Week 10 — Assignment (Adaptive Learning) · Design and Justify Two Slides

Course: Public Speaking — Fundamentals of Oral Communication (COMM 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Marchetti
Objective assessed: Objective 6 (designing and using presentation aids) · SLO A (compose a speech segment using visual support) · SLO B (critical analysis of design choices)
Worth 100 points · Speeches (Assignments) group = 25% of the grade
Format: adaptive learning — an AI design coach walks you through designing two slides for a planned speech, matching graph types to data, and critiquing and fixing a described bad slide. You submit the coach's self-scored report (plus your chat link).

This is a building-block assignment — the task is designing and justifying visual aids, which prepares you directly for the informative speech (Week 11) and persuasive speech (Week 12). No recording is required this week.

Part 1 — Student Instructions (read this first)

What this is. An AI design coach guides you through three tasks: (1) designing two slides for a planned speech and justifying each design choice against this week's principles, (2) matching graph types to described data sets, and (3) critiquing a described "bad slide" and redesigning it. The coach then helps you self-score your work against the rubric.

How to run it (about 30–40 minutes):
1. Open any approved AI chatbot — Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT (free versions are fine).
2. Copy everything in the box below and paste it as one single message.
3. Work through it with the coach: design the slides, do the matching, critique the bad slide, then self-assess.

What to submit (two things):
1. The coach's report — its first line is STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100.
2. Your conversation's share link.

Integrity note. Do your own thinking; the coach helps you apply the principles and self-assess. Submitting a report you did not actually generate is an integrity violation.

Part 2 — The Coach Prompt (copy everything in the box)

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You are my presentation-aids design coach and grader for Week 10 of Public Speaking (COMM 1) at Silver Oak University. You will coach me through three design tasks and then help me score my own work against the rubric below. You grade ONLY against the rubric — never invent criteria or inflate scores. Total possible: 100 points.

ABOUT THIS ASSIGNMENT
- This is a building-block task — no recording required. The output is a written description of two slides + a matching exercise + a critique-and-fix.
- Be supportive and specific. If my design choices violate a principle, name which one and explain why — do not just say "good job" and move on.
- IMPORTANT — NO FABRICATION: do not invent statistics, studies, or source citations to put on a slide as examples. If a specific number is needed, label it explicitly as illustrative ("for example, imagine a bar showing 68% — your real figure from your source would go here"). Do not put unverified numbers on a slide.

THE RUBRIC (100 points) — grade against THIS. Do not show me the whole rubric up front; reveal each piece as we work on it.
- Task 1 — Two slide designs + justification (40): I describe two slides for a planned speech (title, the one idea it makes, the design choices I made), then justify each design choice against a named principle. Each slide = 20 points (10 for the design description + 10 for the justification).
- Task 2 — Graph-type matching (20): I correctly match three described data sets to the right graph/aid type (pie/line/bar/diagram/map) and briefly explain why. Each correct match with a reason = ~7 points (round to 20 total).
- Task 3 — Critique-and-fix (40): I name the specific design violations in a described bad slide (20 points) and describe a redesigned version that fixes them (20 points).

HOW TO RUN IT — go in STAGES:
1. Greet + name. Greet me warmly in 1–2 sentences, ask my FIRST NAME and my major/interest.
2. Stage A — Establish my speech topic. Ask me what speech I am preparing (it can be a draft of the Week 11 informative speech or any topic I choose). Help me articulate two moments in that speech where a visual aid would genuinely help the audience.
3. Stage B — Design two slides. For each moment, guide me to: name the slide's title; state the ONE idea it makes; choose the aid type (graph, image, diagram, etc.) and justify it against the type-matching rule; apply at least two named design principles (one idea per slide, large type, high contrast, minimal text, consistent style, 6×6 heuristic). Have me write a text description of each slide. If I choose a graph, check that the graph type matches the data's purpose.
4. Stage C — Graph-type matching. Present me with THREE described data sets, one at a time, and ask me to choose the correct graph/aid type and explain why. Examples (use these or similar, labeled as illustrative):
- Data set 1: "The percentage of a city's annual waste that goes to landfill, recycling, composting, and other disposal." → correct type: pie chart (proportions of a whole).
- Data set 2: "The average global temperature anomaly from 1900 to 2020, measured each decade." → correct type: line graph (trend over time).
- Data set 3: "The number of students enrolled in each of five academic departments at a fictional campus." → correct type: bar graph (comparing categories).
5. Stage D — Critique-and-fix. Describe this bad slide to me: "Title: 'The Benefits of Regular Exercise.' Below the title, nine bullet points in 12-point type, each a complete sentence covering cognitive benefits, physical benefits, mental-health benefits, sleep quality, social benefits, risk reduction, the research base, the recommended amount, and how to get started. The speaker reads all nine aloud while facing the screen." Ask me to: (a) name the specific design violations (which principles are broken), and (b) describe a redesigned version that fixes them.
6. Stage E — Self-assess. Go criterion by criterion. For each task, ask me to review my responses and assign honest points. Give one specific piece of feedback per criterion and one concrete suggestion.
- Until the final report, every message ends with a question or a clear next step.
- Score HONESTLY — if my slide description is vague or my justification does not name a principle, say so.

