Honest Online Group Presentations

Imagine you're in class, and the teacher announces a group presentation where members will be picked randomly. You find yourself in a bunch with people you are not too well acquainted with, your presentation deadline is in three days, and to make matters worse, because of the pandemic, the entire thing is online.

What could go wrong, right? Allow me to tell you.

Losing all trace of your group members

You look up your group members' names on Google Classroom or Zoom, and proceed to look for the same names on social media, only to find no such people exist after browsing for an hour. Do they perhaps have a Prince/Queen/King in front of their actual names? Did they use a pet name? They might not even be on social media; you can never know for sure. Hence you proceed to do something awkward.

Texting strangers

"Hello, a person with a name similar to my group member's and a locked profile prohibiting me from identifying you in any way," you think, as you begin typing a message. You hope and pray that this is the person you are looking for, and that if not, you do not get posted for being mistaken for a creepy stranger texting randomly. You press the send button anxiously, wondering whether this would be any less awkward in person, questioning your social skills. You suddenly realise the email option exists. But the same applies to trying to locate them using the email address provided by an educational institution; a lot of similar options pop up, so you can never be sure if you are reaching the correct person or are just being marked as spam.

Communication

After much difficulty, you finally find all your group members. In every group presentation there is usually one person who initiates the group chat. What after that, though? Do you wait for instructions or give them yourself? Would that be perceived as being bossy? It gets worse when they seen-zone you. I mean, please, I am just trying to graduate here. Even after proper task distribution, the lack of ability to distinguish between excuses and truth is a whole other issue, because you cannot judge solely via texts.

Internet issues

You are about to give the presentation, but right before the show begins, the person who was supposed to be presenting the slides gets disconnected. This is why it is important to have backup, kids! Always keep an extra copy of the presentation slides. Also, can you imagine if you were presenting, and midway you realise nobody heard anything you said thus far? *shudders*

Background interruptions

Hearing background noises can absolutely break the continuous flow of information being relayed in a presentation. While some distractions may be cute, such as a pet making a sudden appearance, it still isn't professional. What do you do when your class hears you being yelled at for finishing all the ice cream in the house because of a sad movie you watched last night?

Did you ever have any embarrassing online presentation situations you would rather never re-visit? Let me know.   

Bushra Zaman likes books, art, and only being contacted by email. Find her at bushrazaman31@yahoo.com