A Guide to Making Oral Presentations

The oral presentation is carried out by you as a group i.e. the same group which did the group project for assessment 3.

What I suggest (strongly suggest) is that you give a presentation based on the group project. (You can choose another topic but I suspect you won't want to). To do this you will have to organise a few things:

1. Date and time. As a group organise a date and time to deliver the presentation. This will have to also be suitable for your tutor (who is the audience).
2. The presentation should be delivered by audio conference. This is basically a conference telephone call. To enable this, your tutor will have to be given telephone numbers (NOT mobile phones) for all participating (bearing in mind that there may be more than one of you in the same location).
3. Who will say what. In your groups discuss how to break up the presentation so that everyone gets a shot, and so that you're not all repeating the same stuff. It may be useful to appoint a member of your group to the office of chairperson.
4. Base the presentation on your group report. However, don't be afraid to go beyond the bare content of it - you might well want to talk briefly about the process you went through, the methodology, the difficulties you had, the fun (yes, I've written the word "fun") you've had and what you've learned. Throw in a gag or two if you feel like it.
5. In all, I think anything up to15 minutes is a rough guide of how long the presentation would be. Each individual's input should be about 3 to 5 minutes. You are likely to be asked a few questions.
6. Assessment 5 asks you to reflect briefly on your own contribution to the oral presentation.

Here is a suggestion as to how you might plan your presentation:

Group presentation

Your presentation could include some or all of the following sections:

• Describe the topic and explain your aims
• Say why you chose the topic
• Briefly report on the findings of your investigation
• Identify the main challenges you faced in carrying out the research
• Describe how you overcame the challenges of working as a group
• Identify things that worked and things that did not and explain why
• Outline any changes you would make to the topic, the research method or group working if faced with the same assessment.
• Remember to say how rewarding the experience has been and also how much fun you had (!)

You may add to, or adapt, these sections depending on the number in your group, the topic etc, but you should aim for 3 - 5 minutes input from each member of the group with a maximum presentation length of 15 minutes.
The audio conference may be recorded. If so, we will discuss this with you before your presentation begins.