COMPLETION + REPORT. After I have self-assessed, produce the report in EXACTLY this format — the FIRST LINE is my score:
STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100
WEEK 10 ASSIGNMENT — Design and Justify Two Slides
Student: [name] | Date: ___
Task 1a — Slide 1 design + justification (a/20): [one line]
Task 1b — Slide 2 design + justification (b/20): [one line]
Task 2 — Graph-type matching (c/20): [one line]
Task 3a — Critique: violations named (d/20): [one line]
Task 3b — Fix: redesign described (e/20): [one line]
Strongest design choice: ___
One principle to carry into your informative speech: ___
(The five scores must add up to the number on line 1.) Then say, verbatim: "Copy this entire report AND your share link to this chat, and submit both in Canvas for this assignment." End with one genuine sentence of encouragement.

GETTING STARTED
Begin now: greet me, ask my first name and major/interest, and start Stage A.

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The Assignment Rubric — 100 points

Total: 20 + 20 + 20 + 20 + 20 = 100.

Instructor grading note (Prof. Marchetti)

• Record the STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100 from line 1 of the submitted report into the Speeches group.
• Spot-check the chat link — the rubric rewards principled reasoning, not surface-level labels. A student who names "too much text" without citing "one idea per slide" or "minimal text" should score in the partial range on the critique criterion.
• The "no fabrication" rule applies here: if the coach output references a specific statistic or study citation on a slide, check whether the student was directed to verify it. Unverified specific numbers embedded as if real is the failure mode.

Canvas placement block

canvas_object    = Assignment
title            = "Week 10 Assignment — Design and Justify Two Slides (adaptive)"
assignment_group = "Speeches (Assignments)"
points_possible  = 100
grading_type     = points
assignment_type  = adaptive
submission_types = [online_text_entry, online_url]   # report (score on line 1) + chat link
due_offset_days  = 6
published        = true
provenance       = "~ Prof. Marchetti's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"

Traditional variant — for comparison. This sample course is configured adaptive learning, so its actual Week-10 assignment is the AI-coached, self-scored version in I-assignment-and-rubric-week-10.md. This file shows the same Week-10 task built the traditional way — the student completes the work and submits it for instructor grading — so you can see both formats side by side. (Choosing assignment_type = traditional at course setup generates this style instead.)

Course: Public Speaking — Fundamentals of Oral Communication (COMM 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Marchetti
Objective assessed: Objective 6 (designing and using presentation aids) · SLO A (compose a speech segment using visual support) · SLO B (critical analysis of design choices)
Worth 100 points · Speeches (Assignments) group = 25% of the grade

The Assignment

This week's assignment has three tasks, all building toward the visual aids you will use in your upcoming informative speech. No recording required — the deliverable is a written description of two slide designs and a critique of a bad slide.

Task 1 — Design and justify two slides (40 points)

Choose a topic (it can be a draft of your Week 11 informative speech, or any topic). Identify two moments in a speech on that topic where a visual aid would genuinely help the audience — where a slide, graph, or diagram would make something clearer, more memorable, or easier to follow than words alone.

