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Office of Undergraduate Research

Preparing your presentation

Once you've submitted your abstract, follow these guidelines:

Contact us if you have any questions about these guidelines.

Preparing your virtual presentation

We recommend using PowerPoint to create your poster or slides and a voice-over because it's available to all CWU students. This format has simple tools to help you design, complete, and then record the presentation within the same program. If you would prefer to use other software or tools to create your presentation, feel free to do so as long as it still accomplishes the goal of communicating your research in a professional format.

Tips to creating your virtual presentation

The Multimodel Education Center created guides for recording an oral presentation and create a poster using PowerPoint. Use the latest version of PowerPoint, available to all CWU students via Microsoft 365:

  1. Go to www.office.com 
  2. Log in with your CWU user (username@cwu.edu) and CWU password
  3. In the upper right corner, click on "Install Office" then, "Office 365 apps" and follow the instructions.

We recommend you do your recordings through desktop software; recordings don't appear to be available via the browser

For additional help, click here, then learn about exporting your finished presentations as a video here. You can also record your screen on a Mac or on a PC. There are also plenty of options for free video editing software that you can use if you want to combine your screen recording with a video of you discussing your research. 

As you're preparing your video, remember to check that your video will be compatible with SOC's file types. Supported file types include:

  • Documents (.doc, .xls, .ppt, and .pdf)
  • Images (.png, .gif, and .jpg)
  • Video (.mpg, .mov, and .wmv)
  • Audio (.wav, .mp3, and .mp4)
  • Subtitle/caption file (.vtt)

If it's not, you will need to use editing software to convert it to one of the types listed above.

Preparing your virtual oral presentation

Preparing your virtual poster presentation

  • Ask your mentor for examples of good posters in your discipline, and look around for examples in your department or program. Most students use PowerPoint or Adobe Illustrator to create their posters.
  • A large format printer (called a plotter) is available on-campus at the Multimodal Education Center in Samuelson Hall. Submit your printing request at least two weeks in advance in order to guarantee your poster is ready on the day of SOURCE.
  • Check out the Multimodal Education Center's video, "Making a Poster": https://cwu.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=67bb2aa9-1d0...

Preparing your virtual performance

  • Unless a different time length has been requested and approved, each performance/creative expression is scheduled for 10 minutes. Your presentation should be no more than 12 minutes long.
  • Any special equipment needs such as microphones, overhead projectors, or unique space requirements should be noted when submitting your SOURCE abstract. Contact us if your needs change from what was submitted on the abstract.
  • The performance may be live or may be a video of a previously recorded performance.
  • See examples of music, dance, and film presentations.

Preparing your virtual constructed or creative objects

  • Unique requirements, such as electrical outlets, a need to hang on wall, a projector, tables, or other requests can be accommodated but should be noted when submitting your abstract, along with the approximate square footage of your display. Contact us if your needs change from what was submitted on the abstract.
  • You are required to post your artist/presenter statement in conjunction with your work.  The statement should be a minimum of 8-1/2 by 11 with a font size no smaller than 16 points and a maximum poster size of 3 feet high by 4 feet wide. Wall space to hang this statement will be provided. See notes above for preparing your poster presentation if you plan to go with a larger format.
  • See an example of a constructed object presentation.

Recording a PowerPoint Presentation 

 

Creating a captioned file and submitting

Accessibility

In order to make the online event accessible to all students, please follow accessibility principles when creating your PowerPoint presentation and caption your presentation videos. Find PowerPoint guidelines here. The Multimodal Education Center created a guide for captioning videos using Microsoft Streams.


 

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