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Oral presentations in higher education : key issues

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Jarvis, Greg (2004) Oral presentations in higher education : key issues. Investigations in university teaching and learning, 2 (1). pp. 56-59. ISSN 1740-5106

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Abstract

The use of oral presentations as an assessment instrument has been heavily criticised from as far back as 1936 (Hartog and Rhodes cited in Ahmed 1999). However they are currently enjoying a resurgence due to today’s constraints on marking time and the current fashion for developing employability-enhancing transferable skills (Avery and Bryan, 2001). The fact that oral presentations avoid some of the problems raised by internet plagiarism (Cassidy 2004) has also contributed to their rise. In the day and age where customised essays can be purchased at websites (for example, www.ukessays.com; £70 per 500 words) tutors need assessment instruments that are relatively cheat-proof. This paper integrates theory and the author’s personal experiences to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of oral presentations in relation to the key issues of: marking presentation skills vs. marking content; effectively moderating orals; assessment design (including feedback, marking, and the use of group work); and developing transferable skills vs. facilitating deep learning.

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