In the market for further presentation success!

The Senior Lecturers for Business and Communication/English have worked on a number of collegiate projects over the years. In semester two they collaborated again to devise a brief for the NQ Business (January start) cohort. This group is made up of some of the learners from semester one involved in the Dragons' Den project (http://www.candeatsce.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/dragons-fired-up-by-student-business.html) as well as some excellent new recruits.

The two Units that were integrated were Oral Presentation Skills and Marketing: Basic Principles.

For the Marketing unit, students were asked to write a report covering two distinct areas:

1. Apply the marketing mix to the marketing of a specific product or service.
2. Apply the concept of market segmentation to the marketing of a specific product or service.

For the Oral Presentation Skills unit, the students were asked to:

1. Deliver a formal presentation where the student analyses information and/or issues. 

The key word in the criteria for Marketing is apply and for OPS the watchword is analyse.

Both SLs agreed that the students could benefit in three distinct ways: develop their writing and literacy skills by writing a formal report, increase their research methodology skills and demonstrate their knowledge of marketing principles by delivering an oral presentation on their chosen product or service.

The students were asked, for the presentation delivery, to pick out elements of their report in a structured manner, including concepts such as: segmentation (geographical, demographic, psychographic, bahavioural), the four 'Ps' - product, price, place, promotion and comment upon how effective they felt the marketing mix for their product or service was.

There was no doubt that the knowledge gained in the Marketing class was applied to an extremely high level in the oral presentation deliveries, and the students were able to anchor their learning in a structured manner.

The standard of presentations were outstanding and just three examples are noted below as way of working example. Other products analysed in report and presentation format, but not showcased in this post, included Nutella, Desigual (a Spanish fashion retailer), VW Golf 7 and Mercadona (a Spanish supermarket chain.)

In the feedback session the students said that they really enjoyed researching, writing about and presenting their findings, all seeing the benefit of the integrative process. The talks were pitched at SCQF 6 (Higher) level and everybody (presenter, audience and assessor alike) learned a great deal from the session.

It is anticipated that the same brief will be utilised in the 2013-14 academic session, as the educational rewards are there for all to see.

Example one smirnoff from Mark Hetherington

Example two walkers from Mark Hetherington

Example three kubus from Mark Hetherington

External Externally Verified

As a teaching team delivering many Units cross college, we are familiar with rigorous verification procedures, whether they be internal or external by nature.

Such are our close links with colleagues at the Sighthill campus, we have just heard of an External Verification visit to the HNC Nursing course. 

The lead lecturer from the Nursing cohort passed on the news that their EV had identified our HN Writing Skills half unit as an example of best practice because of its integration with other course content.  He also highlighted as best practice the use of the Dropbox for the students' written submissions.

Congratulations must go to Isobel for her hard work in ensuring that yet again, quality has been assured within our teaching team.

Trained to perfection - reJoyce!

The teaching team is dynamic by nature and recently we won a contract to deliver a short course on Oral Presentation Skills to a small group of train drivers in Edinburgh. Our resident Commercial Facilitator Joyce took this on, on two slots on a Thursday, in the morning and in the evening, no mean feat by the way!

The course content was varied and covered areas such as presentation skills, interview skills, introduction to PowerPoint, picture manipulation and Windows Explorer. 

Self-reflection

When Joyce was asked by the Scottish Fund for Union Learning for her reflections on the Programme, she noted that It was good that participants could influence the content of the course themselves.  Some wanted to improve their computer skills, all wanted to develop their confidence orally.  No-one wanted to develop reading or writing skills.  Thankfully, not having to follow a certificated course allowed me the freedom to target materials more specifically. We were also able then to look at the complete model of Communication.

So what did the learners say?

Content first:

Everyone who made a presentation (and some completed four) said they had benefitted from the experience.  One said he felt “ten feet tall” for the rest of the day after getting positive feedback from other participants.

Most came to appreciate that there was much more to a talk than they had first imagined – particularly structuring and developing their ideas.

Interview skills were also considered useful.  We analysed job descriptions, predicted questions, and prepared possible answers before rehearsing an interview scenario, and providing feedback.

One participant used some of the time to prepare a short presentation to the union, and came back with much enlightened, and able to reflect well on what had gone well, and what might have been improved.

Another decided that this would be a good opportunity to prepare a talk which he planned to deliver, about his experiences working in both the railway and in the aviation industry, so the range and level of talks we dealt with was vast.  

Lecturer commentary:

All participants developed their computer skills.  They learned to use file management software (Windows Explorer), and developed computer skills using PowerPoint.  These included handling pictures, re-sizing them, adding design features.

Had the course been 40 hours instead of 20, I am confident that I would have been able to put the participants through the full SQA Oral Presentation Skills Course, and they would have been certificated at Higher level.

Shift-working:

On the (slightly) negative side, shift patterns and external training sometimes made it impossible for participants to attend some weeks.  It was therefore impossible to predict which combination of participants would arrive to what sessions, but we coped with that – even if it meant sometimes only one person turned up to a session.

Organisational matters:

It wasn’t clear to us at the start that the same teacher was required for both groups, and I must thank my Head of Department for re-arranging my timetable at short notice.  In the end, it was clearly a good idea for the same teacher to be there to maintain some continuity.

Neither was it immediately clear that I was expected to work through holidays.  I was happy to do this in the February break but had holiday plans for the last week.  To compensate for this, I added 15 minutes to every class so that I can confidently say I covered the full hours required (and often much more sometimes).

