Enhancing presentation skills of health policy MPH students

Enhancing presentation skills of health policy MPH students

Academic Year:
2014 - 2015 (June 1, 2014 through May 31, 2015)
Funding Requested:
$500.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
Overview of the Project:
The purpose of this grant is to help fund an activity that will enhance students' presentation skills in the "capstone" course for our Masters of Public Health (MPH) students who are interested in health policy careers. If this pilot proves to be successful (as indicated by student feedback and the instructor's observations), we will seek to implement this exercise on a more substantial scale in our masters programs. We will bring in Patricia Russo from the Ross School of Business—she trains MBA students in the art of effective presentations, and comes highly recommended by colleagues at the university. She will be reviewing the videorecordings of 5-7 minute presentations by each of the 21 students in the course, and she will then give feedback to each student about their strengths and opportunities for improvement. She will also deliver a one hour lecture two weeks prior to the presentations, to help students prepare for the presentations. Finally, she will conduct a one-hour debriefing two weeks after the presentations, to discuss general themes in her feedback and opportunities for continued improvement.
Final Report Fields
Project Objectives:
The main goal is for students to become more effective (engaging and clear) speakers, particularly in the context of presenting a policy analysis.
Project Achievements:
This project helped the students in the class deliver better presentations than I have observed in previous cohorts. This project has also helped me coach students more effectively with their presentation skills. As director of our doctoral program I will also be emphasizing presentation skills more often and more effectively for our doctoral students.
Continuation:
Yes, I will continue to provide opportunities for our students, both masters and doctoral, to improve their presentation skills.
Dissemination:
I have been telling my colleagues about my positive experience helping students improve their presentation skills, and will continue to suggest opportunities for building this into our curriculum more effectively.