Bringing the outside world in: using mixed panel assessment of oral presentations with electrical and electronic engineering students

Engineering students have been portrayed as having poor oral communication skills despite oral communication competence being a key factor in future career success. With the aim of equipping students with attributes identified as important for Engineering graduates this paper presents a research project carried out at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China in the Division of Science & Engineering with Electrical and Electronic with undergraduate students, focusing on the use of a mixed specialist and nonspecialist audience for students' end of semester oral presentations assessment. It is known that oral presentations are an important academic genre developing communication skills and confidence in students but it is an area which has been found to be lacking in traditional engineering courses. The innovation of the mixed panel was to help prepare students for life after university by giving them experience of pitching technical material appropriate to the knowledge of the audience, which is something they will have to do when working in companies or on projects. This paper outlines the experience from the perspective of the assessors from different disciplines who were interviewed to determine what they were looking for in the presentations. It will also review the experience of the students themselves, based on a survey which considered the impact the mixed audience had on their presentation preparation in terms of language, presenting skills and content. This innovation in assessment encourages multi-disciplinary thinking in students and the impact of audience on presentation content and delivery is something which could be explored across different academic fields.