Become a Better Presenter: Improve Your Public Speaking Skills (FutureLearn)

Become a Better Presenter: Improve Your Public Speaking Skills (FutureLearn)

Learn how to improve your presentation skills and add personality into your presentation style on this three-week course. Improve your presentation skills and learn how to engage with your audience.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see FutureLearn's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Presenting to an audience, either online or in person, can be a daunting prospect, and requires specific skills in order to be successful.
It doesn’t matter what your level of experience is, this course will help build your confidence and give you the tools you need to improve your presenting style.

Build presentation skills based on your strengths and weaknesses
You’ll reflect on your own presentation style, identifying aspects where you feel you excel as well as areas where you need to improve.
You’ll learn how to add personality and life into your presentation style, and you’ll also decipher how to explain information clearly and effectively to your audience without needing to rely on jargon or them having pre-existing subject knowledge.

Understand how to sharpen and improve your public speaking
Whether you’re presenting to a formal meeting or speaking to 500 people from a stage, you’ll find out how to sharpen your presenting skills and pitch to whomever your audience may be, specifically through improvisation and storytelling.
You’ll also learn what to do when things go wrong and will learn how to tackle difficult and controversial questions as well as how to manage challenging audience behaviour.
Finally, you’ll apply what you have learned in theory and put it into practice, and will share and discuss your thoughts and fears with other learners.

Learn from The Presenter Network at the Royal Observatory Greenwich
The Presenter Network - founded by the Royal Observatory Greenwich - brings people together to provide a supportive space where members can share experiences and techniques to help everyone grow and develop as presenters.
You’ll learn from a range of experts within the presentation field, and will be able to tap into a vast and experienced network of presenters.

What topics will you cover?

  • How to identify your presenting strengths and weaknesses.
  • How to add personality and life into your presenting style.
  • How to engage with your audience whoever that may be from formal meetings to full-blown theatre shows.
  • How to sharpen your presenting skills, specifically when it comes to improvisation, storytelling and weaving a narrative through your presentations.
  • Activities that will allow you to put the theory you have learned into practice.
  • What to do when things go wrong.

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Reflect on your own presenting style identifying aspects where you feel you excel as well as where you need to improve.
  • Explain information clearly and effectively to your audience without needing to rely on jargon or them having pre-existing subject knowledge.
  • Apply what you have learned in theory and put it into practice.
  • Share and discuss your thoughts and fears about presenting with other learners in a similar position to see what their concerns are about presenting too.
  • Learn how to interact effectively with your audience covering everything from tackling difficult and controversial questions to dealing with challenging behavior.
  • Identify networks and sources you can tap into to keep your skills sharp.

Who is the course for?
This course is best suited to people from a whole range of sectors who need to present or speak as part of their jobs.
It will also be relevant to anyone who needs to present digitally now and is unsure where to start, as well as those who have experience of presenting but feel that they could improve.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Effective Business Presentations with Powerpoint (Coursera) Coursera
PwC

Effective Business Presentations with Powerpoint (Coursera)

This course is all about presenting the story of the data, using PowerPoint. You'll learn how to structure a presentation, to include insights and supporting data. You'll also learn some design principles for effective visuals and slides. You'll gain skills for client-facing communication - including public speaking, executive presence and compelling storytelling. Finally, you'll be given a client profile, a business problem, and a set of basic Excel charts, which you'll need to turn into a presentation - which you'll deliver with iterative peer feedback. This course was created by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP with an address at 300 Madison Avenue, New York, New York, 10017.

Oct 12th 2026
4 Weeks
Communication skills for engineering scholars (Coursera) Coursera
Politecnico di Milano

Communication skills for engineering scholars (Coursera)

The course teaches engineering scholars how to improve their communication skills, based on theory, examples and practical exercises. Topics include basics of rhetoric (how to be clear), basics of argumentation theory (how to be persuasive), public speaking, grant writing, scientific writing. The main target are engineering scholars; the first 3 weeks, though, can be useful to anyone wishing to improve their communication skills.

Oct 12th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Storytelling and Persuading using Data and Digital Technologies (edX) EdX
University of Maryland, College Park,University System of Maryland - USM,USMx,UMD

Storytelling and Persuading using Data and Digital Technologies (edX)

Learn how to gain traction for your digital transformation initiatives with stories based on data that use compelling data visualizations to build a persuasive business case. Decisions made by humans are rarely made by data alone. Human decision-makers have cognitive biases, are affected by emotions, and make conceptual leaps beyond what the data may suggest.

