Initiative Title / A format for creative presentations and their assessment.
Authors / Paul Tosey, Surrey Business School
Sam Warren (now Professor in Management at the University of Essex)
Alex Bristow, Surrey Business School
Contact: Tel: +44 1483 689763
Key Words / Presentations; Creativity; Assessment
Context / Used within an MBA elective module called Strategic Change Management, which has a strong OD/HRD emphasis. The module is assessed through two assignments.
1. Assignment 1 (30% of total module mark) is a ‘creative case study’ presentation about an organisational change process with which the student is familiar and ideally is based on their own personal experience. The presentations take place about 5 weeks into an 11 week taught module.
2. Assignment 2 (70% of total module mark) is a written paper of 3000 words submitted at the end of the module, requiring the student to critically evaluate the same case study using theoretical frameworks, published research and ideas covered on the module and beyond.
Purpose / The format is an opportunity for MBA students to produce work in a more `right brain’ mode, to complement the emphasis of the programme on analytical work.
How it works / In essence, each student produces a maximum 10 minutes (including time for questions) creative presentation about a real personal experience of organisational change.
The presentation is creative in that:
· It can use any format except a standard powerpoint
· It portrays the change in a non-analytical and non-textual way, without attempting to apply theory.
The creative presentation generates material and themes that the student then analyses theoretically and critically in Assignment 2.
The creative presentation is self, peer and tutor assessed (see below for the criteria and the procedure). Peer and tutor feedback includes comment on relevant themes that the student may choose to develop in their Assignment 2.
The full brief for Assignment 1, from the module handbook, is given below (Appendices)
Evaluation/Feedback / Given the opportunity, most students enjoy the chance to work creatively. Many students have produced videos; we have also had posters, rich pictures, enacted dramas, models, a game and a storybook. Some student work has been outstandingly creative.
Students have also appreciated the self and peer assessment. We use a `light’ form of self and peer assessment that asks for responses to three questions and a suggested grade. The three items[1] are:
Something you did which worked well was…
Something you did which didn’t work so well was…
What I found most interesting, in relation to strategic change management, was…
These items are adapted from a feedback format called `Clean Feedback’, developed by Nancy Doyle and Caitlin Walker of Training Attention http://www.trainingattention.co.uk/.
Appendices /
Assignment One : Creative Case Study presentation (30% of total module mark)
For this assignment, you are required to individually research and creatively present a strategic organisational change issue from your own organisation (or one with which you are familiar).The presentation will be to your tutor and colleagues at a date and time advised to you at the beginning of the module.
There are two formative aims to this part of the assessment:
1. To generate material which you will subsequently analyse in your second piece of assessment using strategic organisational change theories, models and ideas (see assignment brief Part Two for details); and
2. To provide an opportunity for key formative peer and tutor feedback to help you decide on the content and direction of Part Two of the assessment.
Why a creative case study presentation?
As we will explore in the module, strategic change management is a process involving multiple actors, competing agendas, deep emotions and uncertain outcomes. Describing such a process is hard to do well using only words. Being a good change manager is also highly dependent on effective, persuasivecommunication and the involvement/ empowerment of others (usually) in a very short time frame.
Imaginative, creative approaches to presenting information are impactful, are absorbed and recalled well by audiences. They can bring together the emotional, aspirational, political and factual into a picture of a situation very quickly. They enable fresh insights into a problem that might not be apparent when using more traditional techniques (such as writing about it). They are most successful when emotionally engaging and involving the ‘whole person’.
What does a creative case study presentation look like?
Whilst we do not want to be overly prescriptive (the whole idea is to think creatively!) there are a few hard and fast rules:1. Presentations must be in a format capable of delivery in a classroom setting (eg: walking tours outside class would not be appropriate!)
2. Each presentation must take a maximum of 10 minutes, which must include time for questions from the class.
3. You are responsible for ensuring that the necessary display equipment is available and ready for use on the day of the presentation. Normally a laptop equipped with Windows and Powerpoint 2003 software, and a stand-alone DVD player, will be available in campus teaching rooms. If you bring your presentation to the workshop on a memory stick for display via the laptop provided, you are responsible for ensuring that your memory stick and files are working and virus-free.
