Project Lead: Ed Mason, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

We seek to understand students’ experience of Microsoft PowerPoint’s Rehearse with Coach for formative feedback on presentation skills. It builds on a pilot in PoLIS and will compare students’ self-attributed confidence levels before and after the use of the tool in preparation for summative assessments, and their wider experience of using it.

The study is being conducted across the university with co-investigators from the Faculties of Engineering & Design, Science, Humanities & Social Sciences, and from the School of Management. It is taking a mixed methods approach so as to benefit from expertise across the university faculties and is ethics-approved.

The tool is included as part of the standard university Microsoft licence. We are interested in the tool's potential to increase the quality and quantity of formative feedback on large units with limited cost or workload. We are also interested in its potential to make education at Bath more inclusive through the scaffolding of independent practice and by reducing stress or anxiety associated with public speaking or presenting.

We envisage further dissemination of the project’s findings in disciplinary pedagogical research, internally via Communities of Practice and EduFest, and amongst the wider HE community via EdTech networks.

Project evaluation due August 2026.