Many courses in health care innovation ask you to record yourself delivering short presentations. Use this curated selection of articles and videos on public speaking to sharpen your skills. These insights will be helpful when presenting both in person and virtually.


Public Speaking

This list of resources is meant to be viewed in order, but individual items will be useful on their own as well.

  1. DK. The Public Speaking Lesson You Never Had (19:14). TEDx, 2022.
    Be aware of the ways that your physicality communicates as much as your words and learn to use both to tell a story that portrays you as credible and resonates with your audience.
  2. Vicky Zhao. How to Speak Confidently on Zoom (Tips & Examples) (9:17), 2022.
    Project confidence, speak clearly, and connect with your audience in virtual business settings.
  3. Nancy Duarte. “How to Get Others to Adopt Your Recommendation.” Duarte (blog), October 28, 2019.
    A presentation structure designed to help you tailor your message to engage specific audiences and spread enthusiasm.
  4. James Le. “The 6 Principles to Make Your Ideas Stick.” Constraint Drives Creativity (blog), December 18, 2017.
    Building on the work of Chip and Dan Heath, a discussion of 6 principles that help make presentations memorable for the audience.
  5. Mar Hershenson. The Secret to Successfully Pitching an Idea (4:46). The Way We Work. TEDx, 2023.
    Know your audience, and structure your pitch so that audiences feel like they will regret not getting involved with your work.
  6. Melissa Marshall. Talk Nerdy to Me (4:34). TED, 2012.
    People are fascinated by technical topics, but to engage them, we must calibrate our communication. This short talk offers ideas on how to make technical topics comprehensible in presentations to the public.


Effective Slides

  1. Chariti Canny. “How to Design Slides for Online Presentations.” Duarte, May 20, 2020.
    How to design effective slides, specifically for a presenting in a virtual environment like on Zoom.
  2. Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic. Stop Making Wordy Slides! (7:18). Storytelling with Data, 2022.
    Reduce the number of words on slides, and reveal your points in a stepwise fashion, to help your audience focus their attention.
  3. Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic. Five Easy Tips for Better Data Communications (12:10). Storytelling with Data, 2022.
    Present data to tell a story by editing your data visualizations for clarity, and to emphasize the points you intend to make at each step in your presentation.


In addition to these resources, you can also find support for common tools for creating visuals and presentations, as well as creating and embedding audio and video in Canvas.