Types of assessment requiring oral and other presentation skills

Presentations (Intuition session) This commentary supports the LQSU s presentations Intuition session. It will cover key aspects intended to assist you in presenting information effectively. This will include useful techniques for planning and structuring presentations. Also, covered will be how to create effective PowerPoint presentations (and posters where appropriate) and how to deliver your information to an audience. Types of assessment requiring oral and other presentation skills The University of Huddersfield values the use of assessments that provide an alternative to traditional forms (such as essays and examinations). Therefore, depending on your course, you may have to present your information orally; this can involve using visuals to support your commentary; such as a PowerPoint presentation, or flip chart. Oral presentations are also used as a component of the assessment process for postgraduate study such as a viva voce (oral examination usually required as a component of PhD assessment). Poster presentations can be examined in the same format as other oral presentations, where visuals are used to support an oral commentary. However, these can sometimes be assessed without the oral accompaniment; where this is the case it is important that you ensure that the poster has enough information to address the learning outcomes without being so full that it is difficult to read. Many health care disciplines assess the clinical skills of their students along with their written skills. If you are to be assessed in this way, most of the delivery skills that are developed in this lecture are transferable to clinical assessments. Group presentations can be an exciting way to meet your learning outcomes, students can take advantage of the skills of other students (in order to develop areas were they may be weaker) and also be able to share their own strengths (presenting or knowledge). There are some pitfalls when working in groups and these will be considered within the following lecture commentary. Presentation techniques Planning As with every other kind of assessment planning is an essential component; poor planning often equates to poor results. Firstly, ensure that you know the purpose or the objective of the assessment. For example, are you being marked on content only, or on the way you present the information or a combination of both? This 1

information will be in your module handbook. At this point consider the key ideas, information or arguments that need to be included in order to address the learning outcomes. In order to do this, you can use the same ideas generation techniques that you would for a written assessment (see the LQSU s Essay writing techniques in Higher Education Intuition session commentary). It is important that you present your work in a manner that is at an appropriate level for the audience that you are delivering it to. For example, if you are being assessed formally by tutors on your course, as with other assessments, you will be expected to present the information at a level that another student at the same level of study as yourself would be able to understand. However, if you are presenting information to patients in a clinical setting or service users in a social care setting, then it would be necessary to ensure that your delivery is appropriate for their level of understanding. It is important that you know where you will be presenting in order to assess if the facilities provided are suitable for your style of delivery. If you are presenting away from the university, try to see the room before you present or at least enquire if they have the equipment that you require. If you are presenting at the university, enquire if you will be able to access the room or lecture theatre prior to the presentation so that you can practise the presentation in order to discover if there are any particular issues that may impact on your delivery (such as the size of the room). Structure The structure considered here is appropriate for most oral presentations, different structures are applicable to clinical presentations; as these are too varied in nature they are not discussed here but you are advised to check with your tutor as to the preferred format. The general structure for oral presentations is the same as that for written assessments (see the LQSU s Essay writing techniques in Higher Education Intuition session commentary) with an additional section for questions at the end. Use a contents slide to list what you will be covering within the main presentation; you can use the headings from the other slides to create this and doing so will ensure that you have included all the main points. Important to note here is that whilst you can use a PowerPoint presentation to highlight what you will be covering; the written words are minimal. Consequently, for the introduction you have to ensure that you effectively verbally inform the audience what the topic is about and what you will be covering throughout the presentation. Use a separate slide to introduce the area; ensure that you explain the context of the presentation (set the scene); include definitions if this will help with understandings and tell the audience what you will be covering (giving brief details of what each point entails) in the order that it will be presented. The main body must follow the order that you stated in the introduction. Avoid any surprises as this may confuse your audience; only include what you indicated that 2

