(Poster) It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear: delivering persuasive proposals

Trish Igoe (Student & Academic Services)

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This poster captures the integration and delivery of a two-hour experiential workshop designed to prepare 5th year engineering students for their final group project presentation. Students were asked to consider a project scheme already prepared and, using industrial input, analyse the deliverability of the project using criteria such a procurement strategy, risk assessment, client and government policy, finance availability and sustainable transport links. Assessment was by a number of means: diary, minutes of meetings, production of project brochure and a 20-minute group presentation to a panel of internal academic staff as well as external industrialists. The workshop focused on getting teams to work together to develop robust content for their presentation through a series of critical thinking approaches. Students also practiced their delivery, making use of several academically researched and commercially used techniques designed to engage, influence and persuade their audience in a professional and credible manner. Following the workshop, immediate feedback from peers was very positive with most valuing the immediate feedback mechanism. This encouraged students to request further practice sessions. Feedback from academics were that the quality and assessed grade of their group presentations had improved as a result of the workshop.

References
Biggs, J (2003) Teaching for quality learning at university, 2nd edition, Buckingham, The Society for Research into Higher Education
Druckman, D (1988) Enhancing Human Performance: Issues Theories, and Techniques. Washington, DC: National Academy Press
Egan, J. (2008) Relationship Marketing: Exploring Relational Strategies in Marketing, 3rd Edition, Harlow., Pearson Education Ltd

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