You will be creating a presentation using PowerPoint (you all have access via WPU) and posting these to the Discussion Board. You will be recording your power point – that is talking us through it. If anyone has an issue with this (e.g., you do not have a microphone on your computer / phone) that is ok, as everyone needs to write the full text of the presentation in the notes section underneath each PowerPoint slide.
Each power point can be as simple as 7 or 8 slides. The first is your introduction slide – who are you and the study you are presenting. The second slide is the proper citation for the study you are presenting. The third slide is the basic background information (including background research and the hypothesis in question) and can include information about the researcher(s). The fourth slide is the methods section, then the fifth slide is the results. The sixth slide it is the discussion, critique and further research slide. At this point it would be good to give your personal evaluation of the research and the impact of this study on Psychology. And finally, the last slide is your citations. This is a good overall format for most studies but will not fit for all (For example Anna Freud). For papers that do not fit the format it is ok to be more creative; the key point is to carefully and fully cover all the material.
You will find a lot of valuable information for your presentation in your textbook. I also recommend using Wikipedia (yes while it is not perfect, and I would not trust it for current politics, is it a reliable source for science, see Giles, J. Internet encyclopaedias go head to head. Nature 438, 900–901 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/438900a). You may use other internet sources but please be careful, trustworthy sources have .org, .edu, and .gov extensions. Use blogs at your own risk! You will need to fact check anything you read in a blog or many other online sources. If you cite a source with erroneous information, the error is yours and your grade will be docked accordingly. Of course, you may use library sources! 😊
Presentations are about 10 minutes long. The thing that is important is that you accurately and completely convey the information about the study. There is no predetermined number of slides required; I have seen excellent presentations that meet all requirements that were only 5 slides long. Most presentations however range from 7-12 slides typically.
