Being able to plan and deliver a professional presentation is valuable for both academic progress and professional life.
Student presentations deliver information to an audience in an engaging and interesting way.
They may be:
- verbal only
- accompanied by resources such as slides.
When to use a student presentation
Presentations are useful when students need to communicate their knowledge and understanding to an audience.
Advantages and limitations
- Can be quick to mark.
- Promote other personal skills, such as self-confidence.
- Promote skills related to future employment and research.
- Allow students to engage in the discourse of the discipline/profession.
- Allow for immediate academic and peer feedback.
- Can be a scaffolding step towards developing an essay or a project.
- Can be presented in an online meeting, as a recorded video or audio for e-assessment.
- Recorded presentations can be viewed or listened to multiple times.
- Timetabling is required when presenting in a synchronous online meeting.
- Time zone differences may make real-time presentations difficult in a synchronous online meeting.
- Training and support may be needed if using technologies.
- Network fluctuations may affect communication.
- Level of speaking confidence may affect students' capacity to express the depth of their knowledge
Things to keep in mind
A student presentation can be managed in a range of ways. For example:
- It can be delivered in a synchronous online meeting and marked at the time of presentation.
- Video or audio can be recorded by individual students and uploaded for assessment.
- It can focus on the oral component only, or incorporate other resources and support material.
- It may also involve submitted aspects, such as notes or a transcript.
- It can be completed as a group presentation, with each student having a specified role.
Approaches to marking and feedback/feedforward:
- Marking usually takes place at the time of presentation.
- When recorded presentations are submitted, the marking time may increase slightly but timetabling issues associated with live presentations disappear.
- Where presentation assessments also include elements such as transcripts, these can be submitted via EASTS, commented on and returned.
- Comments can be presented as a video file or audio file, humanising the feedback process.
More resources
These resources can be valuable when designing student presentations:
