Supplementary Material for Chapter 38

Building Students’ Communication Skills and Understanding of Environmental and Sustainability Issues Interactively and Cumulatively with Pecha Kucha Presentations

This chapter is published as:

McBain B, Phelan L. 2016. Building Students’ Communication Skills and Understanding of Environmental and Sustainability Issues Interactively and Cumulatively with Pecha Kucha Presentations. In: Byrne L (ed.) Learner-Centered Teaching Activities for Environmental and Sustainability Studies. Springer, New York. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-28543-6_38

Bonnie McBaina, Liam Phelana,b

aSchool of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia

bZanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C., USA

This file contains the following supplementary material:

  • A: Example rubric … beginning on p. 1
  • B: Article: Using Pecha Kucha in Online Courses… beginning on p. 3

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Supplementary Material A:Example Grading Rubric

CRITERION / Exceeded Requirements / Met requirements / Partially met requirements / Failed to meet requirements
Presentation content / The main, relevant points from the course content are considered appropriately. Additional points sourced externally from course content contribute value to the quality of the student’s presentation. A relevant case study is used to demonstrate theory. All content and presentation photos are referenced appropriately. / Many of the points from the course content are considered appropriately. A relevant case study is used to demonstrate theory. All content and presentation photos are referenced appropriately. / Some of the points from the course module area considered appropriately. A case study is not used or is not clearly linked to the theory. Content or photos used in the presentation are not all referenced appropriately. / Not many of the points from the course module are considered.A case study is not used. Content or photos used in the presentation are not referenced appropriately.
Presentation technology / Exceptionally engaging, no evidence of dot points, and words and great use of visual material which supports the content. / Minimal use of dot points, and words and good use of clear visual material. / Some use of dot points and words. Visual material cluttered. / Death by PowerPoint!
Presentation Voice / The verbally provided content flows seamlessly from one slide to the next. The verbal communication is not rushed and no major gaps are evident. / The verbal communication is not rushed and no major gaps are evident. / Either the verbal communication seems rushed or there are significant gaps where information could have been provided. / Verbal communication unclear and poorly timed.
Facilitation / The student has designed facilitation questions which allow peers to engage thoughtfully with course content to explore the implications for theory and practice. The student makes a consistent effort to listen and respect other group members and responds appropriately to discussion issues. The student encourages others to contribute. The student considers the pros and cons of relevant arguments as well as any competing or alternative views.Student is able to contribute additional points sourced externally from course content to add value to the quality of discussions. / The student has designed facilitation questions which allow peers to engage thoughtfully with course content. The student makes a consistent effort to listen and respect other group members and responds appropriately to discussion issues. The student encourages others to contribute. / The student has designed the required number of facilitation questions. The student makes a moderate effort to listen and respect other students and responds appropriately to discuss issues. There is some inconsistency in encouragement for others to contribute. / The student has not designed the required number of facilitation questions. Little or no attempt to support discussions.
Discussions / The student makes a consistent effort to listen and respect other group members and responds appropriately to discuss issues. Student comments demonstrate excellent critical analysis and effective communication in response to the facilitators’ questions. / The student makes a consistent effort to listen and respect other group members and responds appropriately to discussion issues. Student comments demonstrate critical analysis and effective communication in response to the facilitators’ questions. / The student makes a moderate effort to listen and respect other students and responds appropriately to discuss issues. / Little or no attempt to take part in discussions.

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Supplementary Material B: Using Pecha Kucha presentations in online learning.

NOTE: This material originally appeared as a post by Bonnie McBain to the blog of the Community of Interest in Online Teaching, Learning and Research at the University of Newcastle, Australia, at http://gradschool.edu.au/blog/details/using-pecha-kucha-presentations-in-online-learning.

Reproduced with permission.

In 2013 a group of researchers here at the University of Newcastle undertook a study investigating options for teaching and assessing oral communication skills using online technologies across a range of different disciplines. We presented the study findings at the COI in 2014. A report on the study and its findings is available here. In brief, we found that teaching and assessing oral communication skills online is possible, that it can be very beneficial for students’ learning, and that it is usually great fun. We also found that there are many different ways to teach and assess oral communication skills online.

In this post I want to provide some more detailed background about the particular approach I take supporting the learning of oral communications skills in two of the online Masters courses I teach (ENVS6530 Environmental Management and ENVS6525 Ecosystem Health and Sustainability). In these courses students explore the challenges of addressing environmental complexity by increasing resilience toward greater sustainability. You’ll see below a couple of examples of presentations my students have been kind enough to share.

