Team Oral Presentation with Technology

Team Oral Presentation with Technology

The Premise: You and your teammates are specialists in one topic of business communication. A company hired your team to train its managers in that topic. The audience — the professor and the rest of the class– are the managers at that company, and they need to learn what you know.

The Task: Plan, develop, and deliver an instructional 20-25 minute oral presentation assisted by a PowerPoint slideshow. Each team member must speak for a minimum of 3 minutes.

Sources: Management Communication textbook; The Business Writer’s Handbook, “Presentations” (on Titanium); chapters as indicated in the casebook and your team must research and include one additional credible source found through Pollack Library search or through Google Scholar. You may have another textbook that covers your topic. Cite sources on a Reference page at the end of the Power Point.

Primary Goals: A successful presentation must:

· Hold the audience’s attention the entire 20-25 minutes.

· Teach the audience a concept or skill. When the presentation is over, audience members must be able to say what they now understand or can do better.

· Support the verbal discussion with a visual display created in Microsoft Office’s PowerPoint . Include an audience learning activity for approximately HALF the time. All audience members must be given the opportunity to do active learning. Have every team member speak a minimum of 3 minutes during the learning portion.

· Draw inspiration from one textbook chapter. Since the textbook chapters are very short, it must be supplemented with at least one other source. The sources should be documented on a final reference slide at the end of the PowerPoint presentation in correct APA style.

· Wear business casual attire.

Secondary Goals & Requirements: Effective presentations will:

· Keep the audience involved, active and curious rather than passive and bored.

· Focus attention on the presenters, not the slideshow. The message and learning matter more than the visuals. However, visuals are a tool to reinforce what is taught and help viewers to remember what you have taught.

· Hold a gentle command over the audience at all times, but especially during the activity. It is easy for activities to become chaotic and confusing, especially when first rolled out.

· Have clearly defined subtopics to break up the main topic.

· Employ some pleasant banter between the speakers and the audience.

· Bring the presentation on a flash drive for quick loading, rather than pulling up an email or Google Docs at the front of the class.

· Employ props or handouts.

· Have a learning purpose for the activity, but make it enjoyable too.

· Have speakers in character at all times.

· Be well blocked out –know who stands where and when speakers or activities change.

· Be punctuated with sharp, obvious openings, hand-offs, and closings.

· Be well rehearsed.

· Provide a sense of momentum and achievement rather than rushing through lists and terms.

· Be prepared for questions.

Recommended Process:

Starting

· Form group

· Set group policies

· Set group goals

Working

· Read the chapter or other handouts from class

· Research credible sources

· Narrow main topic

· Develop main goal of presentation

· Develop subtopics or points

· Consider learning activities

· Review SPEAKS rubric

Finishing

· Develop AND practice activity

· Design PowerPoint

· Work out timing and blocking

· Rehearse

· Test run your slide show through the project to see how it looks

Do’s and Don’ts

· Don’t use a Prezi presentation for this assignment.

· Don’t arbitrarily divide the chapter into equal parts without putting it together and revising it for unity.

· Don’t use a video unless your team made it for the presentation. Pleas no “Office” videos.

· The audience activity cannot require outside or early reading, homework, or a takeaway assignment, unless it has already been assigned, for example a case study.

· Make certain the activity clearly incorporates the topic, and is not randomly or very loosely associated to the topic.

· No crossword puzzles, quizzes or Jeopardy for the activity. These are fun, but not learning activities. Scenarios with built in problems to think through and solve work very well.

Project Elements & Scoring: There are three scored elements of this project: group performance, individual performance and student/peer evaluation.

· Your solo performance will be scored using the SPEAKS rubric (available on Titanium) for up to 50 points. This will be reviewed in class.

· Your team’s overall event score will be determined using the Group Rubric (available on Titanium) for up to 60 points. This will be reviewed in class.

· You will earn up to 20 points as an audience member for providing feedback to the presenters. You will be given a rubric before each presentation to make comments on. You can earn up to 5 points on each of 4 presentations in this way. You must complete all sections on the evaluation to receive 5 points. If any sections are blank, 0 points will be given.