Finally, I was surprised to discover that the sessions were timed quite far apart (morning and evening) effectively creating a split-shift.  This created a very long working day for me – especially when I added travel time.  However, I have to say I came to like this “gig”, and didn’t find it a real problem. (Other teachers were reluctant to take it on though because of the difficult hours– just to make you aware of that.)

 

Reflections - Access to Languages (preparing for HE study)

The Access to Languages Programme has been running for many years at Stevenson College, currently Edinburgh College, and the teaching team provide servicing for three single SQA units and one double unit, namely Introduction to Literature, Literature One, Oral Presentation Skills and Communication Four.

As part of the team's commitment to providing an excellent teaching and learning service, the A2L students filled in a short questionnaire recently to outline their experiences on the Programme. The information below concerns the teaching of Oral Presentation Skills and Communication Four.

Supplementary to the discursive commentary noted below, a short reflective session was delivered by the lecturer to ascertain what the students had gained in terms of personal improvement, confidence building, suitable scaffolding for entry into HE, level of discourse, development of writing, research, referencing, application of theory to practice etc. That PP can be seen at the end of this post.

In addition to the very positive comments about the learning experience, organisation of lessons and levels of quality feedback, learners answered the following four questions and their responses are noted below.

When you first found out what Communication Four and Oral Presentation Skills involved, what were you hoping to gain from the teaching and learning of this subject?

• At first I was quite scared of the amount of things and skills we would have to learn! It wasn't long though before I knew that the lecturer was supportive and that the skills we would be learning would be of great help to me.
• I was hoping to improve my English skills, in particular writing.
• A better understanding of how to structure arguments in an essay format.
• The ability to gain more confidence in groupwork and presentations and to test my abilities.
• Better public speaking skills.
• Better written and spoken debating skills.
• A place at University.
• Better communication skills that will help me in my future.
• To pass the assessments and gain the Units that will help me for University entry.
• To master the ability of written arguments, structure my work effectively and develop my aptitude for investigation and presentation.
• Cohesive analysis of written work.
• To develop critical and analytical skills when dealing with any kind of communication.
• An opportunity to refresh and practise my analytical skills and develop public speaking.
• I wanted to improve my listening skills.
• I was hoping to learn about different methods of communication, that would be tested and in turn develop my abilities by working with the lecturer.
• Learning different ways how to communicate critically, to evaluate and expend my own skills and knowledge.
• How to structure my thoughts and arguments, sources of information.

To what extent did the Units and teaching fulfil these expectations?

• Gave me guidance and formulae to construct my presentations and arguments.
• The teaching introduced me to new methods of learning.
• Very good teaching helped me build my confidence.
• I feel my confidence has really grown thanks to the teaching and also the assessment content which was varied and relevant.
• We received detailed instructions regarding the assessments. We knew when the assessments would be and the feedback was quick and effective.
• I now realise that I am not as bad or insufficient as I first thought about my ability to perform tasks that are sometimes out of my comfort zone.
• Fully!
• I fulfilled and surpassed my expectations, thankfully!
• This helped me greatly.
• Presentations and general oral work improved the most. Essay writing has become more concise.
• My analytical skills have improved.
• I'm very happy with the course and the variety of subjects covered.

What was the best aspect of the Unit(s)?

• The people in the class who demonstrated excellent presentation skills on lots of different subjects.
• I really liked the film reviews, however I feel the best aspect was the variety of source materials that were used. It was never dry and highly entertaining!
• I most enjoyed the discussions we had in the class on a wide range of subjects. I found it helpful to bounce thoughts and ideas off other members of the course. The lecturer was really good at getting us to think creatively and independently and to think outside the box whilst remaining focused on the task in hand.
• Discussing work with the class and then being able to reflect on those opinions and use them to develop your own.
• Presentation skills. It helped me overcome my fears of public speaking and I really liked analysing the TED talks that the lecturer showed us. I always felt that my opinions were valid and the lecturer provided a forum to debate things that were appropriate to the topics we were analysing.
• I liked film reviews and presentation delivery.
• The interactive quality of the lessons. Participation was always encouraged and you were always made to feel as though your opinion was valued.
• Listening to other people's talks.
• To actually know that I can write effectively, listen, understand and communicate well in a second language.
• Really enjoyed the discussions and being introduced to the wonderful TED website!
• Comm 4 kept the learning interesting from the beginning. Good formative work that prepped us nicely for the assessments. The lecturer really put himself out there and gave us lots of sample answers, opinions and was happy to field any questions, either in class, via the blog or by e mail.
• Analytical skills.

Is there anything about the Units that you would like to see changed?

• No. Keep up the great work and thank you!
• I would like to see a better choice of films for the film reviews.
• Don't change anything and don't change your teaching style, you are inspiring and engaging.
• Nothing, and I want to thank the teacher of course for the amazing work and for helping me towards my University life.
• No 9am starts please and let us drink coffee in the class! The lecturer was a real stickler for both, which is fair enough I guess!
• Better rooms. Occasionally I felt like I hadn't been criticised ENOUGH in my work but this also built my confidence as I trusted the lecturer's judgement thoroughly. Perhaps on reflection I was underestimating my own ability!
• Nothing comes to mind as I thought the course was great, thank you.
• No, this course has been beneficial in my preparation for Univeristy.
• I would possibly like to see a couple more assessments done in semester one. I think it IS possible and would maybe take the pressure off the last 8 weeks.
• Nothing, thank you for a very enjoyable learning experience.

Reflections of our learning from Mark Hetherington