Student Presentations at a Distance

A key academic skill is the presentation of research, and presenting critical, reflected arguments. For distance education students, the predominant mode of communication is text, and there might be limited opportunities to talk and engage in immediate interactions. While the technology exists to connect students by voice, by video and generally by types of audiovisual media in real time, such sessions are often still tutor driven and sometimes even restrict students to textual reactions. At the UCL Institute of Education, several modules run activities that ask distance education students to make individual or group presentations in webinar sessions, aiming to develop their academic skills and to engage them in formats of discussions that are common academic practice. While those activities currently are not assessed summatively beyond a participation requirement, formative group feedback is provided to support the overall development of academic skills. This case study addresses two types of student presentation activities that are used in three postgraduate modules, along with observations on peer and tutor feedback.