We live in a visual world.
If you are ever on social media sites or glance through a newspaper, you have probably noticed
that you pay a lot more attention if there is something visual: a photo, cool font designs,
infographics… you know.
And, like it or not, most oral presentations (or speeches) can benefit from the appropriate
inclusion of good-quality visual aids.
The term, “visual aids,” however, is dated.
Depending on the topic, oral presentations may include audio, like a speech explaining
about four-part harmony in barbershop quartets,
(sample music)
or audio-visual material,
such as including a video demonstrating how male hummingbirds manipulate the sounds of
their flying wings to attract their mates.
(Yep, that’s really what they do!)
And that’s why the term “visual aids” has been expanded to “presentation aids”—
the term we will be using for our discussion on using aids in oral presentations involving
the use of computers,
or computer-mediated communication.
This video will focus on a brief definition of presentation aids, a bit more detail of
why you might want to include them in your oral presentations, and how they fit into
the communication model.
Finally, to bring the discussion to
present-day technology, we’ll talk about three oral
PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, or the like.
We’ll start with something I hope you already know: What is a presentation aid?
Technically, a presentation aid is something other than the words of a source
(a speaker or author)
that can be used to assist in communicating
the source’s message to the receiver (or audience).
Simply put, however, presentation aids are
anything that can “aid” a presentation,
such as an object or model, a portable illustration
“board,” flip charts—even handouts or audio files.
And the word, “aid” is an important one… which we’ll get to a bit later.
When you are selecting and designing your aids, it’s important to consider whether
you really need them or not.
So… why might you want to use
presentation aids?
They should be more than just pretty pictures or sounds—and, those pretty pictures or
sounds might even detract from your presentation.
The primary reason for using presentation aids is that they do just what their name says:
They “AID” your presentation by adding clarity, helping your audience understand
what you are explaining.
(I told you that word would be important.)
Another reason is that they appeal to a variety of learning styles.
Regardless of if you accept the learning styles theory that there are auditory, visual, and
kinesthetic learners, you’ll probably agree that some of us prefer to get our information
visually—seeing—while others prefer aural means—hearing.
Adding aids to a spoken presentation appeals to both of these preferred styles.
Additionally, several research studies conclude that the combination of both visual and auditory
messages aid—see, there’s that word again, “aid”—aid in retaining the message and
being able to recall it later.
The U.S. Department of Labor sponsored a study that found the combination of oral,
or spoken information, with
visual information increased retention significantly—
we recall six times as much
than if we just got the information orally.
Further, if the visual image is designed well, it will save time in the explanation as the
audience can “see” what you are talking about.
And, finally—again, if presentation aids are well designed—
they can enhance the audience’s
perception of the speaker’s credibility.
But you’ve probably thought of another very
important reason—the same reason newspapers
and social media sites use visual images to
augment the written word and radio uses sound
in addition to the human voice:
Presentation aids add variety and interest.
We are more likely to pay attention to a presentation
if there are good visuals to go along with it.
If you think about it,
when you are delivering a speech
in front of a live audience,
you—your gestures, movement, and facial expressions
—also serve to add interest to your presentation.
In essence, your non-oral behavior
acts as an aid to your oral, or spoken, message.
However, if your audience can’t see your
face or body—like you can’t see mine right now--
Oh, hi, there!
—the only things we see are the presentation aids.
Let’s expand the discussion to more than a formal oral presentation as we go into how
presentation aids fit into the communication process—how we use them when we communicate
in everyday situations as well as oral presentations.
You may recall that a simple model of communication demonstrates that, in order for someone to
get a message, that message has to be transmitted through a channel.
The channel, sometimes called a “transmitter,”
is how the message gets from a source to the receiver.
The channel being used—
face-to-face, radio, computer screen, and so on—
will dictate how the message will be designed,
including what types of presentation aids you can use.
If you are limited to an audio channel, like
a telephone, you can’t draw a map or show a picture.
If your channel is limited to visual, like
a billboard, you won’t be able to add sound.
