oral presentation rubric

oral presentation rubric

The Importance of an Effective Oral Presentation Rubric

1. The Purpose of an Oral Presentation Rubric

The purpose of a rubric is to assess students’ capabilities and levels of performance. Professors generally use an oral presentation to test students’ level of understanding of a topic, evidence found through research, and ability to concisely present important information. Since oral presentations are often done in class or in other public platforms, there is usually not an opportunity for a second take on the presentation. This increases the importance that the presentation is done well. An effective rubric can help ensure an optimum level of performance from students. Without a clear understanding of how they are being graded, students may not put in any extra effort above the minimum requirements to get an assignment done. Requirements for a presentation can sometimes be vague, and a rubric can help outline what is expected from the student. This can help students to know what they need to prepare in order to fulfill the requirements for the assignment. This reduces any confusion regarding the expectations for the presentation, and therefore reduces the amount of times a student will prepare something and find out it is incorrect. A rubric can create an objective measure of performance. Often there are many areas of assessment for an oral presentation. These can include the ability to properly cite sources, quality of the visual aid, staying within the time limit, and several others. Without a rubric, the professor is often unsure of the weight given to each area, and evaluations of the same presentation can vary. This is confusing for a student who desires feedback on the areas they are weak in. A rubric can provide a clear measure of performance in each area, and the student can use this to identify their strengths and weaknesses in the presentation.

2. Key Components of an Effective Rubric

a. A task specification – The criteria the students will need to follow when completing the assignment. b. A scoring scale – A gradation of quality used to evaluate a performance. (Holistic or Analytic) A holistic scale rates an entire performance as a whole, whereas an analytic scale consists of a set of criteria which each are judged individually. c. A clear description of performance expectations – A detailed description of the levels of quality, what a “below average” performance looks like compared to an “average” performance, etc. d. Examples of good and poor performance – Looking at examples always helps clarify the quality of the performance, showing and not just telling what is expected.

There are several key components of an effective oral presentation assessment rubric. An effective rubric includes the following key components:

3. Benefits of Using a Rubric for Assessing Oral Presentations

Using a rubric benefits students and instructors alike. By breaking down the criteria, a rubric can help students to understand what they need to work on and what they are already doing well. Through this process, the student can gain more information about what is expected of them and what they can do to meet and exceed the standards of an “A” presentation. Many students are visual learners and a rubric is visually easy to follow. It uses a linear format to show the criteria and their levels. Teachers can use this to their advantage to help students learn better presentation skills. This can be done through the use of the rubric to show students what is expected, student peer evaluations and teacher assessments used throughout the course of the presentation. This can also aid in a class discussion of what makes a good presentation and how to assess presentations in a diplomatic and objective way. With continued use of rubrics, students learn better presentation skills which allows for a more polished and professional final product. This in turn gives students increased confidence in their work. Confidence and skills learned are transferable to other subject areas and future careers. Overall, students receiving a more effective presentation assessment will produce a higher quality product and retain more information about presentation assessment and delivery. Quality of student work is clearly improved by the use of an effective presentation rubric. Not only is student work quality improved when using a presentation rubric, but the assessment process is also improved. Teachers can be more efficient and effective in assessing oral presentations. A rubric clearly outlines the expectations and criteria to be assessed. This takes away any uncertainty a teacher may have when marking, when compared to giving a general impression of a student’s work. With a rubric, more clear and objective feedback is given and the use of it facilitates a more consistent and reliable assessment among all students. Peer and self-assessment is another benefit to the assessment process with a rubric. It is common to do oral presentation peer evaluations or even video record a self-assessment. Rubrics can be used in both of these cases to yield the same benefits as they do in teacher assessment. Individually, a student can assess the oral presentation of a peer or themselves in the same way a teacher would use a rubric to grade. A peer or student’s self-assessment can then be compared to assessment done by the teacher, and the rubric may even be used as a tool for discussion between teacher and student on how a grade was achieved and how to improve in the future. This can be a very powerful learning tool. This entire process of assessment will become increasingly refined and occur more smoothly, as students and teachers become more familiar with using a rubric to assess presentations.

4. How to Develop an Effective Oral Presentation Rubric

Developing an oral presentation rubric is a multistep process. First, decide what the criteria for excellent work will be. What defines an A, B, C, etc.? Determine what the different levels look like in the different categories and consider taking notes for the first few student presentations in order to discern patterns among the various quality levels. After you have the criteria and a good idea of what the different levels look like, design the point scale. This is usually the easier way to do it as levels of a criteria are arranged in a hierarchy and one criteria is more important than another. After these preliminary steps, you are ready to actually write the rubric. A good rubric should be short, specific to the task, and use language that will be maximally helpful for those giving the presentation. It should be handed out with the assignment long before the students begin work on the actual presentation. After designing the rubric and doing one final check to make sure it measures the task well, it is time to administer it. An effective rubric is useless unless it can be used to rank different quality levels of a task, so this is a critical step and will likely take a little practice. Finally, after the assignment has been graded, take a minute to evaluate the rubric itself. Consider how well it measured the task, what criteria were high and low quality presentations trying to meet, and what changes can be made to better the rubric the next time this task is presented. A good rubric can evolve with a task and less need be changed the next time a similar task is performed.

5. Tips for Using an Oral Presentation Rubric Effectively

Another useful tip is to go over the rubric with the presenter before they begin the assignment. This gives the student a clear understanding of how they will be evaluated and can prevent confusion during the grading process. An example of this was done in one of my undergraduate courses. The professor gave us a copy of the rubric and with a highlighter, he went over and highlighted the specific areas of the rubric where he intended for us to focus our attention. This was extremely helpful because it directed us to the exact areas he was looking to assess. So upon completion of the assignment, there was no question as to what areas we succeeded and what areas were in need of improvement.

A good way to avoid this situation is to create the rubric and have a colleague or coworker use the rubric to grade a sample assignment. The results and grades of the assignment can then be compared and contrasted to see if the rubric is being interpreted in the manner it was intended. This method provides good feedback on how to make changes and improvements to the rubric. The end goal is to create a rubric that is clear, reliable, and accurate in assessing what it intends to measure.

When the instructor is creating the rubric, it is important to have benchmarks to which they are using to assess the students. A common mistake is to leave the benchmarks and standards of an assignment open to personal interpretation. This can cause miscommunication and frustration between instructors and students.

Using a rubric effectively can sometimes be a difficult task. The intent of using a rubric is to provide a clear and consistent grading standard for an assignment. As straightforward as this may seem, it is quite easy to overlook simple steps that can inhibit the effectiveness of the rubric. This section has been designed to give tips and insight on effectively implementing a presentation rubric. There are several things to consider when trying to successfully utilize a rubric. A few key principles have been outlined below.