Course Syllabus

Explore the elements that contribute to preparing for and successfully delivering presentations, such as audience analysis, methods for crafting your message, planning for careful and effective oral presentation, and creating supportive material and presentation aids.

Your employer will likely ask you to present your ideas and knowledge, whether to make a sales pitch, offer your point of view, or present an award to a colleague. Most oral presentations, whether delivered face-to-face or online, follow specific protocols. In this course, you will practice your skills to become a more proficient and confident presenter, both face-to-face and online.

This course has two parts. First, we will explore the elements of communication and what they mean. We will study how to analyze an audience to develop a clear, appropriate, and effective presentation that informs, persuades, or entertains. We will discuss how to deliver a presentation with expertise, organize presentation materials, offer relevant supporting evidence, and include references to establish credibility and authority. We will also explain how to tailor your speech for your audience with compelling presentation aids.

In the second part of the course, we will explore how to deliver an oral presentation that incorporates appropriate language and effective delivery techniques. We will discuss how to use proper tone, volume, rate, and modulation of voice, body language, eye contact, and other forms of nonverbal communication. We will also discuss how to present online, strategies for managing public speaking anxiety, and how to plan for the unexpected.

This course includes the following units:

• Unit 1: The Elements of Communication
• Unit 2: Analyze Your Audience
• Unit 3: Making Your Presentation Relevant
• Unit 4: Structuring Your Presentation
• Unit 5: Providing Supporting Content
• Unit 6: Creating Your Presentation Aids
• Unit 7: Delivering Your Presentation
• Unit 8: Categories of Presentation Delivery
• Unit 9: Speaking to an Online Audience
• Unit 10: Using Your Presentation Aids
• Unit 11: Overcoming Anxiety and Uncertainty

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Recognize elements of communication when preparing for and giving a presentation;
• Analyze an audience to create an effective presentation;
• Choose careful and thoughtful language that is appropriate for your audience;
• Choose a presentation topic according to your expertise, audience, and expectations for the occasion;
• Develop an outline that identifies a clear central message with supporting main points;
• Choose a speech pattern to organize a presentation's main points; Choose strong, appropriate content that supports a central message;
• Identify strategies for creating presentation aids that enhance the verbal message;
• Explain cohesive oral presentation techniques for style and language, citing authoritative sources, and appropriate presentation aids;
• Identify the fundamentals of oral presentation, such as tone, volume, rate, and modulation of voice, body language, and eye contact; and
• Identify methods for addressing public speaking anxiety.

Throughout this course, you will also see learning outcomes in each unit. You can use those learning outcomes to help organize your studies and gauge your progress.

This course's primary learning materials are articles, lectures, and videos.

All course materials are free to access and can be found in each unit of the course. Pay close attention to the notes that accompany these course materials, as they will tell you what to focus on in each resource and will help you understand how the learning materials fit into the course as a whole. You can also see a list of all the learning materials in this course at this link.

Some parts of this course may have been created or reviewed with the support of artificial intelligence (AI). To make sure you receive accurate, high-quality, and academically sound learning materials, all AI-assisted content is carefully checked and approved by Saylor Academy's faculty and subject matter experts.

Only the final exam is considered when awarding you a grade for this course. To pass this course, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on the final exam.

Your score on the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. Be sure to study in between each attempt! If you do not pass the exam, you will not complete this course or receive a certificate of completion. You can attempt the exam as many times as you want.

You can see this assessment at this link.

The certificate earned by passing this self-paced course displays the program hours you completed and continuing education credits (CEUs). CEUs document successful completion of courses that are designed to improve the knowledge and skills of working adults. Many industries value CEUs, and now your certificate reflects them clearly, and they may be used to support career advancement or to meet professional licensing standards. This course contains 2.3 CEUs.

PRDV008: Preparing and Delivering Presentations is a self-paced course, meaning you can decide when to start and complete the course. We estimate the "average" student will take hours to complete. We recommend studying at a comfortable pace and scheduling your study time in advance.

Learning new material can be challenging, so here are a few study strategies to help you succeed:

• Take notes on terms, practices, and theories. This helps you understand each concept in context and provides a refresher for later study.
• Test yourself on what you remember and how well you understand the concepts. Reflecting on what you've learned improves long-term memory retention.

This course is delivered entirely online. You will need access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and consistent internet access to view or download resources and complete auto-graded assessments and the final exam.

To access the full course, including assessments and the final exam, log into your Saylor Academy account and enroll in the course. If you don't have an account, you can create one for free here. Note that tracking progress and taking assessments require you to log in.

For more details and guidance, please review our complete Technical Requirements and our student Help Center.

Optional Saylor Academy Mobile App

You can access all course features directly from your mobile browser, but if you have limited internet connectivity, the Saylor Academy mobile app provides an option to download course content for offline use. The app is available for iOS and Android devices.

This course is entirely free to enroll in and access. All course materials, including textbooks, videos, webpages, and activities, are available at no charge. This course also contains a free final exam and a free course completion certificate.