Presentations enable students to practice their verbal communication skills. Students ‘become the professional' by sharing a project, lesson plan, interpretation, etc. with the class. Some instructors schedule presentations the last few weeks of the semester. Others spread them throughout the semester.
Many instructors prefer collaborative presentations, which consist of groups sharing responsibilities. From experience with groups, many instructors advise assigning individuals within groups specific duties or a confidential and brief evaluation paper explaining the group's conduct and struggles to allow students to comment on distribution of the workload and attempts at communicating with other group members. Group presentations make a strong alternative to a traditional final exam, and it is less grading for the instructor.
