Instructions Assignment 4 – Multimedia Presentation & Reflection, due by Wednesd

Instructions
Assignment 4 – Multimedia Presentation & Reflection, due by Wednesday, Week 8 (note date!)
This assignment is worth 15% of your final grade.

We live in a world with complicated communication issues, challenges, and problems. An understanding of how communication works can help us make sense of today’s pressing problems and devise solutions for them.

To develop that communication competence, you must become a more mindful communicator and vigilantly self-monitor. Competent communicators have cognitive knowledge about communication that they have drawn from observations and instruction; understand that individual, social, and cultural contexts that affect competence; and are able to adapt to those various contexts.

Objectives: In completing this presentation, you will

apply analytical skills to interpreting, using, and delivering information
create a professional and appropriate multimedia presentation for a specified purpose and audience
demonstrate your understanding of communication processes in a specified setting
Skills: This presentation will give you a chance to

Practice self-awareness by critically considering the role of your own communication skills and style in your workplace* communication problem;
Describe what you learned about the importance of communication competence to avoiding or mitigating workplace* communication problems like yours;
Articulate how you aim to resolve your workplace communication problem and improve your communication with others.
Background: Please begin this assignment by reading the following information carefully. n.b. These instructions are available in both the Weeks 7 and 8 content areas.

For this project you will use a multimedia presentation format of your choice that includes a voiceover component, to create a presentation to your classmates and instructor that explains and reflects on what you learned about a communication theory and how it can be used to understand and potentially resolve your workplace* communication problem.

(*Remember, if you are not employed or cannot discuss your workplace, you should be using a communication problem from another organizational setting in which you are involved for your final project, such as school, church, or a community group.)

Follow these steps to complete the assignment.

Step 1: Write the scriipt for a 5-7 minute multimedia presentation in which you explain and reflect on what you learned about a communication theory and how you could use it to explain and potentially resolve the workplace* communication problem that you explored.

Content: Do not simply copy and paste your research paper into your presentation. Address the following in your presentation:

Tell your classmates about your workplace* communication problem and the communication theory you explored. How can it be used to resolve other communication problems?
Explain what you learned from this investigation about communication in the workplace* that will help you in your career?
Explain what you learned about your own communication skills and style from this investigation. What improvements do you think you should make in them?
Why is understanding communication in organizations important?
Format: You will want to edit, revise and edit your scriipt again. Once you know what you want to say and how to say it, attach your scriipt as a transcriipt in Word .doc, .docx, or .rtf format only to your presentation or copy it into the “Notes” section at the bottom of each slide. If you use a Word document attached to your presentation, you can simply double-space the text, indent the paragraphs, number the pages, and include a title, your name, and the date centered at the top of the first page.

Make sure to use quoted, paraphrased, and summarized material from your research in the scriipt and to source it using APA-style citations and references.

Step 2: Using free presentation software on the internet that permits narration or a voiceover, create and record your presentation. Options: Animaker, Animoto, eMaze, Debut, Focusky, Google Slides, Jing, Kizoa, Loom, PowerPoint, PowToon, Prezi, Screencastify, Screencast-o-matic, S’more, Snag-It, Spark, Sutori, Sway, YouTube video, VideoScribe, Vimeo, Voki, and Vyond (formerly GoAnimate), etc. Make sure any free trial version of the software that you choose does not expire before this class ends. As an alternative, you may want to purchase presentation software at a substantial discount through UMGC’s partner On the Hub.

To edit the images or video for your presentations, the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) recommends Tinywow.com’s free tools. You can learn how to use them here among the other digital editing tools from the SPJ’s Journalist’s Toolbox Channel on YouTube. Visit the Journalist’s Toolbox to learn about closed-captioning, transcriiption, fact-checking, and other digital editing tools.

If you choose to complete a PowerPoint, go to the “PowerPoint Creation Guide” in the Course Resources for design guidance. For help with Google Slides, go to Using Google Slides. For help designing a PowerPoint, see this Introduction to Slide Presentations. Each of the other free software options provides instructions on its website.

Requirements:

5-7 minutes in length
Narrate the presentation in a clear, conversational voice
Include a complete scriipt or captions of your comments
Double-space the text, indent the paragraphs, number the pages, and include a title, your name, and the date centered at the top of the first page
Make sure the scriipt uses citations and references that conform to American Psychological Association-style rules for material quoted, paraphrased, or summarized from your research sources.
Design Tips

Use a title slide
Don’t put every word you will say on the slides
Do use keywords
Do use color (maximum of 3 colors for text)
Do keep the same background for each slide
Don’t use all capitals (the hills and valleys of lowercase letters are easier for the eye to make out)
Do keep the slides uncluttered (spaces around the words or pictures where the eye can rest)
Do use pictures, diagrams or video clips to add interest
Do be creative
Grading: For insight into your instructor’s expectations for this assignment, scroll down here to click on and review its grading rubric or see the attachment here.

Deliverables: This assignment must be submitted in two places.

1. Post your completed final presentation and its transcriipt as an attachment to a message in the appropriate Week 8 discussion area of the classroom.

OR attach the transcriipt to a post that provides the url where the presentation can found on the internet.

The transcriipt should be a Word .doc, .docx, or .rtf attachment only unless otherwise instructed in the presentation software you choose.

2. Submit a second copy of your presentation and its transcriipt in the Assignment 4 folder under the Assignments link in the navbar at the top of your classroom screen.

Due Dates: Your presentation must be posted in the discussions and in Assignments by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday of Week 8 (note date). See the Course Schedule in the syllabus for the exact final due date in your class.

To create your own readily identifiable thread in the discussion area, edit the subject line of your post to include your last name, i.e., “Multimedia Presentation & Reflection – Jones.”

You will not be able to see your classmates’ posts in this discussion area until you post your presentation.

Best practice: Before you submit your presentation in the discussion area, click “subscribe to this thread” beneath the message box. This way, you will be alerted and be able to respond quickly to comments on your work.

Once you have posted your presentation, respond to any comments made by your classmates about your work AND post substantive comments about the presentations posted by at least TWO of your classmates by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, the last day of class.