4. You must make arrangements for your presentation to be available for the tutor to ‘take away’ eg: electronic copies of files, and/ or recordings of ‘live’ performances (your tutor will be able to advise on this).
Examples of creative formats for your presentation include:
1. An audio podcast – such as a simulated radio talk show
2. A video podcast or `digital story’ – perhaps in the style of a TV documentary
3. A dramatised script/ illustrated short story
4. A display poster – e.g. photo montage, collage, rich picture
Constraints are:
· Posters should be no larger than A2 size.
· You must not give a traditional Power Point presentation involving you manually clicking through slides. You are, however, free to use PowerPoint software in creative ways, eg: running a self-contained slide show containing video and audio.
This list is not intended to be exhaustive by any means – you are free to choose other modes of presentation, but you must ensure you are able to meet the assessment criteria below or we will not be able to award you many marks!
When will the presentations be given?
All the case-studies will be presented to during a class session. The preciseformat of the session will be determined by the tutor depending on the circumstances of the cohort and the workshop (e.g. location, timings, number of students in the class).
How will I be assessed?
Each presentation will be graded against the following criteria:1. Clarity of the organisational change issue
Here we are judging the extent to which you have identified a relevant issue of organisational change – as distinct, say, from an issue that is an interpersonal conflict; a human resource management problem; or a matter of business strategy.
2. Depth and complexity
You should not attempt to provide “The Truth” of an issue, but instead should demonstrate your ability to generate a range of insights into it, recognising the complex, multi-faceted and difficult nature of managing strategic change. For example, have you considered the problem from different and/or unusual angles, or represented multiple interpretations of it? (eg by contrasting how different organisational members might interpret a change initiative, such as a cleaner versus the Managing Director). Aim to get inside the issue and represent its messiness and complexity. Solutions to the problems are not required; ideally the presentation should identify the key problems in the case-study, perhaps as a set of questions.
3. Creativity and impact
How well did the presentation make use of creativity? How well did it hold the audience’s attention? Was it persuasive - were the problems concise, clear and compelling? Was the presentation easy to follow and recall?
Please note that the technical competence per se of the presenter is not being assessed, for example the quality of video editing, type of device used to present the case study or drawing skills. However, inevitably, the medium affects the message and students should aim to produce a presentation to the best of their ability in order to maximise their grade under this section.
(Remember, creativity is not the same as technical proficiency. One of the most creative presentations given by one of the module tutors was writing ‘chapters’ of a story written in marker pen on a series of paper-bags pegged to a washing line which the audience walked along to read. Clearly this required very little technical competence but was highly impactful and persuasive.)
Assessment procedure
During the workshop, peers will give feedback on each presentation and will indicate a grade based on the above criteria; this will include a self-assessment by each student of their own presentation. It is a module requirement that all participants give this feedback and indicative grade.The tutor(s) will award a final grade following the workshop, taking the self and peer assessments into account. Tutors will also provide a summary of peer feedback to each presenter, and written formative feedback that is designed to guide students towards their Assignment 2.
Resources
These are resources that could be of help in creating a presentation. NB websites mentioned here are accessible via ULearn (folder on `creative presentation resources’).Video/digital stories
Windows (windows movie maker) and Apple Macintosh (imovie, garageband) include simple to use video/audio editing software in their operating systems. Mobile phones and digital cameras now routinely include video and voice recording functions, so there is no need to use complicated or bespoke packages to produce your presentation unless you really want to. There are also a whole host of programs on the Internet for both Mac and PC, which are either completely free or include a free trial facility.The BBC website `Telling Lives’ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/tellinglives/) has examples of digital stories and links to resources.
Rich pictures
There are guidelines on rich pictures on the Open University’s `Sysweb’ website:http://systems.open.ac.uk/materials/t552/index.htm,
or follow links from:
http://systems.open.ac.uk/page.cfm?pageid=resourcehome
to resources/diagramming teaching/rich pictures/diagram guidelines.
For examples of rich pictures used in a video presentation format (nb this is professionally produced) see: http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/videos/
A textual source available in the library (e-link) is:
Cameron, S. 2005, The MBA Handbook 5th edn, London: FT/Prentice Hall [e-link]
· chapter 10, `Using diagrams’
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