Tips for Effectively Presenting Your Research via Slide Presentation

Abstract Introduction The Oakland University William Beaumont (OUWB) School of Medicine is a relatively new medical school that graduated its inaugural class in May of 2015. As OUWB was developed, it was decided that we would institute a mandatory scholarly concentration discipline for all students. This program is called the Capstone Program. During the previous 4 years, a research design course was instituted for the first-year students. During the second-year curriculum, the program director developed a series of sessions that would facilitate the students disseminating the findings resulting from their research projects. The materials submitted here were developed as resources for the Capstone sessions. These materials have been utilized and refined for the past 2 years with the classes of 2016 and 2017. Methods The implementation of this module takes place over several in-class sessions, including an instruction session, several preparation sessions, and a series of practice and presentation sessions. The instruction session is a workshop with a lecture, in-class exercises with examples, and the distribution of several handouts. The practice presentation session contains small group presentation, as well as faculty and peer evaluation. Results The most recent class (Class of 2017) who received all of the sessions components described in this submission, when surveyed, indicated that 81% (77/95) found the sessions helpful. Additionally, by the end of their second year, 19% (18/95) students from the most recent class reported that they had already submitted an abstract to a conference that resulted in an oral or poster presentation. Discussion This curriculum has increased the scholarly activity of medical students at OUWB and throughout the curriculum students were able to hone their presentation skills and apply best practices, as well as peer and faculty evaluation feedback, to their practice presentations and thus improve their final research presentations