Would you like to feel more confident in telling the ‘story’ of your research? This 10-week PhD Presentation Skills course is designed to help researchers develop the skills to present a clear and compelling scientific narrative to multilingual audiences through English. It is suitable for researchers of any discipline and available blended: both online and face-to-face and on campus. In this course, you will learn about the three main types of academic presentations: the conference presentation, the lay audience presentation, and the poster presentation.
Fast facts
- available as a Blended course: online and face-to-face (8 weekly 90-minute online and 2 120-minute face-to-face sessions)
- available as an on campus course
- designed for PhD and post-doctoral candidates
- improve your confidence presenting both online and face-to-face
- learn how to deliver conference, lay audience and poster presentations
- receive personalised feedback on your presentation skills
- course certificate awarded upon completion of the course
- maximum of 10 participants
Participating in the Presentation Skills course was a great choice! I learned so much about presenting and the lay-out of presentations I hadn't even thought about. The feedback the tutor gave was very constructive and it transformed my standard presentations into being more appealing and engaging. The sessions were very well structured with much detail on diversity and inclusion. I was able to apply everything I had learned confidentially to my recent conference presentation, which made it a great success. I can really recommend this course!
Karen Aduful, PhD candidate, Open UniversityCourse aims
The overall aim of the course is to increase your confidence and effectiveness as an academic presenter. This is achieved through a guided exploration of the essential components of an engaging presentation such as:
- knowing your audience,
- a strong beginning,
- the power of story-telling,
- using sign-posting language
- crafting effective slides,
- effectively using your voice through breath, intonation, pausing, and emphasis,
- using body language to present confidently,
- how to handle Q&A sessions.
Course format
The course runs for 10 weeks with 8 x 90-minute weekly webinars or on campus lectures at a fixed time and 2 x face-to-face sessions for live presentation practice.
You will deliver the three presentation types in a safe space and will receive personalised feedback on your strengths and weaknesses each time, both from the tutor and from fellow participants, from which you can learn and grow in skills and confidence. Groups are limited in size to a maximum of 10 participants.
Zoom is used as the main course platform but the final two sessions will take place at Science Vision, UM, FHML campus, where your practice presentation will be recorded. Recorded presentations will be accessible to you via video links provided.
Each week, you will be provided with home tasks to consolidate learning, which consists of videos to watch and reflect on.
Course requirements
You are required to give all 3 presentation types and attend 8 out of 10 sessions in order to receive the course certificate.
This course is considered to be worth 1 ECTS depending on faculty policy.
Master your presentation skills!
Fees
€ 610
UM PhD candidates may be eligible for funding provided by their department or faculty. Please check with your employer whether you are eligible for such funding. If so, you are required to provide the Language Centre with:
- name of the person responsible for payment
- your faculty
- your department
- personnel number (700……)
- For PhD candidates of FHML, MaCSBIO, M4I or Merln a maximum of three skills courses (including this one) is funded until further notice. Providing department and personnel number is sufficient.
If you are not eligible for departmental funding, the Language Centre will send you an invoice directly. Please note that registration is an agreement to pay.
Dates and registration
Both the blended courses as well as the on campus courses are starting multiple times per academic year. Please check the website for dates that suit your schedule. You can register using our registration form. Use status 'UM PhD candidate' if you are a PhD candidate.
