what is a university presentation

Tips for Online Students , Tips for Students

Presentation Tips For Students – Show And Tell Like A Pro!

Updated: July 15, 2022

Published: May 4, 2020

Giving a presentation to fellow classmates can be a bit daunting, especially if you are new to oral and visual presenting. But with the right PowerPoint tips, public speaking skills, and plenty of practice, you can present like a pro at your upcoming presentation. Here, we’ve laid out the best college presentation tips for students. And once you have one successful presentation, you’ll get better each time!

The Best Presentation Tips for Students

1. arrive early and be technically prepared.

Get to the room early and make sure you leave plenty of time for technical set up and technical difficulties. Have several backup drives (including an online version if possible) so that you are prepared for anything!

2. Know More

Be educated on more than just what you are sharing. That way, you can add points, speak candidly and confidently, and be prepared to answer any audience or teacher questions.

3. Share Your Passion With Your Audience

Connect with your audience by showing that you are passionate about your topic. Do this with the right tone, eye contact, and enthusiasm in your speech.

Photo by  Austin Distel  on  Unsplash

4. pace yourself.

When student presenters are nervous, they tend to speed up their speech. This can be a problem, however, because your speed may be distracting, hard to understand, and you may run under your time.

5. Rehearse Thoroughly

Don’t just practice, rehearse your college presentation. Rehearse the entire delivery, including standing up, using gestures, and going through the slides.

6. Show Your Personality

You don’t need to be professional to the point of stiffness during your college presentation . Don’t be afraid to show your personality while presenting. It will make your presentation more interesting, and you will seem more approachable and confident.

7. Improvise

You can’t be 100% certain what will happen during your presentation. If things aren’t exactly as you expected, don’t be afraid to improvise and run off script.

8. Pump Yourself Up

Get yourself excited and full of energy before your college presentation! Your mood sets the tone for your presentation, and if you get excited right before, you will likely carry that throughout and you’ll make your audience excited about your topic as well.

9. Remember To Pause

Pausing not only only prevents filler words and helps you recollect your thoughts, it can also be a powerful indicator of importance within your presentation.

10. Create “Um” Alternatives

Try hard not to use filler words as they make you look unprofessional and uncertain. The best alternatives to “um” “like” and “so” are taking a breath or a silent pause to collect your thoughts.

11. Using Your Hands

Using your hands makes your college presentation more interesting and helps to get your points across. Point at the slide, use common hand gestures, or mimic a motion.

12. Eye Contact

Eye contact is one of the most important presentation tips for students . Many students are nervous, so they look at their notes or their feet. It is important that you show your confidence and engage your audience by making eye contact. The more presentations you give, the more eye contact will feel natural.

13. The Right Tone

The best public speakers vary their tone and pitch throughout their presentation. Try to change it up, and choose the right tone for your message.

Preparing an Effective College Presentation

1. open strong.

Grab your fellow students’ attention by starting strong with a powerful quote, intriguing scenario, or prompt for internal dialogue.

2. Start With A Mind Map

Mind mapping is literally creating a map of the contents of your college presentation. It is a visual representation and flow of your topics and can help you see the big picture, along with smaller details.

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3. edit yourself.

Some students make the mistake of including too much information in their college presentations. Instead of putting all of the information in there, choose the most important or relevant points, and elaborate on the spot if you feel it’s necessary.

4. Tell A Story

People love stories — they capture interest in ways that figures and facts cannot. Make your presentation relatable by including a story, or presenting in a story format.

5. The Power Of Humor

Using humor in your college presentation is one of the best presentation tips for students. Laughter will relax both you and the audience, and make your presentation more interesting

PowerPoint Tips for Students

1. use key phrases.

Choose a few key phrases that remain throughout your PowerPoint presentation. These should be phrases that really illustrate your point, and items that your audience will remember afterwards.

2. Limit Number Of Slides

Having too many slides will cause you to feel you need to rush through them to finish on time. Instead, include key points on a slide and take the time to talk about them. Try to think about including one slide per one minute of speech.

3. Plan Slide Layouts

Take some time to plan out how information will be displayed on your PowerPoint. Titles should be at the top, and bullets underneath. You may want to add title slides if you are changing to a new topic.

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4. the right fonts.

Choose an easy-to-read font that isn’t stylized. Sans serif fonts tend to be easier to read when they are large. Try to stick to only two different fonts as well to keep the presentation clean.

5. Choosing Colors And Images

When it comes to colors, use contrasting ones: light on dark or dark on light. Try to choose a few main colors to use throughout the presentation. Choose quality images, and make sure to provide the source for the images.

6. Use Beautiful Visual Aids

Keep your presentation interesting and your audience awake by adding visual aids to your PowerPoint. Add captivating photos, data representations, or infographics to illustrate your information.

7. Don’t Read Straight From Your Notes

When you read straight from your notes, your tone tends to remain monotonous, you don’t leave much room for eye contact. Try looking up often, or memorizing portions of your presentation.

8. Avoid Too Much Text

PowerPoint was made for images and bullets, not for your entire speech to be written in paragraph form. Too much text can lose your adiences’ interest and understanding.

9. Try A Theme

Choosing the right theme is one of those presentation tips for students that is often overlooked. When you find the right theme, you keep your college presentation looking interesting, professional, and relevant.

10. Be Careful With Transitions And Animations

Animations and transitions can add a lot to your presentation, but don’t add to many or it will end up being distracting.

Public Speaking Tips for Students

1. choose your topic wisely.

If you are able to pick your topic, try to pick something that interests you and something that you want to learn about. Your interest will come through your speech.

2. Visit The Room Beforehand

If your presentation is being held somewhere outside of class, try to visit the location beforehand to prep your mind and calm your nerves.

3. Practice Makes Perfect

Practice, practice, practice! The only way you will feel fully confident is by practicing many times, both on your own and in front of others.

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4. talk to someone about anxiety.

If you feel anxious about your college presentation, tell someone. It could be a friend, family member, your teacher, or a counselor. They will be able to help you with some strategies that will work best for you.

5. Remind Yourself Of Your Audience

Remember, you are presenting to your peers! They all likely have to make a presentation too at some point, and so have been or will be in the same boat. Remembering that your audience is on your side will help you stay cool and collected.

6. Observe Other Speakers

Look at famous leaders, or just other students who typically do well presenting. Notice what they are doing and how you can adapt your performance in those ways.

7. Remind Yourself Of Your Message

If you can come up with a central message, or goal, of your college presentation, you can remind yourself of it throughout your speech and let it guide you.

8. Don’t Apologize

If you make a mistake, don’t apologize. It is likely that no one even noticed! If you do feel you need to point out your own mistake, simply say it and keep moving on with your presentation. No need to be embarrassed, it happens even to the best presenters!

When you smile, you appear warm and inviting as a speaker. You will also relax yourself with your own smile.

The Bottom Line

It can be nerve racking presenting as a college student, but if you use our presentation tips for students, preparing and presenting your college presentation will be a breeze!

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 Academic Presentations

Academic presentations are an integral part of university study and assessment. Academic presentations may be presented individually or as a group activity but both require the key skills of planning and structuring key information. The key difference between an academic presentation and a general presentation is that it is usually quite formal and includes academic research to evidence the ideas presented. The presentation will include references to credible sources and demonstrate clearly your knowledge and familiarity of the topic.

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Giving a good academic presentation

• Think about the aim of your presentation and what you want to achieve.
• Concentrate on your audience: who   they are and  what   they (want to) know.
• Choose the topic that interests you: involvement and motivation are key to confidence.
• Give your presentation a  clear   and  logical   organization so that everyone can follow.
• Present information  visually : this adds interest to your talk and makes it easier to follow.
• Practise giving your presentation until you are familiar with the key points; this way you may discover any potential problems and check the timing. Besides, practice will also make you feel more confident.

Basic outline / structure

• Introduction: introduce the topic, some basic background, thesis (your stance or argument).
• Outline: provide basic bullet points on the key parts of the presentation.
• Main body: divide the main body into sections.
• Evaluation: always include evaluation. This can be a separate section or part of the main body.
• Conclusion: summarise key points, restate the thesis and make a recommendation / suggestion / prediction.
• Reference list: create one slide with all your sources.
• Questions : be prepared to answer questions.
• Cope with nerves: breathe deeply; it calms you down and stops you from talking too quickly.
• Control your voice: speak clearly and try to sound interesting by changing intonation and rhythm.
• Watch your body language: try to give the impression that you are relaxed and confident.
• Maintain eye contact with your audience: it keeps them interested in what you are saying. For this reason, you should not read.
• Provide visual information, but do not give too many facts at a time. Give your audience enough time to take them in.
• Keep attention by asking rhetorical questions.

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7.4 Public Speaking and Class Presentations

Learning objectives.

• Know how to overcome nervousness and anxiety associated with public speaking and giving class presentations.
• Effectively use the six-step process to prepare for and deliver a class presentation.
• Create effective visual aids for use in class presentations.
• Work with a group to successfully plan and deliver a class presentation.

Public speaking—giving an oral presentation before a class or another group of people—is a special form of interaction common in education. You will likely be asked to give a presentation in one of your classes at some point, and your future career may also involve public speaking. It’s important to develop skills for this form of communication.

Public speaking is like participating in class—sharing your thoughts, ideas, and questions with others in the group. In other ways, however, public speaking is very different. You stand in front of the class to speak, rather than from your usual seat—and for most students, that changes the psychology of the situation. You also have time outside of class to prepare your presentation, allowing you to plan it carefully—and, for many, giving more time to worry about it and experience even more anxiety!

Overcoming Anxiety

Although a few people seem to be natural public speakers, most of us feel some stage fright or anxiety about having to speak to a group, at least at first. This is completely normal. We feel like everyone is staring at us and seeing our every flaw, and we’re sure we’ll forget what we want to say or mess up. Take comfort from knowing that almost everyone else is dreading giving class presentations the same as you are! But you can learn to overcome your anxiety and prepare in a way that not only safely gets you through the experience but also leads to success in your presentation. The following are proven strategies for overcoming anxiety when speaking in public:

• Understand anxiety. Since stage fright is normal, don’t try to deny that you’re feeling anxious. A little anxiety can help motivate you to prepare and do your best. Accept this aspect of the process and work to overcome it. Anxiety is usually worst just before you begin and but eases up once you’ve begun.
• Understand that your audience actually wants you to succeed. They’re not looking for faults or hoping you’ll fail. Other students and your instructors are on your side, not your enemy. They likely won’t even see your anxiety.
• Reduce anxiety by preparing and practicing. The next section discusses the preparation process in more detail. The more fully you prepare and the more often you have practice, the more your anxiety will go away.
• Focus on what you’re saying, not how you’re saying it. Keep in mind that you have ideas to share, and this is what your classmates and instructors are interested in. Don’t obsess about speaking, but focus on the content of your presentation. Think, for example, of how easily you share your ideas with a friend or family member, as you naturally speak your mind. The same can work with public speaking if you focus on the ideas themselves.
• Develop self-confidence. As you prepare, you will make notes you can refer to during the presentation. You’re not going to forget what you want to say. The more you practice, the more confident you’ll become.

Guidelines for Presentations

Preparing and delivering a presentation in class (or in business or other settings) is a process very similar to the learning process discussed in Chapter 4 “Listening, Taking Notes, and Remembering” , Chapter 5 “Reading to Learn” , and Chapter 6 “Preparing for and Taking Tests” and the writing process discussed in Chapter 8 “Writing for Classes” . The process breaks down into these six basic steps:

• Analyze your audience and goals
• Plan, research, and organize your content
• Draft and revise the presentation
• Prepare speaking notes
• Practice the presentation
• Deliver the presentation

Step 1: Analyze Your Audience and Goals

Who will see and hear your presentation—and why? Obviously, other students and the instructor. But you still need to think about what they already know, and don’t know, about your topic. If your topic relates to subject matter in class lectures and readings, consider what background information they already have and be careful not to give a boring recap of things they already know. It may be important, however, to show how your specific topic fits in with subjects that have been discussed already in class, especially in the beginning of your presentation, but be sure to focus on your new topic.

New terms and concepts may become familiar to you while doing your research and preparation, but remember to define and explain them to other students. Consider how much explanation or examples will be needed for your audience to grasp your points. If your topic involves anything controversial or may provoke emotion, consider your audience’s attitudes and choose your words carefully. Thinking about your audience will help you find ways to get their attention and keep them interested.

Be sure you are clear about the goals for the presentation. Are you primarily presenting new information or arguing for a position? Are you giving an overview or a detailed report? Review the assignment and talk with the instructor if you’re unsure. Your goals guide everything in the presentation: what you say, how much you say, what order you say it in, what visual aids you use, whether you use humor or personal examples, and so forth.

Step 2: Plan, Research, and Organize Your Content

Starting with the assignment and your goals, brainstorm your topic. Jot notes on specific topics that seem important. Often you’ll do reading or research to gather more information. Take notes as you would with any reading. As you research the topic at this stage, don’t worry at first about how much content you are gathering. It’s better to know too much and then pick out the most important things to say than to rush ahead to drafting the presentation and then realize you don’t have enough material.

Organizing a presentation is similar to organizing topics in a class paper and uses the same principles. Introduce your topic and state your main idea (thesis), go into more detail about specific ideas, and conclude your presentation. Look for a logical order for the specifics in the middle. Some topics work best in chronological (time) order or with a compare-and-contrast organization. If your goal is to persuade the audience, build up to the strongest reason. Put similar ideas together and add transitions between different ideas.

While researching your topic and outlining your main points, think about visual aids that may help the presentation.

Also start thinking about how much time you have for the presentation, but don’t limit yourself yet in the outline stage.

Step 3: Draft and Revise the Presentation

Unless required by the assignment, you don’t need to actually write out the presentation in full sentences and paragraphs. How much you write depends on your own learning and speaking style. Some students speak well from brief phrases written in an outline, while other students find it easier to write sentences out completely. There’s nothing wrong with writing the presentation out fully like a script if that helps you be sure you will say what you intend to—just so you don’t actually get up and read from the script.

You can’t know for sure how long a presentation will last until you rehearse it later, but you can estimate the time while drafting it. On the average, it takes two to three minutes to speak what can be written on a standard double-spaced page—but with visual aids, pauses, and audience interaction, it may take longer. While this is only a rough guide, you can start out thinking of a ten-minute presentation as the equivalent of a three to four-page paper.

Never wait until the last minute to draft your presentation. Arrange your time to prepare the first draft and then come back to it a day or two later to ask these questions:

• Am I going on too long about minor points? Could the audience get bored?
• Do I have good explanations and reasons for my main points? Do I need more data or better examples? Where would visual aids be most effective?
• Am I using the best words for this topic and this audience? Should I be more or less informal in the way I talk?
• Does it all hold together and flow well from one point to the next? Do I need a better introduction or transition when I shift from one idea to another?