you would include. Within in this section it is essential that you have a logical line of argument; therefore it is important consider if the order you are using makes sense. The main points that you explore must address the assessment brief and specific learning outcomes; it is essential that you do not include material that does not address these as even if you find it interesting it will not attract marks and will take up valuable delivery time. Identify key points by verbally summarising before you move onto the next slide. The conclusion will expand on these summaries to ensure that you close the presentation effectively and strongly; remember this is the last opportunity for you to convince your audience that you understand the topic and that you have addressed the learning outcomes. At this point, and depending on the focus of the presentation (for example presenting a research proposal), you can take the opportunity to make sensible recommendations for further research formed from the arguments presented in the main body. It is important that you do not introduce anything new into the conclusion and also avoid using a direct quote to summarise as this can be problematic; it can sometimes add an additional line of enquiry that you have not considered. At the end of a presentation it is usual to enquire if your audience has any questions about the material that you have delivered. Do not be worried if you cannot answer all the questions, you will not be expected to know absolutely everything about the topic as this is generally not possible. Therefore, do not be afraid to state that you have not considered that aspect; if you wish you can thank them for highlighting this and that you will examine this further after the presentation. If questions relate to particular slides, return to the slide to help you add clarity to your answer. Also, be aware that sometimes those in the audience will offer opinions or make statements rather than asking questions. If you find that this is the case, do not try to answer them (because there is no question to answer) but thank them for their observation. Creating effective PowerPoint presentations The next section includes tips to help you create effective PowerPoint presentations; and will include some tips that are appropriate for poster presentations. The key considerations when creating PowerPoint or poster presentations are simplicity, clarity and consistency. Slide style It is good practice in presentations to use one slide for each point; especially if you are a novice at presenting as this will help both you and your audience to concentrate on the main point that you are delivering. Keep it simple, do not use full 3

sentences as this may result in your audience just reading off the slides rather than concentrating on what you are saying, instead use key words to aid your memory. Also, avoid over filling the slides; four to five bullet points is adequate for this purpose. You might find it useful to show one point at a time; this may help with your timings, keep you focused and stop your audience from jumping ahead. However, you may prefer not to do this unless you are certain that you will remember how many points that you have included on each slide. This can be problematic, as it is possible to move onto the next slide earlier than you intended. Ensure that the points on the slide flow logically; that they make sense in the order that you have presented them. Avoid animations, if you use them be consistent and avoid those that will distract your audience from the content. It is sometimes useful to use a direct quote; if you do this ensure that this is kept to a minimum and that you highlight key words for discussion (use bold or a different colour font). Fonts In order to ensure clarity, that your audience will be able to read your presentation, select a font size of 28 and over (avoid making it too large; up to approximately size 36). Use secondary bullet points for any supplementary/additional information relating to the main bullet point and use approximately a 24-point font. Also, avoid using block capital letters in your presentation as these can be very hard to read. This is because we generally learn to read by recognising word shapes; consequently this may result in your audience having to concentrate on reading the words on the slide rather than instantly recognising them. Similarly, use a style of font that is easily readable, choose Arial or Comic Sans. Colours This again relates to readability and also inclusivity, for example some students/lecturers have a learning disability (such as dyslexia) which can include issues with reading material that is presented with similar fonts and backgrounds. Whilst people differ and it is difficult to account for all preferences, selecting a font that contrasts the background can help make your presentation more inclusive. Generally, it is important that you are consistent in your font colour; however the occasional use of a different colour to highlight key points is useful. Avoid using different colours for secondary points as this can be distracting and sometimes the choice of colour might be readable when you are creating the PowerPoint presentation but when it is projected onto a screen, it can be difficult and sometimes impossible to read. Also, again for readability, select a light background. 4

Data presentation When presenting in-depth numerical data it is essential that you do so in a way that is both simple and effective. Generally, graphs and tables are the best way to do this. However, it is important that they are legible and have enough detail so that your audience can work out what the diagram is about. For example, consider what the issues are with figure 1 which is data gathered by the Learning Quality Support Unit: Figure 1 It is difficult from the way this chart is labelled to work out what it means; as it is not clear what has been measured, or when the data was collected, the title does not help as it is uninformative. Also, the colours (background and bar) and the gridlines are distracting. Figure 2: LQSU questionnaire respondents per year of study and gender for 2012. Whereas in figure 2, where all these issues are addressed, it is easy to pick out information to inform your audience what the data is about. 5

