Guidelines

You should plan for your presentation to be about 15 minutes including time for questions. 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 have the right to cut questions short (including ones from the professor) or defer them 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. 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.

Each member of your team must speak at least once, for at least 5 minutes during one of the two presentations for the project over the two semesters.  Everyone on the team receives the same overall mark for the presentation, even if they do not present, because 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 and running properly on the class computer BEFORE the class begins!

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.
• Be aware that videos or live demonstrations may not display properly through a projector.  Be aware that you cannot count on network connectivity.  ALWAYS, have static slides, screenshots and cached images you can fall back on if your video, live demonstration on network access fails.