Online Communities (UW COM481 Spring 2024)/Final presentations

Structure

The basic structure is going to be as follows:

• Everybody in the class will be sorted into a Canvas group discussion group.
• To present, upload a video.
• To give feedback, comment on the video in the group. Your aim is to give your colleagues feedback to help them revise their work for their final projects.
• I will watch all the videos and look over the uploaded PDF or image material and give presenters detailed feedback in addition to peer feedback.

To Present:

1. Upload your presentation material in PDF, PNG, or JPG to the "Final Presentation" dropbox in Canvas. Note that you may need to convert your slides into one of these formats (.pptx doesn't work). I expect most people will be just uploaded a slide deck from PowerPoint, Google Slides, etc.
2. Upload your video of your 5-7 minute presentation in a message in the Final Presentation Peer Feedback group discussion group on Canvas within your assigned group. You all can do this by posting a new message and clicking the "Record/Upload Media" button above the text box and then clicking the "Upload Media" post on the follow-up tab. You may need to convert the file format -- .mkv may not work, but .mp4 should. If you have trouble uploading your recording, you might consider posting a link to a file sharing or video hosting platform instead.

I cannot give any credit for late assignments.

Feedback

1. Watch each short video pitch for the people in your assigned group.
2. After watching each the video, spend a minimum of 7 minutes writing a reply to each of the day's presenters' messages in Canvas giving them feedback on their presentation and pitch. Saying you liked the pitch is fine but focus on giving substantive, critical feedback that will help each person make concrete changes and improvements to the work in the presentation to produce a better final project. Feel free to ask questions about things you were unclear about. Feel free to give specific suggestions for course material that might be useful or connections that might be helpful. I expect everybody to spend between 7 and 12 minutes giving feedback to each presenters in your groups.

Feedback will be graded as part of participation and I will weight it so that it's equivalent to preparation for one case session. I cannot give any credit for late assignments.

Presentation Format: Short Videos

I am asking you all to prepare and share short videos.

In terms of the video: I am not expecting anything fancy. I understand that folks are coming to this with different technical skills and working in a variety of living situations. I am going to assess you entirely on the content of your presentation and pitch. I will not assess you on the production quality of your video and I do not need to see your face although it is always nice to see you. The pitches should be 5 minutes long and not more than 7 minutes in length. Please DO NOT speed up the recording to beat the 7 minute limit.

I'm quite open into the nature of the video but here are some ideas:

• A very easy technique is to join your a Zoom meeting by yourself (UW has a subscription to Zoom), share your screen, and record the Zoom session with you giving a talk by yourself. The "record to cloud" function is more reliable in my experience.
• Alternatively, you can a "screencast" that records audio of yourself talking while recording video of whatever is on your screen. There are a bunch of tools to do this:
  • Here's information on how to use a built-in screen recorder in Windows 10
  • Here's information on how to do screen recording on Mac OSX
  • Here's a video about how to record yourself using Microsoft PowerPoint on Windows
  • Some people like the following software: Camtasia (proprietary but has a free trial); CamStudio (free/open source software but harder to use). I haven't used either.
• If it's easier, feel free to just use a cellphone or webcam video. For example, have a friend record you as you talk through an actual "poster" version of your presentation laid out on a table.

If you run into trouble, please ask on Discord for help. Keep in mind that I use Linux and am unlikely to be able to do much to trouble shoot specific problems with your computer. That said, your classmates will likely be of some help. If you figured something out, please give advice to others on Discord. If you've got experience doing this, please help your classmates.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should go into my presentation?

Details are on the on the relevant section of the syllabus.