Visual Aids in Presentations

Except for very short informal presentations, most presentations gain from visuals—and visual aids are often expected. If encouraged or allowed to include visuals in your presentation, plan to do so. Consider all possible types:

• Charts or graphs
• Photos or other images
• Video clips
• Handouts (only when necessary—they can be distracting)

Use the available technology, whether it’s an overhead projector, PowerPoint slides, a flip chart, or posters. (Talk to your instructor about resources and software for designing your visuals.) Follow these guidelines:

Design your visuals carefully. Here are some basic rules:

• Use a simple, neutral background. A light-colored background with text in a dark color works best for words; a dark background used like matting works best for photos.
• Minimize the amount of text in visuals—more than eight words per slide is usually too much. Avoid simply presenting word outlines of what you are saying. Make sure text is large enough for the audience to read.
• Don’t use more than two pictures in a slide, and use two only to make a direct comparison. Montages are hard to focus on and distract the viewer from what you’re saying. Use images only when they support your presentation; don’t use clip art just as decoration.
• Don’t put a table of numbers in a visual aid. If you need to illustrate numerical data, use a graph. (Microsoft Excel can make them for you easily.)
• Don’t use sound effects. Use a very brief recording only if directly related to your main points.
• Don’t use visual special effects such as dissolves, spins, box-outs, or other transitions. They are distracting. Use animation sparingly and only if it helps make a point.
• Don’t use so many visuals or move through them so quickly that the audience gives all its attention to them rather than to you.
• Practice your presentation using your visual aids, because they affect your timing.
• Explain visuals when needed but not when they’re obvious.
• Keep your eyes on your audience, only briefly glancing at visuals to stay in synch with them.
• Don’t hand out a printout of your visuals. Your audience should keep their eyes on you instead of fiddling around with paper.

Step 4: Prepare Speaking Notes

As mentioned earlier, it’s not a good idea to read your presentation from a written page rather than deliver it. To keep your audience’s attention, it’s important to make eye contact with them and to use a normal speaking voice—and you can’t do this if you keep your eyes on a written script.

Speaking notes are a brief outline for your presentation. You might write them on index cards or sheets of paper. Include important facts and data as well as keywords for your main ideas, but don’t write too much. (If you forget things later when you start practicing, you can always add more to your outline then.) Be sure to number your cards or pages to prevent a last-minute mix-up.

Think especially about how to open and close your presentation, because these two moments have the most impact of the whole presentation. Use the opening to capture the audience’s attention, but be sure it is appropriate for your audience and the goals. Here are some possibilities for your opening:

• A striking fact or example (illustrating an issue or a problem)
• A brief interesting or humorous anecdote (historical, personal, or current event)
• A question to the audience
• An interesting quotation

Then relate the opening to your topic and your main point and move into the body of the presentation.

Your closing mirrors the opening. Transition from your last point to a brief summary that pulls your ideas together. You might end with a challenge to the audience, a strong statement about your topic, or a personal reflection on what you have been saying. Just make sure you have a final sentence planned so that you don’t end up uncomfortably fumbling around at the end (“Well, I guess that ends my presentation”).

Step 5: Practice the Presentation

Practice may be the most important step. It is also the best way to get over stage fright and gain confidence.

Practice first in an empty room where you imagine people sitting, so that you can move your eyes around the room to this “audience.” The first time through, focus on putting your outlined notes into full sentences in your natural speaking voice. Don’t read your notes aloud. Glance down at your notes only briefly and then look up immediately around the room. Practice two or three times just to find the right words to explain your points and feel more comfortable working with your notes. Time yourself, but don’t obsess over your presentation being the exact length required. If your presentation is much too long, however, adjust it now in your notes so that you don’t start memorizing things that you might accidentally still say later on even though you cut them from your notes.

Once you feel good speaking from your notes, practice to add some more polish to your delivery. You might want to record or videotape your presentation or ask a friend or roommate to watch your presentation. Pay attention to these aspects of how you speak:

• Try to speak in your natural voice, not in a monotone as if you were just reading aloud. If you will be presenting in a large room without a microphone, you will need to speak louder than usual, but still try to use a natural voice.
• In usual conversation, we speed up and slow down and vary the intensity of our words to show how we feel about what we’re saying. Practice changes in your delivery style to emphasize key points.
• Don’t keep looking at your notes. It’s fine if you use words that are different from those you wrote down—the more you rehearse without looking at your notes, the more natural sounding you will be.
• Be sure you can pronounce all new words and technical terms correctly. Practice saying them slowly and clearly to yourself until you can say them naturally.
• Don’t forget transitions. Listeners need a cue when you’re moving to a new idea. Practice phrases such as “ Another important reason for this is…” or “Now let’s move on to why this is so.…”
• Watch out for all those little “filler” words people use so often, such as “like,” “you know,” “well,” and “uh.” They’re very distracting to most audiences. Listen to or watch your tape to see if you are using these fillers or ask your friend to point it out.
• Pay attention to body language when practicing. Stand up straight and tall in every practice session so that you become used to it. Unless you have to stand at a podium to use a fixed microphone in your presentation, practice moving around while you speak; this helps keep the audience watching you. Use hand and arm gestures if they are natural for you, but don’t try to make up gestures for the presentation because they will look phony. Most important, keep your eyes moving over the audience. Practice smiling and pausing at key points.
• Finally, it’s a good idea to be ready in case of an accident. Most likely your presentation will go smoothly, you’ll stay on track with your notes, and your PowerPoint slides will work fine, but sometimes a mishap happens. Be ready to joke about it, rather than becoming flustered. If the computer fails and you lose your visuals, say something like, “Well, that’s a shame, I had some really great photos to show you!” If you drop your index cards or notes, or accidentally skip ahead in your presentation and then have to backtrack, make a joke: “Sorry about that, I was so excited to get to my next point that I’m afraid I lost control there for a moment!” Let your audience laugh with you—they’ll still be on your side, and you can defuse the incident and move on without becoming more nervous.

Step 6: Deliver the Presentation

Be sure to get enough sleep and eat a healthy breakfast. Don’t drink too much caffeine or else you’ll become hyper and nervous. Wear your favorite—and appropriate—clothing and comfortable shoes.

You may use computerized visual aids when you give a presentation to a class.

John Haynes Photography – OLPC – CC BY-ND 2.0.

Remember, your audience is on your side! If you’re still nervous before your turn, take a few deep breaths. Rehearse your opening lines in your mind. Smile as you move to the front of the room, looking at your audience. You’ll see some friendly faces smiling back encouragingly. As you start the presentation, move your eyes among those giving you a warm reception—and if you see some student looking bored or doing something else, just ignore them. But don’t focus on any one person in the audience for too long, which could make them nervous or cause them to look away.

Don’t keep looking at your watch or a clock: If your rehearsal times were close to your assigned time, your presentation will be also. If you do notice that you’re running behind schedule, it may be that you’re saying too much out of nervousness. Use your notes to get back on track and keep the pace moving. But it’s better to deliver your presentation naturally and fluidly and be a bit long or short than to try to change your words and end up sounding unnatural.

At the closing, deliver your last line with confidence, sweeping your eyes over the audience. If appropriate, ask if there are any questions. When you’re done, pause, smile, say “Thank you,” and walk back to your seat.

Later on, ask other students and your instructor for comments. Be open minded—don’t just ask for praise. If you hear a suggestion for improvement, file that in your memory for next time.

Group Presentations

You may be assigned to give a presentation in a small group. The six-step process discussed previously works for group presentations, too, although group dynamics often call for additional planning and shared responsibilities:

• Schedule a group meeting as soon as possible to get started. Don’t let another student put things off. Explain that you’re too busy and won’t have time at the last minute.
• Begin by analyzing your audience and your goals together as a group to make sure everyone understands the assignment the same. Discuss who should do what. While everyone should talk about what content to include, from here onward, you will take on specialized roles. One or more may begin research and gathering information. Others who are good writers may volunteer to draft the presentation, while one or more others may develop the visual aids. Those who have public speaking experience may volunteer to do all or most of the speaking (unless the assignment requires everyone to have a speaking role). You also need a team leader to keep everyone on schedule, organize meetings, and so on. The best team leader is an even-tempered student with good social skills, who can motivate everyone to cooperate.
• Steps 2 and 3 can likely be carried out individually with assigned tasks, but group members should stay in touch. For example, the person developing the visuals should be talking to those doing the researching and drafting to see what visuals are needed and get started finding or creating them.
• Before preparing notes in step 4, meet again to go over the content and plan for visuals. Everyone should be comfortable with the plan so far. Make final decisions about who will do each section of the presentation. Set the time for each segment. Then speakers should prepare their own speaking notes. Let someone with strong speaking skills open or close the presentation (or both), with others doing the other parts.
• The whole group should be present for practice sessions in step 5, even if not everyone is speaking. Those not speaking should take notes and give feedback. If one student is doing most of the presenting, an alternate should be chosen in case the first choice is sick on the scheduled day. The alternate also needs to practice.
• During the delivery, especially if using technology for visual aids, one student should manage the visuals while others do the presenting. If several students present different segments, plan the transition from one to another so that the presentation keeps flowing without pauses.

Additional Resources

For Class Presentations

Using PowerPoint. A step-by-step illustrated tutorial for learning how to create effective visual presentations with PowerPoint. https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/tutorials/powerpoint/

“How to Give a Bad Talk.” A humorous look (with some very good advice) on what not to do when preparing for and giving a class presentation. http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~pattrsn/talks/BadTalk.pdf

Class presentations on YouTube. Search YouTube with the phrase “class presentation” and look for video examples of actual students giving class presentations. Observing and critiquing the presentations of other students are good ways to get started preparing your own and learning from others. Here’s a good example of a student group presentation on a topic we can all relate to (how body language works):

In this presentation, take note of

• how students make good eye contact with the audience;
• the first student’s natural speaking voice and tone, and how she did not have to use her note cards very often (obviously she practiced well);
• some differences among these students;
• the use of PowerPoint slides within the presentation (some better than others);
• the appropriate occasional use of humor;
• the division of presentation responsibilities within the student group;
• each presenter’s interaction with the audience.

Key Takeaways

• Public speaking skills are important because you will likely give presentations in class and perhaps in a future job.
• Overcome anxiety about public speaking by understanding your feelings, preparing well and practicing your delivery, and focusing on your subject.

Follow a six-step process to prepare and deliver a presentation:

• Deliver the presentation and seek feedback
• Use visual aids to support a presentation, creating visuals that are relevant, attractive, and powerful.
• The success of a group presentation depends on effective group meetings, successful division of roles, and repeated group practices.

Checkpoint Exercises

If you have given a class presentation in the past, what worked best for you? (If you have not given a presentation yet as a student, what aspect do you think will be most difficult for you?)

__________________________________________________________________

Name the two most important things you can do to reduce anxiety about a class presentation you will have to give.

For each of the following statements about class presentations, circle T for true or F for false:

Describe how best to use body language (facial expressions, eye movements, gestures, etc.) when giving a presentation.

If you were assigned along with three other students to give a group presentation in the class using this textbook, what would be your preferred role in the preparation stages? Your least preferred role? If you had to take your least preferred role, what single thing would you want to work hardest on to make the presentation successful?

College Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Countway Practical Presentation Skills

Presentation Slides

Story Telling

Presentation Software

Body Language

• Showtime! (Tips when "on stage")
• Upcoming Classes & Registration

On this page you will find many of the tips and common advice that we cover within our Practical Presentation Skills Workshop.

If you are hoping to attend a workshop in the future, please check the schedule of upcoming classes, and reserve your spot. Space does fill up each week, so please register early!

Creating slides to accompany your presentation can be a great way to provide complimentary visual representation of your topic. Slides are used to fill in the gaps while you tell the story.

Start your presentation with a brief introduction- who you are and what you are going to talk about. 

Think about your presentation as a story with an organized beginning (why this topic), middle (how you did the research) and end (your summary findings and how it may be applicable or inform future research). You can provide a brief outline in the introduction so the audience may follow along. 

Keep it simple with a few key concepts, examples and ideas.

Make sure your audience knows the key takeaway points you wish to get across.

A good way to practice this is to try and condense your presentation into an elevator pitch- what do you want the audience to walk away know? 

Show your enthusiasm!

If you don’t think it is interesting- why should your audience?

Some Good Alternatives to PowerPoint:

• Google Slides
• Keynote (Mac)  
• Prezi  
• Zoho Show  
• PowToon  
• CustomShow  
• Slidebean  
• Haiku Deck  
• Visme  
• Emaze  
• and more…  

Your body language speaks volumes to how confident you are on the topic, how you are feeling up on stage and how receptive you are to your audience. Confident body language, such as smiling, maintaining eye contact, and persuasive gesturing all serve to engage your audience.

• Make eye contact with those in the audience that are paying attention and ignore the rest!
• Speak slower than what you would normally, take a moment to smile at your audience, and project your voice. Don’t rush, what you have to say is important!
• Don’t’ forget to breathe. Deep breaths and positive visualization can helps slow that pounding heart.
• Work on making pauses where you can catch your breath, take a sip of water, stand up straight, and continue at your practiced pace.
• Sweaty palms and pre-presentation jitters are no fun. Harness that nervous energy and turn it into enthusiasm! Exercising earlier in the day can help release endorphins and help relieve anxiety.
• Feeling shaky? Practicing confident body language is one way to boost your pre-presentation jitters. When your body is physically demonstrating confidence, your mind will follow suit. Standing or walking a bit will help you calm those butterflies before you go on stage.
• Don’t be afraid to move around and use the physical space you have available but keep your voice projected towards your audience.
• Practice, practice, practice! Get to the next Practical Presentation Skills workshop in Countway Library http://bit.ly/countwaypresent and practice your talk in front of a supportive and friendly group!

• Excessive bullet points
• Reading your slides instead of telling your story
• Avoid excessive transitions and gimmick
• Numerous charts (especially all on the same slide)
• Lack of enthusiasm and engagement from you
• Too much information and data dump
• Clutter and busy design
• Lack of design consistency 

Now you are on stage!

