Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

158 Studying online 
presentation, you will feel it and sense it from the atmosphere 
in the room. People will be leaning forward, smiling, and show-
ing they are interested. As the presenter, you notice this, and it 
flls you with energy. It improves your confdence as well. Earlier 
I mentioned that I used to work in the theatre and would often 
speak with actors. Tey all seemed to agree that no matter how 
many rehearsals they had undertaken, performing in front of an 
audience made them better. Somehow, people being in the same 
room enhances what they do. University lecturers say the same. 
When there are students in the room, the lecture is always better 
than the rehearsal. We somehow pick up on the energy, and it im-
proves performance. So, presenting online is problematic. Tere 
is no one in the room to receive some kind of energy from. Even if 
you can see people on the screen, they are not necessarily looking 
at you. Besides, many will have their cameras of while they are 
listening. Plus, sometimes the software will only show you a se-
lection of the people watching, rather than everyone. Tis makes 
presenting online more challenging than giving a presentation 
face-to-face. As an online student, you are going to have to make 
several presentations via the web. So you will need to fnd a way 
of gaining energy from the room when everyone in that room is 
separate. Te best way of doing this is to make your presentation 
interactive. Ask questions so that people have to answer. Get them 
to add things to the chat. Use polls within the video call program 
so that people can vote on things. Look for ways you can make 
your presentation interactive, and you will get a greater sense of 
involvement by the people online. Tat, in turn, will boost your 
energy in much the same way that energy is boosted when every-
one is in the same room together.