Abstract:

There has been a growing view that traditional assessment methods, such as essays and exams are not fit for purpose. This view has been amplified recently by the rapid increase in the availability to students of Artificial Intelligence tools. While one of the alternatives to traditional assessment, the oral presentation, has increased in popularity, it can be resource intensive, logistically difficult to organise and can cause high levels of anxiety amongst students. In trying to retain many of the advantages of oral presentations but overcoming some of the disadvantages, poster presentations have been proposed as an alternative assessment.

This paper details a poster presentation assessment activity undertaken with undergraduate students of English, attending a residential course as part of the degree they study with an open university in Thailand. The assessment activity has been generally well received by the students, all of whom study remotely prior to this event and have fewer opportunities to communicate directly with their fellow students than is the case with students on full-time courses. Therefore, it is proposed that research should be conducted into the activity so that a better understanding can be gained of student perceptions of the assessment, particularly how those who indicate that they experience high levels of apprehension during oral presentations feel about the activity. During a future iteration of the course, students will be invited to participate in research of the assessment activity. Participants will complete McCroskey’s PRCA-24 questionnaire prior to the course beginning, in order to establish levels of apprehension felt towards different modes of oral communication. Then, following the assessment activity, students will be surveyed in order to establish which mode of oral communication they felt the activity most resembled and to capture their impressions of the activity, particularly focussing on apprehension and whether the activity bridges any communication gaps created by the nature of the course.

Keywords:

Assessment, oral presentations, poster presentations, skills development, oral communication apprehension.