I successfully defended my Master's thesis via Zoom a couple of weeks ago, and I've been reflecting on what worked well as I prepared and presented (and what didn't). I thought I'd share what I learned because many students will be doing online defences and presentations in the coming months.
Tips for an online presentation and/or defence:
Make sure your internet speed will be adequate, you can test it using Speedtest. It's the upload speed that's usually the limiting factor here, because that's what will affect if your presentation goes smoothly. I found an upload speed of 10 Mbps to be fine, lower than that started to get glitchy. I had planned to defend from my partner's parents' place but realized a week ahead of the defence that the upload speed was not fast enough.
Test your presentation (and internet connection) with friends or family. If you can get a few people on the call it will give you a better idea of any glitches. This is especially important if you have a media-heavy presentation (especially video or sounds!). I realized I had to make some adjustments to my screen setup when I practiced if I wanted to see people or my notes or my timer during the presentation.
Test out your video in the space you plan to defend. Is there anything in your background that is distracting? Is the lighting good? I made a few adjustments, including tidying up my office space a bit so it look less cluttered behind me.
Practice your presentation with your camera on so you can see how you present online. It's different than presenting in person, you have to remain in the frame so your movement must be reduced.
Consider background noise. I closed the window to reduce traffic noise. It was hot and I wanted a fan but the fan can be noisy so I ended up suffering in the heat for a couple of hours instead. It wasn't too bad because I wore an outfit that was cool (both in temperature and looks! Bird shirts for the win!).
It's much easier to read from the slides when you don't have an audience to look at, I recommend putting little post-it notes or arrows pointing to your camera to remind yourself to look into the camera. This will give a similar impression to making eye contact with your audience.
Text size is not as important - there won't be anyone squinting at the back of the room. Even so, limiting text and making it large and easy to read should still be the goal!
General tips for defending or presenting as a grad student:
Practice, practice, practice. The more you practice, the more confident you will feel. This goes for both the presentation and the defence. Practice out loud, practice with others, practice some more. Here's a great resource for practice questions: https://phdvoice.org/viva-question-repository/
Be willing to admit the limitations of your knowledge. It's okay to not know everything.
Consider your audience. Doing my defence online meant that my family and friends outside of academia could watch, so I made sure to define terms they might not be familiar with during my presentation.
Have a glass of water ready. I drank all of mine during the defence questions.
Don't cram. Take a break before the presentation/defence. Go for a walk, eat something, meditate, listen to music that pumps you up or relaxes you, do power poses!
Record yourself (especially if you're doing an online talk), then watch it (Thanks Jesse Wolf @geneticsjesse for reminding me of this great tip!). We all hate watching our own presentations, but it's the best way to learn how to improve.
Smile and breathe. I even put a post-it note on the edge of my screen with this reminder :)
Some pros/cons of an online defence or presentation:
You can have people from across geographic areas join in! I had people join from five provinces/territories and two states watch my defence. I was able to present from Nova Scotia even though my university is in Ontario.
It's a bit anti-climatic when you end the call. It's certainly not the same as walking out to a group of friends and colleagues who are ready to celebrate with you. Plan a celebration for yourself. Have champagne chilling in the fridge, plan an online celebration with friends, do something for yourself. Don't wait for covid to be over to celebrate.
You're in the comfort of your own home (most likely). It's a comfortable space, and I found it to be a less stressful situation for this reason. That being said, I also found the overall excitement to be reduced as well.
Lastly, some words of encouragement, in case you need this:
You know your research more than anyone else. You are the expert!
People rarely fail defences. If your advisor and committee think you're ready to defend, then you are ready to defend.
This is an opportunity for you to share your research and talk about yourself with a willing audience. Take advantage of this! How often do we have this opportunity? Be excited!
Your audience and your committee want you to succeed.
Remember that defending and presenting during a pandemic is a challenge that no one anticipated. Be kind to yourself, recognize your accomplishment, and be understanding and patient with yourself and others.
All of this advice comes from my own experience, as well as thoughts shared with me by other students and my advisor. Have your own thoughts or experience? Please share, I would love to hear what others have found to be helpful!