If you are presenting a speech in a facility
without computer projection equipment,
your aids will be limited to objects, posters,
and maybe audio files that you play on a
portable media device—assuming you have the
speakers to enable your audience to hear them.
Oh, and let’s not forget the receivers—who
are the reason you are communicating your message.
You need to think of them when you choose your aids:
an aid that works well for kindergarteners
may not work as well in
a training session at work.
There’s one more aspect of the communication
model that comes into play: “noise.”
“Noise” is anything that can interfere
with the communication process.
While it can happen anywhere in the
communication process,
our concern here is the noise faced
by the receivers.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming
that noise is only sound.
It can be visual—
such as a person walking by your office
or an email notification.
Or even something you smell.
And it can often be internal noise, like when
you think of all the things you could be doing
other than watching this video.
There is a lot more involved in the
communication model but
that’s enough for our discussion.
The underlying theme is that you have to consider
the entire communication process—
specifically the channel, possible noise,
and definitely the receivers—when you are selecting,
designing, and using your presentation aids.
And this becomes particularly important when
you are using computer-generated presentation aids,
like PowerPoint, for your oral presentations.
Think about three common contexts or situations
where computers are used in the process of
delivering oral presentations: face-to-face using computer projection, live via computer,
or video via computer.
(For our discussion, we are excluding oral-only
presentations like radio or podcasts.)
As these situations involve using a computer
as part of the channel, they are often called
Computer-Mediated Communication,
or CMC for short.
Occasionally, you’ll hear this referred to as
EMC, or Electronically-Mediated Communication.
Even though they are all using the computer
as the channel, the receivers are operating
in different environments, so each situation
requires a different approach
when using presentation aids.
Face-to-face is a traditional oral presentation— a speech delivered “live” to an audience—
with a computer monitor projecting your aids.
For live via computer, imagine a “Voice-Over” PowerPoint live presentation where you are
presenting to an audience who can’t see you—or only sees a small image of you in
a tiny webcam window.
Oh… hello again!
Video via computer would be a presentation using computer-generated aids to maintain
interest while delivering the message in a static—
think “not live”—setting.
Like this video—even if you can still
see the source in a webcam window.
(Oh, hi, again!)
While there are several considerations, we’ll discuss four: how much the audience is invested
in the presentation, the audience’s center of attention, availability of interactivity,
and the distraction level.
A live audience in a face-to-face setting is likely to be invested in the presentation—they
are much more likely to pay attention.
And the speaker can usually tell if the audience is paying attention--
and the audience knows it.
(Think of students trying not to let their instructors know they are having difficulty
staying awake--the audience doesn’t want the speaker to know they aren’t listening,
so they try to pay attention.)
There is an element of spontaneity involved; the communication is happening simultaneously.
The speaker can also ask and answer questions to involve the audience as well as adapt to
nonverbal feedback.
In a live via computer, like Voice-Over PowerPoint, presentation, the audience is still likely
to be invested, but less so.
They might be able ask questions when they wish and, as the communication is occurring
simultaneously, it feels interactive;
it doesn’t feel like a “canned” presentation.
But the speaker isn’t the center of attention;
the computer screen is.
And it’s easy for the audience to be distracted
by their smartphones, people walking through,
and, if they’re like me and use multiple monitors,
emails or other work.
In a videoed presentation with no live audience,
the audience is often less invested—
at least at the moment.
It’s more of a one-way activity as the
communication isn’t happening simultaneously.
The audience can’t ask questions until
after the presentation—if even then.
They are also much more easily distracted
by people talking to them, background noise, etc.,
but don’t feel they have to hide their lack of attention
from the speaker.
After all, the speaker can’t even tell
if the audience is paying attention.
If they think they missed something important,
they know all they have to do is click the rewind button
or re-watch the presentation and get the information—
but they rarely do.
Okay, you now know what presentation aids are
are and why you might want to use them.
And, with an understanding of how these aids fit into the communication model,
as well as the main differences between the CMC
channels where you could use computer-generated aids,
you have an important key to being
an effective communicator:
You now know you have to adapt
your presentation aids to various situations.
The question is:
How?
But that is a topic for another video.