Oral presentations at university?

[TTanner01]

Are oral presentations done in front of your class or just to the teacher? Would it make sense to do it in front of your class cause' I know grades are quite important at uni so wouldn't they just cheat off or something? I might do an Arts/Sci degree next year so I'd imagine I'd be bombarded with presentations especially for arts.

Are presentations usually solo or in groups?

[DrDusk]

Are oral presentations done in front of your class or just to the teacher? Would it make sense to do it in front of your class cause' I know grades are quite important at uni so wouldn't they just cheat off or something? I might do an Arts/Sci degree next year so I'd imagine I'd be bombarded with presentations especially for arts.

Are presentations usually solo or in groups?

For science all of mine have been in small groups so far, however perhaps when the class sizes become smaller you might have to do it individually.

[TTanner01]

For science all of mine have been in small groups so far, however perhaps when the class sizes become smaller you might have to do it individually.

How many people in a class can you classify as small?

[K888]

Yeah all my presentations in tutes have been in small groups to the rest of the class. No presentations just to the teacher.

[DrDusk]

How many people in a class can you classify as small?

Well it largely depends on what science.
For Physics there was already about only 60 people in the course and that's first year. So 2nd year onwards the class sizes get even smaller.

[Sine]

Are oral presentations done in front of your class or just to the teacher? Would it make sense to do it in front of your class cause' I know grades are quite important at uni so wouldn't they just cheat off or something? I might do an Arts/Sci degree next year so I'd imagine I'd be bombarded with presentations especially for arts.

Are presentations usually solo or in groups?

I think most presentations are in groups (at least all of mine were) - there are definitely individual components though and you can get marked on just your part of the presentation. I know I have had experience with getting a total group mark, also getting just an individual mark (or a mixture of the two).

As others have said they are usually in a "tutorial" setting with about 20-25 people in the room with 1-3 assessors.

[Bri MT]

My experience with presentations in normal science classes is groups of about 4 people presenting to between 10 and 25 people. For non-math normal science units I generally had 1 presentation per semester in each of those units. 

[DrDusk]

Oh you meant marked presentations. None of mine were contributing to a grade. It was just like a tutorial activity. I guess my degree doesn't really require many presentations.. They were still in groups though

[TTanner01]

My experience with presentations in normal science classes is groups of about 4 people presenting to between 10 and 25 people. For non-math normal science units I generally had 1 presentation per semester in each of those units.

10 and 25 people? Am I thinking of things differently? I was always thought university classes were much bigger, for example, the ATARNotes VCE lectures held at RMIT had easily 100+ people so I assumed that university presentations would be in front of them.

[TTanner01]

Oh you meant marked presentations. None of mine were contributing to a grade. It was just like a tutorial activity. I guess my degree doesn't really require many presentations.. They were still in groups though

Hypothetically, can one skip this 'tutorial activity' without being in deep waters since it's not marked

[Bri MT]

10 and 25 people? Am I thinking of things differently? I was always thought university classes were much bigger, for example, the ATARNotes VCE lectures held at RMIT had easily 100+ people so I assumed that university presentations would be in front of them.

You're thinking of a lecture theatre & I don't know of any units where people have had to present in a lecture.  Generally this type of thing would occur in a tute/tutorial (more like a classroom setting), lab, or workshop (similar to a tute)

[Aaron]

I've had oral presentations both individually and as part of a group. They are presented to the tutorial class (smaller cohort e.g. 25-30 people)

10 and 25 people? Am I thinking of things differently? I was always thought university classes were much bigger, for example, the ATARNotes VCE lectures held at RMIT had easily 100+ people so I assumed that university presentations would be in front of them.

You have lectures which are in auditoriums / lecture theatres where the lecturer presents to the entire subject cohort then this is broken down further into smaller classes which have different names but commonly referred to as practical classes, lab classes, tutorials, workshops etc.

[AngelWings]

I have heard of both types of presentations being done, but it depended most on the subject and what assessment the staff have set.

As mentioned above, you have other smaller classes in which you’d typically present, so most of the time you’d be presenting in a lab or classroom-like setting like you did in high school to an audience of 10 - 25. However, in my Japanese classes (which is under Arts) at Monash, I did have some marked orals with just the lecturers and in higher levels, small group presentations with just 5 - 10 people (including lecturers) in Japanese. (Languages are unusual though, and usually it’d be to around 10 - 30 people as well.)

On super rare occasions when the entire cohort has been small (50 or less students), I have heard of short oral presentations done at a lectern almost as if it were a student taking a lecture, but these are very rare and even in this case, it’s unlikely the entire cohort would be forced to watch each and every one of the presentations in an undergrad degree (with only Honours being the exception).

Edit: I stand corrected on my last paragraph. 

[Bri MT]

In GC we all watch the entire cohort's* presentations & it's a great time but we're not big on lecterns.

*my cohort is 20-something people