When delivering the talk, watch out for these bad habits:

•  Avoiding eye-contact
• Slouching or bad posture
• Crossed arms
• Non-purposeful movement
• Not projecting your voice
• Speaking away from the microphone
• Speaking with your back to the audience (often happens when reading slides)
• Next: Upcoming Classes & Registration >>
• Last Updated: Jan 29, 2024 8:37 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/presentation

• EXPLORE Random Article

How to Give an Excellent Presentation (College Students)

Last Updated: March 3, 2024 Approved

This article was co-authored by Patrick Muñoz . Patrick is an internationally recognized Voice & Speech Coach, focusing on public speaking, vocal power, accent and dialects, accent reduction, voiceover, acting and speech therapy. He has worked with clients such as Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria, and Roselyn Sanchez. He was voted LA's Favorite Voice and Dialect Coach by BACKSTAGE, is the voice and speech coach for Disney and Turner Classic Movies, and is a member of Voice and Speech Trainers Association. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 86% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 128,741 times.

College seminars are conducted to test the presentation skills of a student or a group and also allow the student to convey their knowledge to the audience. When students don't come prepared, the presentation may become disorganized, unclear, and dull. It would make them confused during the presentation and lead to vague answers during the questionnaires.

• Think of your main topic and break it down into 3 specific ideas. This will help you to focus your discussion and remain clear. Keep the 3 ideas simple and have them in your mind. Write out your main points, then picture what you're talking about so you can visualize what you're going to talk about.
• To help you create the "soft humor," don't take yourself too seriously. Second, identify the fears and insecurities around the topic so you can address these in a way that shows we all have these fears, insecurities and taboos and that our feelings are normal. This helps keep you in the moment and present with the audience and allows you to recognize the reality of the effect of your topic on yourself and the audience.
• Tell the audience you're excited about what you're talking about. This can make your excited mood infectious and lead them to be willing to come on this journey with you.

• You could try doing something fun, like bringing with you a relevant object, doing a magic trick or a dance move to take things out of the ordinary and add some life to your talk.
• Another fun approach is to try a meditation and ask the audience to relax - feel your toes relax, your feet, etc.
• If you want the audience to move around, don't hesitate to ask. Ask them to stand up and stretch, to shake hands with the person next to them, or to do a twirl on the spot.
• You could try asking the audience to say a bunch of affirmations out loud with you, to get them caught up in the mood you're creating and help them to see its relevance to them too.

• You can ask the audience to imagine something along with you, asking them to close their eyes and think about something with you, then resume with eye contact following this.

What Is The Best Way To Start a Presentation?

Community Q&A

• Take 10 belly breaths if you have last minute stage fright. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Use images in your slides. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Come early to the venue where you will be presenting. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Answer the questions asked after the presentation. Do not divert or change the topic. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ https://education.seattlepi.com/give-good-speech-presentations-college-1147.html
• ↑ https://www.princeton.edu/~archss/webpdfs08/BaharMartonosi.pdf

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Ten smart ways to ace your next academic presentation

Using examples and practical tips, Dorsa Amir explains the techniques that ensure your presentation communicates its message effectively – from slide design to structuring your talk

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Emotions and learning: what role do emotions play in how and why students learn, leveraging llms to assess soft skills in lifelong learning, how hard can it be testing ai detection tools, a diy guide to starting your own journal.

As a presenter, your main job is to guide the audience through your argument in the clearest, most engaging, most efficient way possible. You must respect the audience’s time and attention. This means being mindful of how long your presentation is, what you’re including in your slides, and importantly, how it is all packaged and presented.

A great presenter is one who is intentional: each element in the presentation serves a clear function and is intended to support the audience’s understanding of the content.

Here are 10 tips to keep in mind to ensure your presentation hits the mark

1. Any time you put something on your slides, its primary purpose is to help the audience, not you

Many presenters will add copious text or other elements to help themselves remember points they want to make. However, this is usually less helpful for the audience (most of this information belongs in presenter notes, and not on the slides). Think of yourself like a director of a movie. What do you want the audience to focus on at any given moment? What features on your slides will enhance the verbal point you are making and which will distract from it? Be intentional about what you include on your slides, and only include elements that serve a clear and helpful function for the audience.

2. Condense text to the main question or key points of the slide

It may be tempting to write out snippets of the script wholesale and add them to the slides, but this often results in PowerPoint karaoke, where the audience is simply watching you read the text out loud to them. While text is certainly useful for helping to concretise points or make slides more accessible, be judicious about what you include. Each slide should make one or two clear points. It’s better to have more slides with less content than fewer slides that are jam-packed. Of course, the amount of text you include will also be determined by the type of presentation you are giving. If students will be using your slides as a study aid, for example, you may want to include more information than if you are creating a research talk for a conference.

3. Avoid using too many colours, fonts or animations

Consider elements such as fonts, colours and animations as tools in your presentation toolkit. These elements should be used sparingly and only when they serve a clear purpose. I’m sure you’ve all attended a talk with colours bright enough to burn your retinas or crammed with “fun” fonts such as Comic Sans. Try to refrain from doing that. Animations that allow certain elements to appear or disappear along with your presentation — such as bullet points that appear as you say them — can help direct the attention of the audience. Colour contrasts are primarily helpful for visual segmentation or bringing attention to particular elements. Fonts, colours or flashy animations that are purely decorative are more distracting than helpful.

4. Avoid colour combinations that are hard to read

Be mindful of how colours interact with each other to either facilitate or inhibit comprehension. White text on black (or the reverse) is often a safe bet. Don’t overdecorate! (See above).

5.  If you’re showing a graph, orient the audience to the axes before plotting the data and make sure they can actually see all of it

I typically show the axes and labels first, making sure to orient everyone to the variables and how they are going to be visualised, and then I reveal the data. This ensures that everyone understands how to interpret the visualisation they are about to see. It is also helpful to restate the key prediction and tell the audience what they should expect to see if the prediction is true, and then plot the data. Use large sizes and clear fonts. I’ve heard way too many people say things like: “You probably can’t read this but…” To that, I want to say: “But you’re the one making the slide! You did this to us!” Don’t be that person.

6.  Use high-resolution images or videos

This is especially true for presentations that will be projected onto a larger surface. If it’s fuzzy on your computer screen, it will look even fuzzier when magnified and projected. Try to integrate high-resolution images and vector graphics to avoid this. When your images contain text, delete those portions and re-enter the text in text boxes that will scale up much more clearly when magnified.

7. When illustrating results, identify one or two key graphs to make your point

The temptation is often to show the audience every single result you found, but this dilutes the overall message you are trying to send. There’s no need to visualise everything: you should focus on the key graphs that tell most or all of the story. If you have built up the presentation in the right way, when the audience see your data visualisation, they will immediately understand what you found and whether it supports your hypothesis. That’s how clear and accessible the graph should be.

8.  Don’t overload the audience with unnecessary complex jargon or acronyms

Every time you introduce a new term or a brand new acronym (BNA), you are asking the audience to do you a favour and commit this new item to working memory. The audience doesn’t know your presentation; they don’t know what’s going to be important later and what isn’t. They’re trusting that you are only presenting information to them that is relevant and they’re doing their best to follow along. Make this process as easy and enjoyable as possible for them. Be judicious with what you ask them to remember or commit to memory. If you can explain a concept without jargon, avoid the jargon!

9. Enhance accessibility

The Web Accessibility Initiative has a great set of guidelines that I will summarise here. Use easy-to-read fonts in large sizes. Make sure there is enough contrast between colours to make them discernible. When giving virtual talks, consider turning on automatic closed captioning. If it’s feasible, provide annotated slide handouts. During the presentation itself, speak clearly and loudly, avoiding unnecessarily complex vocabulary or culturally specific idioms. Where possible, use a microphone. You should also try to verbally describe pertinent parts of visual information on your slides, such as graphics or videos.

10. Use outline slides and marker slides to segment information

Research shows that we understand and remember information better when it comes in bite-size pieces; think of chapters in a book. To incorporate this structure into your talk, break apart the presentation into smaller pieces. Always incorporate an outline slide that previews the structure of the talk and gives the audience a sense of what to expect. Also, use marker slides to communicate that a new section is beginning. And make sure to wrap up each section with a summary slide.

Dorsa Amir is a postdoc in the department of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,  sign up for the Campus newsletter .

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Presentations and posters

Guidance and tips for effective oral and visual presentations.

Academic presentations

Presenting your work allows you to demonstrate your knowledge and familiarity of your subject. Presentations can vary from being formal, like a mini lecture, to more informal, such as summarising a paper in a tutorial. You may have a specialist audience made up of your peers, lecturers or research practitioners or a wider audience at a conference or event. Sometimes you will be asked questions.  Academic presentations maybe a talk with slides or a poster presentation, and they may be assessed. Presentations may be individual or collaborative group work.

A good presentation will communicate your main points to an audience clearly, concisely and logically. Your audience doesn’t know what it is you are trying to say, so you need to guide them through your argument.

There are a few key points that you should consider with any sort of presenting:

• What is the format? Is it a poster, a talk with visual material or a video?
• What is the purpose? Is it to summarise a topic; report the results of an experiment; justify your research approach?
• Who is your audience? Are they from your tutorial group, course or is it a wider audience?
• What content needs to be included? Do you need to cover everything, just one topic or a particular aspect? How much detail is expected?
• How should it be organised? This is often the trickiest part of designing a presentation and can take a few attempts.

Planning a presentation

Different people take different approaches to presentations. Some may start by doing some reading and research, others prefer to draft an outline structure first. 

To make an effective start, check your course materials for the format you need to use (e.g. handbooks and Learn pages for style guidelines). If it is an oral presentation, how long do you have?  If it will be assessed, have a look at the marking criteria so you know how you will be marked. (If you do not use the required formatting you may be penalised.) Do you need to allow time for questions?

One way to think about the content and draft a rough structure of your presentation is to divide it into a beginning, middle and end.

• The beginning: How are you going to set the scene for your audience and set out what they can expect to gain from your presentation? This section should highlight the key topic(s) and give any necessary background. How much background depends on your audience, for example your peers might need less of an introduction to a topic than other audiences. Is there a central question and is it clear? If using slides, can it be added as a header on subsequent slides so that it is always clear what you are discussing?
• The middle: How are you going tell the story of your work? This section should guide your audience through your argument, leading them to your key point(s). Remember to include any necessary evidence in support. You might also want to include or refer to relevant methods and materials.
• The end: What is your conclusion or summary? This section should briefly recap what has been covered in the presentation and give the audience the final take-home message(s). Think about the one thing you want someone to remember from your talk or poster. It is usually also good practice to include a reference or bibliography slide listing your sources.

Alternatively, you could start at the end and think about the one point you want your audience to take away from your presentation. Then you can work backwards to decide what needs to go in the other sections to build your argument.

Presentation planner worksheet (pdf)

Presentation planner worksheet (Word docx)

Presentation planner (Word rtf)

Using the right language can really help your audience follow your argument and also helps to manage their expectations.

Guiding your audience (pdf)  

Guiding your audience (Word rtf)

Oral presentations – practise, practise, practise!

Giving a talk can be daunting. If you have a spoken presentation to give, with or without slides, make sure you have time to rehearse it several times.

Firstly, this is really good at helping you overcome any nerves as you’ll know exactly what you are going to say. It will build your confidence.

Secondly, saying something aloud is an effective way to check for sense, structure and flow. If it is difficult to say, or doesn’t sound right, then the audience may find it difficult to follow what you are trying to say.

Finally, practising helps you know how long your presentation will take. If your presentation is being assessed, you may be penalised for going over time as that would be unfair to other presenters (it is like going over your word count).  

If you can, find out what resources and equipment you will have when you present. It is usually expected that presenters will wear or use a microphone so that everyone can hear. But you will still need to remember to project your voice and speak clearly. Also think about how you are going to use your visual material.

IS Creating accessible materials - PowerPoint presentations

IS LinkedIn Learning - online skills development

Making a video

There is no need to use expensive specialist equipment to make a recorded presentation. The Media Hopper Create platform allows film makers to create, store, share and publish their media content easily. You can create presentations using the Desktop Recorder on a PC or Mac.

All University of Edinburgh students are provided with an account on the Media Hopper service allowing you to record and upload media to your personal space and publish to channels. 

You can also use your mobile phone or tablet to make a video presentation. The DIY Film School is an online course covering the basics of shooting video on a mobile device, filming outdoors and indoors and how to get the best audio. Some materials from LinkedIn Learning are relevant to the DIY Film School and include editing advice.

IS Media Hopper Create

IS DIY Film School online course

IS LinkedIn Learning and the DIY Film School

Poster presentations

A poster is a way of visually conveying information about your work. It is meant to be a taster or overview highlighting your key points or findings, not an in-depth explanation and discussion. Your poster should communicate your point(s) effectively without you being there to explain it.

The trickiest thing with poster presentations can be the limited space and words you have. You will need to think critically about what it is important to present.

If the poster is assessed, or is for an event such as a conference, there may be a size and format which you need to follow (e.g. A1 portrait or A0 landscape). Your title should be clear.  Aim to make your poster as accessible as possible by considering the type size and font, colours and layout. It is usually good practice to include your name and email address so people know who you are and how to contact you.

Information Services (IS) have a range of resources including help on using software such as PowerPoint to make a poster and guides to printing one.

IS uCreate user guides and advice on poster printing

Standing up and talking can be intimidating; so can being filmed. Anxiety and stress can get in the way of performing effectively. 

The Student Counselling Service offer advice and workshops on a variety of topics. They have produced a helpful e-booklet about stress, why we need it and how to manage our stress levels to strike the right balance. 

Student Counselling service

Self-help online courses and workbooks on anxiety, stress and mental wellbeing

Stress: A short guide for students (pdf booklet)

Information Services (IS) provides access to a range of support and training for software provided by the University. This includes training and advice on LinkedIn Learning.

IS Digital skills and training

IS LinkedIn Learning

IS Microsoft Office 365 suite

Prezi is a popular alternative to PowerPoint but is often inaccessible to disabled people. Therefore, it is recommended that Prezi is not used for academic presentations. However, if you have to use Prezi, there are some steps you can take to improve your presentation.

IS PREZI and accessibility issues

If you are presenting at an external event, it may be appropriate to use University branding.

University brand guidelines and logos (Communications and Marketing)

This article was published on 2024-02-26

Princeton Correspondents on Undergraduate Research

How to Make a Successful Research Presentation

Turning a research paper into a visual presentation is difficult; there are pitfalls, and navigating the path to a brief, informative presentation takes time and practice. As a TA for  GEO/WRI 201: Methods in Data Analysis & Scientific Writing this past fall, I saw how this process works from an instructor’s standpoint. I’ve presented my own research before, but helping others present theirs taught me a bit more about the process. Here are some tips I learned that may help you with your next research presentation:

More is more

In general, your presentation will always benefit from more practice, more feedback, and more revision. By practicing in front of friends, you can get comfortable with presenting your work while receiving feedback. It is hard to know how to revise your presentation if you never practice. If you are presenting to a general audience, getting feedback from someone outside of your discipline is crucial. Terms and ideas that seem intuitive to you may be completely foreign to someone else, and your well-crafted presentation could fall flat.

