CBT Speaking Coach. - Review - audio-visual review

Training & Development, Jan, 2000 by Garry Cosnett

Effective Presentations CD-ROM (three discs), 1999, Xebec Interactive; 800.598. 4077; mhlifetimelearning.com. Purchase US$1,995 (single workstation, multi-user license). Other material: none.

Xebec Interactive's new CD training program, Effective Presentations, is designed to give users a comprehensive course in business-presentation skills. As a presentation coach and consultant with more than 10 years of experience, my interest in this program is more than academic. I want to know whether three discs can put me out of a job.

The first unit of the course, "Creating Your Presentation," covers the basics: setting objectives, analyzing the audience, structuring the message, and writing openings and closings. Most of the lessons, delivered through onscreen text, voiceovers, and video segments, are reasonable and helpful. Yet, each claim that the narrator makes--no matter how subjective the topic--is delivered as a definitive truth.

The second unit, "Delivering Your Presentation," focuses on delivery issues, including appropriate dress, gestures, body language, eye contact, and stress management. For the most part, the lessons are standard Speech 101 fare. Nothing is terribly new or insightful, but the tips and suggestions are sound.

One area of weakness is the section on managing presentation anxiety. It may follow Hippocrates's admonition to "First, do no harm." Unfortunately, it doesn't do a lot of good, either. "Think positively" and "envision success" are key suggestions, but the program gives little concrete instruction on how to do those things.

The final unit, "Put Your Skills to the Test," offers learners the opportunity to prepare and, in a limited way, deliver a persuasive presentation. The challenge is to deliver a marketing presentation to a skeptical audience. To prepare, the learner reviews relevant market data, media reports, and the like. He or she then analyzes the audience, structures the presentation, and chooses visual aids. Those choices then help shape a simulation in which a video presenter delivers the presentation. The simulation is complex and sophisticated, showing the audience's reactions to each component of the presentation from the opening to the interactive question-and-answer session.

Because it does a reasonable job of simulating the multidimensional challenges a presenter faces, "Put Your Skills to the Test" is the most valuable section of the program. Obviously, the weak link is the fact that a digital actor, not the learner, is the presenter. Yet, to score well, the user needs to direct the simulated presentation with skill and flexibility.

Can the art of oral presentation be taught via CD-ROM? In the case of Effective Presentations, my answer is "sort of." Clearly, the user can gain a basic understanding of how presentations work and practice the planning and structuring part of business presentations. But developing presentation skills--like developing scuba- or sky-diving skills--requires real practice. And that's not likely to come from a CD-ROM anytime soon.

                                RATINGS KEY
****      Outstanding
*** 1/2     Very good
***              Good
** 1/2  Above average
**            Average
* 1/2   Below average
*                Poor
                          Effective Presentations
****        Ease of installation
***        Holds viewer interest
***           Production quality
*** 1/2  Degree of interactivity
** 1/2  Quality of interactivity
***             Value of content
***          Instructional value
** 1/2       Value for the money
*** 1/2            Documentation
***               Overall rating