ISM 50 Oral Presentations & Folios

Fall 2006

Students will be assigned either the oral presentation assignment or a folio assignment by the instructor at the beginning of the quarter.

Oral Presentations

Students assigned to do an oral presentation will be expected to give one 5 minute presentation during the quarter, on a date chosen by the instructor. The instructor will assign one of the following topics to each student giving a presentation:

(1) Summary of the case study to be discussed that day.

(2) Presentation of a recent relevant news story

(3) Your group’s business paper project.

The presentation assignments will be posted to the class webpage by the 2^nd week of the quarter please check to see if your name is listed. If your name is listed, note the data and topic of your presentation. If it is not listed, you will be expected to do the news folio assignment instead (see below).

The presentation should be short and clear and begin on time at the start of class. Students are expected to use PowerPoint. PowerPoint slides must be sent by email to the instructor the NIGHT BEFORE the presentation is to be given.

Presentation guidelines:

o Case Study Presentations: Case study presentations should summarize what the assigned case was about, and what you found interesting about the case. Briefly comment on whether you felt the company discussed was pursuing a wise strategy, and say what you think they should do in the future.

o News Story Prsentations: Students should select a news story that is relevant to the material we discuss in class. The article can be from a magazine, newspaper, or online source. Presentations of news stories should summarize the news story, make clear what you found interesting about the story, and the relation of the news story to the issues we discuss in the class. You should cite the article you discuss (provide article title, author, magazine/newspaper where you found the article)

o Business Paper Presentations: Presentations about your group’s business paper project should give an overview of your company, and discuss some of the ways that your company uses IT. You won’t have time to discuss everything you’ve learned about your company in only 5 minutes, so be selective about what you try to get across!

Tips for giving an effective talk:

• Do not read from your slides. Most of your commentary should be ad-lib. Imagine that you are casually explaining to a friend what you’ve learned about your topic. Your audience will find this style of speaking much more engaging than if you were just reading.
• Do not put too many words on each slide. This tends to distract the audience from you, and also might cause you to start reading from your slides. Summarize your points into the minimum number of words possible, and do not put too many words on a slide. Use pictures and illustrations instead of words whenever possible. However, avoid cramming too many things on a slide, because again this can distract the audience.
• Speak with enthusiasm. Show interest in your topic. Articulate your voice loudly and clearly.
• Make eye contact with the audience. Avoid starting at the laptop screen.
• Keep in mind the knowledge level of your audience. If your talk includes a technical concept that we haven’t discussed in class yet, try to explain it using a simple example.

News Folio Assignment

Any student not assigned to give a presentation must do the news folio assignment. Students assigned an oral presentation do not have to do the news folio assignment. Students doing a news folio assignment must collect at least 3 news articles that are relevant to ISM. News folio articles may come from any written news media, including newspapers, magazines, internet reports etc. For each news article, you must:

• Write a 200 word paragraph discussing how you think the news article relates to issues discussed in the class.
• Give a citation (and URL if possible) of the article.
• Turn in print outs of all the articles in your folio. If the article is in print form only, cut out the article from the newspaper or magazine, and turn that in.
• The due dates are:
1. Article 1: 10/10
2. Article 2: 11/2
3. Article 3: 11/21