Less is more

Limit the scope of your presentation, the number of slides, and the text on each slide. In my experience, text works well for organizing slides, orienting the audience to key terms, and annotating important figures–not for explaining complex ideas. Having fewer slides is usually better as well. In general, about one slide per minute of presentation is an appropriate budget. Too many slides is usually a sign that your topic is too broad.

Limit the scope of your presentation

Don’t present your paper. Presentations are usually around 10 min long. You will not have time to explain all of the research you did in a semester (or a year!) in such a short span of time. Instead, focus on the highlight(s). Identify a single compelling research question which your work addressed, and craft a succinct but complete narrative around it.

You will not have time to explain all of the research you did. Instead, focus on the highlights. Identify a single compelling research question which your work addressed, and craft a succinct but complete narrative around it.

Craft a compelling research narrative

After identifying the focused research question, walk your audience through your research as if it were a story. Presentations with strong narrative arcs are clear, captivating, and compelling.

• Introduction (exposition — rising action)

Orient the audience and draw them in by demonstrating the relevance and importance of your research story with strong global motive. Provide them with the necessary vocabulary and background knowledge to understand the plot of your story. Introduce the key studies (characters) relevant in your story and build tension and conflict with scholarly and data motive. By the end of your introduction, your audience should clearly understand your research question and be dying to know how you resolve the tension built through motive.

• Methods (rising action)

The methods section should transition smoothly and logically from the introduction. Beware of presenting your methods in a boring, arc-killing, ‘this is what I did.’ Focus on the details that set your story apart from the stories other people have already told. Keep the audience interested by clearly motivating your decisions based on your original research question or the tension built in your introduction.

• Results (climax)

Less is usually more here. Only present results which are clearly related to the focused research question you are presenting. Make sure you explain the results clearly so that your audience understands what your research found. This is the peak of tension in your narrative arc, so don’t undercut it by quickly clicking through to your discussion.

• Discussion (falling action)

By now your audience should be dying for a satisfying resolution. Here is where you contextualize your results and begin resolving the tension between past research. Be thorough. If you have too many conflicts left unresolved, or you don’t have enough time to present all of the resolutions, you probably need to further narrow the scope of your presentation.

• Conclusion (denouement)

Return back to your initial research question and motive, resolving any final conflicts and tying up loose ends. Leave the audience with a clear resolution of your focus research question, and use unresolved tension to set up potential sequels (i.e. further research).

Use your medium to enhance the narrative

Visual presentations should be dominated by clear, intentional graphics. Subtle animation in key moments (usually during the results or discussion) can add drama to the narrative arc and make conflict resolutions more satisfying. You are narrating a story written in images, videos, cartoons, and graphs. While your paper is mostly text, with graphics to highlight crucial points, your slides should be the opposite. Adapting to the new medium may require you to create or acquire far more graphics than you included in your paper, but it is necessary to create an engaging presentation.

The most important thing you can do for your presentation is to practice and revise. Bother your friends, your roommates, TAs–anybody who will sit down and listen to your work. Beyond that, think about presentations you have found compelling and try to incorporate some of those elements into your own. Remember you want your work to be comprehensible; you aren’t creating experts in 10 minutes. Above all, try to stay passionate about what you did and why. You put the time in, so show your audience that it’s worth it.

For more insight into research presentations, check out these past PCUR posts written by Emma and Ellie .

— Alec Getraer, Natural Sciences Correspondent

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Academic presentations: Structure

• Presentation Design
• Slide design
• Conferences
• Group presentations

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“A solid structure is the foundation of a coherent presentation, and shows the relationship between the parts and whole.” Nancy Duarte,  Resonate

A presentation that has a strong, clear structure is a presentation that is easy to follow. Without structure, a presentation can be confusing to an audience. How do they know if you are going to cover what they need to know? How can they tell which slides contain the most important points? This page considers some ways that you can organise your slides to give shape to your presentation as a whole.

Basic presentation structure

Every presentation should flow like a good story. It should involve  the audience directly.

• The  beginning  section is where you hook them. Start with the general picture then explain the specific problem and how by listening to your presentation you can solve it for them.
• The  middle  section should contain the main detail of your presentation, and can be organised in a number of ways (two good ones are explained below).
• Finally your  end  section should summarise the presentation and lead the audience to the next step.

Design your slides so that these sections  look distinctive  and any  key points  stand out.

Beginning section

This section is all about drawing the audience in; giving them a reason to want to listen to the main part of your presentation.

You can include any or all of the following:

• A really well designed title slide that grabs the attention
• A slide that gives the audience the big picture
• A slide that shows what you will be focusing on
• A slide that uses the word 'you' or 'your' in the title to connect with the audience
• A slide that tells the audience what is to come in your presentation (its structure)

After your title slide, you need slides covering these areas

Middle section structure option 1 - key points

Several authors suggest using a structure that involves an introduction followed by a middle section containing key point slides (usually 3).

The ideas is that there is a  hierarchy  of slides so that after each key point you have other slides that explain or add detail to that key point.

Cliff Atkinson (writer of the book  Beyond Bullet Points ) suggested using a table in MSWord (similar to the one in the template that is available to download at the bottom of this page) to help you structure and plan your presentation before you even open PowerPoint. This means you can concentrate on your story before getting distracted by design and content issues. We have copy of the book in our library: Beyond Bullet Points:  Beyond Bullet Points .

Middle section option 2 - sparkline

For her book  Resonate  Nancy Duarte looked in detail at the structure of successful presentations throughout history (even back to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address). She discovered that many have the same structural form which she calls a 'sparkline'.

This structure makes a clear distinction between  what is  (the position before the presentation is seen and acted upon) and  what could be  (the position after the presentation is seen and acted upon). The audience is introduced to the what is  state at the beginning of the presentation and then switched back and forth between  what could be  and  what is  several times before ending in the  what could be  condition, which she calls  Reward:New Bliss .

Nancy explains this better here:  Sparkline Overview .

In terms of academic work the  what is  is the current level of knowledge or previous thinking on a subject and the  what could be  is the new knowledge or new thinking. The  new bliss  is what the audience could do or learn next now that they are aware of the change. 

End section

The end of your presentation is a very powerful part because it contains your final words, the ones that the audience will take away with them. After you have finished your middle section, have at least one slide that summarises your main points  and one slide that leaves the audience with  the most important point  of your presentation - the one you would like them to remember even if they forget everything else.

Include slides that show these in your end section

DO NOT  finish with a slide that says  Any Questions?  or  Thanks for Listening  as this a waste of your final slide and does not need a visual image to help the audience understand your words. This slide could potentially be viewed longer than any other slide (whilst you answer your questions or receive feedback) and so you want to make sure it contains something that is important to both you and the audience.

These slides are a waste of your last slide - use the final slide for your most important point not a throwaway.

Template for structuring an academic presentation

This MSWord document is a template for structuring a typical academic presentation, it can be adapted and changed if necessary depending on how long the presentation you need to give is. Try to fill it in using full sentences as these will become your slide titles .

The blue sections are optional. The NEED and TASK sections are most suited to research presentations.

This is designed for a presentation between 20-30 minutes long. Shorter presentations will have no explanatory points and longer presentations will need more explanatory points.

This is adapted from Cliff Atkinson's Beyond Bullet Points template. See the link to the book above.

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50 Creative Ideas to Nail Your College Presentation

We’d be willing to bet that most college students enjoy presentations about as much as they like their 7am class. Whether they’re designing them, or in the audience, there are likely a million and one things they’d rather be doing (like napping in their dorm room). In fact, 79% will say that most presentations today suck. And 35% of millennials say that they will only engage with content they feel has a great story or theme. With a reputation like that, it’s no wonder students avoid presentations at all costs. 

As a result, many will end up procrastinating, losing sleep over choosing a topic, and piecing a deck together at the last minute. According to research, 47% of presenters put in more than eight hours into designing their presentations. You do the math. Eight hours at the eleventh hour equals an all-nighter.

Luckily, that doesn’t mean the final product has to be a poorly thought-out frankendeck. 

Creative presentation ideas for college students

A lot can ride on a class presentation. It might be your last project at the end of the semester that determines the fate of your final grade, or maybe it’s a group project that counts for half of your participation in the class. Whatever the stakes are, we’re here to help you nail your next college presentation.

Pick the right topic

Before committing to your topics for presentations in college, you should consider things like what excites you, what you’re knowledgeable in and what you’d be interested in learning more about, books or movies that inspire you, world events, buzz-worthy pop culture, and what topics relate to your class course. How can you apply these things to your next class presentation?

You’re in college, so it’s very likely that your classmates will be sleeping, or staring out the window, while you’re presenting at the front of the room. To keep them engaged, make it interesting with these unique college presentation ideas.

College presentation ideas

• The evolution of a specific product— like the cell phone
• A presentation on your favorite celebrity
• A history of the most influential presidents of the United States
• How modern medicine is made
• The highest paid [BLANK] in 2021
• A how-to presentation on something you’re passionate about— like building cars
• A book that you think should be made into a movie (and why)
• Your favorite cultural recipe
• Who built the Sphinx of Egypt
• Social media now and then
• Shakespeare’s hits and misses
• Debunking a conspiracy theory
• Unexpected traditions
• Who invented the SAT, and what is it?
• The most popular travel destinations for young adults in their 20s
• What is van life anyway?
• How is education different now than it was in the ‘70s
• How to live a more sustainable life
• The evolution of humans
• The history of the Internet
• Is organic really better?
• How to get the most out of an internship
• What employers are actually looking for on your resume, and how to write one
• Everything you need to know about global warming
• The top places with the most expensive cost of living in the United States
• The rise of TikTok
• What is influencer marketing and why is it so important?
• Classic movies that should be cancelled in 2021, and why
• Is eating vegan really better for your health?
• Are aliens real?
• Everything you need to know about the Big Bang Theory
• Why streaming services are the demise of classic cable
• Marijuana then and now: the process of getting it legalized
• 15 Memorable things about [blank]
• A comprehensive timeline of feminism
• Is print— newspapers, magazines, books— dead?
• The easiest foreign language to learn on your own
• The best life hacks I learned on TikTok
• What does white privilege mean to millennials and Generation Z?
• Understanding finance for young adults 101
• Everything you need to know about life after college
• The difference between electric cars and gas cars
• What is artificial intelligence anyway?
• How thrifting can help the environment
• The evolution of presentations: from caveman to TedTalks
• Applying your degree in real life
• The origins of your favorite music genre
• Everything you need to about becoming a surgeon
• The life cycle of [blank] 
• Life without technology: where would we be without modern technology?

Make it beautiful

You have your topic, now what? Did you wait until the absolute last second to get started? Here’s the good news: no need for an all-nighter. Beautiful.ai can help you nail your college presentation in a pinch. The ease of use, and intuitive controls, help you create something brilliant in minutes, not hours. Start inspired with our inspiration gallery of pre-built templates and customize them to fit your content.

It’s important to connect with your audience on an emotional level, so make sure to pick trendy colors, modern fonts, and high-quality visual assets to compliment your presentation and evoke emotion. Engage your audience (especially your professor) with dynamic animations, or videos, to help control the narrative and direct their attention to the key takeaways. 

Pro tip: use the shareable link to share your deck out with classmates, teachers, or social media friends after class. 

Jordan Turner

Jordan is a Bay Area writer, social media manager, and content strategist.

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Ideas for presenting complex science topics in the classroom, a virtual meetings specialist shares how to pitch yourself in a remote world, create clear, succinct presentations for pharmaceutical sales reps, how agencies can streamline workflows and improve productivity with beautiful.ai.

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Structure of a presentation

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A presentation:

• has an introduction, body and conclusion
• may include visual aids
• is usually followed by questions and discussions
• may also have a handout for the audience to take away.

Introduction

• The introduction should orient the audience to your subject and purpose. To capture interest and set up rapport, it should tell the audience what to expect.
• Be sure to carefully define the central point (or thesis) that is the basis of your talk and ensure that your supporting argument or information relates closely to it.
• If you are not proceeding from an already written assignment, it might help to think of your introduction as funnel-shaped, with the content coming out of the funnel. See the diagram below:

Useful language for presentations

Staging the introduction.

The body of the presentation should meet the promises of purpose and information made in the introduction.

The structure of the presentation is crucial.

Whether you organise:

• chronologically,
• by priority,

the body of your talk must proceed logically. The main points should be brought out one by one, with concise and relevant supportive evidence, statistics or examples and verbal ‘signposting’ of your progress through your argument or report.

You could present each important idea or point several times in different ways, because a listening audience needs several opportunities to fully absorb meaning.

You need to state clearly the links between your ideas and always signal when the next point is coming. If you think something is particularly important, say so and why.

If you don’t have a written assignment, it will help to think of your main points as paragraph topic sentences, each of which needs to be followed by supporting sentences and a conclusion.

Staging the body of your talk

Group presentations.

It may be that you are making a presentation as part of a group. Essentially the same information applies to group presentations as individual ones. It is important that they are logical and well structured as well as professional and meaningful. It is also doubly important that the group rehearse and practise together several times to ensure the presentation runs smoothly on the day.

Handing over to a co-presenter

Your talk may involve several speakers in your group presentation. You need to manage the handover smoothly and professionally, for example:

“I would like to conclude my discussion/report at this point and hand over to my partner/colleague XYZ who will examine/discuss/report the area/topic/perspective of…”

Similar to a written assignment, the conclusion again states your main points and what has been learned or shown but you also may raise implications inherent in the findings and offer creative recommendations.

Staging the conclusion

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Ideas and insights from Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning

Powerful and Effective Presentation Skills: More in Demand Now Than Ever

When we talk with our L&D colleagues from around the globe, we often hear that presentation skills training is one of the top opportunities they’re looking to provide their learners. And this holds true whether their learners are individual contributors, people managers, or senior leaders. This is not surprising.

Effective communications skills are a powerful career activator, and most of us are called upon to communicate in some type of formal presentation mode at some point along the way.

For instance, you might be asked to brief management on market research results, walk your team through a new process, lay out the new budget, or explain a new product to a client or prospect. Or you may want to build support for a new idea, bring a new employee into the fold, or even just present your achievements to your manager during your performance review.

And now, with so many employees working from home or in hybrid mode, and business travel in decline, there’s a growing need to find new ways to make effective presentations when the audience may be fully virtual or a combination of in person and remote attendees.

Whether you’re making a standup presentation to a large live audience, or a sit-down one-on-one, whether you’re delivering your presentation face to face or virtually, solid presentation skills matter.

