Teaching Effective Presentation Skills

PowerPoint Project: Teaching Effective Presentation Skills
PowerPoint Project Scenario:
You are going to brief a small group of newly graduated APUS Business School students on how to prepare an effective presentation. Your audience consists of individuals of various ages with different business backgrounds, military experience, and some are even small-business owners. This assignment requires you to develop a PowerPoint slide project for use as a training tool with managers and supervisors on how to prepare an effective presentation. As you move up through the workforce you will, at some point, be required to give a briefing or presentation to others. Hopefully, one day you will also have to the opportunity to develop one of your worker’s speaking and presentation skills. There is great satisfaction in taking a nervous employee, helping them develop their presentation, coaching them on their delivery, and then watching them knock it out of the park! The Week Five Lesson has a lot of great information to get you started, as well as the Guy Kawasaki TED Talk in the Week Four Forum.

Be sure to include/address each of the following:
1. The first slide in your PowerPoint project must be the “Title” slide.
2. Next, begin with an “Introduction/Overview” slide for your audience. (As you prepare this slide–factors to consider in all forms of communication: Who is your audience? What is your message? Are you trying to persuade? Inform?)
3. The beginning of your PowerPoint project should then briefly (i.e., no more than 2-3 slides) outline how to start a presentation (these are the “attention-getting” steps).
4. Then focus the majority of your briefing (i.e., 8-10 slides) on what makes an effective presentation.
5. Conclude your PowerPoint assignment with a “References” slide that includes at least THREE (3) supporting references or research sources.
***Have fun with the topics of the PowerPoint assignment and be sure to be creative with your use of both special effects AND graphics (required)!

Submission Instructions: Submit your work only as a Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt) presentation. Your PowerPoint project must include:
1. Title slide;
2. Introduction/Overview slide;
3. Body Content of your PowerPoint project (10-12 slides) that includes: an outline on how to start a presentation (these are the “attention-getting” steps); and then focus the majority of your PowerPoint on what makes an effective presentation;
4. References slide at the end of your PowerPoint briefing that includes at least THREE research sources used in your assignment;
5. For a total of 13-15 slides (note, however, that you may include as many slides in your PowerPoint project as you think necessary to fully and completely address the PowerPoint assignment).

NOTE: You will be graded by the content and the text contained on each slide of your PowerPoint briefing; your ability to follow assignment instructions; research conducted; effectiveness of the training proposed; critical thinking and analysis; APA format; and your creative use of both special effects AND graphics!
Please support your ideas, arguments, and conclusions with independent research; your References slide must include at least three (3) supporting references or research (do not use any of the following as one of the three required references: your textbook; encyclopedias; Wikipedia; unknown, undated, or anonymous sources; and any articles from non-reputable websites); and cite all research sources properly in the text of each slide, in accordance with the 6th Edition of the APA manual, Chapters 6 & 7.
Helpful Tip: I strongly encourage you to go online to Purdue OWL, or Excelsior OWL, which have writing labs for students. Look up PowerPoint presentations in APA format in the search box. These websites will have helpful tips on best practices. TED talks are also another great source for good information.
References:
Excelsior OWL: http://owl.excelsior.edu/posts/view/277
Purdue OWL: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/17/

Reminder: You will be graded by the content and the text contained on each slide of your PowerPoint briefing; your ability to follow assignment instructions; research conducted; effectiveness of the training proposed; critical thinking and analysis; your creative use of both special effects AND graphics; and APA format.