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Public Speaking (edX) EdX
Rochester Institute of Technology,RITx

Public Speaking (edX)

Build confidence as a speaker by learning how to use simple tools and skills to prepare and deliver memorable presentations. When asked, many people cite public speaking as one of their biggest fears. In fact, many renowned public speakers admit that they were once extremely anxious about speaking in front of groups.

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Successful Presentation (Coursera) Coursera
University of Colorado Boulder

Successful Presentation (Coursera)

Few kinds of communication can have the effect of a powerful presentation. Even a short speech can motivate people to change long-held beliefs or to take action, and a wonderfully delivered speech can transform a normal person into a leader. In this course, Prof. William Kuskin provides a series of pragmatic videos and exercises for successful public speaking and presentations.

Nov 2nd 2026
4 Weeks
Speak English Professionally: In Person, Online & On the Phone (Coursera) Coursera
Georgia Institute of Technology

Speak English Professionally: In Person, Online & On the Phone (Coursera)

Do you want to speak better English? This course will help you reach that goal. Speak English Professionally: In person, Online and On the Phone will boost your English speaking skills. In this 5 week course, you will learn how to identify and make a strong personal introduction. You will develop and demonstrate the speaking skills for group discussions: how to agree or disagree, how to clarify, restate and summarise. You will develop and demonstrate the speaking skills for group discussions: how to agree or disagree, how to clarify, restate and summarize.

Oct 12th 2026
5-12 Weeks
SQL for Data Science Capstone Project (Coursera) Coursera
University of California, Davis

SQL for Data Science Capstone Project (Coursera)

Data science is a dynamic and growing career field that demands knowledge and skills-based in SQL to be successful. This course is designed to provide you with a solid foundation in applying SQL skills to analyze data and solve real business problems. Whether you have successfully completed the other courses in the Learn SQL Basics for Data Science Specialization or are taking just this course, this project is your chance to apply the knowledge and skills you have acquired to practice important SQL querying and solve problems with data. You will participate in your own personal or professional journey to create a portfolio-worthy piece from start to finish.

Oct 19th 2026
4 Weeks
Speaking Skills for University Success (Coursera) Coursera
University of California, Irvine

Speaking Skills for University Success (Coursera)

As a student in an English-speaking university, you’ll need to speak in many situations, both formal and informal, planned and spontaneous. In this course, you’ll get advice for speaking in many different situations. You’ll learn how to prepare for an academic discussion with classmates and how to lead a discussion effectively. You’ll learn about how to work smoothly in group projects—a popular type of assignment in many university classes—and what to say in small talk with classmates or others.

Oct 12th 2026
4 Weeks
Get Started with Presentation Applications: PowerPoint (Coursera) Coursera
SkillUp EdTech

Get Started with Presentation Applications: PowerPoint (Coursera)

Presentation applications are an essential part of productivity at work and school. Understanding how to use presentation apps such as Microsoft PowerPoint can make you a more efficient and valuable worker. In this mini-course, you will learn the essentials of effectively using presentation apps to work with slideshows. You will learn how to open, save, share, and print presentation files and present, record, and preview slideshows.

Oct 19th 2026
3 Weeks
Diseña presentaciones eficaces con Powerpoint (edX) EdX
Universitat Politècnica de València,UPValenciaX

Diseña presentaciones eficaces con Powerpoint (edX)

Aprende las bases para realizar una presentación eficaz con Powerpoint que llegue a tu público objetivo. Hoy en día prácticamente cualquiera con algo de responsabilidad en una organización tiene que hacer en algún momento una presentación eficaz con la que comunicar sus ideas o los resultados de su trabajo.

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Graphic Design (Coursera) Coursera
University of Colorado Boulder

Graphic Design (Coursera)

Welcome to Graphic Design, the second course in the Effective Communications Specialization. Over 70 different companies have provided this specialization to their employees as a resource for internal professional development. Why? Because employers know that effective visual communication is the key to attracting an audience, building a relationship, and closing the sale. "This course is fantastic. It teaches a great amount of starter graphic design information but it is broken down into easily understood videos and quizzes. The quality was top notch and the interaction was as good as you would get in a brick and mortar school. I did not feel like I was missing anything by taking it online." - a recent Graphic Design student.

Oct 19th 2026
4 Weeks