Even the most seasoned and accomplished presenters may need to fine-tune or update their skills. Expectations have changed over the last decade or so. Yesterday’s PowerPoint which primarily relied on bulleted points, broken up by the occasional clip-art image, won’t cut it with today’s audience.

The digital revolution has revolutionized the way people want to receive information. People expect presentations that are more visually interesting. They expect to see data, metrics that support assertions. And now, with so many previously in-person meetings occurring virtually, there’s an entirely new level of technical preparedness required.

The leadership development tools and the individual learning opportunities you’re providing should include presentation skills training that covers both the evergreen fundamentals and the up-to-date capabilities that can make or break a presentation.

So, just what should be included in solid presentation skills training? Here’s what I think.

The fundamentals will always apply When it comes to making a powerful and effective presentation, the fundamentals will always apply. You need to understand your objective. Is it strictly to convey information, so that your audience’s knowledge is increased? Is it to persuade your audience to take some action? Is it to convince people to support your idea? Once you understand what your objective is, you need to define your central message. There may be a lot of things you want to share with your audience during your presentation, but find – and stick with – the core, the most important point you want them to walk away with. And make sure that your message is clear and compelling.

You also need to tailor your presentation to your audience. Who are they and what might they be expecting? Say you’re giving a product pitch to a client. A technical team may be interested in a lot of nitty-gritty product detail. The business side will no doubt be more interested in what returns they can expect on their investment.

Another consideration is the setting: is this a formal presentation to a large audience with questions reserved for the end, or a presentation in a smaller setting where there’s the possibility for conversation throughout? Is your presentation virtual or in-person? To be delivered individually or as a group? What time of the day will you be speaking? Will there be others speaking before you and might that impact how your message will be received?

Once these fundamentals are established, you’re in building mode. What are the specific points you want to share that will help you best meet your objective and get across your core message? Now figure out how to convey those points in the clearest, most straightforward, and succinct way. This doesn’t mean that your presentation has to be a series of clipped bullet points. No one wants to sit through a presentation in which the presenter reads through what’s on the slide. You can get your points across using stories, fact, diagrams, videos, props, and other types of media.

Visual design matters While you don’t want to clutter up your presentation with too many visual elements that don’t serve your objective and can be distracting, using a variety of visual formats to convey your core message will make your presentation more memorable than slides filled with text. A couple of tips: avoid images that are cliched and overdone. Be careful not to mix up too many different types of images. If you’re using photos, stick with photos. If you’re using drawn images, keep the style consistent. When data are presented, stay consistent with colors and fonts from one type of chart to the next. Keep things clear and simple, using data to support key points without overwhelming your audience with too much information. And don’t assume that your audience is composed of statisticians (unless, of course, it is).

When presenting qualitative data, brief videos provide a way to engage your audience and create emotional connection and impact. Word clouds are another way to get qualitative data across.

Practice makes perfect You’ve pulled together a perfect presentation. But it likely won’t be perfect unless it’s well delivered. So don’t forget to practice your presentation ahead of time. Pro tip: record yourself as you practice out loud. This will force you to think through what you’re going to say for each element of your presentation. And watching your recording will help you identify your mistakes—such as fidgeting, using too many fillers (such as “umm,” or “like”), or speaking too fast.

A key element of your preparation should involve anticipating any technical difficulties. If you’ve embedded videos, make sure they work. If you’re presenting virtually, make sure that the lighting is good, and that your speaker and camera are working. Whether presenting in person or virtually, get there early enough to work out any technical glitches before your presentation is scheduled to begin. Few things are a bigger audience turn-off than sitting there watching the presenter struggle with the delivery mechanisms!

Finally, be kind to yourself. Despite thorough preparation and practice, sometimes, things go wrong, and you need to recover in the moment, adapt, and carry on. It’s unlikely that you’ll have caused any lasting damage and the important thing is to learn from your experience, so your next presentation is stronger.

How are you providing presentation skills training for your learners?

Manika Gandhi is Senior Learning Design Manager at Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning. Email her at [email protected] .

Let’s talk

Change isn’t easy, but we can help. Together we’ll create informed and inspired leaders ready to shape the future of your business.

© 2024 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.

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9 Easy Rules to Make a Good PowerPoint Presentation

Table of contents

• 1 How to Start an Excellent PowerPoint Presentation?
• 2 Tips On How To Make Your PowerPoint Presentation Perfect
• 3 9 Rules On How To Make A Great PowerPoint Presentation?
• 4 How to Make Your PPT Project Fast?

Today, regardless of whether you are in a school, college or university, a PowerPoint presentation is a common and widely-used method of engaging students and evaluating their knowledge and skills. This form of a multimedia project is multipurpose. With the help of a good PowerPoint presentation, a teacher or professor can not only make a lesson more interactive and engaging for the class, but also discover the knowledge and talents of his students. How to make a good PowerPoint presentation? Let's find out.

How to Start an Excellent PowerPoint Presentation?

Why do you have to do it? First, such projects are evaluated just like any other assignment, which means if you fail it, you get a low grade, and your overall academic performance drops. However, this is not the main reason. In addition, creating PowerPoint slides gives you many new useful skills and improve the ones you already have – you boost your critical thinking, research, and writing skills, not mentioning that you learn to use various techniques in your studies and gain some public speaking experience.

Thus, this task is useful in many different ways. Finally, it is fun! No one will argue that creating a PPT presentation is much more engaging and fun than writing a research paper of 10 or more pages! It is also a simple way to increase your grade. It is much easier to get an A for your presentation than to get a high grade for a thesis, which once more proves that this is a useful and important skill for all students.

How to make a great PowerPoint project? Although we have said that it is much easier than submitting a paper worthy of an A, you should not think that you will not come across certain challenges during this process. Keep in mind, that a good project delivers the necessary information to the audience, but the best PowerPoint presentations engage, impress, and stay in memory for a long time. Therefore, your main goal is to make it informative and interesting.

How to impress the class and your teacher? There are many factors that are going to influence the effectiveness and interest of your project, some of them are:

• High-quality content.
• Attractive visual files.
• Engaging files.
• Speaking confidence, etc.

There are many more PowerPoint tips to keep in mind. In this post, we will give you the top nine PowerPoint presentation tips that will definitely come in handy for every student or other people engaged in similar activities.

Tips On How To Make Your PowerPoint Presentation Perfect

How to make a good PowerPoint presentation for college? The process of making effective PowerPoint presentations is long and complicated. Luckily, we have tips and tricks that should help you with the outcome. Once you know these, you will see presentation slides as words, and you will develop your presentation skills in no time. At the same time, you can use these tips and tricks for any presentation, which is always a good idea. The design tips for effective PowerPoint presentation  can make a massive difference with your grade. Hence, they are important and beneficial. Once you know these, you can start creating a PowerPoint presentation. Let’s see tips and tricks that have a huge effect on the PPT process and PPT results.

Simplify The Words In any Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, there are a few seconds time a person can see the slide. It should contain simple words and short ones, so a reader can get only the most valuable information. This is essential when working with PPT. A good PowerPoint presentation will be visible and easy to understand within seconds.

Avoid Using All Capital Letters It looks confusing and won’t be seen in a good PowerPoint presentation. This is actually one of the PowerPoint design tips that have a huge role in all of this. You can add images on each slide, but make sure they don't interfere with the text. As always, know your audience first.

Light Text and Dark Background As you can see, this is a simple tip that has a huge effect. You can use dark text and a light background. The goal is the same. It should make the text more visible, and it is more important than the background. Use this for all lines of text, mandatory bullet points, and also key phrases.

Don't Use Text Fly-Ins These will not improve your presentation skills. The effects are not very amusing when you are discussing business, and they are something most people have seen countless times. It is one of the tips and tricks that is simple but works well with all PPT presentations and has a huge effect on the outcome.

Use HD Images You should only use HD images. These will make your slides look better and more professional. They can make any presentation so much better and more appealing. Use the best images you can find. Keep in mind that you must not use low-quality images at any point.

Avoid Using Animations The situation here is the same as with text fly-ins. These animations will get old fast, and they don't contribute to the overall value of your presentation. Keep things simple and easy. This is the best thing you can do and works well with any presentation and with any purpose. Check out professional presentations, and you will see no animations.

Don't Flip Too Much Your presentation should have a decent number of slides, but not too many. If you flip too much, you will lose the focus and attention of the audience. Just add all the facts and data you need and nothing more.

9 Rules On How To Make A Great PowerPoint Presentation?

There are many nuances to consider. However, there is no reason to deny that a student has to adhere to a few important rules in order to create a winning project, so here we have gathered all these rules for you! They will help you rock your PPT presentation! Besides, these slide tips can also come in handy for those students who are wondering how to write an essay with Google Slides themes.

1. Show your creativity

This is the first thing to keep in mind! A PowerPoint project is not about making it “right” or “wrong” – it is about showing your personality, so let your creativity out and try to surprise everyone with your unique artistic vision.

2. Add high-quality media files

It is not a secret that 90% of PowerPoint presentation's success is by graphics. This is the main thing that will attract your audience's attention. Therefore, you should always use high-quality pictures and videos, not mentioning that all files have to be relevant to your topic and also engaging (consider adding some unusual and fun graphics).

3. Don’t overload it with animation

Without a doubt, nice-looking transitions and animations between your slides attract more attention, but they may also distract your audience. Try to keep it simple and classy.

4. Choose a good theme

A well-planned visual theme will help you make your slides look organic and harmonic. However, do not use templates. Using common templates removes your personal touch from the work, and it becomes too vanilla and won’t be memorable.

5. Avoid providing too much text or bullet lists

Why does it matter? The main idea of pay for PowerPoint presentation is simplicity! This type of project does not have to be overloaded with text – this will be your function as a speaker to share more information with the audience, while your slides only have to contain the main points! Therefore, minimize the amount of text.

6. Try to read less

Another thing that contributes to the success of your presentation is your confidence as a speaker, which is not shown if you are reading from the slides all the time. One of the most important tips for a PPT presentation is to stay confident and do not use a written paper to read the whole text from.

7. Use of charts and diagrams

This is something you should use! Often, charts and diagrams can highlight or explain the message you are trying to deliver much better than any text, but you have to use them carefully to avoid common mistakes as inappropriate size, lack of consistency, etc.

This is one of the most significant PowerPoint design tips! Although choosing fonts may not seem like a big problem, an inappropriate font can ruin the whole impression of your work! Choose fonts that will be easy to read and would look harmonious in your presentation.

9. Less is better

There is a rule that can help you make a perfect presentation – the 10/20/30 rule recommends you to include not more than 10 slides in your project, limit the time of presentation to a maximum of 20 minutes, and use minimum 30-point font size to make it easy to read. You won’t make a mistake if you follow this rule.

How to Make Your PPT Project Fast?

Where to get great PowerPoint presentations? If you are still not confident in your abilities after reading our PowerPoint guidelines, it’s okay, and it is also fine if you just don’t want to bother yourself with a time-consuming task like this. You can enlist the help of professional writers here at PapersOwl !

Our team is ready to do its best to prepare excellent PowerPoint slides for you on any presentation topics for college students and of any complexity, and we can also do it promptly – even within a day or less. Why should you buy PowerPoint presentations online  from a professional? It gives you many benefits:

• You are avoiding common mistakes.
• You save time.
• You don’t have to work on an assignment that seems complicated or boring to you.
• You can hire a professional writer with an MA or Ph.D. degree to be assured of great results.
• You get a chance to boost your grades quickly and easily!

Another great news is that at PapersOwl, you can also use presentation writing services with college assignments on various subjects – therefore, by choosing PapersOwl once, you obtain a reliable friend for all times. We can tackle any task, and we guarantee that you will be satisfied!

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How to prepare for an admissions presentation or performance

If you’ve been asked to prepare a presentation or performance as part of your university application, it’s important to know where to start. We’ve got some advice on how to ace this part of your study journey.

There are so many universities to choose from, all with many exciting degrees that you may be interested in. With such a variety, it’s natural that each university or specific course may have a different admission process. Whether it’s attending an interview or sitting an exam, universities have a way of finding the students that are right for them.  

If you're invited to give a presentation or performance, it’s a good sign.  

While any university application can be stressful, creating an admissions presentation or performance can be the most worry-inducing. You aren’t being asked to just fill out a form or sit an exam. You’re being asked to show your skills and abilities. We’ve got you covered with some of our best tips to prepare 

Make a choice and stick with it 

Remember, not all admissions performances and processes are the same. A university may ask for a very specific topic or piece, while another may let you decide what you present. Either way, you will likely have to make some decisions, and it’s important to have these sorted as early as possible.  

Deciding what you are going to do can be tough. However, starting early means more time to get everything ready for the big day. Going over your options and selecting the best one to showcase your talents is crucial. Once you decide, go over what the university has asked of you and assess whether your choice fits the brief well. 

If you’re unsure of anything in the process, don’t be afraid to  communicate directly with your university .  

Practice, practice, practice 

There are so many examples in life where learning something is simply a matter of going over the topic many times. From  language learning  to  revising for an exam , our brains are great at absorbing information that it’s gone over multiple times.  

This is certainly the case when it comes to any presentation or performance. Practising your piece from start to finish repeatedly will allow you to memorise it. This will truly make it feel so much smoother and well-rehearsed. Knowing that you know your piece by heart can be a major confidence boost and will settle your nerves.  

Don’t forget some of the other crucial parts of your  application with our checklist .  

Get to the point 

Sometimes remembering everything you’ve practised isn’t easy. This can especially be the case for the actual presentation, as nerves can often get the better of our memory. 

An excellent way to safeguard against this is to get to grips with the core of your piece. Making sure you take more time to remember the key points or parts means you can jump to the next important point should you start to feel lost. Stay calm and confident even if you’ve lost your way a little.  

Discover some of the  creative fields that you can pursue . These often have a performance or presentation element to the application procedure.  

Get a test audience 

Having a second pair of eyes on any piece of work is a great idea. When it comes to your work, while you may be critical of some pieces, your own biases mean often miss potential issues that someone else could see straight away. For example, take a piece of writing, whether it’s an essay or an email, someone else reading it will likely spot issues that your own eyes completely skipped. 

A presentation or performance is no exception, finding someone to act as the viewer can be a good exercise and help you polish off your work. If it’s a family member or friend, make it clear to them that they shouldn’t hold back as pointing out issues that you didn’t see could help. If you can’t find anyone you can use as a test audience, recording yourself and playing it back can be the next best thing. 

Finding out that you must put together a presentation or performance as part of your university application doesn’t need to be as scary as it initially feels. With the right preparation, you can not only calm your nerves but will also give yourself better chance at being accepted.  

Find out more information on anything you need to know about taking a  university admissions test  and sitting for an  admissions interview .  

IELTS vs. TOEFL: Which should you take?

