Section outline

  • Course Overview

    This course empowers you to create persuasive presentations by mastering design principles and crafting compelling data stories. You'll learn to design impactful slides, use rhetorical concepts to engage your audience, and combine data, narrative, and visuals to tell powerful stories that captivate and inform.

    Learning Outcomes

    This course will help you to:

    1. Use rhetorical concepts to ensure your presentations are based on audience needs and expectations  
    2. Build a checklist of best practices for designing effective slides  
    3. Master selected design principles from Gestalt psychology to create slides that are maximally impactful  
    4. Combine data, narrative, and visuals to create a data story from scratch 

    • Course Instructor: Randal Sean Harrison

      • Randal Sean Harrison

        Randy Harrison is a faculty member in Emerging Technologies for the Hesburgh Libraries at the University of Notre Dame. There he assists faculty, staff and students with the identification, evaluation, and use of emerging technologies, innovative online tools, and related services, focusing particularly on identifying learning and engagement opportunities to support student research and promote student success. He also serves as concurrent associate teaching professor for other colleges and departments at Notre Dame, including the Mendoza College of Business where he often instructs others on Data Storytelling and crafting impactful presentations, generally. 

        View Bio for Randal Sean Harrison

      • Pre-Course Self Assessment

        Before you dive into this course, spend a few moments reflecting on your familiarity with the topic and your current level of skills confidence. 

        You will then re-visit the same questions in our Post-Course Self Assessment and reflect on how the course has helped you develop in confidence and grow your skills. 

        • Module One: The Foundations of Persuasive Presentations

          This module will help you to:

          1. Learn to use rhetorical concepts to ensure your presentations are based on audience needs and expectations  
          2. Build a checklist of design best practices for designing effective slides  
          3. Analyze good and bad presentations to learn what works and what doesn’t  

        • Module Two: Designing Impactful Slides

          This module will help you to:

          1. Master selected design principles from Gestalt psychology to create slides that are maximally impactful 
          2. Enhance slides with charts and other data-rich visual elements 
          3. Recognize and avoid the pitfalls of misleading and unethical charts  

        • Module Three: Crafting a Data Story

          This module will help you to:

          1. Explore how our brain chemistry influences our decision-making
          2. Apply the structures of a successful data story   
          3. Combine data, narrative, and visuals to create a data story from scratch  

        • References and Glossary of Key Terms

          In addition to the glossary you’ll find woven throughout the course, you can find the full glossary collated in one place here.

        • Post-Course Self Assessment

          Now you’ve completed the course, spend a few moments reflecting on where your familiarity with the topics and your confidence skills levels are at now. 

          Has the course helped you develop new skills and grow your confidence?

          You'll need to complete the Post-Course Self Assessment in order to download your certificate. If you didn't do the Pre-Course Self Assessment before starting the course, please go to the top of the page and reflect on your familiarity with the topic and your level of skills confidence before you started the course.

          • Completion: Certificate

            Completing all modules (plus the pre and post-course assessments) will unlock the course certificate, which you can then download here. Your course certificate will only be made available once you have completed all these sections.

            If you have difficulty accessing your certificate, please contact the Sage support team at: onlinesupport@sagepub.co.uk. You can also check out this FAQ page which may be helpful.

            • Give Feedback About This Course

              Did you enjoy the course? Please take two minutes to share your feedback. We use learner feedback in future course updates and developments to provide an excellent learning experience.

            • Accessibility

              We have high standards of accessibility on Sage Campus and as of May/June 2024 all activities within this course are keyboard and screen reader compatible. For more details on accessibility standards, please see the Sage Campus Accessibility Guide.

              For those using assistive technology, please note that within this course:

              • Tab components: JAWS and NVDA behave slightly differently. For NVDA to keep reading, it is best to exit focus mode and go back to browse mode. 
              • Matching: JAWS does not read out question label on dropdown focus.