Spelling and grammar The university s generic assessment criterion indicates that all work should be clearly communicated; this of course includes all types of presentations (including posters). Therefore, to ensure that you do not lose unnecessary marks, proof read your work closely for spelling and grammatical errors. If your first language is not English, you may find it useful to ask someone whose first language is English to check your presentation. Delivery In relation to assessments, the delivery of your presentation can have more or less weighting in relation to the marks allocated. Therefore, it is essential that you double check your learning outcomes and/or assessment brief to establish the extent to which this is the case. However, whether the presentation style itself is being measured or not, you will have to be able to impart the information that is necessary to pass the assessment. The first step in this process it to impress your audience, this does not mean that you have to be a comedian or an entertainer, but that you ensure that the main points of interest are expressed clearly in your powerpoint presentation and clearly verbalised. Do not spend too long on one point; instead emphasise the key information or argument that relates to your assessment. You might find it useful to use aide memoires (such as post-it-notes or crib cards), avoid reading off of these; rather use them to help if you feel like you might have forgotten a key point. The important things to remember about using aide memoires are firstly, that you do not have to remember what you have written word for word; your marker is not testing you on this and does not know what you have written on the cards. Rather, you should use them to aide your memory so that you do not lose the focus points in your delivery. Secondly, aide memoires can be extremely useful to ensure that you keep on track, and say what you meant to say. However, if you are using crib cards or any other forms of notes, find some way of fastening them together we have seen students drop their prompts and lose their order; which if you are already nervous can make the situation harder to deal with. If you are generally a nervous presenter and you find it hard to hide that you are nervous, it is useful to know that we are often our own worst critics and things will generally not be as bad as you think they are. You could try the following: practice in front of a mirror if you are worried about your presentation skills; and practice controlling your breathing and relaxing your body if you become tense with nerves. There are many books in the library that can help you with such techniques and newer techniques (such as Neurolinguistic Programming) for overcoming nerves. Whilst there are some individuals who find presenting to others easy and have no problems delivering to an audience; it is quite often a skill that needs to be learnt and practised. For example, students have informed the LQSU that they find it difficult to 6

engage the audience as well as trying to remember what they have to say. However, it is important that you look at your audience so that they feel included and that you are interested in checking whether they are engaged in your presentation. One of the ways to do this, is to take the time to look at each member of your audience, this does not mean stare at the first person that shows interest (which can be unnerving) but that over the progress of your presentation, that you gently focus on each member of the audience. This can be hard to do if you are presenting to a large audience; in this case ensure that you have covered all the main areas where the audience is situated. If you prefer not to have eye contact with your audience, a useful tip is to look at peoples foreheads instead it is difficult for your audience to work out that you are doing this and useful as they will feel included. Also, the way in which you vocalise your presentation is important for keeping them engaged, avoid using one speed and pitch/tone throughout as this may mean that your audience disengages. Instead, use these as tools to highlight key points of interest or essential components of an argument. Avoid walking or standing in front of your presentation or poster, as your audience may spend their time trying to read around you rather than listening to you. Similarly, avoid walking around too much or standing facing your presentation, as there may be someone in your audience who is lip-reading, and would find it difficult to read what you are saying. If you are being assessed to strict time limits, ensure that your presentation does not exceed that time as the content that follows the allotted time may not be marked. Therefore, for individual presentations time your slides and overall presentation during practices. For group presentations, it is essential that the group practices the presentation and ensures that it will not run over the allotted time; this is of paramount importance if you are being marked on your individual performance within the group rather than the group as a whole. Also, for a whole group mark, running over time you may not be able to sum up the key points at the end of the presentation. Remember, you can practice your presentations with a member of the LQSU team who will be able to provide you with feedback on your delivery and the academic skills you have used on the presentation itself. You might find this particularly useful if you are a nervous or worried about presenting or just want to check that you are on the right lines. Andrea Gaynor and the Learning Quality Support Unit (LQSU) 2013 7