Presentations don’t have to be a thing of the past. Even with teachers and students working and learning remotely, there are many ways to keep presentations viable for assignment submission.
With so many educators suffering from Zoom fatigue and struggling to keep their energy levels up when faced with muted empty screens, it’s hard to imagine that students may feel enthused with presentations as a class assignment.
However, there are ways to do it well. By encouraging creativity and giving students the flexibility to choose their format, teachers can add a bit more excitement to their students’ daily routine.
This guide will showcase the benefits of presentations as an assignment and offer suggestions for a few formats that work best for remote learning.
Why presentations?
There are few types of assignments that are engaging for students as a presentation, and asking students to prepare information can be a more challenging and effective way to assess learning than a traditional test or exam.
One of the key benefits of a presentation is that it requires students to know the material well enough to reiterate and explain it to their peers. Presentations give students a nuanced understanding that goes beyond memorization.
Additionally, it offers students the chance to practice important communication and organization skills they’ll need in their adult lives. The act of planning and delivering a presentation can seem nerve-wracking to young students, but as they get more comfortable, it will deepen their self-confidence.
How students can use technology to complete assignments like presentations
It may seem challenging to set presentations as an assignment during remote learning, but there are ways to make it easier and more approachable.
Here are some of our suggestions for using technology to make the delivery and grading of presentation assignments much more effortless.
Keep the traditional format
If you’d like for students to give their presentations in real-time, you can use whatever technology you’re using for your classes and simply turn over the group’s leadership to the presenting student.
Encourage students to use props from home to make their presentation more engaging and think about doing a test run beforehand to ensure that they know their space’s sound and lighting requirements.
Screen share using Google Meet, Webex, or Zoom
If students are shy or want to encourage them to make and utilize slides, give them the option of doing their presentation through a screen share. Students can then put their materials on the screen and present verbally.
Upload a video to your digital grading software
If you don’t want to spend all of your class hours listening to presentations, you can allow students to film their presentations, allowing them to be as creative as they wish. Video presentations may alleviate some of the burdens on students who struggle with public speaking.
After their video is complete, they can do assignment submission in two ways: they can send you the entire file or upload it to a secure video platform like YouTube or Vimeo and send you a link. It’s much easier to use digital grading software instead of email in these cases, so the links and large files don’t clog your inbox.
Crowdmark makes assignment submission easier for teachers and students
Presentations are a great way to encourage your students’ creativity, but submitting and grading them can be challenging. To help make it easier, try Crowdmark.
We created our digital grading software to make the grading workflow easier for educators. Assignment submission is easy and quick and offers educators the opportunity to grade from anywhere. With Crowdmark’s new Text entry question format, students can attach or embed links, images and files directly into their question response. Once educators are engaged in marking, the grading tool allows them to save frequently used comments and mark up each assignment with rich text, including images and videos.