Oral presentation style: Who inspires you?

Oral presentation style: Who inspires you?

by Melissa A. -
Number of replies: 5

Context:

  • First year business communications course
  • Topic on oral presentations
  • Discussion prompt to be used as a pre-classroom activity [Note: I don't currently teach online, so I'm imagining a scenario where I could leverage my use of my course website between face-to-face classes.]
  • Purpose of this discussion prompt is two-fold:

  1. to uncover what preconceptions students may have about oral presentations (and their feelings towards the topic)
  2. to be a warm-up activity for a classroom discussion around what makes a presentation “good” or “not good” (and to whom) 
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Discussion prompt:

Who is someone whose presentation style you admire? Why?

Tell us about this person and what you like about how they present.

This can be someone famous or not, an expert in your field or not, or someone you know personally or not. Videos or images are welcome, but not required.

We’ll continue our conversation from here when we meet in our next class, and we’ll explore what makes a presentation “good” or “not good” (and to whom).

In reply to Melissa A.

Re: Oral presentation style: Who inspires you?

by Beth Cougler Blom -

Hi Melissa,

I like where you're going with this and I like the two part nature to your prompt, for use in a blended (online and face to face) situation. Real 'flipping the classroom' stuff.

If you were teaching fully online I could see you posting this prompt for responses Mon - Wed and then from Thursday on that week you could start asking them to compare and contrast their responses and begin to form a list of "good" and "not good" attributes. Maybe even collaboratively build a list in a wiki or something? I like that you have opened up text and image options.

In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Oral presentation style: Who inspires you?

by Melissa A. -

Thanks for your feedback, Beth. I like your suggestion of how this could work in a fully online class by asking students to then continue by collaboratively building a list of presentation likes/dislikes or good/not good attributes.

In reply to Melissa A.

Re: Oral presentation style: Who inspires you?

by Karen Liska -

Hi Melissa, I like your discussion prompt to students and can see how it works both in the online and face to face world. I was intrigued to reflect about who I thought was a good presenter! One question that I wondered was, what are the different presentation styles? Do students know this already? I ask because it is not something I am familiar with and was not sure what the differences could be, so when I was thinking about who was a good presenter I was not sure how to compare. I can see how to openness though would generate many perspectives and qualities! 

In reply to Karen Liska

Re: Oral presentation style: Who inspires you?

by Melissa A. -

Thanks for your feedback, Karen. You raise a good point out my use of the phrase "presentation style." I was intending for students to identify someone who they have enjoyed listening to/watching present, so I can revise the wording to be more precise and to remove the phrase altogether.

In reply to Melissa A.

[Take 2] Oral presentation style: Who inspires you?

by Melissa A. -

Discussion prompt:

Who is someone you have enjoyed listening to or watching present? Why?

Tell us about this person and what you like about how they present.

This can be someone famous or not, an expert in your field or not, or someone you know personally or not. Videos or images are welcome, but not required.

We’ll continue our conversation from here when we meet in our next class, and we’ll explore what makes a presentation “good” or “not good” (and to whom).