Creative Presentations (and their assessment)
Initiative Title
A format for creative presentations and their assessment.
Authors
Paul Tosey, Surrey Business School
Sam Warren (now Professor in Management at the University of Essex)
Alex Bristow, Surrey Business School
Contact: P.Tosey@surrey.ac.uk
Key Words
Context
Tel: +44 1483 689763
Presentations; Creativity; Assessment
Used within an MBA elective module called Strategic Change Management,
which has a strong OD/HRD emphasis. The module is assessed through two
assignments.
1. Assignment 1 (30% of total module mark) is a ‘creative case study’
presentation about an organisational change process with which the
student is familiar and ideally is based on their own personal
experience. The presentations take place about 5 weeks into an 11
week taught module.
2. Assignment 2 (70% of total module mark) is a written paper of 3000
words submitted at the end of the module, requiring the student to
critically evaluate the same case study using theoretical frameworks,
published research and ideas covered on the module and beyond.
Purpose
The format is an opportunity for MBA students to produce work in a more
`right brain’ mode, to complement the emphasis of the programme on
analytical work.
How it works
In essence, each student produces a maximum 10 minutes (including time for
questions) creative presentation about a real personal experience of
organisational change.
The presentation is creative in that:


It can use any format except a standard powerpoint
It portrays the change in a non-analytical and non-textual way,
without attempting to apply theory.
The creative presentation generates material and themes that the student
then analyses theoretically and critically in Assignment 2.
The creative presentation is self, peer and tutor assessed (see below for the
criteria and the procedure). Peer and tutor feedback includes comment on
relevant themes that the student may choose to develop in their Assignment
2.
The full brief for Assignment 1, from the module handbook, is given below
(Appendices)
Evaluation/Feedback Given the opportunity, most students enjoy the chance to work creatively.
Many students have produced videos; we have also had posters, rich
pictures, enacted dramas, models, a game and a storybook. Some student
work has been outstandingly creative.
Students have also appreciated the self and peer assessment. We use a `light’
form of self and peer assessment that asks for responses to three questions
and a suggested grade. The three items1 are:
Something you did which worked well was…
Something you did which didn’t work so well was…
What I found most interesting, in relation to strategic change
management, was…
These items are adapted from a feedback format called `Clean Feedback’,
developed by Nancy Doyle and Caitlin Walker of Training Attention
http://www.trainingattention.co.uk/.
Appendices
Assignment One : Creative Case Study presentation (30% of total
module mark)
For this assignment, you are required to individually research and creatively
present a strategic organisational change issue from your own organisation
(or one with which you are familiar).
The presentation will be to your tutor and colleagues at a date and time
advised to you at the beginning of the module.
There are two formative aims to this part of the assessment:
1. To generate material which you will subsequently analyse in your
second piece of assessment using strategic organisational change
theories, models and ideas (see assignment brief Part Two for details);
and
2. To provide an opportunity for key formative peer and tutor feedback
to help you decide on the content and direction of Part Two of the
assessment.
Why a creative case study presentation?
As we will explore in the module, strategic change management is a process
involving multiple actors, competing agendas, deep emotions and uncertain
outcomes. Describing such a process is hard to do well using only words.
Being a good change manager is also highly dependent on effective,
persuasive
communication and the involvement/ empowerment of others (usually) in a
very short time frame.
Imaginative, creative approaches to presenting information are impactful,
are absorbed and recalled well by audiences. They can bring together the
emotional, aspirational, political and factual into a picture of a situation very
quickly. They enable fresh insights into a problem that might not be apparent
when using more traditional techniques (such as writing about it). They are
most successful when emotionally engaging and involving the ‘whole
person’.
What does a creative case study presentation look like?
Whilst we do not want to be overly prescriptive (the whole idea is to think
creatively!) there are a few hard and fast rules:
1. Presentations must be in a format capable of delivery in a classroom
setting (eg: walking tours outside class would not be appropriate!)
2. Each presentation must take a maximum of 10 minutes, which must
include time for questions from the class.
3. You are responsible for ensuring that the necessary display
equipment is available and ready for use on the day of the
presentation. Normally a laptop equipped with Windows and
Powerpoint 2003 software, and a stand-alone DVD player, will be
available in campus teaching rooms. If you bring your presentation to
the workshop on a memory stick for display via the laptop provided,
you are responsible for ensuring that your memory stick and files are
working and virus-free.
