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Paper Presentations

Research Paper Presentation Overview

Each class will cover two-three paper presentations by the instructor and students followed by a discussion. The presentations must be done by students on the date assigned by the instructor in the course schedule. The presentations made by students will be graded and thus, missing the date of the presentation will result in “0” grade for that particular assignment. The students, presenting a paper in the class must email mail their presentation (.pdf and .ppt/.key) to the instructor no later than 12:00pm (noon) on the date the paper is presented.

Collaboration Policy

You are not allowed to work with other students on your presentation. You may discuss high level design and oral presentation strategies, however, your presentation must be your own original work.

Presentation Instructions and Grading

Presentation Content

Research paper presentations should include the following content:

  • Overview of Motivation: Here you should tell the story of why the problem that the paper is tackling is important.
  • Key Idea of Research: Here, crystallize the key idea or novelty behind the paper for the audience in an engaging way.
  • Approach Description or Study Design: Here, describe the details of the approach or designed study in a way that is relatable to the audience. Include any necessary background required to understand the approach or study methods.
  • Evaluation & Results: Provide an overview of the most important takeaway results with supporting evidence. Provide any necessary background about the evaluation methods used.
  • Discussion Questions: At the end of the presentation, please be sure to include a set of discussion questions to drive the course of class discussion.

Presentation Timing

All presentations should be between 20-25 minutes. 5 points will be subtracted for each minute that the presentation runs over 25 minutes. Dr. Moran will keep track of time in class and will provide visual cues for how much time you have remaining.

Presentation Resources

Below, I have linked a few resources that I use in creating my own presentations. You do not have to use these for your presentation in class. However, you may find them helpful in preparing your slides.

Presentation Grading

Research paper presentations will be graded out of 100 points using the criteria below.1

Category

Professional (100%)

Adequate (75%)

Needs Work (50%)

Serious Problems (25%)

Grade
Content Full grasp (more than needed) of material in initial presentation and in answering questions later, includes interesting discussion questions Solid presentation of material and answers all questions adequately but without elaboration, adequate discussion questions Less than a full grasp of the information revealed rudimentary presentation and answers to questions, discussion questions unclear No grasp of information, some misinformation, and unable to answer questions accurately, no discussion questions 40%
Visual Aids Visuals explain and reinforce the rest of the presentation, presentation has text on slides only where needed Visuals relate to rest of presentation, but fall short in explaining key topics, too much text on slides Visuals are too few or not sufficiently related to the rest of the presentation Visuals not used or are superfluous 20%
Organization Information presented in a logical interesting sequence that is easy for the audience to follow and tells the story of the paper Information is presented in a logical sequence that is easy for the audience to follow but is not engaging or exciting Presentation jumps between topics making it difficult to follow the story of the paper. Audience cannot follow presentations because it follows no logical sequence 10%
English No misspelled words or grammatical errors No more than two misspelled words or grammatical errors Three-five more misspelled words or grammatical errors More than 5 misspelled words or grammatical errors 10%
Elocution Speaks clearly, correctly and precisely, loud enough for audience to hear and slowly enough for easy understanding Speaks clearly, pronounces most words correctly, loud enough to be easily heard, and slow enough to be understood Speaks unclearly, mispronounces many major terms, and speaks too softly or rapidly to be easily understood Mumbles, mispronounces most important terms, and speaks too softly or rapidly to be understood 10%
Eye Contact Eye contact constant; minimal or no reading of notes Eye contact maintained except when consulting notes, which is too often Some eye contact but mostly reading from notes No eye contact, reads from notes exclusively 10%

  1. Note that if you have a disability that may pertain to how any of these grading criteria may be perceived, I am happy to work with you to come up with an alternative grading scheme. ↩