Five tools to deliver stunning online presentations and courses
Tags: speaking, trainers, leadership
Published: 2021-04-30 08:58:00

In the early days of 2020, when Coronavirus starts hitting the world of businesses, the first job activities that have been stopped was the so-called _workplace learning._ According to a study by McKinsey:

> As of early March 2020, roughly one-half of in-person programs through June 30, 2020, have been postponed or canceled in North America; in parts of Asia and Europe, the figure is closer to 100 percent.

A terrible loss of knowledge.

Luckily the industry recovered quickly through _remote training_ and applications like Zoom and Teams have been essential tools in our daily job.

Unluckily, **good public speaking skills are no longer sufficient**. Today, to bring out these skills **you also need the right tools** or your presentations will lose their effectiveness, no matter your elocution.

In this article, I have put together five fundamental tools that you must have if you want to deliver stunning online courses and presentations.

### 1\. Microphone

![The Blue Yeti Nano micrphone](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1619772027203/V_2Jm_5oO.jpeg)

If you are using your laptop microphone in your courses, chances are that your audio doesn’t sound really enjoyable to the students. So the first step is to buy a decent microphone, like:

*   [Blue Yeti Nano](https://amzn.calandra.me/yeti-nano) (desktop)
*   [Rode SmartLav+](https://amzn.calandra.me/rode-smartlav) (clip)

The first is a desktop microphone (but can be mounted on a stand); the other one is a lavalier microphone with a handy clip to fix it on your shirt.

What’s the best? It depends on your presentation style: if you tend to move easily, Rode is fine, otherwise, Nano sounds slightly better.

**ProTip #1:** To have the best possible result you should be able to calibrate your mic on your voice. [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMP-IEfg-yg) video explains thoroughly how to set Blue Yeti using a well-known free tool called VoiceMeter.

### 2. Drawing tablet
![The XP-PEN Artist 12 PRO](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1619772085441/vBqrJoD85.jpeg)

In a real class, usually, you have a whiteboard or a flipchart where you can draw a sketch. Now you are alone, and if slides aren’t enough, you are in big troubles.

A _drawing tablet_ can be considered the remote version of a flipchart. There are various types to choose from. The [XP-PEN Artist 12 PRO](https://amzn.calandra.me/xp-pen-a12pro), for instance, has a good value for money.

**ProTip #2:** Use your tablet to enrich slides with extra contents (do not overdo it), or open a site like [Ziteboard](https://app.ziteboard.com) to draw something from scratch.

### 3\. Webcam or DSLR camera
![The Logitech Brio wecam](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1619772119195/JG3C9LM_R.png)

A [study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27128822) published in _Cognitive Science_ decyphers how gestures improve the effectiveness of teaching. For this, of course, you will need a good webcam like [Logitech Brio](https://amzn.calandra.me/logi-brio).

**ProTip #3:** Logitech Brio has a wide-angle lens, so it can better capture your gesture.

If you have a greater budget consider a DSLR camera like [Canon M200](https://amzn.calandra.me/canon-m200) with [Elgato CamLink](https://amzn.calandra.me/elgato-cam-link) to have a stunning quality.

### 4\. Lights
Natural light is great, but if you are streaming late at night or have poor quality lights in your room then this could be a problem.

![A streaming setup with Elgato Key Light
](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1619772230621/AVEnCYuOE.jpeg)

In this case, a classic lamp may not be useful as it would create strong shadows on the face, and therefore a set of soft-dimmable lights such as the [Elgato Key Light](https://amzn.calandra.me/elgato-key-light) set may be better.

### 5\. Presenter
If during your class you are sitting at a desk, having your computer handy, you could skip this tool. On the contrary, if you like to deliver your presentation standing then a presenter, like the [Logitech Spotlight](https://amzn.calandra.me/logi-spotlight), is mandatory.

It works as a normal presenter (next slide, previous slide,…) but, as a plus, it allows you to darken your screen, casting a spot of light just on the point of the discussion.


![An example of the spotlight effect](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1619772314372/OggGgFjbC.png)

The spot can be driven through hand movement and, if you are a traditionalist, can be replaced with a classic laser pointer effect.

A great boon for online presentation!

**ProTip #4:** The _spotlight_ effect is fancy and cool but sometimes the thing that you want to highlight is bigger (or much smaller) than the spot of light; this will give an awkward sensation and, for this reason, the _virtual laser_ effect could be a better choice.

## Conclusions
Tools hardly change the matter of things. A good trainer will be a good trainer even in a virtual classroom; a bad trainer will be a bad trainer even with better gears.

Nevertheless, even the best trainer will lose part of effectiveness by moving from a real to a virtual class. The tips in this article are just an attempt to reduce this gap.

Hope that helps. If you like this story and want to support click here and [**buy me a coffee**](https://goto.calandra.me/support).

Take care and never stop teaching.  
And learning!

> **_Note:_** _Commissions may be earned from some of the links above._

*Cover photo by [Jonathan Farber](https://unsplash.com/@farber?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/s/photos/cables-microphone?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)*