Presentations

This month's blog entry discusses presentation skills.


One of the difficulties with doing presentation based assignments is being clear about what the lecturer is looking for. In essays, the marking criteria are very clear, with demarcations between grades, but with presentations, it isn’t as clear. An example of this is if you are doing a presentation on a very complex subject, do you need to keep it simple so the audience will understand, or do you need to include difficult to understand ideas, even though many of your audience will not be able to follow them?  Another issue is delivery versus content, is it better to deliver content or devise an interesting and engaging presentation? Group work can be particularly problematic; with group members having different ideas about what is important. This can lead to decision by committee, where the presentations can often lose any innovation and creativity.


Presentations can  also be difficult because you have one chance to get it right; unlike assignments when you can re-draft until you are happy with it. Because of this anxiety is increased, which for people with dyslexia can lead to stumbling over words, mispronouncing words and getting sentences wrong.  To combat this, students sometimes over research, this leads to them having too much information. This can mean that presentations are rushed, or go over the allocated time.  Another problem is trying to manage the Power Point, the notes and engaging with the audience at the same time.  To compensate for this, students may resort to an over-reliance on notes, or just reading directly off the slides, which means they may get a lower mark for the delivery skills.


I would suggest that students treat presentations in the same way that they would treat an essay. Start with a plan and do drafts until it is how you want it. The same strategy can be used for the delivery; practise delivering the talk and take out any bits that don't work. Another suggestion is to colour the main points of your notes in red and the less important ones in green. That way, if you are running out of time, you can go straight to the main points and avoid missing anything important out.



Tutors can also  help students to improve presentation skills by supporting the development of time management skills and being able to estimate how much time will be needed for each point.  One perspective that a tutor could introduce to the students is to consider practising delivering presentations in the context of writing an assignment. Each practice should be considered in the same way as a draft of an essay would be i.e. something to be reviewed, altered and improved. This would provide students with a procedure by which to work on their presentation, using a process they are already familiar with. (y, law student)