So, 72hrs after my first foray into Zoom lecturing, some thoughts and reflections from the session (THREAD)

#FOAMed #presentationskills https://twitter.com/edd_broad/status/1313778872991838210

1) Tech is hard. Make it easy

Practice is the key to great lecturing. In this case, the tech *can* make things harder. Practice for this lecture involved logging into the account I was lecturing from, and delivering the lecture to my wife in a different room

This meant that I knew exactly what keyboard shortcuts I needed to share the right screen, how my audio sounded, how people talking to me would sound, and how to set up my display so I could see the chat/cameras. None of this was new to me on the day.

This is the new "turn up 3hrs early, plug your presentation in, and practice to the empty hall". Knowing you are absolutely good to go, no matter what, is liberating. So practice, practice, practice

2) Be comfortable with blank screens

I love teaching in front of a live audience. I never realised how much I loved it until I was giving this talk in front of 39 black screens. Unfortunately, the default seems to be "camera off". It's uncomfortable, but roll with it.

3) Look at your damn camera

So, to avoid the classic "stare at yourself on Zoom" situation and actually engage in eye contact with the students, I ended up following @ffolliet's advice, and sticking a photo just above my camera. It worked great as a visual reminder

4) Your slides are less important than you think

@FreerMary gave a great tip of switching off your screen share to get a better connection with the audience. The principle of P2 is slides should support your message, not replace it. Switching to just you on camera really helps

5) Use the Zoom functions judiciously

Interaction is key. My lecture encourages short, small group discussion at 3 points. Normally this is "chat to a neighbour". The Zoom breakout rooms helped me recreate that, and were really well received in the feedback. Food for thought

6) Cut it down

Your presentation will run longer than you practiced. It will run longer than it ever has done before. My lecture takes 40-45 mins to give, which I know because I've given it upwards to 12 times now. This time it took 55 mins.

The simple issue of interacting with a class over Zoom takes much, much longer than it does in the classroom. Practicing finishing at 90% of your allotted time is my standard, but I'm pushing that to 80-85% of total time for web lectures

7) Cut it out

Being tech savvy has its disadvantages. There is a temptation to use fancy features to enhance the interaction. Thing is, it's just more moving parts to go wrong, and to distract from your core message

The draft I had before my lecture had used polls to get a live word cloud of answers up on the screen. In hindsight, this was silly. I know now it would have added nothing to my presentation. So, before polishing up a feature, think: Does this aid my message, or distract from me?

8) Sort your audio

Horrible echoes. "You're on mute". Sound issues are a semi-permanent feature of Zoom calls. Relying on your computer speakers/internal mic didn't fly for me. So I ordered an external mic/headset combo for my lecture

Mine was a little pricey, for my own reasons, but you can get a headset with boom mic like you see in call centres for £40 on Amazon, your audio will be perfect, and you will sound polished and professional

Thanks to @FreerMary for the tips about maximising interaction, and as ever thanks to @ffolliet for his continuously available guru-ship and last minute advice. Hopefully some slightly more polished thoughts will make their way onto an @NorwichPEM blog at some point soon!