All international students who want to study in an English-speaking country must show they have the required level of English. There are a few English language exams that are accepted by universities all over the world. We’re going to focus on two of these: IELTS and TOEFL.   Before we continue, let’s look at what these names mean. IELTS is the International English Language Testing System. TOEFL is the Test of English as a Foreign Language.

Top 20 FAQs about the IELTS exam

What is the IELTS exam? The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is an English language exam which is recognised worldwide by more than 11,000 universities, employers and immigration government bodies. The IELTS test explained   What are the benefits of the IELTS test? As mentioned above, the IELTS exam is recognised all over the world and is used for university education and immigration purposes. It’s

Applying to university: Essential documents you need

You’ll learn as an international student, that nothing can be done unless you can successfully prove who you are. In countries where immigration policy and security are of utmost importance, this can be easier said than done, with long procedures involving lots of paperwork and waiting.   Originals vs. Copies However, you can make things a lot easier for yourself if you keep to hand a file containing the following important documentation. This

What are the benefits of the IELTS test?

As a prospective international student, you’ll know the importance of demonstrating your English language proficiency as part of the university application process. You’ll also know that several English language tests can be included as part of the entry requirements. With all of these options available, you may wonder what sets them apart, and what makes IELTS so popular. We're here to answer these questions and more, explaining the benefits of an IELTS test.

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Chiefs' Harrison Butker blasted for commencement speech encouraging women to be homemakers

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker has aggravated one of the internet's biggest culture wars by telling a class of college graduates that one of the “most important” titles a woman can hold is homemaker.

During a commencement speech last weekend at Benedictine College, a Catholic liberal arts school in Atchison, Kansas, the NFL player railed against abortion, Pride month and Covid-19 lockdown measures.

Drawing the most viral backlash this week, however, was a section of his speech in which he addressed the female graduates specifically — telling them that it’s women who have had “the most diabolical lies” told to them.

“How many of you are sitting here now, about to cross this stage, and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world,” Butker said. “But I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”

The criticisms that followed took aim at Butker as well as the NFL.

"Hey @NFL — If you want to continue to grow your female fan base and any other marginalized group (straight white men are already watching your product), come get your boy," wrote Lisa Guerrero, a former NFL sideline reporter and now an investigative journalist for "Inside Edition."

He went on to tell the graduates that his wife would agree that her life “truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.” It is her embrace of this role, he said, that made his own professional success possible.

Butker’s comments share similarities with some of the more extreme ideas around gender roles that have gained traction in communities that promote “ tradwife ” lifestyles or other relationship dynamics that center on traditional gender roles .

“Listen, there’s nothing wrong with his wife being a homemaker. Homemakers are wonderful, that’s not the point,” filmmaker Michael McWhorter, known by his more than 6 million TikTok followers as TizzyEnt, said in a video response. “The point is he seemed to be acting as if you should be ashamed if you don’t want to be a homemaker, or, ‘I know what you really want to do is just stay home and have babies.’"

The speech was the latest incident to add fuel to the flames of this increasingly vocal cultural battle, much of which is playing out online. While many prominent right-wing men have voiced such beliefs before, they’re usually confined to internet forums, podcasts and other online communities where these ideologies thrive.

A spokesperson for Butker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Benedictine College and the Kansas City Chiefs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for the NFL told People Magazine that Butker "gave a speech in his personal capacity" and his "views are not those of the NFL as an organization."

"The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger," a spokesperson told the publication.

Butker, who is teammates with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, further drew surprise and criticism when he quoted Kelce’s girlfriend, Taylor Swift, whose monumental career success as a global pop star has inspired college courses .

“As my teammate’s girlfriend says, ‘familiarity breeds contempt,’” he said, drawing murmurs from the crowd as he used the “Bejeweled” lyric as an analogy for why Catholic priests should not become “overly familiar” with their parishioners.

In the days since his speech, a Change.org petition for the Chiefs to dismiss Butker for “discriminatory remarks” has garnered nearly 19,000 signatures.

“These comments reinforce harmful stereotypes that threaten social progress,” the petition stated. “They create a toxic environment that hinders our collective efforts towards equality, diversity and inclusion in society. It is unacceptable for such a public figure to use their platform to foster harm rather than unity.”

Those who criticized Butker’s speech online include actor Bradley Whitford as well as DJ and rapper (and self-proclaimed Swiftie ) Flavor Flav .

But his speech was also lauded by some on the religious right, including conservative sports media personalities such as Clay Travis and Jason Whitlock , who defended Butker’s statements toward women.

“Not a word Harrison Butker says here should be remotely controversial. He’s 100% correct,” former NFL wide receiver T.J. Moe posted on X . “Those trying to convince women that being assistant VP of lending & intentionally childless at age 40 is more fulfilling than making a family and home are evil.”

Sports and culture commentator Jon Root also posted that Butker “exposed the lies that the world has been telling women.” Women, he wrote, are wrongly encouraged to climb the corporate ladder, view children as a “burden” and see marriage as “not worth pursuing.”

Still, a deluge of viewers online took issue with his attitude toward women and the LGBTQ community. Many women also rejected the premise that they would be happier staying at home in lieu of paid work, even if they do have a husband and children.

“I am moved. I actually had no idea that my life began when I met my husband,” neurosurgeon Betsy Grunch, known as Ladyspinedoc on TikTok, said sarcastically in a TikTok video . “It did not begin when I graduated magna cum laude from the University of Georgia with honors. It certainly did not begin when I graduated with a 4.0 GPA, Alpha Omega Alpha, from medical school. And I had no idea that it did not begin when I completed my residency in neurosurgery.”

Angela Yang is a culture and trends reporter for NBC News.

The Types of Colleges: The Basics

Find the right college for you., sorting out colleges by their types.

Is a college the same thing as a university? What does "liberal arts" mean? Why are some colleges called public and others private? Knowing the basics in regard to different types of colleges is imperative to making the right decision.

Public and Private Colleges

Public colleges are funded by local and state governments and usually offer lower tuition rates than private colleges, especially for students who are residents of the state where a college is located.

Private colleges rely on tuition, fees, and non-government funding sources. Generous financial aid packages for students are often available thanks to private donations.

For-Profit Colleges

For-profit institutions are businesses that typically offer career training. Although these colleges offer a variety of degree programs, it's wise to exercise caution when applying to a for-profit school. The degree programs often come at a higher cost, meaning students graduate with more debt. Credits earned may not transfer to other colleges so be sure to check with the admissions office at each institution.

Four-year and two-year colleges

Four-year institutions are referred to as undergraduate colleges. Four-year colleges specifically offer bachelor's degree programs. These include universities and liberal arts colleges.

Two-year colleges offer certificate programs that can be completed in under two years. They also offer two-year associate degrees. These include community colleges, vocational-technical colleges, and career colleges.

Liberal Arts Colleges

These institutions offer numerous courses in liberal arts in areas such as literature, history, languages, mathematics, and life sciences. Most of these institutions are private and offer four-year bachelor's degree programs. These colleges prepare students for a multiplicity of careers as well as graduate studies

Universities

Universities are larger institutions that offer a wider variety of academic majors and degree options. These schools provide bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. Most universities contain several smaller colleges, such as colleges of education, engineering, or health sciences. These colleges can prepare you for a wide range of careers or for graduate study.

Community Colleges

Community colleges offer two-year associate degrees that prepare undergraduates for four-year institutions offering bachelor programs. They also provide career-specific associate degrees and certificates. Community colleges are an affordable option because of their low tuition costs. 

What is the difference between a college and a university?

A college is a smaller school that may offer a wide variety of educational programs or more focused specializations for those seeking undergraduate degrees. Standing alone or as part of a larger institution, a college is often a private institution with a lower student population and smaller class sizes. On the other hand, a university is a larger school offering both undergraduate and graduate-level degrees. Because they’re a component of a university's doctoral programs, such institutions also serve as research facilities for educational advancement.

Vocational-Technical and Career Colleges

Vocational-technical and career colleges offer specialized training in a particular industry or career. Areas of study include the culinary arts, firefighting, dental hygiene, and medical-records technology. These colleges usually offer students certificates or associate degree programs.

Colleges with a Special Focus

Some colleges focus on a specific interest or student population. These include:

• Arts colleges
• Single-sex colleges
• Religiously affiliated colleges
• Specialized mission colleges

Arts Colleges

Conservatories and colleges of this variety focus on the arts. In addition to regular coursework, these institutions provide training in areas such as photography, music, theater, sculpture, drawing, or fashion design. Most of these schools offer associate or bachelor's degrees in the fine arts or a specialized field.

Single-Sex Colleges

Some private colleges are specifically for men or women.

Religiously Affiliated Colleges

Some private, higher-education institutions are connected to a religious faith. Such connections may simply be historic in nature. Others incorporate religious study into day-to-day student life.

Specially Designated Colleges

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) focus on educating African American students. Colleges and universities are designated Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) when at least 25% of the full-time undergraduate students are Hispanic. HBCUs and HSIs may offer programs, services, and activities targeted to the underrepresented students they serve.

What is better, a university or a college?

Those who prefer a more intimate experience with a greater connection to faculty may prefer a college. However, a university may be better for those looking for a broader range of programs and more learning facilities. The ultimate answer will depend on your personal preferences and the school in question. Both colleges and universities can provide a rewarding educational experience.

What to Do Now That You Know About the Different Types of Colleges

Now that you’re familiar with the types of institutions available, you should decide which one will suit your future goals. It’s often helpful to create a vision board of what you plan to achieve before deciding how you plan to achieve it. Take some time to think about your trajectory while keeping the knowledge of these various types of schools in mind. If you need direction after you assess your needs, you may find it helpful to talk to your school's guidance office, a college recruiter, or a college alum to work through any other questions you might have.

Embarking on a journey through higher education can be both exciting and challenging. Using the information presented here should help you sift through your options so the decisions you make today will serve you better in the future. For more help finding the right colleges for you, check out College Search .

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Same AI + Different Deployment Plans = Different Ethics

KENNESAW, Ga. | May 14, 2024

Why Autonomous Cars Aren’t Yet Ethical For Wide Deployment

This month I will address an aspect of the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics that I think many people don’t fully appreciate. Namely, the ethics of a given algorithm can vary based on the specific scope and context of the deployment being proposed. What is considered unethical within one scope and context might be perfectly fine in another. I’ll illustrate with an example and then provide steps you can take to make sure your AI deployments stay ethical.

There are limited tests of fully autonomous, driverless cars happening around the world today. However, the cars are largely restricted to low-speed city streets where they can stop quickly if something unusual occurs. Of course, even these low-speed cars aren’t without issues. For example, there are reports of autonomous cars being confused and stopping when they don’t need to and then causing a traffic jam because they won’t start moving again.

We don’t yet see cars running in full autonomous mode on higher speed roads and in complex traffic, however. This is in large part because so many more things can go wrong when a car is moving fast and isn’t on a well-defined grid of streets. If an autonomous car encounters something it doesn’t know how to handle going 15 miles per hour, it can safely slam on the brakes. If in heavy traffic traveling at 65 miles per hour, however, slamming on the breaks can cause a massive accident. Thus, until we are confident that autonomous cars will handle virtually every scenario safely, including novel ones, it just won’t be ethical to unleash them at scale on the roadways.

Some Massive Vehicles Are Already Fully Autonomous – And Ethical!

If cars can’t ethically be fully autonomous today, certainly huge farm equipment with spinning blades and massive size can’t, right? Wrong! Manufacturers such as John Deere have fully autonomous farm equipment working in fields today. You can see one example in the picture below. This massive machine rolls through fields on its own and yet it is ethical. Why is that?

In this case, while the equipment is massive and dangerous, it is in a field all by itself and moving at a relatively low speed. There are no other vehicles to avoid and few obstacles. If the tractor sees something it isn’t sure how to handle, it simply stops and alerts the farmer who owns it via an app. The farmer looks at the image and makes a decision -- if what is in the picture is just a puddle reflecting clouds in an odd way, the equipment can be told to proceed. If the picture shows an injured cow, the equipment can be told to stop until the cow is attended to.

This autonomous vehicle is ethical to deploy since the equipment is in a contained environment, can safely stop quickly when confused, and has a human partner as backup to help handle unusual situations. The scope and context of the autonomous farm equipment is different enough from regular cars that the ethics calculations lead to a different conclusion.

Putting The Scope And Context Concept Into Practice

There are a few key points to take away from this example. First, you can’t simply label a specific type of AI algorithm or application as “ethical” or “unethical”. You also must also consider the specific scope and context of each deployment proposed and make a fresh assessment for every individual case.

Second, it is necessary to revisit past decisions regularly. As autonomous vehicle technology advances, for example, more types of autonomous vehicle deployments will move into the ethical zone. Similarly, in a corporate environment, it could be that updated governance and legal constraints move something from being unethical to ethical - or the other way around. A decision based on ethics is accurate for a point in time, not for all time.

Finally, it is necessary to research and consider all the risks and mitigations at play because a situation might not be what a first glance would suggest. For example, most people would assume autonomous heavy machinery to be a big risk if they haven’t thought through the detailed realities as outlined in the prior example.

All of this goes to reinforce that ensuring ethical deployments of AI and other analytical processes is a continuous and ongoing endeavor. You must consider each proposed deployment, at a moment in time, while accounting for all identifiable risks and benefits. This means that, as I’ve written before , you must be intentional and diligent about considering ethics every step of the way as you plan, build, and deploy any AI process.

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Annual Kenneth A. Suarez Day Fosters Wide-Ranging Presentations on Healthcare Research

Cross-campus event features student research across the colleges and programs

• AZ - Glendale
• IL - Downers Grove

At the Kenneth A. Suarez Research Day, participants from all colleges and programs researched and presented a variety of healthcare topics.   

 The Kenneth A. Suarez Research Day is an annual opportunity where students present their research topics to the Midwestern University community on the Downers Grove and Glendale campuses. The displayed posters, 160 from the Downers Grove Campus and 218 from the Glendale Campus, featured a multitude of healthcare topics that students presented to faculty, staff, and peers. Faculty judges listened to a variety of student presentations, and the event culminated in the announcement of several winners.

Kathleen H. Goeppinger, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Midwestern University, welcomed the attendees, and shared that the research day is greatly valued and highlights the culmination of several aspects of the University experience including academics, student engagement, and faculty support. 

James Woods, Ph.D., Assistant Vice President of Research, Downers Grove and Glendale campuses, thanked the students for their research involvement. “It's wonderful having students in the labs because they come in, bring new energy, and ask lots of questions. It's a contagious passion that starts with the students and that energy and excitement transfer over to the faculty,” he said. 

Students eagerly described their research project topics, event experience, and future career plans.

