Peer versus Self Assessment of Oral Business Presentation Performance

Pedagogical practice related to oral business presentations has received little research attention despite the pervasiveness of oral presentations in business class rooms and their perceived importance to workplace success. This study collected data on three groups (self, peers, and instructor) to address four research ques tions related to (a) the usefulness of self and peer ratings as substitutes for instruc, tor evaluation of oral business presentations and (b) the relationship between vari ous content and non-content factors on overall perceptions of presentation quality. Data from this study suggest that (1) both holistic and analytical peer assessments are reasonable substitutes for instructor assessment when raters are trained; (2) self assessment does not closely reflect either peer or instructor assessments; and (3) peer assessment of delivery characteristics, command of material, and content strongly predict peer ratings of overall presentation quality.