Visuals
Your oral presentations must have appropriate, effective visuals. We’ve already discussed that appropriate visuals, such as tables, charts, graphs, pictures, etc., enhance the message you’re communicating. Incorporate a few visuals into your presentation. PowerPoint or your web-based presentation outline is a visual. You’ll have the overhead projector to work with, so use your techno skills to come up with a visually effective presentation. Your visuals and their incorporation will be ranked 1-5 based on the following criteria:
- Visuals Exist–do you have a visual component to your presentation
- Relevance–do the visuals match your research topic
- Enhancement–did the visuals add to the presentation or were they simply outlines you read
- Aesthetics–did you incorporate a decent visual or one of poor quality
- Citation(s)–did you properly cite your visuals if you “borrowed” them from other sources
Remember, the visuals and this oral presentation is your way of showing us that you highlighted appropriate areas of your topic to give us a glimpse at what you researched. You can’t possibly show us everything in 4-5 min–be selective.
Oral Presentations
Because each of you needs to do an oral presentation, I want us to go over some important aspects of public speaking. Although your presentations for this class aren’t the exact format you can expect throughout your careers, it’s important to practice public speaking whenever you can. Your classmates want you to do well, so the classroom setting is great for practicing oral presentations.
If we were in class face to face, I’d ask the following questions about oral presentations for a class discussion:
- What are some common presentation pitfalls?
- Why is understanding your purpose so important?
- What are some questions you should ask about your audience?
- What type of delivery method will work best for you or you and your group—memorized, reading (scripted), notes, or impromptu?
- What are some advantages and disadvantages of the above delivery methods?
- What’s important to keep in mind about visuals (which you must use?
- How should you manage your presentation style?
Finally, what should you include in your presentations? Obviously, you can’t discuss every detail of your project, and some parts of a project lend themselves better to oral presentations than others, depending on the following:
- Background information
- The need of the project
- The steps in the project
- What your project explains
- General information about costs and timeframes–if applicable
Instead of being overly precise about your project’s budget, “We will need $20,000 for materials, $10,000 for labor, $50,000 for overhead…” Simply be general in your budget discussion, “We need a budget of $500,000, most of which will go to hiring contractors.”
Please have an overview. Spend 15-20 secs telling the audience (us) what you’re going to discuss in your presentation. Introduce us to the topic.
Technology Issues
PowerPoint is fairly easy to use, so that might be the best option for your presentation. There are lots of ways to have a PowerPoint that you capture along with your voice if you choose to submit a video. Or you could capture your website as you do a voice over. If you do the Webex presentation in our virtual class, you’ll share your screen while you present.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Presentation Issues
Each of you must have an oral presentation that is between 4 and 5 minutes—don’t go under and don’t go over. You’ll be graded on the following:
I will score your 4-5 minute presentation on a scale of 1 to 5 based of the following criteria:
- Appearance of preparation
- Eye contact
- Voice Projection
- Relevance
- Time—don’t go over five minutes and don’t go under four minutes (practice so you get it just right)
Remember, you can’t possibly convey your entire project in the time you have. Therefore, you must choose your points wisely. If you’re doing the Webex option, I will set a timer for 5 min 5 sec. As soon as it goes off, your time WAS over .