Osteopathic Medicine

Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine student Josephine Tsang (CCOM ’26) researched chemotherapy in primary and metastatic (cancer that has spread) colorectal (colon) cancer due to genetic mutations within cell survival mechanisms. “We look at different DNA repair mechanisms and try to find specific markers and differentiate that as primary versus metastatic. There is definitely a different response to chemotherapeutic drugs when it comes to primary versus metastatic colon cancer and it’s exemplified by protein expression in RNA (ribonucleic acid, a molecule existing in most organisms and viruses) sequences,” Josephine said. As a result, therapy targeting DNA repair of metastatic cells could increase the rates of survival and decrease the rate of relapse. Josephine is appreciative of her experience at the research event. “It gives me confidence to be able to talk in front of people. It’s nice to showcase what you’ve done and summarize how things are going.”

Medical student Hunter Gervais (CCOM ’26) looked into using quantitative ultrasound sonometry (QUS, potential increase of the precision of image findings) to detect osteoporosis due to cancer. “We used a new technology to assess age and cancer-related bone loss,” he said. Early findings suggest females are adversely affected in higher numbers than their male counterparts. He also shared that the experience would “contribute to my future career as an aspiring orthopedic.” Hunter enjoyed his experience at the research day. “It’s been fun to learn about all the experiments people are working on.” 

Medical student Arjun Sharma (CCOM’27) looked into the potential of marine sponges’ medicinal properties in biomedicine. “A natural-derived compound could treat different diseases,” Arjun said. He added, “There’s so much research to be done with a compound derived from marine life,” and emphasized that the majority of ocean life is still a mystery and could potentially have additional medicinal benefits. Arjun shared that he hopes to continue his research journey as a physician, and that participation in the research day was good preparation. “It’s important to talk about research to experts in the field and patients.”

Biomedical Sciences

Biomedical Sciences student Jen’a Hunter (CGS-Downers Grove MBS ’24) presented a research project about the effect of maternal obesity due to a high-fat diet on the neuromuscular junction (signals between muscle and nerve cells) of offspring. Jen’a shared, “I would like people to take away that maternal obesity is a growing health concern.” She also appreciated the experience of “being able to present at the research event as a student, discuss the research with my peers, and share the project with the Midwestern community as a whole.” 

Biomedical Sciences student Christopher Johnson (CHS-Downers Grove MBS ’24) worked on an interdepartmental collaboration with physical therapy, speech-language pathology, and physiology on a project examining the effect of one session of high-intensity aerobic exercise on brain functionality. Christopher said current field research indicates continuous exercise has shown to improve brain functionality, especially regarding conditions like stroke, Alzheimer’s, and dementia, but this research project examines a single session. He said he hopes people will take away “how important exercise is, and it can be used to treat chronic diseases and increase cognitive performance as well.”

Physical Therapy

Physical Therapy student Karlee Barton (CHS-Downers Grove PT ’24) examined the impact on patients’ gait from bandaging a leg affected by lymphedema. “Somebody could have a 100 percent swelling difference between the healthy limb to the swollen limb. When they wear the bandages 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it can create safety risks and hazards,” Karlee stated. She shared in the future she “feels confident to treat any population with lymphedema.”  

Dental Medicine 

Dental student Victoria Nachevnik (CDMI ’26) explored the effects of hormone therapy on the health of rat’s oral cavity during menopause. Victoria shared she hopes after seeing her research, people will “care more about the effects of menopause on the oral cavity and women’s health.” She shared that she is interested in teaching in the future, and the event assisted her with learning how to present scientific information.

College of Dental Medicine student Monica Abouelsaad (CDMI ’25) shared her research topic, using a natural oil as an anti-fog for dental mirrors. She said the research suggested peppermint as a promising option. “I encourage others to find common solutions in their workspace.” Monica also hopes to become a professor at a dental school in the future and said the research day was a “great step in getting experience.”

College of Pharmacy, Glendale student Amy Tan (CPG ’24) said, “My research focused on the association between psychoactive drug use and subsequent cognitive decline in older adults. I was inspired to do this research by my father, who has been using these prescription medications for decades, and how it may affect him later in life. This is a great starting point to looking at different aspects of this topic, including how these medications are affecting cognitive function in young adults.” 

College of Pharmacy, Downers Grove students Mariam Isa (CPDG ’25) and Sara Alsawi (CPDG ’25) examined the connection between oral contraception and mental health. Sara shared, “Women are experiencing mood changes. Their feelings are valid.” Mariam added their research intent is to “bridge a connection between patients and providers and find that middle ground.”

Chicago College of Optometry students Hamza Khan (CCO ’25) and Andrew Baker (CCO ’25) evaluated how COVID-19 affected the patient preference of telehealth in optometry. Andrew said, “We wanted to bring awareness about telehealth in optometry and see if patients would use their eye exams with telehealth.” Hamza added, “It allows us to see there is an opportunity in our field for telehealth.”

Arizona College of Optometry student Joshua Reese (AZCOPT ’25) looked into how the time of day affects vision examinations, as problematic symptoms of different issues do not necessarily occur in conjunction with optometry appointments. Joshua said, “I was able to work closely with faculty mentors to find a love for research and reach my potential as an optometry student.” He continued, “I'm so grateful for the capstone and research fellowship programs at Midwestern University allowing me to present my poster as a lead author at the American Academy of Optometry in New Orleans last year in November.”

Research Day Impact

One of the cornerstones of healthcare education at Midwestern University is the opportunity for students to take part in research and innovation. Research is one of the ways students are involved in the next generation of healthcare and add their input, time, dedication, education, skills, and discoveries to the future.

Glendale, AZ Winners Kenneth A. Suarez Research Day

Outstanding Poster Presentations:

Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine (AZCOM):

• Lindsey Lamb Urachal Cyst Complicated by Diverticulitis in a 73-year-old Man: A Case Report
• Dylan Hampel Long-Awaited Relief After Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment in Postconcussion Syndrome: A Case Report
• Daniel Casanova Differences in Authorship Profiles of Incoming Orthopedic Cohorts by Residency Program Institutional Setting
• Brian Mayer Representation of Women and Osteopathic Physicians as Editors in Nine Surgical Subspecialties
• Ryan Orlando Sleeping Soundly: An Osteopathic Approach to Insomnia in an Adolescent
• Spencer Vroegop Long-term Intermittent Fasting Induces Changes to Glucose Metabolism and Limits Apoptosis in the SAMP8 Aged Murine Jejunum
• Jamie McDermott Regional Variation in Macaque Dermatoglyphs Mirrors Human Tactile Sensitivity Map

College of Health Sciences (CHS):

• Britny Santos The Impact of Dementia on the Spousal Relationship

College of Veterinary Studies (CVM):

• Matthew Caldwell A Deadly Mix-up: The Incorrect Dispensing of Cyclophosphamide for Cyclosporine

College of Graduate Studies (CGS):

• Christine Lee Characterization of Serine Protease Inhibitors from Schistosoma mansoni as Targets for Public Health Intervention
• Siddarth Gunnala Folic Acid Over Supplementation Impacts Health Outcomes After Hypoxia in Male and Female Drosophila melanogaster
• Shelby McMurray Small Mesenteric Artery Passive Mechanical Properties in Adult APOE3 & APOE4 Mice

Arizona College of Podiatric Medicine (AZCPM):

• Andre Moezzi Tibia-Talor-Calcaneal Rod Placement without a Talus...A Case Study

Arizona College of Optometry (AZCOPT):

• Greyson Eastman, Morgan Hansted, Adela Coy, & Devon Sievers How Does the Keratoconic Eye Change After Corneal Cross Linking?

College of Dental Medicine – Arizona (CDMA):

• Justin Martin Identification of the Incisive Branch of the Inferior Alveolar Nerve in Edentulous Mandibles Using Cone-Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT)
• Kacee Ginsbach Measuring the Correlation Between Oral Health History and Dental Anxiety
• Emily Tarr Biocompatibility of a Chlorhexidine-erythritol-containing Adjunctive Periodontal Treatment on RMSCs

College of Pharmacy Glendale (CPG):

• Ivan Gong Fostering More Capable Future Pharmacy Student Leaders: A Descriptive Report of Implementing the ASHP Student Leadership Development Program (SLDP) in a State Pharmacy Association

Outstanding Oral Presentation:

• Bethany Robinson Prevalence of Lower Extremity Injuries in Rodeo Athletes: A Literature Review and Statistical Analysis
• Eric Lash Adolescent-reported ADHD Symptoms vs. Parent-child Relationship

Outstanding Poster Presentation Graduate Medical Education (GME):

First Place: Roshini Pradeep Strengthening the Roots: A Root Cause Analysis of Identification of Most Common Cause of Readmissions at a Rural Center

Second Place: Zachary Whitaker An Osteopathic Approach to Prolonged Surgical Scar and Epidural Site Pain after Cesarean Section: A Case Study

Third Place: Amin Al maayeh & Mustafa Al-maayeh Hyperthyroid Storm Presenting as Pericarditis

Fourth Place: Sarah Gorn Successful Salvage Therapy of Bleomycin-induced Pneumonitis with Pirfenidone

Downers Grove, IL Winners Kenneth A. Suarez Research Day 

• Ashley Lane Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Designed Research Study Exploring Rehabilitation Practitioners’ Knowledge and Perception about Climate Change and Impacts on Practice

Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine (CCOM):

• Carter Yang Assessing the Role of SWI/SNF Chromatin Remodelers in the Transcriptional Response to Chemotherapy and the Induction of Senescence
• Isaac Woods Efficacy of Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment on an Individual with Klippel-Feil Syndrome, Frequent Headaches, Neck Pain, & Scoliosis of the Cervical and Thoracic Spine
• Amanda Bernett Workin’ 9 to 5, but Now Can Thrive: Chronic Daily Headache Diagnosed and Treated with OMT
• Katalina Demirkol A Case of Uveitis: A Spectrum of Ocular Manifestations
• Danielle Voke & Caroline Kreitzer "Decoding the Digital Bump": A Mixed Methods Evaluation of Pregnancy Related Videos and Misinformation on TikTok
• Nicole Zoghby Recovery from Auditory and Peripheral Neuropathy Upon Induction of Schwann Cell Loss in Aging DTA Mice
• Areeha Khalid Neurotoxicity of Dimethyl Sulfoxide in Artemia Franciscana: From Vehicle to Positive Control
• Emily Max Multiday Anodal tDCS of the Left Frontal Eye Field has a Compounding Effect that Lasts Beyond the Period of Treatment in Symptomatic Convergence Insufficiency
• Elizabeth Barbeau Fexofenadine Alters Fura2-fluorescence in MIN6 Cells, a Model Pancreatic Beta Cell Line
• Alexis Orr Intestinal Heat-Shock Protein 70 Alters Dietary Lipid Absorption
• Lisa Lemajeur Short-term Estradiol Treatment on Spatial Memory in a Rat Model of Menopause

College of Pharmacy Downers Grove (CPDG) Student:

• Frank Carnivele The Neuromuscular Synapse in the ApcMin/+ Mouse Model of Cancer-induced Cachexia

College of Pharmacy Downers Grove (CPDG) Resident:

• Sara Salama Factors that Influence Blood Pressure Lowering with the Use of Sodium-Glucose Co-Transporter-2 Inhibitors in Persons with Type 2 Diabetes

Chicago College of Optometry (CCO):

• Roman Somogy Visual Processing Differences Associated with Skilled Video Game Performance: Implications for Skilled Development and Training Using Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
• Hena Tahir, Antala Melero, Alex Kitzmann, & Heeren Parekh Comparison of Tear Film Stability and Ocular Comfort Between Delefilcon A and Kalifilcon A Contact Lenses

College of Dental Medicine – Illinois (CDMI):

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First Place: Raahi Patel & Varsha Goduguchinta A Biliary-Colonic Fistulous Tract in the setting of Ascending Cholangitis

Second Place: Roger Rozzi I'll Take "Improved Morale" for 1000 Please

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NCAA.com | May 18, 2024

2024 ncaa softball bracket: women's college world series scores, schedule.

The 2024 NCAA DI softball tournament is here. The bracket was announced on Sunday, May 12 in an ESPN2 selection show. Regional action will run May 17-19, followed by super regionals from May 23-26. The tournament culminates with the eight-team 2024 Women's College World Series starting on May 30 in Oklahoma City.

AUTO-BID TRACKER: Every conference tournament champion and automatic bid

The 2023 Women's College World Series finals ended with Oklahoma sweeping Florida State to win a third-straight national championship. Below you can find all the information about the 2024 DI softball tournament. 

2024 NCAA DI softball tournament bracket

👉  Click or tap here to get a closer look at the 2024 bracket

2024 NCAA DI softball tournament schedule

Here are the key dates for the 2024 NCAA DI softball tournament: 

• See the full selections release here
• Regionals: May 16/17-19
• Super Regionals: May 23-25 or May 24-26 
• Women's College World Series: May 30-June 6/7 in Oklahoma City 

2024 DI softball regionals  (May 17-19)

*All times Eastern

Austin Regional – Austin, Texas

• Game 1:   No. 1 seed Texas (host) 5,  Siena 0 
• Game 2:  Northwestern 7, Saint Francis (Pennsylvania) 2
• Game 3: (1) Texas (host) vs. Northwestern | 1 p.m. LHN
• Game 4: Siena vs. Saint Francis | 3:30 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 5: Loser of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 4 | 6 p.m.
• Game 6: TBD vs. TBD | 1 p.m.
• Game 7  if necessary  | 3:30 p.m.

Norman Regional – Norman, Oklahoma

• Game 1:  Oregon 8,  Boston University 0
• Game 2:   No. 2 seed Oklahoma (host) 9, Cleveland State 0 
• Game 3: Oregon vs. (2) Oklahoma| 3 p.m. ESPN
• Game 4: Boston U vs. Cleveland State| 5:30 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 5: Loser of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 4 | 8 p.m.
• Game 6 | 3 p.m.
• Game 7  if necessary  | 5:30

Knoxville Regional – Knoxville, Tennessee

• Game 1:  Virginia 7 , Miami (Ohio) 0
• Game 2:  No. 3 seed Tennessee (host) 3, Dayton 0 
• Game 3: Virginia vs. Tennessee | 1 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 4: Miami (Ohio) vs. Dayton | 3:30 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 6 | noon
• Game 7  if necessary  | 2:30 p.m.