The approach I used is equally relevant and useful for a wide range of applications. Towards the end I include the nuts and bolts of instructions for students as well as some links to other resources about Pecha Kucha presentations.

Pecha Kucha assessment tasks

One of the assessment tasks in each of these courses requires my students to make Pecha Kucha presentations. Pecha Kucha (which is Japanese for the sound of conversation “chit chat”) is a highly constrained style of PowerPoint presentation with 20 slides, on display for 20 seconds each. In total it is exactly 6 minutes and 40 seconds long. It’s great because it prevents speakers from droning on and on. The presentation style is also largely visual with engaging images instead the more traditional bullet points – ‘death by PowerPoint’.

This constrained presentation style means that my students have to undertake research on a particular topic, summarise what is absolutely critical and then communicate it verbally in an engaging style using images which support the key points they are making – its challenging for them but students have also told me it’s very enjoyable, both to present and to watch.

In addition to the Pecha Kucha presentation, students are also asked to design three thought-provoking questions which explore the issues highlighted in their presentation. The Pecha Kucha presentation together with the questions forms the basis of participatory peer-to-peer student learning. Presenters upload their presentations to a discussion board and facilitate discussions around their three questions. The subsequent discussions allow student colleagues to deepen their learning around a particular topic.

Guidance to students

For all new tasks it is important to support students appropriately and learning oral communications skills on line is particularly challenging for students because they could be learning a range of different skills consecutively e.g. the technology, critical thinking, communications skills etc.

Pecha Kucha examples

Elizabeth McDonald: Elizabeth has recently completed a Graduate Certificate in Environmental Management and Sustainability. The study undertaken the Graduate Certificate has encouraged and supported her towards pursuing a career that will satisfy her love of ecology and biology. “I am now considering the possibility of entering into a Research Masters program.”

Elizabeth's presentation is available here and her transcript can be found here.

Shane Wise: Shane is currently half way through a Masters of Environmental and Business Management degree at UON. He chose this degree due to the dual-focus on Business and the Environment. “I am pleasantly surprised at not only the contemporary knowledge being gained but also some of the skills sets that I have gained through the degree, including mastering a number of software programs relevant to industry”.

Shane's presentation is available here and his transcript can be found here.

Instructions for students

In this post I also want to share some of the teaching resources I use to support my students to make a Pecha Kucha presentation. I do so in the hope that others, if they also want to use this very successful format in their teaching, can customise what’s present here for their own purposes.

Below I present some of the guidance I provide my students together with links to further learning (should they – or you - feel it is valuable).

When I introduce the task I provide a few links which familiarise students with the concept of a Pecha Kucha presentation, provide some great examples and finally some tips on how to prepare a good presentation.

  • Here's some great background on Pecha Kucha presentations:
  • Here’s a great guide on how to prepare a Pecha Kucha presentation. This is obviously in preparation for a live presentation but a lot of the tips are really relevant to an on-line presentation too:

The software generally used to make Pecha Kucha presentations is PowerPoint (although it is also possible to use other software). Generally it is very simple to use but I encourage my students to ensure that they are comfortable using it by having a play around in the first week of the course. This way, they don’t have technical problems later in the course when they are focusing on researching and designing their presentations.

I provide each student with research question which addresses an aspect of the overall course curriculum. I ask students to outline the key concepts from the course readings within the context of their particular question, for their ‘take’ on the course readings and a useful and interesting example from the real world which demonstrates the key points they are making.

The first stage of preparing a Pecha Kucha presentation is for students to prepare a tutorial transcript. I suggest students write their transcript in a word document first and I provide them with a template containing a simple table with 20 cells representing the slides in their presentations which they can just fill in.

I tend to offer quite a bit of support for students who are writing their transcripts. Students are able to send me their draft transcript the week before their due date (when their facilitation week begins) and I provide detailed feedback on content so that they feel confident that it is correct, clear and will support good discussion and learning with their peers. I also require students to name their files in a standardised format to ensure that they don’t get mixed up during this review process i.e. (first name_lastname_Assessment_Coursenumber_year.ext) – otherwise you get lots of files called ‘transcript’.

