www.skillsplease.com (link to downloadable demo); e-mail: pdavies@skillsplease.com

Virtual Presenter is an elegantly designed, interactive multimedia programme aimed at helping anyone who has to deliver a presentation, using any medium from flipchart to Powerpoint. It’s aimed at businesses, but has a lot to offer schools.

Three modules - Presentation Theory, Set-up and Builder - offer clear objectives and guidelines to achieving them. Finally, Virtual Show provides an interactive test of the newly-acquired skills.

Presentation Theory deals with creation and delivery, using the tried and tested SPAM (situation, purpose, audience, method) and CMADE (confidence, manner, attitude, diligence and enthusiasm) approaches. At each stage, points are expanded with detailed and helpful tips, always focused and practical.

Presentation Set-up is about logistics - managing running times, equipment, and background administration - and concludes with a detailed checklist.

Presentation Builder guides the learner through structuring and building the presentation, allowing the creation of a printable script. It’s well exemplified, using sound files and text to show what is required. Driven by templates, it insists on structure and timing.

Virtual Show consolidates the new skills with 15 questions to answer against the clock. It’s tough: the questions are fair, but a mistake bounces you back to the beginning. This discourages self-deception.

Business studies students liked the package: they found it easy to use, with a good balance of graphics, voice and text help. Regular reinforcement encouraged careful planning, and they said the writers had anticipated likely problems. They particularly liked the light-bulb icons for hints.

The self-test in Virtual Show was a success - the unpredictability of the format kept students’ interest, and motivated them to get it right. It was a real confidence-builder.

Although this product will probably find its biggest market in the corporate sector, where it will save a great deal of money in training costs, it undoubtedly has a place in schools and FE colleges, for managers, trainers, and students in any subject - and it’s tailor-made for key skills.

Downsides? None, really. It’s a rich, complex programme, yet navigation is logical. Close attention to changes in the screen buttons is essential, or it’s possible to overlook sections. Let’s hope it’s in schools before we have our literacy Inset.

HARRY DODDS

Harry Dodds teaches English and ICT at Gosford Hill school, Kidlington, Oxfordshire