If you would like to increase the educational effectiveness of presentations delivered as part of your virtual conferences, webinars, online workshops, and other online events, you are in the right place.

“Presenting for Impact” is a presentation skills training program that provides approximately 50 minutes of recorded content along with exercises and supplemental resources to help presenters deliver more impactful learning experiences—ones that effectively support a learner’s ability to gain and apply new knowledge or skills.

Designed to be used during presentation development, the course explores key takeaways from the science of adult learning (andragogy), highlighting methods that support learning and those that hinder it. It offers practical tips and strategies that can be integrated into presentations of any kind.

Who is it for?

The target learners for the program are subject matter experts charged with delivering effective presentations for courses, conferences, Webinars, and other learning experiences. The focus is primarily on recorded online content, but the lessons and tips apply to all types of learning experiences.

While designed to help improve the performance of presenters, the program is equally intended to meet the growing need for learning businesses to improve the educational impact of their offerings – an essential part of competing in the post-COVID world of online events and education. Providing training for presenters is one of the most direct ways to address this need.

We view “Presenting for Impact” as realistic presenter training. It’s not about making presenters more charismatic or teaching them to use technological bells in whistles. For most of us, our presenters are just ordinary people who happen to have significant subject matter expertise. They aren’t going to be the next Tony Robbins, nor are we going to turn them into technical whizzes. But, we can make sure they have a solid understanding of how to create educationally effective presentation. That may not be as exciting, but it is infinitely more valuable for most learning businesses.

What does it cost?

For individual presenters, it is free. If you decide you would like your presenters to participate, we will provide you with an enrollment page link you may share with as many of your presenters as you would like. If you would like to host the course on your own learning management system (LMS) or provide a dedicated version of it on our system, there is a modest fee to cover our administrative and support expenses.

If you would like complimentary, no-obligation access to review “Presenting for Impact” for possible use in training your presenters, simply complete and submit the form below. You will be enrolled automatically and also provided with the licensing fees for hosting on your own LMS.

Please note that if you are not already subscribed to the Leading Learning community list, you will be added. You may easily unsubscribe at any time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the questions we are commonly asked by people interested in “Presenting for Impact” as a way to provide presentation skills training.

Who created the course?

Presenting for Impact was created by Celisa Steele and Jeff Cobb, the co-founders of Tagoras and Leading Learning. Steele and Cobb have worked in the business of adult lifelong learning for more than 20 years, including many years running their company Isoph, where they led the development of many online courses for organizations in the business of continuing education and professional development. They are also frequent presenters themselves, have studied adult learning deeply, and strive to improve continually their own application of adult learning principles to their presentations.

Why Is It Free?

While we believe that it is appropriate to charge for learning experiences that deliver significant value – as we believe this one does – the circumstances of Presenting for Impact are somewhat special for a couple of reasons.

First, the initial version of the course was funded by a Tagoras client, a large healthcare organization seeking to improve the educational impact of the continuing education presentations delivered as part of its online courses and events.

Second, “impact” is core to our mission at Tagoras and, by extension, Leading Learning, and we feel that help presenters better understand and apply adult learning principles is one of the most direct ways to increase the impact of adult lifelong learning experiences.

Given those two factor, we feel it is appropriate to offer the standard version of the course at no charge.

We’ve tried presenter training and/or providing tips for giving better presentations before, but it is hard to get presenters to engage. Why will Presenting for Impact be different?

While organizations often tell their presenters that good instructional practices are important, it’s much less common for them to provide training content that actively models these practices and that is designed to accompany actual development of a presentation. Even when they do, communication about the training is very often not consistent or persistent enough.

The very fact that an organization invests in providing a professional offering like Presenting for Impact sends the signal that excellent presentations are a top priority. This message by the fact the training is delivered through learning management system where additional resources and support can be provided and progress can be tracked. The system provide automated reminder notifications and we also provide organizations with e-mail templates to support consistent, compelling messaging about the program. Finally, Presenting for Impact goes well beyond telling participants about good instructional practices to modeling them consistently throughout the program.

Our presenters are busy people who either volunteer or don’t get paid all that much. How do we help them understand that presentation skills training is worth their time?

Some approaches to addressing this issue include providing continuing education or professional development credit for participating in the program and publicly recognizing those who have participated. Additionally, we recommend positioning the training as a benefit or an expression of gratitude toward your presenters. The knowledge skills they will gain will be valuable not only for the presentations they deliver for your organization but also more broadly in their professional live.

What amount of continuing education credit or contact hours is the program designed for?

For organizations that want to issue credit for the program, it is designed to offer two hours of education. Approximately 50 minutes of this is on-demand video content and the remainder is the average time that would be required to engage with and complete the activities in the program.  

We onboard our presenters and instructors in a tailored way. Can Presenting for Impact be customized to our needs?

The core content of the program can easily be supplemented with resources and support that are relevant to your organization. These may range from downloadable documents, to custom on-demand video content, to live sessions, to facilitation of dedicated discussion environments for your participants.

Our training is highly technical and specialized. Do the best practices of instructional design still apply?

It’s a common misconception that training that involves demonstrating highly technical skills or engaging participants in hands-on practice is somehow exempt from fundamental instructional design practices. In reality, the opposite it true: presenters need to be well-grounded in the fundamentals of good presentation design before layering in the additional components that more technical and specialized training may require.

Does the program cover how to use PowerPoint more effectively?

Presenting for Impact is not a PowerPoint skills workshop or a tutorial on how to use the features and functionalities of slide programs. It does, however, address how to design educationally effective slides no matter slide software a presenter uses.

Request Review Access

Naturally, the best way to determine whether “Presenting for Impact” is a fit for your presentation skills training needs is to see it in action. Just use the brief form below to request complimentary review access as well as information about costs to license for hosting on your own LMS.

Please note that if you are not already subscribed to the Leading Learning community list, you will be added. You may easily unsubscribe at any time.

Have other questions before requesting access? Contact us.