To enable students to decide how much they have time to say in each slide (20 seconds) I provide students with the following guidance:

  1. Open a book or magazine with non-technical language
  2. Get something with which you can time yourself for 20 seconds
  3. Mark the beginning of a paragraph
  4. Time yourself reading aloud for 20 seconds. Ensure you are not rushing but are speaking in a measured voice which is animated and full of expression as if you would if you were giving an interesting live presentation
  5. Mark your finishing point
  6. Count the number of words you have read
  7. Repeat three times and average
  8. I emphasize that students shouldn’t rush their words so that the final presentation is measured and pleasant to listen to.

Students are then ready to prepare their presentations. I provide the following guidance on how to set up one slide so that it is properly formatted ask them to copy it 20 times:

  1. Open Powerpoint
  2. Insert a slide
  3. Go to the 'Animations' tab
  4. On the right hand side go to 'Advance Slide'
  5. Unselect 'On Mouse Click'
  6. Select 'Automatically After' and change the time to 20 seconds
  7. Copy your slide so that you have 20 slides in total that each display form 20 seconds.

Students are then ready to record their audio for each slide. I provide them with the following guidance on how to do that. These instructions are for PowerPoint 2007 and I encourage students that are using other PowerPoint versions or other software to Google the equivalent instructions.

  1. Go to the 'Insert' tab
  2. On the right hand side find 'Sound'
  3. Click on the small arrow under 'Sound' and choose 'Record Sound'
  4. Click the round, maroon record button to record the audio for your slide
  5. You will see a counter which says 'Total sound length'. When you are recording your actual presentation later on, your recording will need to be as close to but less than 20 seconds. For now, just say whatever you want so that you can see if the sounds quality is adequate and the recording is working
  6. When you are finished click the square 'stop' button
  7. Click 'OK'.

Then students need to know how to activate the audio automatically at beginning of slide so that their peers can sit back and relax and enjoy the presentation seamlessly:

  1. Click once on the little audio file icon on your slide
  2. Click the 'Options' tab
  3. Go to 'Play Sound'
  4. On the drop down menu choose 'Automatically'.
  • I encourage students to test what they have done to ensure that everything is operating seamlessly:
  1. Highlight the slide you are working on
  2. Click the 'Slide Show' tab
  3. Click 'From Current Slide'
  4. Check you are happy with the quality of the audio.

Because the Pecha Kucha presentation is largely visual rather than wordy, I then direct students to look for images which support what they are saying in each slide. The idea is that the images are engaging in some way so that viewers of the presentation can link it what is being said.

I ask students to upload their presentations to YouTube so that other students can view it irrespective of whether they are using Mac or PC. To share it only with their student colleagues they set their YouTube presentation as ‘private’ and viewable to those who receive a link.

To support student facilitated discussions I ask students to draft three discussion questions to accompany their Pecha Kucha presentations. I encourage students to spend a little time on this as a solid tutorial discussion is an opportunity to open up the interesting parts of the topic. The design of the questions must be open and elicit full and reasoned responses, i.e. more than a simple “yes” or “no”. I provide the following link which guide students in such questioning skills:http://www.utc.edu/walker-center-teaching-learning/teaching-resources/questions.php

As you can see, it takes a bit of time for students to complete this assessment task so it is important that the marks allocated to the task reflects this effort. The skill the students gain are, however, very valuable. I, for instance, have used a very similar approach to share information with colleagues nationally and internationally about another student learning initiative ( It’s a skill which is only going to become more relevant and useful as we all communicate more virtually in the future too.

Further Resources

VanCleve, April. 2014. Pecha Kucha: 20x20 Presentations. In University of Southern Mississippi Speaking Center [website]. Accessed 17 October 2014 at http://www.usm.edu/sites/default/files/groups/speaking-center/pdf/pechakucha.pdf

Jones, Jason B. 2009. Challenging the Presentation Paradigm (in 6 minutes, 40 seconds): Pecha Kucha. In the Chronicle of Higher Education [website]. Accessed 17 October 2014 at

Lian, Ania. 2014. PechaKucha - ASEAN Community CHIT-CHAT [website]. Accessed 17 October 2014 at

Cronin, Catherine. 2012. PechaKucha: tips, resources & examples. In Catherinecronin: learning | reflecting | sharing [blog]. Accessed 17 October 2014 at

Edwards, Richard L. 2014. Pecha Kucha in the Classroom: Tips and Strategies for Better Presentations. In Remixing the Humanities [blog]. Accessed 17 October 2014 at

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