Final Presentation
This assignment is intended to provide some closure and perspective on the overall content for this course. I believe this is more effective in helping you review and understand the material for the course than a traditional final exam.
You will build a 20-slide presentation, incorporating content from the entire semester, using the Ignite presentation format (described below and in class). You should include at least one concept covered during each of the fifteen weeks of the semester. Ideally, you will use a unifying narrative to connect the content from each of the weeks.
Fifteen weeks of class means fifteen slides of content; the remaining slides can be used however you'd like. You could include introductory or closing material, add additional slides for a specific week to illustrate a concept, or include your thoughts on the course as a whole.
In addition to submitting the slide deck, you will need to either present it during our final exam time slot, or add a recorded version of your narration to the presentation that you submit. (See the "Submitting and Presenting Your Work section below.
The Ignite Format
The highly-constrained Ignite format (20 slides, each displayed for only 15 seconds) forces presenters to focus their message and practice their delivery. It also lends itself best to clear and effective visuals rather than dense slides filled with bulleted text.
I have provided a PowerPoint template for your presentation. In the template, there is an 15-second countdown animation at the bottom of each content slide; it's there to provide you with a visual cue on how much time you have to narrate each slide. Please do not remove that from your slides; it’s helpful to me (and to you) in ensuring that your presentation is timed properly. There are 21 slides in the template; the first one is simply the title slide, which will not auto-advance--this allows easier transition between presenters during the live presentations. The next 20 slides will each auto-advance after displaying for 15 seconds. You're welcome to change the design and layout of the slides, but be aware that if you try to convert the template for use in another program (OpenOffice, Google Slides, Keynote, etc), it is likely to create problems with the slide timings and/or the embedded animations, and I will not be able to provide any assistance to you on solving problems in those formats. I will be loading the presentations onto my computer for playback during our presentation session, so the final version of your file must be PowerPoint, and the auto-advance must work properly. Since Office 365 is free for students, I strongly recommend that you use PowerPoint for all of your work on this project.
What Goes Into Your Slides?
Your slides should focus on images and storytelling, not blocks of text or bullet points. Provide a title and show an image (or animation, or video clip) relevant for the concept You can include text, but it should be minimal—any explanatory text should go either in the notes for the slide, or in your narration.
Submitting and Presenting Your Work
In-Person Presentations
If you are presenting in person, you have two options:
- Sunday, December 9, at 6:00pm in GOL-2570
- Tuesday, December 18, at 1:30pm in GOL-2435
You must submit your PowerPoint file (and yes, it must be PowerPoint, .pptx or .ppt) to the appropriate myCourses dropbox at least 24 hours before you present. If I have not received your file at that point, you will not be allowed to present in person.
Pre-Recorded Presentations
If you are submitting a recorded version of your presentation, it must be submitted to the appropriate myCourses Dropbox no later than 8am on Monday, December 17.
If you will not be presenting in person, you must either (a) attach your narration to the slides in PowerPoint so that it plays while the slides auto-advance, or (b) create a video incorporating the slides and your narration. If you submit a narrated version, the auto-advance timings must still work properly, and the sound must be clear and properly synchronized. (That's harder than it sounds, and I strongly suggest asking someone else to test it for you on their computer so that you're sure it will work on mine.) If you submit a video rather than a PPT file, the slides must remain clearly visible throughout the video.
Grading Criteria
For each of the 15 weeks of class, you will receive 1 point for relevant, accurate information, or .5 points for irrelevant or inaccurate information. The remaining five points are for audio quality, auto-advance/timing working properly, good slide design, and coherent narrative.