Build presentation skills based on your strengths and weaknesses
You’ll reflect on your own presentation style, identifying aspects where you feel you excel as well as areas where you need to improve.
You’ll learn how to add personality and life into your presentation style, and you’ll also decipher how to explain information clearly and effectively to your audience without needing to rely on jargon or them having pre-existing subject knowledge.
Understand how to sharpen and improve your public speaking
Whether you’re presenting to a formal meeting or speaking to 500 people from a stage, you’ll find out how to sharpen your presenting skills and pitch to whomever your audience may be, specifically through improvisation and storytelling.
You’ll also learn what to do when things go wrong and will learn how to tackle difficult and controversial questions as well as how to manage challenging audience behaviour.
Finally, you’ll apply what you have learned in theory and put it into practice, and will share and discuss your thoughts and fears with other learners.
Learn from The Presenter Network at the Royal Observatory Greenwich
The Presenter Network - founded by the Royal Observatory Greenwich - brings people together to provide a supportive space where members can share experiences and techniques to help everyone grow and develop as presenters.
You’ll learn from a range of experts within the presentation field, and will be able to tap into a vast and experienced network of presenters.
What topics will you cover?
- How to identify your presenting strengths and weaknesses.
- How to add personality and life into your presenting style.
- How to engage with your audience whoever that may be from formal meetings to full-blown theatre shows.
- How to sharpen your presenting skills, specifically when it comes to improvisation, storytelling and weaving a narrative through your presentations.
- Activities that will allow you to put the theory you have learned into practice.
- What to do when things go wrong.
When would you like to start?
Start straight away and learn at your own pace. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.
Available now
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Reflect on your own presenting style identifying aspects where you feel you excel as well as where you need to improve.
- Explain information clearly and effectively to your audience without needing to rely on jargon or them having pre-existing subject knowledge.
- Apply what you have learned in theory and put it into practice.
- Share and discuss your thoughts and fears about presenting with other learners in a similar position to see what their concerns are about presenting too.
- Learn how to interact effectively with your audience covering everything from tackling difficult and controversial questions to dealing with challenging behavior.
- Identify networks and sources you can tap into to keep your skills sharp.
Who is the course for?
This course is best suited to people from a whole range of sectors who need to present or speak as part of their jobs.
It will also be relevant to anyone who needs to present digitally now and is unsure where to start, as well as those who have experience of presenting but feel that they could improve.
Who will you learn with?
Senior Manager: Astronomy Education at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.
Founder and leader of The Presenter Network.
Senior Manager for Astronomy Education at the Royal Observatory Greenwich
Who developed the course?
Royal Observatory Greenwich
The Royal Observatory at Greenwich was founded by Charles II in 1675. Today it is a museum and science centre offering inspiring, curriculum-linked experiences delivered by real astronomers.
Learning on FutureLearn
Your learning, your rules
- Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps, but you can complete them as quickly or slowly as you like
- Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
- Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores
Join a global classroom
- Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
- Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
- Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others
Map your progress
- As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
- Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
- Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate
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Join this course
Free
Join free and you will get:
- Access to this course for 5 weeks
Upgrade
Upgrade this course and you will get:
- Access to this course for as long as it’s on FutureLearn
- A print and digital Certificate of Achievement once you’re eligible
Unlimited
Buy Unlimited and you will get:
- Access to this course, and hundreds of other FutureLearn short courses and tests for a year
- A printable digital Certificate of Achievement on all short courses once you’re eligible
- The freedom to keep access to any course you've achieved a digital Certificate of Achievement on, for as long as the course exists on FutureLearn
- The flexibility to complete your choice of short courses in your own time within the year
Find out more about upgrades or Unlimited.
Available until 19 April 2021 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.
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