SESSION PLAN

Programme Title ILRI Graduate Fellowship Modular Training

Course Title Research Methods, Data Management & Presentation Skills

Topic Presentation Skills - Introduction No on Register

TBC

Facilitators Joyce Maru, Muthoni Njiru, Susan MacMillan, Tezira Lore, Albert Mwangi

Room ILRI Room 720

Tutorial Taught √ Workshop √ Other (state)

Learning Outcomes (1-essential; 2-desirable)

To identify the characteristics and skills of an effective presenter, and apply these in your

own presentations

To identify the key ingredients of successful presentations and learn how to prepare the beginning, middle, and end of a good presentation

To recognize the importance of preparation and rehearsal to ensure the success of a presentation

To evaluate own communication style and recognize how this impacts on your audience

Overall to Increase the comfort, effectiveness, professionalism, clarity, and confidence of the

students’ presentations.

Pre related topics Post related topics

The learners research topics that relate to ILRI projects Communicating your research findings - How to create scientific posters - Use of multimedia in presentations - Use of visuals in presentations - Scientific writing - Story telling - Interview techniques

Timing

Facilitator Activities Learner Activities Including Differentiation and Extension Activities

15 mins

Introduction

Icebreaker activity 2 options see annex 1

Share objectives slide 2

Why are you here? Ask learners what they hope to get out of the session. Make a note of these aspirations/concerns and compare with the already shared objectives. Discuss any gaps and agree how these will be addressed e.g. follow up session

Take turns to introduce themselves

Participate in icebreaker activity

Participate in discussion re: expectations

5 mins

Slide 3 - Introduce the topic using ‘Peter Drucker’ quote and discuss why it’s important for young and upcoming scientists to be able to effectively communicate. Ask learners to give examples of the kinds of presentations they give or plan to give

Active listening through Q & A

Take notes

Share experiences

10 mins

Slide 4 – Ask the learners to give reasons through sharing own experiences why they may have ended up being so bored and not listening to a presentation. Flipchart answers with an aim to brainstorm the factors that makes great presentation or what makes presentations ineffective. Possible

Take part in group discussions

Provide feedback

Take notes

answers see presenters notes on slide 4

15 mins

Expose Slide 5-12 – Tips of an impactful presentation. Discuss significance, structure, simplicity and Rehearsal. Involve learners through Q & A and allow them to also share own experiences Demonstrate simplicity by showing examples of busy slides/posters and simple and effective slides/posters. ILRI examples?

Active listening through Q & A

Take notes

15 mins

Slides 13 & 14 Presenters impact and body language tips. Keep making references to earlier group exercise as it’s anticipated that ineffective body language would be identified as one of the factors. (Tezira Lore)

Actively listening

Share experiences re: different sources of information

15 mins

Slide 15 – overcoming nerves during presentation. Ask learners whether they ever feel nervous when presenting and how they overcome these nerves if at all. Watch you tube video on how to overcome nerves during presentation. The video is too long so will start from 6.30minutes to the end – the bit that concentrates on techniques for overcoming nerves.

Active listening through Q & A

Share own experiences

Watch video

Take notes

15 mins Tea Break

15 mins

Explain to learners that there are other ways that are equally effective in putting your message across. Explain that there will be other communication related modules to be offered soon e.g.

- Story telling - How to create scientific posters - Use of visuals and multimedia

in presentations - Scientific writing - Interview techniques

Slide 16 – Invite Susan Macmillan to give a 5 mins mini session on story telling

Slide 17 – invite Muthoni Njiru to give a 5 mins mini session on use of visuals and multimedia. Demonstrate using examples

Active listening

Take notes where necessary

15 mins

Slides 18-27- resources for enhancing presentations. Share with learners but also ask them to share others that they may have used effectively and have not been mentioned. If they have experience any of the ones shared they can also talk about the pros and cons for each

Active listening through Q & A

Share experience on any tools that they have effectively used to enhance presentations

10 mins

Slide 28- recap key points/summarize the session using the video clip on Steve Jobs presentation techniques.

Ask if learners have any question

Watch video

Participate through Q & A

or anything they require clarification

50 mins Workshop to prepare and rehearse for 5 minutes presentations using the tips learnt. The subject of the presentation can be relevant to their study. It could be extracted from a presentation that they plan to make or have given in the past and would like to improve on. Share slide 29 – ‘what to consider when preparing’ and leave it exposed so that they can keep making reference to it.

12.30 – 2pm lunch break

2hrs 15 mins

Slide 30 – Toastmasters session

Each learner gets 5 mins to present to the rest of the group in turn.

Strict timekeeping and they’ll be stopped at 5 minutes

Each learner will also get 2 minutes feedback from a panel (Joyce, Susan, Muthoni, Tezira and Albert) and from their peers. Only maximum of 3 feedback givers for each presentation. Each feedback giver will state one thing they liked about each of the presentations and one thing that could be improved – could they identify the main point of the presentation – the one question that matters most?

Make a presentation to the group

Provide feedback to their peers

15 mins Summarise the toastmasters’ session and discuss the relevance, did they enjoy, what could be improved etc.

Evaluate the session as a whole

Remind and discuss with learners about future planned sessions

Participate in discussions e.g. what they enjoyed, what they thought they could be improved on etc.

Provide feedback by completing the evaluation forms

Resources (including E learning)

Formative/Summative Assessment

Hand-outs

Interactive white board

PowerPoint presentation

Flip chart

Laptops

Stopwatch/timer

Q & A

Making presentations/being able to provide feedback

REVIEW

Achievement of Learning Outcomes Action Points

Annex 1 Icebreakers Option 1

How well do you use your alphabet?

Ask learners to have spontaneous conversations by beginning each statement with a particular letter of

the alphabet. Divide the class into 5 groups or less depending on numbers and tell them to imagine they

are in a typical work setting and are to have a conversation by alternating each statement with a

consecutive letter in the alphabet. The pairs can practice and then play in front of all other participants

with the winning group receiving a prize or play less competitively in pairs.

Example:

Rob: All next week, I’ll be very busy

Jane: Bet you’ll be doing some work in the labs!

Play quickly and spontaneously and not think too hard about what to say next To save on time, you can split up the alphabet as per the example below Group 1 A B C D E Group 2 F G H I J Group 3 K L M N O Group 4 P Q R S T Group 5 U V W X Y Z

Option 2 Getting to know each other

a. Fact or fiction? Ask everyone to write on a piece of paper THREE things about themselves which may not be known to

the others in the group. Two are true and one is not. Taking turns they read out the three ‘facts’ about

themselves and the rest of the group votes which are true and false. There are always surprises. This

simple activity is always fun, and helps the group and leaders get to know more about each other.

b. Interview

Divide the learners into pairs. Ask them to take three minutes to interview each other. Each interviewer

has to find 3 interesting facts about their partner. Bring everyone back to together and ask everyone to

present the 3 facts about their partner to the rest of the group. Watch the time on this one, keep it

moving along.

My name is?

c. My name is?

Go around the group and ask each learner to state his/her name and attach an adjective that not only

describes a dominant characteristic, but also starts with the same letter of his name e.g. generous

Grahame, dynamic Dave. Write them down and refer to them by this for the rest of the session. They

can write these on the name cards and display.