Lecturer Responses to Questions Regarding Oral Presentations
ACU staff were invited to participate in the creation of this website and many people from each of the Faculties across the different campuses participated in interviews which have been used to help create this Oral Presentation resource.
QUESTION |
LECTURER RESPONSES |
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Certain courses (e.g. Systems analysis and design) require students to be able to develop presentation skills for future employment. It is also an opportunity to develop skills that the students may not have had the chance to develop previously. |
| In the teacher education program oral communication is so much of what teachers do. Preparing materials, standing and delivering in a confident and competent manner are essential skills for teachers. Setting oral presentations as a form of assessment also allows for variety in assessment and provides the opportunity to develop and assess skills otherwise overlooked. | |
| Nurses must learn to speak and teach with confidence. They need to be able to explain concepts that may be difficult for others and they need to teach individuals, family groups and peers, it is a part of on going professional development in nursing. We have had a lot of feedback form our graduates where they say “thank goodness I had to stand up and present because now I can stand up in the ward and present and I don’t get flustered.” | |
| In the business world presentation skills can make or break you. Presentation skills are essential for promotion and dealing with clients. They are an essential graduate attribute that business graduate can’t be without. | |
| Oral presentations are a great way to enhance student skill development. They build confidence and communication skills. It also gives students an opportunity to share their expertise and experience. | |
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Do you consider Oral Presentations to be important? |
Very important. It helps students to develop many significant skills that are important in academic study after graduation. |
| In virtually all university courses presentation and oral communication skills are an essential graduate attribute. Almost all graduates will be put into a situation when they enter the workforce that will require them to present and explain ideas. Students need to develop skills certain in oral presentations for assessment: preparation, planning, interacting with a group, taking account of background knowledge, how to keep things interesting etc. All these skills can be transferred into the workplace in both formal and informal ways. | |
| They are a very important assessment tool; I include them in all my units. | |
| Very important. Oral presentations force students to become more involved in the topic and their own learning. They are a learning tool that create an active learning environment. | |
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Cognitive skills to do with comprehension of the material, analysis and higher order thinking including the capacity for critique or synthesis of some new proposition. |
| How effectively do students get their information across. | |
| It is vital to show evidence of research and they also need to structure their presentations well, with a clear introduction and conclusion, with main points linked together and coherent. | |
| The group needs to be engaged in the topic/issue. | |
| Material needs to be well organized. | |
| Clarity of communication and confidence. | |
| Hardware and software skills. The ability to develop visual aides that are appropriate and interesting. | |
| Presentation skills which include interaction or relationship skills. Awareness of an audience, its needs and background. The capacity to provoke interest and guide and lead discussion in ways that shows openness to what is happening. | |
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| I would expect some visual aides, but these may be simply in the form of a handout that includes points and references that students can take away with them. This is often better than Powerpoint because it avoids the problem of students simply reading the Powerpoint slides to the group. | |
| Although I never state that they must most students do use Powerpoint, although some not terribly well. | |
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It is unusual for students not to be well prepared, but quite often they have spent too much time preparing their slides and not enough on their actual presentations skills. Hard work is only part of good quality work, it is important to spend time on the right things. A good presentation is based upon how well they have answered the question and how well they have addressed the assessment criteria. So although students may spend many hours preparing it does not necessarily mean that they produce a good quality presentation. |
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| Because presentations are so public students are usually very well prepared. | |
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The students in the teacher education program a generally very strong on presentation skills. Their weakness is typically in comprehending and explaining ideas. Students need to develop cognitive depth. |
| Students have to know their subject really well, they need to do research and reading that will give them a depth of knowledge. If a student hasn’t done their research then they lack confidence. | |
| Some students are naturally gifted presenters others really need to work on all basic presentation skills from body language to eye contact to the way they deal with anxiety. | |
| Students need to develop the skills of distilling the information. They often see everything as important and try to include too much. | |
Have you observed any recurring problems that students face when asked to give an oral presentation? |
International students often experience problems with the language and pronunciation. All students tend to have problems with sticking to the time limit. |
