Presentations

Presentations are commonly used as an assessment strategy across all fields of study. The main domains which can be directly assessed through presentations are language skills, content area knowledge, and presentation skills. Presentations also serve as a medium for directly and indirectly assessing reasoning across all levels of Bloom's taxonomy. In terms of language production, presentations are one of the few ways to assess speaking skills in a non‐interactive way. Language in presentations is typically more formal than conversational and also more deliberate in the sense that both planning and rehearsal are involved. In this entry, questions such as (a) to what extent does language ability contribute to a score, (b) how can we plan the assessment of presentations and develop assessment instruments which will validly and reliably measure what we want them to measure, and (c) what skills and knowledge do assessors need in order to develop and administer presentation assessments will be discussed.