Sylabus
1. Introduction, needs analysis & course overview2. Presentation style, layout & visuals3. Signposting and transitioning4. Common mistakes & handling mishaps5. Audience awareness6. Timing and pacing7. Handing difficult questions and hostile audiences8. Nonverbal comunication: posture, gestures and movement9. Nonverbal communication: eye contact and facial expressions10. Verbal communication: paralanguage (vocalics) and breathing techniques11. Final Presentations: Colloquium
112. Final Presentations: Colloquim 2
Anotace
The “Scientific Oral Presentations” course will be taught in English using a hands-on, problem-based, step-by-step approach targeting MSc. and PhD students with a minimum B2 level of proficiency in English (≥ FCE, IELTS 5, BEC Vantage).
With a minimum and optimal class size of 12 students, the course will be divided into twelve, 90-minute-long, weekly lessons on designing and delivering scientific presentations and on verbal and non-verbal communication skills.
Every lesson will in turn be divided into 60-70 minutes of student activities followed by a 20- 30-minute presentation to prepare students for the following lesson. The presentations will teach both oral communication skills and the state of the art on scientific presentations, from assertion-evidence slide design through storytelling in science communication to cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression strategies. In addition, every week, each student will lead a specific activity related to a real-life context (poster presentation, conference talk, job talk, media interview, panel discussion, elevator pitch and science outreach, among others) in which all other students will also be actively involved. In the last two lessons of the semester, students will deliver their final presentations in a session chaired by one of their colleagues.
At the end of the course, students are expected to show proficiency in preparing and delivering effective scientific presentations with strong visuals while maintaining good posture, timing, pacing, linking ideas by signposting or transitioning and engaging the audience through effective verbal and non-verbal communication when networking, critically discussing scientific results, explaining abstract concepts or handling difficult questions. Ultimately, this course aims to develop oral communication skills crucial for future researchers, by giving graduate students the opportunity to present several times during a semester, to provide and receive both peer and instructor feedback, to enhance their oral proficiency in English and to improve their higher-order thinking skills.