Too much reliance on notes with little eye contact. |
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Some have difficulty mobilizing group activity. |
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International students in particular have trouble putting forward their own opinions and conclusions. They also often tend to plagiarize. |
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There is often a lack of audience engagement and interaction. |
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Organization of time and material. |
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| Fancy Powerpoint slides with little inadequate real content. | |
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I go through the topics with the students and explain clearly what I want from them. We almost write the outline of the presentation together. Then there is plenty of opportunity for follow up. Very little time is actually spent on presentation skills, but we model these skills to our students and I say to them now you do what I have done. |
| I provide a criteria sheet and verbal instructions. These instructions would include: What they need to achieve, how they need to organize themselves, what they should include and what they should leave out. I also often present a case study as an example. | |
| I make sure the unit outline and webct site has clear details about the presentations, the topics the mode and the assessment criteria. In the first couple of weeks of semester I also explain these things in tutorial groups. I also model a sample presentation and then encourage discussion that becomes a critique of my presentation. | |
What sort of information would you like students to have access to in a ‘guide to giving oral presentations’? |
A basic guide to oral presentation skills that we don’t often have time to go over as we are pressured to cover content. |
Generic public speaking skills are very important, but the research skills are the most important. Of course students need research skills for every university subject, but putting these into a presentation rather than an essay is a particular skill. |
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| Time management skills .Students should be encouraged to practice and this will help them develop better timing. | |
Identification of skills required in making oral presentations and how to use resources effectively. How to do effective presentations. |
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| A short sharp basic manual outlining generic presentation skills. | |
| Advice about how to go about doing research and the importance of this with oral presentation skills. | |
| Students need to know how to use power point effectively. They need to know the difference between slapping 150 words on a slide and putting things into dot points. Basic keep it simple skills | |
Advice that it is not only technique that matters make your technique as perfect as possible, but depth and understanding of content are equally important. Students need to take a critical approach and be well acquainted with a wide range of views in the field. Research and analysis are essential. In higher education we are on about understanding and applying ideas and these need to be addressed in the guide. |
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| Guidelines on body language. | |
| A checklist that would allow students to “check off” what they have done e.g. Do you have an introduction that will capture your audiences attention? Have you concluded properly? | |
If there was one major flaw that you consistently see in student presentations, what would this flaw be? |
Lack of some basic presentation skills, some students need to improve the speed and volume with which they speak, and a major problem is students read a prepared speech rather than speak to the audience. |
| The mistaken assumption that if you have good technique or excellent slides then this is enough to get you a good mark. | |
| Lack of depth, analysis and understanding. | |
| Powerpoint slides being too crowded, over used and read from rather than used to support the presentation. | |
| Do not read to a group. Interact with them, speak with them. Some students never engage with the audience. | |
What is the most memorable presentation a student of yours has done and what made it memorable? |
I think it is always memorable if a student has a catchy introduction or begins with a question that grabs people’s attention. A student giving a presentation on politics addressed the audience with the question “What if I was to tell you that as most men are the world’s leaders we know better. You would have to agree right?” This opened up a very interesting and heated discussion. The student of course explained later that he didn’t personally believe the statement, he just thought it would be selective in opening up discussion – and it was! |
| I recall a memorable presentation where the students were asked to give a presentation on a virus. The students selected Hepatitis C which is a sexually transmitted virus. The students dressed as nurses and with the help of a picture of picture of hep C, which just happened to look exactly like me, proceeded to explain to the class all the dangers of this dreaded virus. It was very amusing. | |
| An excellent presentation from a Masters level advanced counseling unit used an attention grabbing gimmick. The topic was grief and loss and the presenters were looking specifically at neonatal death. The students borrowed an actual baby sized coffin from a funeral home and brought that into the lecture room before they started their presentation. This was an outstanding way to get the audiences’ attention | |
| Some performance management students produced and acted out a very funny skit showing the right and wrong way to conduct a performance review. It was exceptionally funny and got all the material across. You have to be careful with this kind of thing but they did it very well | |