Gainesville Regional – Gainesville, Florida

• Game 1:  No. 4 seed Florida (host) 6 , Florida Gulf Coast 0
• Game 2:  South Alabama 1, Florida Atlantic 0
• Game 3: No. 4 seed Florida vs. South Alabama | 1 p.m. ESPN+ 
• Game 4: Florida Gulf Coast vs. Florida Atlantic | 3:30 p.m. ESPN+

Stillwater Regional – Stillwater, Oklahoma

• Game 1:  Kentucky 4, Michigan 3
• Game 2:  No. 5 seed Oklahoma State (host) 6, Northern Colorado 0
• Game 3: Kentucky vs. (5) Oklahoma State | 1 p.m. ESPN
• Game 4: Michigan vs. Northern Colorado | 3:30 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 7  if necessary  | 5:30 p.m.

Los Angeles Regional – Los Angeles, California

• Game 1:  Virginia Tech 5,  San Diego State 1
•  Game 2:  No. 6 seed UCLA (host) 9,  Grand Canyon 0
• Game 3: Virginia Tech vs. (6) UCLA | 5 p.m. ESPN+  
• Game 4: San Diego State vs. Grand Canyon| 7:30 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 5: Loser of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 4 | 10 p.m.
• Game 6 | 6 p.m.
• Game 7  if necessary  | 8:30 p.m.

Columbia Regional – Columbia, Missouri

• Game 1:  Washington 8, Indiana 7
• Game 2:  Omaha 3, No. 7 seed Missouri (host) 1
• Game 3: Washington vs. Omaha| 3 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 4: Indiana vs. (7) Missouri | 5:30 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 6 | 2 p.m.
• Game 7  if necessary  | 4:30 p.m.

Stanford Regional – Stanford, California

• Game 1:   Mississippi State 1, Cal State Fullerton 0
• Game 2:  No. 8 seed Stanford (host) 8,   Saint Mary’s (California) 6 
• Game 3: Mississippi State vs. No. 8 seed Stanford | 5 p.m. ESPN2
• Game 4: Cal State Fullerton vs. Saint Mary's (California) | 7:30 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 6 | 5 p.m.
• Game 7  if necessary  | 7:30 p.m.

Baton Rouge Regional – Baton Rouge, Louisiana

• Game 1:  Southern Illinois 5 , California 4
• Game 2:  No. 9 seed LSU (host) 5 , Jackson State 0
• Game 3: Southern Illinois vs. (9) LSU | 1 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 4: California vs. Jackson State | 3:30 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 6 | 4 p.m.
• Game 7  if necessary  | 6:30 p.m.

Durham Regional – Durham, North Carolina

• Game 1:  South Carolina 2, Utah 1
• Game 2:  No. 10 seed Duke (host) 6, Morgan State 1
• Game 3: South Carolina vs. (10) Duke | 11 a.m. ESPN2
• Game 4: Utah vs. Morgan State| 1:30 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 5: Loser of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 4 | 4 p.m.
• Game 6 | 1 p.m.

Athens Regional – Athens, Georgia

• Game 1:  Liberty 6 , Charlotte 3
• Game 2:  No. 11 seed Georgia (host) 8, UNCW 0
• Game 3: Liberty vs. (11) Georgia | 11 a.m. ESPN+
• Game 4: Charlotte vs. UNCW | 1:30 p.m. ESPN+

Fayetteville Regional – Fayetteville, Arkansas

• Game 1:  Arizona 14,  Villanova 3
• Game 2:  No. 12 seed Arkansas (host) 3 , Southeast Missouri State 2
• Game 3: Arizona vs. (12) Arkansas | 3 p.m. ESPN2
• Game 4: Villanova vs. Southeast Missouri | 5:30 p.m. ESPN+

Lafayette Regional – Lafayette, Louisiana

• Game 1:  No. 13 seed Louisiana (host) 8, Princeton 0 (5)* *Louisiana gained a  run-rule win  — closing out Game 1 after the fifth inning
• Game 2:  Baylor 3, Ole Miss 1
• Game 3: No. 13 seed Louisiana vs. Baylor | 3 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 4: Princeton vs. Ole Miss | 5:30 p.m. ESPN+

Tuscaloosa Regional – Tuscaloosa, Alabama

• Game 1:  Southeastern Louisiana 6 , Clemson 2
• Game 2:  No. 14 seed Alabama (host) 1 , USC Upstate 0
• Game 3: Southeastern Louisiana vs. No. 14 seed Alabama (host)  | 11:30 a.m. ESPN+
• Game 4: Clemson vs. USC Upstate| 2:00 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 5: Loser of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 4 | 4:30 p.m.

Tallahassee Regional – Tallahassee, Florida

• Game 1:   UCF 11, Auburn 6
• Game 2:  No. 15 seed Florida State (host) 3, Chattanooga 2
• Game 3: UCF vs. (15) Florida State | 1 p.m. ESPN2
• Game 4: Auburn vs. Chattanooga | 3:30 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 5: Loser of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 4 | 6 p.m.

Bryan-College Station Regional – Bryan-College Station, Texas

• Game 1:  Texas State 4,  Penn State 2 
• Game 2:  No. 16 seed Texas A&M (host) 6, UAlbany 2
• Game 3: Texas State vs. (16) Texas A&M | 3 p.m. ESPN+
• Game 4: Penn State vs. UAlbany | 5:30 p.m. ESPN+

2024 Women's College World Series schedule (all times ET)

• Game 1 : TBD vs. TBD, noon | ESPN
• Game 2 : TBD vs. TBD, 2:30 p.m. | ESPN
• Game 3 : TBD vs. TBD, 7 p.m. | ESPN2
• Game 4 : TBD vs. TBD, 9:30 p.m. | ESPN2
• Game 5 : TBD vs. TBD, 7 p.m. | ESPN2
• Game 6 : TBD vs. TBD, 9:30 p.m. | ESPN2
• Game 7 : TBD vs. TBD, 3 p.m. | ABC
• Game 8 : TBD vs. TBD, 7 p.m. | ESPN
• Game 9 : TBD vs. TBD, 3 p.m. | ABC
• Game 10 : TBD vs. TBD, 7 p.m. | ESPNU
• Game 11 : TBD vs. TBD, noon | ESPN
• Game 12 (if necessary) : TBD vs. TBD, 2:30 p.m. | ESPN
• Game 13 : TBD vs. TBD, 7 p.m. | ESPN2
• Game 14 (if necessary) : 9:30 p.m. | ESPN2
• WCWS Final Game 1 : TBD vs. TBD, 8 p.m. | ESPN
• WCWS Final Game 2 : TBD vs. TBD, 8 p.m. | ESPN
• WCWS Final Game 3 (if necessary) : TBD vs TBD, 8 p.m. | ESPN

How the championship works: Regionals — at 16 sites — are double-elimination and scheduled for May 16/17-19. The 16 winners advance to super regionals and play a two-team, best-out-of-three series either May 23-25 or May 24-26. The eight winners earn spots in the 2024 Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. The WCWS begins May 30 in double-elimination format. The final two teams play a best-of-three series for the national championship beginning June 5.

How to get tickets for the Women's College World Series

You can  purchase tickets for the 2024 WCWS here.  The Women's College World Series is played at Devon Park in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Softball  Championship: Future dates

Women's college world series championship history.

Below is the complete, year-by-year NCAA DI softball national championship history since 1982.

*Indicates undefeated teams in final series. 

#-UCLA’s 1995 national championship was later vacated by the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions

2024 DIII softball championship: Bracket, schedule, scores

• The college softball mercy rule, explained

2024 DII softball championship: Bracket, schedule, scores

• Championship Info
• Game Program

DI Softball News

• 2024 NCAA softball bracket: Women's College World Series scores, schedule
• Regionals to watch, POTY picks and more predictions ahead of the 2024 WCWS
• 2024 WCWS picks, before regionals
• 2024 Women's College World Series picks, before regionals
• Committee chair breaks down 2024 NCAA softball bracket
• 2024 NCAA DI softball bracket selection show
• NCAA Division I Softball Committee announces 2024 championship field
• 2024 Big 12 softball: Bracket, schedule, scores, TV times for the tournament
• 2024 SEC softball: Bracket, schedule, scores, TV times for the tournament

WCWS most outstanding players since 1982

Follow ncaa softball.

College softball's all-time home run leaders

The 11 best NCAA softball pitchers of all time

More From Forbes

Ea college football 25 full feature revealed, including huge return.

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College Football 25

On Friday, May 17, EA unveiled the trailer and full feature set for EA College Football 25 via press release.

While there's a plethora of features to explore, the one that truly captured the attention of countless fans of the NCAA Football series and me is the return of the 'Team Builder' feature.

We'll get into that in more detail, but here's what we learned from the press release. The game will be released on July 19 and available exclusively on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Here is a look at the trailer, and I’ll be honest. it’s pretty fantastic:

The Best Gaming Mouse That’ll Improve Your Aim

Ea college football 25 - campus iq.

College Football 25 will introduce Campus IQ. The concept is described as “a suite of features that brings to life the true depth of college football through wide open, fast-paced gameplay across all 134 FBS schools in all areas of the game.”

That broad description leaves us wanting more specifics, but there is enough to keep us excited.

EA College Football 25 Brings Back Dynasty Mode, Road to Glory and Team Builder

College Football 25 will feature the return of Dynasty and Road to Glory. Dynasty mode is the college football version of franchise mode, and it sounds like it has received a decent level of attention.

The Dynasty mode has you create a coach tasked with taking over a program. You’ll have to hire a coaching staff and recruit athletes from high school or through the transfer portal.

The recruiting engine in NCAA Football was amazing, and the way this process works in College Football 25 will be scrutinized.

There are coaching archetypes that are handled via skill trees that sound similar to the staff management options in Madden’s franchise mode. Ultimately, you want to guide your team into the new 12-team CFP.

EA College Football 25

The best new piece of information on Dynasty mode is the return of the Team Builder website, which allows you to create your own football program.

I wanted to see it return, and I didn’t expect EA to oblige. We’ll have to see if it is as layered as before, but seeing the feature return is excellent. I’m hoping for an early look at the site before launch that previews the options available.

Road to Glory is the single-player career mode. It allows users to take control of a single player and guide him through his college career with the hope of winning the Heisman trophy.

You’ll have to manage your player’s GPA, earn your coach’s trust, and attempt to win the Heisman on your journey. You can also put your created player into the transfer portal if you want to change schools.

New Mode: Road to the College Football Playoff

We’ll also see a new mode called Road to the College Football Playoff. Based on the description, it sounds like a cross-platform, ranked, online head-to-head competitive mode. The press release describes it as follows:

“Experience a new way to play competitively across consoles in the Road to the College Football Playoff. Will you represent your university, or take a power school to climb the polls? Earn rank by upsetting the toughest opponents and securing the votes you need to progress and level up divisions. Play your way into the playoffs and battle for the National Championship.”

College Football Ultimate Team

Ultimate Team returns to the college football video game world. NCAA Football had the collector mode before the series was canceled. However, EA has built out the format exponentially over the past decade.

We know the mode will feature current college football stars and legends, and it makes sense to expect various challenges, themed packs, and more in this iteration of the proven collector mode concept.

How Will EA College Football Gameplay and Presentation Differ From Madden?

From a pure gameplay standpoint, College Football 25 will undoubtedly have some similarities to Madden, but there are some obvious reasons to expect some differences. College Football 25 will feature many school-specific offenses and playbooks.

Player ratings will “fluctuate throughout each game,” and EA says teams are tiered. The in-game passing mechanics have been custom-fitted for college football.

One new gameplay concept that excites me is the “Wear & Tear system.”

EA describes it as follows:

“As the hits add up, players wear down with the Wear & Tear System. Manage your players’ health, limit fatigue, assess risk of injury, and avoid on-field mistakes by using strategic substitutions to ensure your players are at their best with it counts the most.”

I hope this functions as described and that if it does, it makes its way into Madden 25. Fatigue and managing injury risk are difficult to master in sports video games, so it will be interesting to see what modes this is present.

Pre-snap recognition is another key feature. It sounds as if it is designed to separate experienced heady players from young, inexperienced guys. I hope this feature or concept makes its way into Madden.

The Homefield Advantage concept sounds like a carryover from Madden’s M-Factors. I love it in franchise mode, and it is a logical fit in College Football 25. You could argue that the effects should be even stronger on collegiate players.

The atmosphere is a massive part of the immersion associated with College Football 25. According to EA, chants, fight songs, and mascots will be used for the top programs.

There will be two commentary teams in the game. Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, and David Pollack will commentate on most games. However, Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit will man the mic for “all marquee matchups.”

Be on the lookout for more detailed information in the coming weeks.

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May 14, 2024

• Rosowsky appointed to new role at Arizona State University

Submitted by Division of Communications and Marketing

David Rosowsky, vice president for research, is leaving K-State in early July to become the senior advisor to the president of Arizona State University.

Rosowsky joined K-State in July 2021 to lead the university's research enterprise by encouraging and facilitating the integration and enhancement of research and scholarly and creative activities across the university's colleges and multiple research centers. During his time at K-State, the university's total extramural awards funding increased to $225 million.

"I am grateful to President Myers for bringing me to K-State and for the opportunity to envision a bold future in which research and economic development were linked," said Rosowsky. "And I am grateful to President Linton for allowing me to be part of his exciting future for this great university. Working with the team in the Office of the Vice President for Research was both an honor and a privilege."

In December 2021, Rosowsky launched K-State's Economic Prosperity Plan to create 3,000 new jobs and $3 billion in additional investments in Kansas by 2029. The plan is a response to a request from the Kansas Board of Regents to demonstrate how Kansas institutions of higher education will contribute to economic prosperity in the state.  To date, the plan has generated 1,699 jobs, with an additional 866 jobs announced or in the pipeline, plus $1.9 billion in secured or planned investments.

A focus area of Rosowsky's is to increase interdisciplinary research. After the launch of the university's Next-Gen K-State strategic plan, Rosowsky announced the Multidisciplinary Hiring Initiative in biomanufacturing. This initiative is underway and creates 12 new faculty positions in biosecurity, biodefense and biomanufacturing technologies. He also launched K-State's Game Changing Research Initiation Program , which builds teams of faculty from across the university to conduct research on the most complex, challenging and important problems facing our world. This was followed by a second program, GRIPex: AI in the Disciplines.

"I appreciate David's work to advance K-State's research enterprise and economic growth across Kansas," said Richard Linton, university president. "His leadership positions K-State research for continued growth and success as we become a next-generation land-grant university."

Rosowsky will also hold the titles of senior fellow in the University Design Institute and foundation professor of engineering at Arizona State University.

In the near future, the university will begin a national search to find a leader who will continue to elevate and grow K-State's research and innovation. A search committee for an internal search for an interim vice president for research has been formed, and details about the search are available online .

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• DCM to offer May Social Media Roundtable session to staff, faculty
• Free breakfast May 15 at Chick-fil-A in Union

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