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Perhaps one of the most wasted opportunities in higher education is the area of student oral presentations. Because we live it every day, we understand the inherent benefits of

• preparing a convincing argument,
• presenting it to others, and
• responding to their questions and signals.

As a type of alternative assessment (i.e., a way to find out what students are learning via a means other than a traditional paper/pencil exam), oral presentations allow students to master an array of life skills that seemingly can be mastered through few, if any, other vehicles. Although many professors do require students to make presentations, often, unfortunately they provide such muddled expectations of student performance that students are set up for failure. Some students will thrive in spite of their professors’ poor handling of the process; many others, however, will become so unnerved that they will literally become sick. How can you make sure that you do not waste the opportunity to help students be successful?

First explain to students that they already do oral presentations every single day of their lives – presentations that are called by such innocuous names as conversations, discussions, and interviews.

Second, to help students deliver a solo performance in front of the entire class, you can stair-step them to that point rather than tripping and shoving them into what they often perceive as a lake filled with alligators.

• For the first step, start small, by having students interview a single other student and then report the results, while seated, to the rest of the class.
• Move up to panel discussions, in which each student is expected to present a specifically selected portion of a broader topic.
• Continue upward by having students deliver an extemporaneous thirty-second response to a course topic drawn from a hat or shoebox.
• Finally, if you have provided ample verbal feedback (not just numerical scores) throughout the preliminary activities, and have given students a clear rubric will in advance, they can reach the high point of giving a short presentation in front of the class. Even those few experienced, high school debate team members you may have who are capable of delivering a moving presentation on the first day of class will benefit from the preliminary activities.

Many students may think that oral presentations should be limited to speech classes, but the reality is that being well prepared to make presentations to other individuals is a necessity in today’s society. This applies to health care professionals, salespeople, administrators, training officers, managers, teachers (duh), and on and on. To leave your students unprepared would be to shirk your responsibility as an educator. When you have worked to develop your students’ speaking skills, as you well know, you will see the concomitant growth in self-esteem, poise, and leadership.

That’s a good day’s work, isn’t it?

Thinking about all the things you could say is rather different from sitting down and writing the presentation. Follow this four-step approach to writing a presentation.

Identify Your Big Idea and Three Main Points

Start with a ‘big idea’ and three main points that you want to make. An example of this would be a speech on Creative Intelligence with the main points being dynamic, diverse, and distinct. Notice the alliteration. It’s deliberate When spoken aloud, one after another, the repetition of the first letter gives a memory hook for the audience. It also gives you better recall later on.

Brainstorm Your Main Points

Now that I have decided on the important areas I am going to cover, I need to consider the sub-points I wish to make about each point. To do this, I use a sheet of blank paper and write down all the ideas that come to mind, around that topic. I then prioritize them. Below is the kind of list I would generate for each of my three Ds.

Dynamic

• Knowledge emerges socially from small teams
• Use feedback from customer, clients, and the audience for deeper insights
• Interactive communication is central

Diverse

• Tolerate mistakes
• Expect different styles of learning (oral, written, visual, kinesthetic)
• Find strengths in individuals

Distinct

• Delegate responsibilities and control
• Where is the niche, where are the opportunities?
• Organizations like people can not be good at everything

Develop Your Headings

Using these brainstormed ideas, the next step is to develop what you will say around each sub-point. The stories you develop around each point might be from your own experience, what you uncovered from research, or you a story that will help bring the point to life. Once you have expanded each point, you have the majority of your speech written. The next part of the process involves weaving your ideas together, so they make sense.

Find Your Journey

During a presentation we take the audience on a journey. By the end, they will have travelled with us. This is when we create a journey or a narrative for them to follow.

With the example we are using here, you could personalize the content and ‘attach’ it to a character, for example saying this is how Sara developed her creative intelligence. You might even be the main character with the tale of what you have learned along the way, taking care to be self-effacing enough to recognize that the journey has only just started. If you create a logical flow, if one element naturally follows another in the tale, you and your audience are much more likely to follow the thread of your presentation.

Microsoft PowerPoint can be a powerful tool to convey your message or tell your story. However, when it comes to sourcing images for your presentation the Internet can be a minefield of copyright laws and stock image hazards.

Fortunately PowerPoint already has a multitude of ways in which you can find and use free graphics to help illustrate your point. We take a look at some of the ways you can insert memorable and compelling images at the click of a mouse, without ever having to leave PowerPoint.

Themes and Templates

The existing themes and templates within PowerPoint are a great start when looking to give your presentation a professional feel. These themes and templates not only have built in colour schemes and backgrounds but some also include ready-to-use images as well.

ClipArt

Microsoft’s ClipArt has come a long way in recent years. It now includes some excellent stock photography as well as various modern images. All of these graphics are easily searchable under a range of different categories.

SmartArt

SmartArt graphics are a way to give visual representation to your information. Illustrations help people to understand and recall information better than plain text. SmartArt is a quick and easy way to design quality graphics for your content.

Shapes

Don’t discount the simple shape. Putting squares, circles and triangles together is a great way to create unique images relevant to your presentation. Think outside of the box in order to give visual clues that are both effective and memorable.

Symbols

The symbols section within PowerPoint is not just for the Greek alphabet. Again, think about how you might use these symbols in a special way. It might be using a dollar sign in place of a ‘s’ or using a tick box in place of bullet points.

Webdings and Wingdings

Make your own icons using the different fonts of Webdings. Enlarge these graphics, string multiple ones together and play with colours. If you’re not quite sure what you’re looking for, try this handy cheat sheet:

http://speakingppt.com/2011/10/31/finally-a-printable-character-map-of-the-wingdings-fonts/

Remember to consider your colour scheme and layout when using PowerPoint images and graphics. You want your presentation to look sharp and not too busy or distracting.

It’s important to make your presentation pop but it needn’t be difficult. These tools are designed to help you make the most of this software. Use them to your advantage and get creative.

What is your favourite tool when sourcing images and graphics within PowerPoint?