For each moment, write a text description of the slide. Include:
- The title of the slide.
- The one idea it makes (exactly one).
- The type of aid (bar graph, line graph, pie chart, diagram, photograph, etc.) and why that type fits the data or content — use the matching rule (pie = proportions; line = trend over time; bar = comparisons; diagram = sequential steps/how it works; map = spatial).
- At least two design principles you applied and how (e.g., "I kept the text to six words and used large type so the back row can read it; I kept one idea on this slide and moved the second idea to the next slide").

Task 2 — Match three graph types to data (20 points)

For each of the three data descriptions below, name the best graph or aid type and explain in one sentence why.

(a) A speaker wants to show what portion of a campus's annual energy use is attributed to lighting, heating and cooling, computing, and other uses.

(b) A speaker wants to show how a community's annual rainfall changed from 2000 to 2024.

(c) A speaker wants to compare the number of students participating in five different campus clubs.

Task 3 — Critique and fix a described bad slide (40 points)

Below is a description of a poorly designed slide. Read it, then complete two steps.

The bad slide (described): Title — "The Benefits of Regular Exercise." Below the title, nine bullet points in 12-point type, each a complete sentence, covering cognitive benefits, physical benefits, mental-health benefits, sleep quality, social benefits, risk reduction, the research base, the recommended weekly amount, and how to get started. The speaker reads all nine points aloud while facing the screen.

• Step A — Critique (20 points): Name the specific design principles being violated. Be precise — "there's too much stuff" is not enough. Name which principles (e.g., "one idea per slide," "minimal text / the 6×6 heuristic," "talk to the audience not the screen / the integration cue") are broken and why each violation hurts the audience.
• Step B — Fix (20 points): Describe a redesigned version that corrects the violations. You do not need to build the actual slides — describe them in text (title, the one idea, the type of content, any design choices). How many slides would you use? What would each one do?

Integrity & AI note. Complete this assignment in your own words. You may use an approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) to brainstorm or check a definition, but the designs and the critique must reflect your own analysis; if AI helped, add a one-line note of which tool and how. And as always: do not let a chatbot invent statistics to put on a slide — if you use any specific numbers, verify them at a source before including them. (Note: this is the traditional format. In this course's actual adaptive assignment, you work through the tasks with a chatbot coach and submit its self-scored report — see I-assignment-and-rubric-week-10.md.)

Rubric — 100 points

Total: 20 + 20 + 20 + 20 + 20 = 100.

Instructor answer key & model — REMOVE BEFORE PUBLISHING TO STUDENTS

These are model responses; student designs will vary. Grade against the rubric criteria, not against this exact content.

Task 2 — Model answers:
- (a) Pie chart — shows proportions of a whole (each energy use category = a slice of total use).
- (b) Line graph — shows a trend over time (rainfall per year, 2000–2024, on a time axis).
- (c) Bar graph — compares distinct categories (five clubs side by side, enrollment on the y-axis).

Task 3 — Model critique and fix:
Critique: The slide violates (1) one idea per slide — it carries nine separate ideas; (2) minimal text / the 6×6 heuristic — nine full-sentence bullets far exceed six lines of six words; (3) large readable type — 12-point type is unreadable at a distance; (4) the integration rule — the speaker faces the screen and reads, breaking eye contact and replacing the speaker with a document.

Fix: Break the content into three or four slides, each with one idea. For example: Slide 1 — "Exercise Changes Your Brain" (one bar graph described: cognitive performance across exercise levels); Slide 2 — "Physical + Mental Benefits" (two-column list, no more than six words per cell); Slide 3 — "How Much?" (one number: 150 minutes/week, large type, nothing else). Each slide is revealed when the speaker is ready to discuss it, referenced briefly ("this bar shows..."), and the speaker returns to the audience immediately. The nine sentences belong in the speaker's mouth, not on the screen.

Canvas placement block

canvas_object    = Assignment
title            = "Week 10 Assignment — Design and Justify Two Slides (traditional)"
assignment_group = "Speeches (Assignments)"
points_possible  = 100
grading_type     = points
assignment_type  = traditional
submission_types = [online_text_entry, online_upload]
due_offset_days  = 6
published        = true
rubric_ref       = "week-10-design-slides-rubric"
provenance       = "~ Prof. Marchetti's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"