Optimize Learning with Enhanced Video-Conferenced Presentations

Elizabeth Ryan, EdD
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Video conference presentations should be engaging. This article offers six helpful tips on how to deliver an effective video-conferenced presentation that engages your target audience and makes your presentation memorable. Specifically, the article defines characteristics of effective presenters and gives advice on how to plan and deliver a video-conferenced presentation that optimizes learning.

Tip 1: When planning and delivering your video-conferenced lecture, consider the characteristics best remembered through the acronym OPEN UP.¹

O – Organize: Organize your content and craft a compelling message, story, and/or main message/points.
P – Passionate: Demonstrate your passion for the topic in order to share your interest in it with the learners. The tone of your voice often conveys more than the words you choose.
E – Engage: Engage, involve, or connect with your audience.
N – Natural: Be yourself and be natural. Use hand gestures that come naturally to you, but be sure they are not redundant or distracting. Use vocal tones similar to what you would use when having a dinner conversation with friends.
U – Understand Your Audience: Target your presentation to the level(s) of learner to which you are presenting. When multiple levels of learners are present, be sure to include messages (even if just for a segment of the presentation) that even the most junior learners will understand.
P – Practice: Orally practice your presentation so that you feel comfortable delivering your message.

Tip 2: Understand the difference between videoconferencing through a Smart Classroom and through your desktop computer.
Videoconferencing can be broadly classified into two main groups:

Desktop Videoconferencing Systems: There are many products on the market today that allow you to videoconference through your personal computer. Desktop videoconferencing systems let you share anything you can do on your computer, as well as a video stream of you through a computer webcam. These products promote participant idea sharing and collaboration while removing the barrier of distance. The quality of the video is average, and it is susceptible to network conditions. Such products include, but are not limited to, Adobe Connect Pro, nefsis, WebEx, and Skype.
HD Conference Room Videoconferencing Systems: In this case the room is equipped to capture high-resolution video and transmit presentations to a remote location, which also must have a compatible HD videoconference system to see an HD image. If both systems are not HD, the video quality will only be as good as the lower-quality system. The quality of the video, the amount of different views, and the support staff needed to run these systems vary by the resources that are available to pay for the services.

The take-home message: Understand the environment you will be functioning in during your presentation. For example, will you be presenting in a room with a fixed camera or multiple camera views, or will you be presenting at your desktop with a webcam? Will you have technical support during the presentation, or are there technical features that you need to know how to utilize to transmit the presentation and foster engagement? Will the video be of high- or low-quality resolution?

Tip 3: Before the presentation, understand the videoconferencing set-up.

Inquire about Supported Operating Systems and Files: Similar to in-person presentations, you want to make sure that the electronic presentation file(s) you create are supported at the institution where you are giving the presentation.
Inquire about What the Learner at Remote Sites Sees and Adjust Your Presentation Technique Accordingly: In some cases the room is set up to only videotape the presenter, in other cases it only captures the presentation from the computer that the presentation is being run from, and in other cases both the presenter’s image and the presentation file are captured and shared with remote sites. Understanding if there are one or multiple visuals projected to remote site locations helps you communicate. Main point: When videoconferencing, you and/or your presentation become the visual.
Distribute Presentation Files, Handouts, Outlines, or Agendas in Advance: Participants should have access to the same printed materials that participants at the host site have access to because they are present in person. Each institution may have a preferred method for distributing educational conference materials, so check with your conference coordinator for the protocol.
Create a Plan B for Technology Failures: Hopefully there will be no technological glitches, but should they occur be prepared to respond. At the beginning of the session, set expectations on how to handle technology disruptions. Examples of how to deal with a technology failure or disruption include telling participants that short disruptions will be made up during the allotted time period and permanent disruptions may be handled by sending a summary e-mail that includes presentation attachments or creating a video capture that will be given to the lecture series coordinator for participants to access at a later date. Ask the conference coordinator in advance if he or she has a protocol for dealing with technology disruptions.
Arrive Early: Similar to arriving early to set up an in-person classroom, you want to allow time to familiarize yourself with the room and equipment.
Test the Equipment: As you would do in an in-person classroom, test the microphone, visual projection to remote sites, and the projection of presentation files.

Tip 4: Design your slides or other multimedia so they are easily seen by those at the video-conferenced site.

