Understand your question
Introduction
It is important to understand what your oral question or assignment brief is asking of you. Before you start to research or prepare for you assignment, it is worth spending time considering the wording of the question and any learning outcomes that may accompany it. Failure to do this could result in an unfocused response which does not answer the question.
Breaking down the question
- When looking at a question for the first time It can be helpful to consider the different parts of a question before you begin.
- If you question is quite broad you can narrow it down by:
- Choosing one or two key aspects of the topic to focus your argument around.
- Focusing on a few examples rather than trying to cover everything that falls under that topic.
- Deciding on a standpoint you want to argue (this applies to specific essay questions too).
- Making sure your introduction explains your chosen focus aim and argument.
- You might find it helpful to identify any task words in your question to help you to understand what the question is asking of you.
- If you are struggling to get started:
- Try to come up with a one word answer to the question ('yes,' 'no',' maybe'- or perhaps two words: 'not quite', 'only sometimes').
- Then expand the one-word answer into a sentence summarising your reason for saying that.
- Then expand that sentence into three sentences. This could be the beginning of your planning.
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Research
The first place that you should check to start your research is the resource list for your module. You can find you modules resource list at the ResourceLists@Bham homepage.
This short video explains how you can find your way around your resource list:
See further support on working with resource lists.
Beyond your module's resource list, you can also use:
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Planning
Individual oral assessments
Planning an oral presentation can be very similar to planning for a digital asset such as a video, techniques such as the Multicolumn format (LinkedIn Learning), may be useful to you when planning an oral presentation.
Watch this video to see how to create a Multicolumn format planning document. (LinkedIn Learning)
You may also wish to apply the planning methods used in essay writing. This may be particularly useful if your oral presentation is linked to your dissertation, final year submission or a postgraduate viva.
Watch this video on how to plan and structure an essay. (Panopto)
Group-based oral assessments
Your assessment may also be a group-based oral assessment. Planning for this type of assessment will require you to work collaboratively with your group. Watch this short video for advice on working collaboratively (Panopto).
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Digital tool support
There are many different digital tools that you may use to develop and publish your oral assessment.
Creating a presentation
Creating animated presentations
You may wish to include animation within your presentation. Please see our digital assets guidance.
There are a number of digital tools that can support you should you wish to include animations but are not an expert in animation tools. These include:
Alternative tools for presentations
You may also wish to complete you presentation in a different way.
As well as creating animated presentations, ThingLink can be used to create interactive posters, immersive 3D tours and interactive escape rooms.
Alternatively, you may want to try digital storyboarding with StoryboardThat. It allows you to create comic book-style storyboards to use as the visualisations for your presentation.
Submitting your presentation
You may be asked to submit your presentation in a number of different ways.
Feedback Fruits for group-based oral assessments
If working on a group-based oral assessment, you may be asked to use Feedback Fruits to submit your work.
You may also be asked to comment on the oral presentations of other groups or those within your own group as a part of your oral assessment:
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Practicing
When giving a presentation, it can be helpful to practice before you deliver it. You can practice with:
If your oral assessment is roleplay-based, such as discussing treatment with a patient, then you may wish to use Copilot to act in the role of a specific individual. By doing this, you can practice roleplaying the conversation that you are likely to have in your assessment.
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Referencing
Referencing is an important academic skill as it shows the reader of your work the sources you have used to research your topic, and gives support and weight to your arguments and conclusions. When writing an essay or thesis, referring to the sources you have used is an academic requirement. There are four good reasons for referencing;
- To allow a reader of your work to find and check the sources you have used.
- So that you can come back to your own work and know where you found a particular quotation or piece of information.
- To avoid accusations of plagiarism.
- To make you think twice about using outdated and inaccurate books, articles, or websites.
As a general rule you should not put your trust in any resource which does not give references.
Cite Them Right
The University has adopted the Cite Them Right style of referencing.
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Know where you're going
You may be asked to give your presentation in person. Due to room sizes, this may not happen in a location in the University that you're familiar with. Use the University of Birmingham Interactive map (for UK locations) to make sure that you know where you need to go.
If you are based on the Dubai campus, you can download a copy of the floor map of the university on the maps and directions pages.
You might be asked to deliver your presentation online. This can be completed with many digital tools, but the most frequent ones used at the University are Microsoft Teams and Zoom:
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