BRIDGING UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY: PERSPECTIVES ON ESSENTIAL CRITERIA FOR EFFECTIVE TECHNICAL PRESENTATIONS

As part of the efforts to link universities and industries in the teaching and learning process, a Malaysian technical university in the East Coast Region, Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) has taken an active role in gathering important information from related engineering industries on oral presentation skills. Being one of the necessary attributes that Malaysian engineering undergraduates need to possess (Board of Engineers Malaysia, 1999), an in depth investigation into what constitutes effective communication skills particularly during technical oral presentations as practiced at the industry is essential. Therefore, this paper reports on a study which aimed at investigating responses from a number of practiced engineers on the essential criteria for effective technical presentations. A number of engineering-related industries were selected on the basis of the industries’ link with the university on students’ Industrial Training program at the industries. 100 Oral Presentation Skills Questionnaires (OPS-Q) which were developed by the researchers were emailed and snail mailed to the engineers at the selected industries, and 63 were returned. The questionnaire asked the respondents to provide appropriate weighting to six project-based oral presentation criteria and its elements. The results showed that the content of the presentation is given the highest importance by the engineers while the visual aids used during the presentation is also considered as an essential criterion which should be not be neglected by presenters. All the elements highlighted by the engineers at the industries will be the basis for the development of new and appropriate guidelines and marking schemes for technical oral presentation skills in order to produce a standardized document to be utilized at UMP.