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Presentation to college students - HELP!
Does anyone have any suggestions for interesting or engaging techniques for a presentation for college students?
I'm a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Fraud Examiner, and one of my former professors asked me to speak to his classes about my experience. The problem is, I'm only 25 with just a little over 3 three years of experience...which isn't a whole lot. I'm speaking to an Interviews & Interrogations class, which is a course in the Forensic Accounting program in the college of business.
I don't mind speaking in front of people, but I just don't want to be boring....besides telling about some of the fraud cases I've worked on, I'm kind of at a loss as to how to fill the rest of the 50 minute session.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Re: Presentation to college students - HELP!
I just typed a response and when I hit post it was deleted so here I go again.
I've taught a few courses at the university level and one course at a graduate level. What year are these students? Generally my freshman classes were louder and less questions came in, but upper level classes people were more engaged and asked more questions and generally a quieter group of students.
1. Start by introducing yourself very briefly.
2. Make your PowerPoint presentation engaging. No giant paragraphs full of texts, there are still professors who do this and then stand there and read it and it's SO boring. Short bulletin points and then talk about them on your own. If you make it into a story they'll pay better attention.
3. Before you start, let them know it's okay to stop you anytime during your talk and ask questions. When the first question comes tell them it was a good question. This will get the others to ask questions. Usually after the first couple of questions, they just flow in. somehow it puts others at ease to ask questions. But word of advice, don?t get distracted with the questions that you'd find yourself rushing to finish your talk. If it's an answer that'll take a while it's okay to give them a short answer and tell them you can discuss it with them after class.
4. Sometimes if you stop in the middle of a slide and ask a question, it'll get them to pay attention. Something like "so what do think will happen here?. what's causing this? ..." I don't know the details of your talk, I just made that up.
50 minutes will go by fast trust me. Just make sure you talk loud and clear enough that people in the back row can hear you. and eye contact, eye contact, eye contact. The more you look at them when talking (less looking at your monitor/powerpoint slides) the more they'll be into your talk.
I hope that helps. if i can think of anything else I'll let you know.
Thanks y'all! These are all great suggestions and I'll definitely put them to good use. These are upper level students so most of them are juniors, if not seniors, and the class sizes are small since it is a specialized area of the program.
I couldn't decide whether to do a powerpoint or not, but I think I will now just to have a visual aid. Not to mention, I love the idea of the poll - I've never heard of it before but that's awesome!
Thanks again everyone - I hope you all have a wonderful week.
i know this isn't specific to what you're asking, but make sure to talk more slowly than you think you need to. i have a student teacher in my classroom right now, and she moves much more quickly than she should. it's something i've gone over with her. you might feel like you're talking too slowly, but just remind yourself over and over to slow down.
you'll be fine--especially if you're thinking about it and planning ahead like this. good luck.