An Exploratory Study of Class Presentations and Peer Evaluations: Do Students Perceive the Benefits?

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Student presentations are a common part of many courses at colleges and universities as they are one of the ways to improve learning of course material. The potential benefits of student presentations include greater class interaction and participation, increased interest in learning, new perspectives not covered otherwise, and improvement in communication and presentation skills. Students can gain knowledge not only from the research they and other students perform, but also by observing the other presenters' strengths and weaknesses to develop better communication and presentation skills. Despite the positive aspects of using student presentations in the classroom, some students may show resistance to do extra work, have fear in public speaking, and display boredom while sitting through others' presentations if they are not engaged with the experience. Therefore, such students may have generally negative beliefs about giving classroom presentations. In addition to the expected potential benefits of class presentations for presenters, the question is whether the audience (non-presenting students) benefits from class presentations. It is hoped and expected that non-presenting students in the class could also benefit from student presentations. These potential benefits for non-presenting students include learning different perspectives about the course material and improving communications skills by observing others. As with any presentation, the challenge is to get non-presenting students to pay attention and to be engaged in the learning experience. One way to overcome this challenge is to ask non-presenting students to evaluate the presentations (peer-evaluations). We believe that peer-evaluations could be a good way to get non-presenting students involved and engaged in the presentations in order to get the most benefit from the learning experience. Specifically, asking students to list what they learn from presentations through taking notes will promote (or force) greater involvement with the presentations. As a result of being actively engaged in the presentation, the students should benefit much more than if they had merely been passive viewers. Undoubtedly, as most marketing and business students will witness many presentations throughout their careers, effective listening skills will improve; thus, they will increasingly become better listeners. Moreover, since students might be evaluating their peers in their future positions after graduation, this practice may also prepare them for that potential aspect of their work. Despite the known benefits of communication skills for students (e.g., de Beer, 2007; Gaedeke & Tootelian, 1989; Goldgehn, 1989; Kelly & Gaedeke, 1990; Joby & Needel, 1990; McCorckle et al., 1992), a thorough search of the literature did not reveal any study that has examined the potential benefits of student class presentations from either the presenter or audience (non-presenter) perspective. The knowledgebase on student perceptions of presentation benefits has not been adequately developed and remains a huge gap in the marketing (and business education) pedagogy literature. This study is a first attempt at filling this gap, where the main goal is to examine the perceived benefits of class presentations for presenters as well as non-presenters. It is generally assumed that class presentations help students develop public speaking and communications skills. However, this assumption has not been investigated. Also, what is not known is how non-presenting students benefit, if any, from class presentations, and how to get them engaged in class presentations. As marketing educators attempt to prepare marketing students to become self-sufficient and well-spoken professionals in the work place, it is important that these educators know from the students' perspective whether or not class presentations actually benefit the student, and whether diversity in the student body based on gender makes any difference in their perception of presentation benefits. …