Student-Free Student Presentations

Sometimes what gets in the way of the learning that occurs from student presentations is, unfortunately, the student presenter. That is, a given student may possess excellent comprehension of the material and create a well-informed, logical presentation, but may lose the audience (and their learning) with a bland (at best), unrehearsed, unenthusiastic or unnecessarily lengthy delivery. My successful idea for eliminating this problem, as well as many other problems common to in-class student presentation assignments, is to simply eliminate the student from her/his presentation through the use of new technologies such as Xtranormal and GoAnimate.

During student presentations, I have frequently noticed students paying little real attention to their peers’ presentations. Often this is for good reason; student presentations are frequently dismal and difficult even for the teacher to pay attention to. However, audience attention in a classroom student presentation remains difficult to maintain even when a student is a fairly interesting speaker. This identifies a challenge to student learning. Still, our discipline uniquely understands the sound reasons for creating learning situations around student presentations (Sander, Sanders and Stevenson, 2002), and thus we keep assigning student presentations.
Another issue related to student presentations is class size. The lecture-sized class creates a specific challenge to teachers who normally assign presentations; student presentations cannot realistically occur in a large lecture hall.
This learning activity addresses these two disparate but related challenges. By utilizing specific technology and eliminating the direct presence of the student, student presentations can better serve the students in the audience and enable student presentations in courses where they are not otherwise practical.
Xtranormal and GoAnimate are free websites that allow students to create animated presentations. Students create an account, work with stock characters available through the program, and in my class, create animated presentations with a story-line in which communication theories are both explained and applied. By putting them in groups and requiring them to create an animated presentation, students demonstrate their ability to apply communication theory in my lecture-sized class. Additionally, the class benefits from watching the presentations and learning from others’ applications of the theory in a way that tends to be very fun for them.
Here are a few reasons why I believe animated student presentations are beneficial and address a variety of common classroom-related student presentation issues not exclusive to lecture-sized classes:

Teachers can more easily enforce time limits. Animation programs keep track of time for students as they are created, so students can easily keep a presentation within the assigned time limit. In this way, the teacher does not have to worry about cutting students off during their presentations or having a student speak far past her/his time allotment.
In a lecture-sized course, unlike a standard presentation, an animated presentation does not require a student to stand in front of more than 100 sets of eyes and speak to the class. This is an ideal alternative to what may otherwise be a terrifying situation for some students.
In a group presentation situation, one or more group members’ poor (or lengthy) deliveries will not overwhelm or kill the presentation when the presentation is animated.
Students in the class look forward to watching others’ electronic presentations and attendance is high on presentation days. Students even become competitive, with each group trying to be more creative than the previous ones.
Teachers can watch animated presentations multiple times if they so desire because they are electronic and available online. In some ways, this makes grading a bit more thorough - a teacher can go back and double check a presentation very quickly and easily.

Because they are available online, these presentations do not need to occur in the classroom, so class time does not need to be set aside for them. Professors can require that the class view the presentations outside of class. In fact, student viewing and assessment of classroom presentations on YouTube (an option with electronic presentations) has been found to be an effective pedagogical tool by Ng and Hussain (2009). This might be of special interest to online classes.

My experience with animated presentations has been positive, as has been the reactions of students in my class who have both created and viewed them. Here are some considerations based on my experiences and student feedback on this assignment.

While the programs are free, students are limited to a small number of characters unless they choose to purchase more. I have seen numerous presentations with cliché (free) characters (e.g. Hillary Clinton) that have been just fine. For $20, however, students have access to many more characters and scenarios. I do not require that my students spend money. However, because they are in groups, I strongly recommend that each student contribute $3-5 towards the project to give them more flexibility when creating their presentations. Most students are happy to pay this small amount of money because they are motivated to make their presentation the best in the class.
The first time I assigned these, I set aside the last week of class for presentations. I assumed this would be a fantastic way for the entire class to begin reviewing for the comprehensive final exam. I require that students evaluate each others’ presentations, and I noticed that evaluations reflected that audience members were not able to accurately evaluate their peers’ theory applications because many of the theories had been covered months earlier. That is, students were not reviewing their notes prior to the presentations and thus did not have enough current working knowledge to adequately assess whether a theory was being applied correctly by a given group. This also meant that the presentations were not truly helping them review for the final exam, a suspicion that was confirmed in the feedback I received from students at the end of the term.
Given student feedback from the first attempt, the second time I assigned animated presentations I assigned each group to present during the last five minutes of class on the day the theory was taught. While peer assessments were considerably more accurate with this approach, many student presentations were actually worse, simply because we had not yet covered the material in class. Despite reading additional sources, many students still did not have a thorough understanding of their assigned theory until I explained it in class, and thus did they not apply it correctly. In the future, I will dedicate a few particular days throughout the semester for these presentations in a way that will facilitate better experiences for both the group presenters and the audience members.

In conclusion, electronic presentations can work well in a lecture hall, but can also be used in smaller classes and in online classes. The assignment can easily be modified to the varied needs of any teacher. Students enjoy creating electronic presentations and are very comfortable using the technology. They also enjoy watching the presentations, and their anecdotal evidence indicates that they learn from it and perceive it as a useful learning tool in a course.

Ng, H.Z., & Hussain, R.M.R. (2009). Empowering learners as the owners of feedback while YouTube-ing. Interactive Technology and Smart Education, 6(4), 274-285.

Sander, P., Sanders, L., & Stevenson, K. (2002). Engaging the learner: Reflections on the use of student presentations. Psychology Teaching Review, 10(1), 76-89.

(My assignment)

In a 4-5 minute electronic presentation informed by three sources, your group will apply a theory that we’ve learned this semester. You will be graded by me, the class, and your group.

1) I will grade you on the following criteria: (70% of your grade)

a.Quality (aka: Thoroughness) of application (did you explain and apply the main points and show evidence of the theoretical terms?)

b.Relevance (does what you do actually correctly apply the theory?)

c.Coherence (does what you put together flow well and make sense?)

d.Creativity (don’t be lame) 

2)Your classroom peers will grade your presentation on the following criteria (you’ll earn an average of your ratings in each area) (30% of your grade)

a.Creativity (how creative is your application?)

b.Instructional quality (did it help you understand/review the theory?)

c.Overall perception of the application (did it seem to be well thought-out, put together well, etc.)

3)Your peers in your group will grade you on your participation on the project. This will be an average score over 6 ratings (1 per week of this assignment). If your average is below 85%, you will lose one or more letter grades from the final score your group earned. If your average is above 85%, you will earn the final score your group earned. The criteria on which you will be evaluated as a group member are as follows:

a.Participation at meetings

b.Attitude

c.Willingness to work on project/responsibilities fulfilled

d.Quality of work submitted

e.Overall rating

While you are more than welcome to put together a movie with whatever video editing software you may have, you may also choose to use one of the following websites for an alternative format:

Note: presentations that exceed 5 minutes 15 seconds will not earn a passing grade. Presentations that are less than 4 minutes will be eyed suspiciously and may or may not earn a passing grade. Presentations that are not given on the date they are due will lose 50% of their possible grade on my grading scale.