Oral presentations in higher education: a comparison of the impact of peer and teacher feedback

Abstract

In this paper the authors analyse the competency of a sample of economics and business students in orally presenting academic content, as well as the changes that occurred after receiving feedback. The students’ presentations were videotaped, and a total of 96 were analysed at three stages: pre-test, post-test and follow-up. The participants were divided into two groups. In one, each student received feedback from a peer as part of a peer assessment with rubric activity. In the other, they received feedback from the teacher immediately after their presentation. In the post-test, the peer assessment with rubric students improved by 10% in the valuation of their presentation, while the teacher feedback students only improved by 5%. These results support the idea that undergraduates’ evaluations of their peers can be effective in improving oral presentation skills, especially when they are provided with some support instruments (videos and rubrics). However, the improvements in the peer assessment with rubric group were not maintained in the follow-up re-test. This suggests that a single session of peer assessment with rubric is insufficient to generalise any improvements in the said competency. The implications of these results with regard to the implementation of methods of formative peer assessment in higher education are discussed.