In this case study, Martin Yeomans, Professor of Experimental Psychology shares his approach to using develop students’ skills and confidence in presenting, while also getting them to teach to, and learn from, their peers via a series of assessed seminar presentations.
What I do:
For many years, I’ve included assessed individual presentations, with a 20% weighting, on my final year undergraduate Psychology of Appetite module.
The presentations are delivered to peers, and to me, across three seminar sessions in weeks 4, 7 and 10. Each seminar group, of 14 students, is given the same set of topics, which build on material introduced in my lectures and which will be covered in the end of semester exam (50% weighting).
Students sign up for the topics they want to cover, on a first come first served basis, then research and deliver a 10-minute presentation to their seminar group. This builds in some optionality for students relating to the topic they focus on but also gives them some measure of choice about when they would like to take their turn presenting. I mark them using the standard Psychology presentation marking scheme and provide written feedback after the session (this does mean I have to be in every seminar!).
The outcome is that all of the topics are covered by each seminar group. I then collate, anonymise and share in Canvas the presentation PowerPoints (or scripts – I don’t mind what they submit) with the entire cohort and encourage them to review a range of presentations on each topic. This is important because some topics can be approached from a range of perspectives, but it also ensures no students miss out on the content of the better presentations.
To give my students a chance to see different presentations and understand how they were marked, I provide three exemplar presentations by past students (anonymised) in Canvas, along with the mark and a comment or two on their strengths and weaknesses. All three exemplars are on the same topic (one I no longer use) and range in quality from a 2:2 to first.
Why I do it:
This isn’t really about getting students to do my teaching for me: I am very much present and engaged in every seminar session! Rather, I include assessed presentations because it builds students confidence in applying their existing skills and knowledge to researching a new topic and communicating it to others. It’s also fun for me. Also, with some of the topics, there are lots of different ways they might be approached, so there’s variety, both for me and for the students who follow up on the presentation resources from seminar groups other than their own.
Impact and student feedback
Student feedback is typically very positive. I often hear from students that they were really daunted by the idea of a presentation but, after the fact, they were really pleased they’d done it. In fact, some alumni have told me they drew on their experiences of the assessed presentation in interviews and jobs, which is feedback I make sure to share with new students at the start of the semester!
Of course, presenting to others is an important transferrable skill but it can be daunting, too. Originally the module was assessed by exam and presentation alone but, to mitigate student anxiety about a heavily weighted presentation, I added in a short coursework report. Also, students with specific learning plans can request to deliver the presentation one-to-one, which means I then need to communicate the topic with their seminar group.
I also recognise, in my first lecture, that public speaking can be nerve wracking but emphasise that delivering a presentation in a seminar to peers provides a safe space in which to practice, and receive constructive feedback on, skills they will find useful in interviews and beyond.
Three top tips
- To set this up, when preparing lectures, try and identify sub-topics that could fill a hole in the lecture (i.e in the lecture I’d say “another important topic here is X, but you’ll hear about that in the next seminar”) or extend the coverage, and which would only need 10 min to deliver
- Chose topics that will have intrinsic interest to the students – either ones which are very topical or where the current academic understanding conflicts with lay beliefs about a topic
- Allow students a degree of freedom in what they cover (within the broad topic they have chosen) as they then engage more fully.