Presentation and Discussion Guidelines

Every member of your group should have one part of the presentation that they are responsible for, but you should practice your presentation as a group, and are free to collaborate on all aspects of the presentation. You will be marked individually based on content, and presentation effectiveness including how you handle questions, but part of your mark will also be based on the overall success of the presentation as a group.

You are responsible, in terms of content to:

Highlight the key ideas underpinning the enhancement from an academic point of view, architectural point of view, and code point of view.

Be aware of potential societal, legal, or user impact of your enhancement.

Illustrate with concrete examples at both the design level and the source code level.

Provide a list of references to related material (papers, standards, web links, competing technologies) that might be of interest

Addressing any “focus” questions that may have been assigned as part of the presentation.

The first person presenting should introduce the group as well as the overall topic, in addition to their part of the presentation. The last person presenting should wrap up the presentation in addition to their part of the presentation with a summary or conclusions slide and then open the floor for questions.

Each person should plan for their part of the presentation to take 5 minutes … without questions … but there will be questions which is why 30 minutes is budgeted for the entire presentation. The whole class will be able to ask you questions, but the professor will also give you feedback and may highlight issues for the benefit of the class as a whole. However, you control the presentation and can choose to defer questions to the end of the presentation

Be prepared that if you run short on time that you may need to omit slides, or drastically reduce what you say about a slide, if for example, we get sidetracked on a good discussion). You should be able to summarize the point or significance of any slide in a single sentence if needed. You should also be able to summarize the key points or significance of your presentation in just a couple of sentences with just a few select slides.

Everyone is expected to participate in the creation of the presentation which should include at least a couple of practice sessions. The presentation should be rehearsed so that if flows smoothly, and everyone who speaks is comfortable and professional in front of an audience. All groups should show up 5 minutes before class time on the day they present and make sure their presentation is installed properly on the class computer.

Presentations in general: Consider the following to help improve your presentations:

• Use PowerPoint or a similar tool.
• Understand the intent of the presentation and get to the point. Do not take up a lot of time with uninteresting background. You may have done a lot of work, but focus on a few points about which your audience will be most interested (leave full details for a written report).
• Make sure font size is at least 32 point for slide headings and 20 point for other text.
• Make sure no point takes more than 2 lines. Don't expect readers to read a long sentence - use point form.
• Use diagrams (e.g. UML or pictures of screens) as much as possible. You can point to these and explain details of them.
• Make sure you proofread your slides so they do not have spelling or grammar errors.
• Your slides should only highlight key points of what you will say orally. Make sure you don't 'read' your slides.
• Practice your presentation in advance in front of other members of your group, plus other friends. Make sure you get the timing right.
• Practice speaking up and projecting your voice. Try to put energy into your presentation. Convince your audience that you are enthusiastic about what you are trying to say.
• Do not "read" your slides. It is not important to say every last detail (we can all read). Instead, talk to the audience as if you are carrying on a conversation and focus on making sure the key points are highlighted and their significance grasped by the audience.
• Make eye contact with your audience and face them at all times. If you are pointing at something on a diagram either use the mouse at the keyboard, or stand to the side, facing the audience and point to the diagram or get one of your team members to point to the slide while you talk.