Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

QUICK TIP: Make your online presentations as interactive as 
possible.That will help everyone feel more involved, but it also 
boosts you as you get to sense their involvement. 
Do not get too concerned, though, about online presenting. 
In my experience, students appear to prefer it to standing up in 
front of a class. Indeed, last year when I gave students a choice 

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Coping with online presentations 159 
of presenting online or face-to-face, the majority opted for using 
web-based video presentations. A study completed in the USA 
a few years ago also found a preference for online presentations 
(Tor et al., 2017). 
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pLanning and preparing OnLine 
presentatiOns 
Earlier in this chapter, you will have read about the need to pre-
pare presentations properly if you are to avoid a sense of nervous-
ness. Tere is much more to consider when planning an online 
presentation than when you are doing a similar talk face-to-face. 
When the Coronavirus pandemic hit the UK, like many lecturers, 
I was forced to teach online. It took me much longer to prepare my 
online lectures than it ever did for an on-campus one. I mentioned 
this to a friend of mine whose daughter had been complaining 
to him about the lack of value she was getting for her student 
fees at university. She was upset that all she got was recorded lec-
tures, and there was no chance to interact with the lecturers and 
professors. I explained that typically it would take twice as long 
to prepare a lecture as the time slot provided. So a two-hour lec-
ture would require four hours of preparation time. However, as 
I told my friend, to prepare two hours of lecture material online 
takes about 12 hours. In other words, it takes three times longer to 
prepare online lectures than face-to-face ones. What was taking 
around half a day for face-to-face was taking almost two days for 
the online version. My friend said he was going straight back to 
his daughter to explain and to help her realise why she ought not 
to complain ... ! 
I tell you this not to make you feel any sympathy for lecturers 
and their demanding job. Rather, it is to help you realise that 
you also need more time to prepare online presentations. In an 
on-campus face-to-face presentation, for instance, the interac-
tivity often happens spontaneously. People ask questions, or you 
notice something and interact with the others in the room. Tat 
doesn’t happen online anything like as frequently as it takes place 

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