Your Demonstration Video

Note: these are general instructions for this assignment, and they apply to several different classes. There may be specific instructions for your class, especially on what to include. Any specific instructions have precedence over these general instructions. Ask if you are unsure.

This assignment is for you to create a demonstration video of your project. Instead of presenting your project in front of the class with a slide-show, you will show us a video that you made. Demonstration videos should last 5 minutes, unless otherwise specified, and anything from 4 to 6 minutes is acceptable. However, do not let the video have a slow pace, and make sure to make it complete and stand-alone. Afterward, you will answer questions from the class. Submit your videos to the professor in advance. You may be expected to give feedback about presentations to other students. Failure to do so will lead to a lower grade.

To capture video, you can use whatever device you want, such as a digital camera or cell-phone. The university also has equipment that you may be able to borrow. You can also capture video with the built-in camera on the Macs.

To put the video together, you can use "iMovie HD" on the Mac. It allows you to import video, and cut and splice it together. You can add title frames and credits. Also, you can save it in a format for web-streaming. You must turn in a copy that can be played on a Mac computer without requiring additional software.

Use the .mp4 format, since it works well across platforms. A copy of your video will be kept by the professor, and may be publically accessible. For example, it may be put on the professor's webpage for future classes.

Consult the class web page for how long your video should last. I recommend capturing video regularly throughout the semester. You may need to get another person to help you, i.e. hold the camera while you are in front of it. You can have anyone help you, but be sure to credit him/her/them in the video. Remember your audience - your talk should be understandable by any CS student (at your level) who has taken this class. Work on making the video concise, but informative. Time yourself - how quickly do you go through your material? If you work with partners, make sure that you present a fair share of the work, and that you are able to answer questions. Volunteer to answer questions when you know the answer.

What to Include

Here are some things to include.

Your work should be self-contained and complete. That is, it should explain your project's background and motivation. You may have already explained to the class before, maybe even several times. However, your video should be clear and understandable to someone who has not heard of your project before. If I show your video to a class in the future, they should not be left wondering why you did what you did or what you were trying to accomplish.

It is difficult to present your work concisely within a short time-frame. People find it much easier to talk about their projects without regard to time, rambling on about minor points. This shows that the presentation is not rehearsed, and that the speaker has not considered what factors are essential to the presentation, and what factors are merely details. Therefore, I may stop your video if you exceed the time-frame. See my opinion on student writing for more information.

As Kai A. Olsen wrote in "The Economics of International Conferences," Computer, June 2004, page 90:        
        "...few understand the difficulty in giving a short presentation. Winston Churchill
        once said that he needed 10 minutes to prepare a three-hour presentation, but 10
        hours to prepare a 10-minute one."

Grades

Grades will be based on the following criteria:

Arriving late for class means that you will be marked late for this assignment. If someone's presentation is playing when you arrive, wait until it is finished before disturbing the class.

The Feedback System

You may be asked to provide feedback on each others' presentations, typically through an automated website. This is part of the assignment: you are expected to understand what your fellow classmates are presenting, and you are expected to assess how well they complete the assignment. You should be able to say at least one positive observation, and include at least one critical comment. You do not rate yourself. Failure to provide appropriate feedback may result in a loss of points for you.

Every student who presents will receive feedback. Your feedback to others will be given to them, in an anonymous way. They will know what you say, but they will not know who said it.

This automated feedback may not be (or may be) used in determining grades. In the past, this has not been done due to practical reasons. Currently, it is possible to rank students according to this feedback. But this has a number of implications, such as students evaluating their friends numerically higher than they deserve, or students evaluating everyone else lower than they deserve to make themselves look better in comparison. Currently, the professor's feedback is used to determine your grade, and the other feedback is included for your information. (As of this update, the numerical feedback has only been used once, but the students' rankings were very consistent with the professor's rankings. However, in the 3 cases out of 14 where the professor and class disagreed, the professor's rankings were used to determine the grade.)

The goals of the feedback system are

Think of the feedback system as an exercise for you, not a grade for others. Honesty is important, as is impartiality. Your ability to accurately review others' work is being tested. If your review about someone's work stands out from the class, this could be good or bad, according to your justification. For example, you could lose points if you rate someone's work highly and say that it is flawless, when the rest of the class rates it poorly and lists several flaws. On the other hand, if you are the only one to rate another person's work highly or poorly, and you point out something relevant that no one else thought about, you could get extra points.


Last update: April 14, 2021