Slides: The Northwestern University information technology academic and research technology department recommends the following tips for successful materials:

Create PowerPoint visuals in a horizontal format with at least a one-inch margin. If using Microsoft Word files, set the page orientation to landscape with margins of 10 x 7.5 inches.
Utilize Arial, Helvetica, or Verdana fonts with a size of 36 inches or greater.
Utilize black type set with a light background or yellow type with a dark blue background for the best legibility. Avoid using red type or colors that appear to bleed on the screen.
Limit the amount of text you have on a slide to five to six words per slide and no more than five to six lines per page. Less is more in this case.
Avoid using italics or underlining text in a presentation. Plain text projects the best legibility.
Avoid animations. Static images are displayed more clearly than moving images.
Do not imbed video clips into a PowerPoint presentation. Instead, share the video separately through a video player such as QuickTime, RealPlayer, or Windows Media Player. At the conclusion of the video clip return to your presentation file.
To account for transmission delays, plan to present about 25 percent less material than you would in an in-person classroom setting.

Tip 5: Dress in “video friendly” colors and style.
Dress in neutral solid colors. Avoid dressing in all black, white, or red. Also avoid wearing polka dots, fine stripes, or plaid prints, as they don’t project clearly and can be distracting. Lastly, avoid wearing clunky, shiny jewelry. Jewelry may cause a reflection or project a distracting noise at the remote site location because the microphones pick up and project ambient noise.

Tip 6: Employ videoconferencing etiquette.

Introductions: When you start your presentation, introduce yourself and ask members from each site to introduce themselves (if the group numbers are small). Depending on the number of participants and site locations, this process may be as simple as personal introductions (for example, “Hello I am Elizabeth at Northwestern on-campus”) or site introductions.
Refer to Participants and Locations by Name: When asking or answering a question, refer to participants by name (individually, if possible, or by site name). For example, Mary at Northwestern on-campus, your response to the question is? Or, Northwestern on-campus what is the response to…? Verbally identifying a participant asking or answering a question helps all members direct their attention to the correct party in the meeting.
Repeat Questions that Are Asked before Providing an Answer: It is important to repeat questions and identify who asked them prior to providing an answer. For example, in response to the question Mary at Northwestern on-campus asked, restating her question allows everyone to hear the question prior to providing the answer. Sometimes the question asked at one location isn’t heard due to muted microphones. The individual who asked the question may have been too far away from the microphone or there might have been transmission delays.
Ask Members to Mute Microphones Unless They Are Talking: It is important to minimize ambient noise (for example, entering or leaving a classroom, side conversations, rustling noises, pagers). This issue can be corrected by muting microphones at all sites unless someone is talking.
Look at the Camera When Presenting: Determine if there is only one camera projecting your image that is fixed or if there are multiple cameras that capture your image. Looking at the camera while delivering your presentation gives the appearance that the participants located at the other site(s) are included in the conversation. Looking sideways or backward to your slides can give the impression that the participants on the other end are unimportant or disconnected from the session. Balancing attention directed at the audience in front of you and at the remote site is an important skill to have when delivering a video-conferenced presentation.
Be Verbally Descriptive: It is extremely important to be verbally descriptive during your presentation, because at times only your image is projected or you may experience technical difficulties projecting your presentation to remote sites. In this case, your verbal descriptions create the visual for the learner. I like to utilize the analogy of a baseball radio announcer verses a TV broadcast announcer. Unlike a TV broadcast, the radio announcer’s audience does not have a visual, so the announcer has to help the listener create a visual image of play-by-plays. Like a radio announcer, a person giving an effective video-conferenced presentation requires verbal descriptors so the participant on the other end can create a visual in their mind if the visual is lost or delayed.
Run a Lean Machine: Running a lean machine refers to closing all programs down except those needed to transmit your presentation. This action preserves the available bandwidth for transmitting files/videos.
Physical Movements: Be natural, but limit excessive movements. Movement may cause a delay in transmission. Additionally, you want to stay within the parameters of the video camera lens. Understand the video boundaries so that you do not move in and out of the visual field.
Presentation Pointer: Utilize the mouse on the computer as your pointer. Laser pointers may not be captured, as most Smart Rooms capture the presentation materials via the computer and not through the projected image.
Time Delays May be Caused by Lots of Physical Movements or Overloaded Bandwidth. Again, it is recommended that you minimize physical movements and movement within the presentation and run a lean machine.

In summary, numerous variables affect understanding and retention of a lecture. Hopefully these six tips can help those who are asked to videoconference their lectures so the media promotes rather than inhibits learning.

Acknowledgements: Special thanks to James Altman and Michael J. Curtis, Northwestern University Information Technology, Academic and Research Technologies, for their recommendations of these technical tips for success.

Online December 2, 2011