Overcoming problems with presentations

INTRODUCTION

The principal aims of this proposal are to help students with their upcoming presentations by outlining any problems they may have and suggesting solutions they will find useful to overcome these problems.

CURRENT SITUATION

Comments made by several students suggest most of them are worried about their final assessment. As part of it, they have to give a spoken presentation which they claim they need help with. Following a survey among college students the following problems have been reported.

PROBLEMS STUDENTS HAVE

The main problems students have with presentations are:

• Remembering the information they have to say, causing them to get stuck.
• Getting nervous during the presentation and stammering, getting a lower mark as a result.
• Organising the information into slides and deciding what information is worth presenting.
• Dividing the information among the members of the group since always someone ends up saying more or less than others.
• Not having enough time in one class for all the students to deliver their presentation.

RECOMMENDATIONS

I would suggest the following to college students who need help with their presentation:

• I recommend that instead of trying to memorise the information, students should try to understand the topic they will talk about so then all they have to do is try to explain it.
• Students should record themselves before the presentation to listen to how they are giving the presentation and know what to improve.
• If the professor allows it, students could have their note with them as guidance for when they get stuck or write key words on the presentation to help them.
• If they get nervous they should avoid looking at people.

If these recommendations are implemented, students should be more confident when delivering an oral presentation.