Professional and Research Skills in Practice [PGGE11238]
Assessment 1 – Dynamic presentation
Assessment summary
You need to research, design and create a short stand-alone presentation which incorporates a graphical data output.
Learning objectives
Through this assessment you should demonstrate your capacity to:
– Research and synthesise information on an environmental topic
– Create professional graphical outputs through relevant software
– Design and communicate messaging at an appropriate level for an identified audience through a visual medium.
Assessment marks
This presentation is worth 20% of the overall course mark.
Deadline
Submit your presentation to the Dropbox on Learn by noon on 11th November 2024.
Background
There are many ways in which professionals are now expected to be able to communicate work and ideas: these include essays, reports, presentation, posters, social media etc. This assessment is designed to give you practice in preparing a stand-alone presentation of the type that you may find online, or is often seen in conferences or large meetings. This type of presentation is very useful in that it can be developed once, then ‘looped’ to play continuously on a screen. Sometimes the actual speaker may be in attendance to answer questions from the audience, but more often there is no one physically there all the time, so the presentation must be ‘self-contained’ , i.e. the presentation alone must be able to introduce the topic, use relevant materials (images, text, etc) and clearly articulate findings or conclusions. Developing this kind of presentation can very cost-effective, as it can be updated and re-used easily.
This is sometimes also known as a version of ane-poster, and has been further developed during the proliferation of online conferences. The key elements are that the poster is dynamic (e.g. moves by itself), tells a story from start to finish, is completely stand alone with no person or supporting materials required, and is appropriate to the audience.
Assessment details
You must choose a topic relevant to your programme to develop a ‘stand alone’ presentation. This means that you will not be physically delivering a talk, but rather developing materials that could be used in (for example) a conference where the audience can simply view the presentation on a screen.
You are free to choose any topic of interest within your field of study (which means a wider range probably!). It may be something you have studied in the past, or are currently studying, or something you are interested in finding more about. You must not re-use any presentation from previous work though. You are expected to research the topic as necessary, but remember you are NOT conducting a literature review, so keep your research within reasonable time limits.
Your audience should be your peers in your degree programme. This means you are not preparing a presentation for the general public (i.e. where you would need a detailed explanation of how the greenhouse effect works for example), but rather preparing the information at a level that would be of interest to yourself and those around you. So, prepare your presentation for an audience that already has a broad understanding of environmental issues.
Your presentation MUST include at least one graphical data output that you have created yourself. This can include maps using GIS software, graphs using R software, or infographics. It needs to be effective in communicating the data, relevant to the story, and an original output. You need to clearly add your exam number in the caption to show it is your own work.
The main tool you are expected to use is Powerpoint or other presentation software such as Prezi. In Powerpoint you can develop your presentation as normal, but then you can also put timings on the time that each slide is viewed for, and then export the final timed presentation. You can, if you want, also record spoken narration (assuming you have a microphone) or add in video, but this is not essential. Any other presentation software where you can submit a final free- standing presentation is acceptable. If you use something like Prezi, make sure that you export a stand-alone file (called a Portable Prezi).
You can submit in any format that is easily accessible. The final submission MUST play the video/slides without any action from you, and be able to be run on a standard PC. Please remember that whatever format you choose to submit in, the presentation/topic must be understandable to the audience on viewing the presentation only.
The presentation that you submit must last for a minimum of two minutes, and a maximum of three minutes. There is no upper or lower limit to the number of slides, just bear in mind that the slides must be onscreen long enough for the reader/listener to fully understand the story. So, more slides is definitely not always better, and it is your professional judgement to the amount of information presented and the timings of availability.
Marking
The presentation will be marked holistically but based on the rubric elements below.
|
Element |
70+ |
60 |
50 |
40 |
|
Match to brief |
Presentation is within the time limits, in the correct format, and works as a stand-alone piece. The pace is easy to read without losing attention, and there is a professional style. and tone. |
Presentation is within the time limits, in the correct format, and works as a stand-alone piece. The pace is largely easy to read, and there is a general professional style. and tone. |
Some limitations in the match e.g. too long, missing elements. The pace may be toofast or slow, and there may be some slips in professional style and tone. |
There are elements that completely miss the briefe.g. does not move, out of time boundaries. Unprofessional or inappropriate style, and/or far too fast or slow. |
|
Graphical output |
The graphical output displays data relevant to the story with flair and originality, and demonstrates outstanding skill in data communication |
The graphical output displays relevant data clearly and effectively. |
The graphical output is present but is not well designed, has elements missing or has areas of confusion. |
The graphical output is missing, or is present but is confusing, poorly designed or not original. |
|
Design and theming |
The design is eye-catching and uncluttered, with excellent use of colour, fonts, white spaces and graphics as appropriate to create a compelling research story. |
The design is clear and appropriate, with very good use of colours, fonts and graphics to create a story. |
There is clear effort in design and theming, but some elements are jarring, too busy, difficult to understand or irrelevant. |
Very little effort is made in design and theming, with few or poor graphics, crowded slides, too much writing or a lack of clear story. |
|
Narrative and audience |
There is a clear and interesting narrative throughout, with a hook, sufficient background and an clear conclusion. The level of language and information is appropriate to the audience. |
There is a clear narrative, including background, results and conclusions. The level of language and information is largely appropriate to the audience. |
There is evidence of a narrative, but it may not be strong or easily followed. The level of information was too little or too much for the identified audience. |
There is little evidence of a clear narrative, and the information is pitched inappropriately for the narrative. |
|
Research and clarity |
The topic is relevant and interesting, displaying excellent understanding and capacity to synthesise and disseminate complex information. |
The topic is relevant and interesting and demonstrates a very good capacity to synthesise and disseminate information. |
The information is largely well researched and communicated but with some flaws, including poor research and referencing, unclear messages or repetition. |
The information is poorly researched, with limited references or attempts at synthesis. |
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