4. You must make arrangements for your presentation to be available
for the tutor to ‘take away’ eg: electronic copies of files, and/ or
recordings of ‘live’ performances (your tutor will be able to advise on
this).
Examples of creative formats for your presentation include:
1. An audio podcast – such as a simulated radio talk show
2. A video podcast or `digital story’ – perhaps in the style of a TV
documentary
3. A dramatised script/ illustrated short story
4. A display poster – e.g. photo montage, collage, rich picture
Constraints are:


Posters should be no larger than A2 size.
You must not give a traditional Power Point presentation involving
you manually clicking through slides. You are, however, free to use
PowerPoint software in creative ways, eg: running a self-contained
slide show containing video and audio.
This list is not intended to be exhaustive by any means – you are free to
choose other modes of presentation, but you must ensure you are able to
meet the assessment criteria below or we will not be able to award you
many marks!
When will the presentations be given?
All the case-studies will be presented to during a class session. The precise
format of the session will be determined by the tutor depending on the
circumstances of the cohort and the workshop (e.g. location, timings,
number of students in the class).
How will I be assessed?
Each presentation will be graded against the following criteria:
1. Clarity of the organisational change issue
Here we are judging the extent to which you have identified a relevant
issue of organisational change – as distinct, say, from an issue that is an
interpersonal conflict; a human resource management problem; or a
matter of business strategy.
2. Depth and complexity
You should not attempt to provide “The Truth” of an issue, but instead
should demonstrate your ability to generate a range of insights into it,
recognising the complex, multi-faceted and difficult nature of managing
strategic change. For example, have you considered the problem from
different and/or unusual angles, or represented multiple interpretations
of it? (eg by contrasting how different organisational members might
interpret a change initiative, such as a cleaner versus the Managing
Director). Aim to get inside the issue and represent its messiness and
complexity. Solutions to the problems are not required; ideally the
presentation should identify the key problems in the case-study, perhaps
as a set of questions.
3. Creativity and impact
How well did the presentation make use of creativity? How well did it
hold the audience’s attention? Was it persuasive - were the problems
concise, clear and compelling? Was the presentation easy to follow and
recall?
Please note that the technical competence per se of the presenter is not
being assessed, for example the quality of video editing, type of device
used to present the case study or drawing skills. However, inevitably, the
medium affects the message and students should aim to produce a
presentation to the best of their ability in order to maximise their grade
under this section.
(Remember, creativity is not the same as technical proficiency. One of
the most creative presentations given by one of the module tutors was
writing ‘chapters’ of a story written in marker pen on a series of paperbags pegged to a washing line which the audience walked along to read.
Clearly this required very little technical competence but was highly
impactful and persuasive.)
Assessment procedure
During the workshop, peers will give feedback on each presentation and will
indicate a grade based on the above criteria; this will include a selfassessment by each student of their own presentation. It is a module
requirement that all participants give this feedback and indicative grade.
The tutor(s) will award a final grade following the workshop, taking the self
and peer assessments into account. Tutors will also provide a summary of
peer feedback to each presenter, and written formative feedback that is
designed to guide students towards their Assignment 2.
Resources
These are resources that could be of help in creating a presentation. NB
websites mentioned here are accessible via ULearn (folder on `creative
presentation resources’).
Video/digital stories
Windows (windows movie maker) and Apple Macintosh (imovie, garageband)
include simple to use video/audio editing software in their operating
systems. Mobile phones and digital cameras now routinely include video and
voice recording functions, so there is no need to use complicated or bespoke
packages to produce your presentation unless you really want to. There are
also a whole host of programs on the Internet for both Mac and PC, which
are either completely free or include a free trial facility.
The BBC website `Telling Lives’ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/tellinglives/) has
examples of digital stories and links to resources.
Rich pictures
There are guidelines on rich pictures on the Open University’s `Sysweb’
website:
http://systems.open.ac.uk/materials/t552/index.htm,
or follow links from:
http://systems.open.ac.uk/page.cfm?pageid=resourcehome
to resources/diagramming teaching/rich pictures/diagram guidelines.
For examples of rich pictures used in a video presentation format (nb this is
professionally produced) see: http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/videos/
A textual source available in the library (e-link) is:
Cameron, S. 2005, The MBA Handbook 5th edn, London: FT/Prentice Hall [elink]
 chapter 10, `Using diagrams’