Students present a given topic to the class or a group of students typically using conferencing software.
Appropriate Content Areas
All. Appropriate at all times, but generally past the first couple weeks of the course after the students have an understanding of the technology used in the course.
Goals and Objectives
The goal of a presentation is for students to gain advanced understanding of a given concept allowing them to teach others.
Sample objectives include:
After completing a presentation activity, students will:
- gain advanced understanding of concept x
- gain understanding of various concepts outlined in the presentations of other students
- increase skills in producing presentations
- demonstrate evaluative level understanding of given concepts
- link various concepts into a cohesive presentation
as determined by successfully attending to 80% of the requirements.
Materials and Resources
What needs to be prepared in advance by the teacher? Some technology through which the students can give their presentation.
What does the student need to bring to the lesson? Students will need software from which to produce the slides for the presentation.
Guiding Questions for this Lesson
How well can the students articulate their knowledge on a given concept and prepare materials to teach others that knowledge?
Lesson Outline and Procedure
Synchronous Presentations
- Students are given the assignment providing detailed explanations of the requirements for their presentations.
- Students are provided with topics, select a topic from a list, or come up with their own topics. The instructor should approve of all topics before students begin. Topics should be chosen to reduce likelihood of academic dishonesty by keeping them temporal, specific, and different from term to term.
- Time is provided, typically at least a week, for students to prepare a presentation on that given topic. In some cases, a specific software application may be used. Tutorials to a given application should be available.
- Students then give their presentations using an approved method. Groups of 3-5 students will view each others works for individual projects and possible provide peer review/feedback. For group projects, if groups of 3-5 students are used in a 20-25 student class, then everyone may be present during the presentation. Typically, a 15 minute presentation including 10 minutes for presenting and 5 minutes for questions is chosen.
- Following the presentations, the instructor will provide feedback. There may also be peer review. Some form of rubric should be included upon which students can gauge their performance.
Asynchronous Presentations
- Students are given the assignment providing detailed explanations of the requirements for their presentations.
- Students are provided with topics, select a topic from a list, or come up with their own topics. The instructor should approve of all topics before students begin. Topics should be chosen to reduce likelihood of academic dishonesty by keeping them temporal, specific, and different from term to term.
- Time is provided, typically at least a week, for students to prepare a presentation on that given topic. In some cases, a specific software application may be used. Tutorials to a given application should be available.
- Students then record their presentations using approved software.
- Other students as assigned and the instructor watch the submitted presentations and provide comments. Some form of rubric should be included upon which students can gauge their performance.
Learning Activities and Assessments
- If tests/quizzes are used later in the course, some questions should reflect knowledge revealed during the presentations.
- Peer review can be added for additional incentive for students to pay attention, to allow students a chance to develop evaluative level knowledge of the topics, and to assist in scoring.
- A rubric should be included. Typical criteria for presentation rubrics include: overall presentation, graphical appeal, relevance, articulation, content, clarity, organization, currency, constructive comments within peer reviews, and possible group parameters.
Teaching Strategies and Highlights
What are some tips to help the lesson run smoothly?
- To engage the students, a topic for the activity must be chosen that will ignite and maintain their interest.
- To allow for students to gain thorough understanding of the curriculum, they should be divided so that everyone presents and/or watches presentations on a majority of topics.
- Provide a sample presentation.
- The presentations can occur prior to a detailed lecture/discussion on the given topics, providing the instructor the chance to delve deeper into important topics and highlight what might have been missed during the student presentations.
Accommodations
Some students with language difficulties may need additional time for the review. A text-only alternative in which chat spaces are used instead of audio should be available if needed. Visually impaired individuals should have an audio only option.
Timeline
How much time would a typical online student require to complete such a lesson? This lesson typically requires 10-15 hours to prepare and 1 hour in presentations.
Learning Connections
What connections to other topics exist within the lesson? This will depend on the scaffolding of the activity. In general, students can be assigned to topics that allow for them to both present their own topic and review the topics of other students so that each student is engaged in work across the curriculum.
Ideas for Lesson Evaluation and Teacher Reflection
How did the students like the lesson? End of semester evaluations should ask about the usefulness and learning accomplished through such activities. Attention should be paid to the amount of feedback from peers that was truly constructive.