What is Speaker Coach?

Speaker Coach is a tool within PowerPoint that can be used to provide real-time and post-presentation feedback. When enabled, Speaker Coach can be used while practicing a presentation to provide feedback on your pacing, pitch, your use of filler words, informal speech, euphemisms, and culturally sensitive terms. 

How do I use it?

Speaker Coach is an option within Microsoft PowerPoint that can be turned on while rehearsing a slide deck, whether from a computer or a mobile device. Microsoft has a helpful page (Rehearse your slideshow with Speaker Coach) that outlines what Speaker Coach is and the steps for using it. Penn State students and employees have access to the tool through their PSU accounts.

How can instructors incorporate this tool into their classrooms?

We are excited about the opportunities for instructors to use this tool both for themselves as well as with their students.

Instructors can use the Speaker Coach as they prepare for lectures or conference presentations. At times, rehearsing can feel like a fruitless task; however, with both the real time and post-practice feedback, instructors can glean meaningful insights to improve their presentations if they use Speaker Coach.

There is a lot of potential for using this tool to help students improve their presentations, as well. At times, students seem resistant to practicing their presentations. As mentioned above, with the real-time and post-practice feedback that Speaker Coach gives, practice sessions can feel like a good use of time for students because the Speaker Coach gives them actionable items to work on. Instructors can ask students to submit their post-practice feedback report from Speaker Coach as proof they’ve used the tool. This assignment can be accompanied by a short reflection from the student about how they used that feedback to improve their presentation.

The image below shows a sample report one of our CEI team members received after doing a short test run of a presentation. The report lists items that the speaker is best at, which in this case included inclusiveness, speech refinements, and pace. The report lists things that the speaker can work on, which in this case included originality, fillers, and pitch.

A few notes on limitations…

Speaker Coach is currently only available for use with English-speakers. Additionally, Microsoft acknowledges that the tool works best with single presenters and not as well if a group is attempting to rehearse a presentation together. It should be noted that Speaker Coach is different from the Rehearse Timings feature in PowerPoint. Speaker Coach does not add times to slides. A user would need to add timings with the Rehearse Timings tool as a separate step in their presentation preparation.