Grading guidelines: Paper presentations

Each student is expected to participate in two paper presentations. The average of each student’s score across these presentations will be used to determine the grade for the 20% of their coursework dedicated to paper presentations.

This is a groupwork project, but group members will have an opportunity to report on individual contributions. There are three primary components to each presentation:

  1. Give a 10–15-minute live mini lecture that introduces your group’s paper, specifically covering:

    • The primary research topic and question(s)
    • The motivation behind the study, as well as crucial findings that inform your study’s design or interpretation
    • Hypotheses and predictions the authors make, either explicitly or implicitly
    • The research methods (in detail!) including information about the participants, procedures, and planned analyses. Make it clear how the study design is supposed to address the primary research hypotheses
    • What the analytical approach was and what the results were. Make sure to walk us through all primary figures and tables. You do NOT need to be an expert in statistics, but you do need to understand the gist behind the analyses—ask Dr. Casillas or the TA during your work session if you need help
    • The findings in context: Was the predicted result observed? What do the findings mean with respect to the broader research question? What possibilities do the authors raise for critical flaws in the study? What possibilities do the authors raise for future work building off of this study?
    • Connect something from this study to the key paper, in whatever way makes sense to your group
    • Optionally, at some point in your presentation (ideally not the end), you are encouraged to run a short discussion along the lines of what we often do in class.

  2. At the end of your presentation, spend ~5 minutes answering your classmates’ questions about the paper. Your classmates should have read the paper before class and, as part of their reading notes, should have prepared questions for you.

  3. After your presentation, fill out a peer evaluation form for yourself and your group members.

Dr. Casillas will assign students to paper presentation groups at the start of the quarter. Each group is given a full in-class work session to create a rough draft of the presentation with the help of Dr. Casillas and the TA. The rough draft is due, in the form of a video recording, at the end of the in-class work session day (i.e., by 11:59pm). Students are then expected to implement the feedback from their rough draft in the final presentation to the class.

Deadlines for each paper presentation are pre-set for the quarter: students will receive the two deadlines for their paper presentations with their group assignments.

Expectations for full credit

In order to earn full credit, all of the following must hold:

  • The student created at least one content slide in the mini lecture
  • The student presented at least one content slide in the mini lecture
  • The student’s contribution to the presentation included introducing and/or explaining an important concept
  • The student did something to facilitate discussion or to answer questions
  • The student completed the peer evaluation form
  • The student was evaluated by their group members as having made a substantial contribution
  • The presentation was improved along the lines of the feedback suggested by Dr. Casillas and/or the TA following submission of the rough draft