9.3 Explanation In Class Assignment

Overview

This explanation exercise allows students to practice their teaching and information sharing capabilities. When in the workforce, you often have to explain aspects of your job, teach people what to do when you are off for vacation or leave. Being able to offer clear, detailed, easy to follow explanations is an important aspect of practical communication that students need to learn to engage in.

Grade

This assignment works well either tied to a participation or worth 5% of a course total grade.

Marked out of 10: 1 mark for making the required time; 3 marks for clarity of instruction; 3 marks for room engagement; 3 marks for demonstration factor (slide deck, physical examples, use of whiteboard etc)

Learning Outcomes

-Practice speaking skills

-Engage in knowledge sharing

-Demonstrate abilities to provide condensed but clear information

What is Needed

No items are required for this activity

Activity

Students are required to create a three minute explanation of a skill they are confident in. It does not have to be tied to business but anything they feel confident about teaching to their classmates. Options can include: counting to ten in a different language, or different cultural greetings; how to cook a favourite meal, how to play a sport; how to change a tire, etc. Students are allowed to bring in items to help their demonstration, so long as they will not make a mess and be easily cleaned afterwards. The presentation is not to go under two minutes and thirty seconds or over four minutes. A slide deck with pictures or a recipe card is welcome, but as it is a quick presentation not more than one or two slides. Notes are not allowed as this is to be a topic that the student already feels comfortable and knowledgeable about.

Discussion

After all the presentations are done, ask the class what they remember or learned from the presentations. Is three minutes enough to convey basic information? How did this help their public speaking skills? What is needed to effectively help people learn new data and retain it?

Student Perspective (written by Business Student and Research Assistant Charlotte MacLean)

When I first heard about this exercise, I was terrified. As someone who is scared of public speaking, I was definitely nervous going into it. When I was told about the assignment, I immediately thought of different things I could explain. I wanted to pick something with steps so that I could break it down and make the explanation easier to follow. A week before we had to present, I narrowed it down to things that I was confident in speaking about. I practiced my explanation about 4 days before presenting it, but no matter how much I practiced, I was still nervous thinking about it. I think presenting in front of an audience beforehand is a good practice to get any feedback or pointers. I presented to my mom and dad a couple of times just to get a feel for what it would be like in front of a class. After I presented, I felt really good about myself because I realized once I was up there that it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

After this exercise, I gained a lot more confidence in my speaking. I felt more at ease doing other group presentations, knowing that I’ve explained something to the entire class for 3 minutes. It improved my presentation skills a lot and helped me understand how to teach material to others. It also improved my communication skills by learning how to get my point across clearly and concisely.

For this kind of exercise, a 3-minute explanation is great for quickly explaining a concept, while a report is better for an in-depth analysis. Writing a report can seem less nerve-racking because it focuses more on the research side of things. An explanation will help you reduce your fear of public speaking, which is important to have in the business world. It’s difficult to grasp attention and engagement in real time with a report. Presenting allows you to capture attention through your voice and body language. Eye contact, gestures, and movement build a connection with the audience and help deliver your message.