OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the class presentations and written commentary are to give each student the opportunity to work in a group to:

FORMAT: Presentations will be given as if this were a professional meeting. Presenters will stand at a podium at the front and are expected to use visual aids. At the conclusion of each topic, the presenters on that topic will come to the front of the room and respond to questions and comments for about 10 minutes. In order to accommodate all presenters, each individual presentation will be limited to 6 minutes. Speaking for such a short time is a good experience, since at a professional meeting you may have only 15 minutes to report the results of years of work. The time limitation will be strictly enforced! Six minutes is a very short time for a presentation, so focus on two or three main points and don't save them for the end! This will also give you practice in choosing the most salient points on a topic. Feedback on presentations will be provided by two classmates assigned for each presenter. We hope that this "peer review" will help both presenter and reviewers to refine their presentation skills. (You may wish to review the American Public Health Association's suggestions for making oral presentations.)

ORGANIZATION: Students working on the same topic in the same session should meet together to orchestrate their individual presentations, so that together they cover the topic. Presentations should attempt to complement one another and should avoid repeating material already stated. But all students should participate in the critical reading and discussion of epidemiologic studies, since that is a primary objective of this activity. Moreover, the written commentaries submitted for grading should cover the topic as a whole, rather than the portion that is presented. Groups may wish to designate a convenor to expedite the organization of the work and to moderate the lab session on the topic.

ABSTRACTS: Each student should submit an abstract by e-mail one week prior to the presentation. The abstract should cover the specific presentation, rather than the topic as a whole. Please follow the abstract guidelines for the American College of Epidemiology Annual Meeting (see www.acepidemiology.org/), except that the abstract (as a word processing document) should be e-mailed to epid168@sph.unc.edu rather than submitted on diskette. Each abstract should show the topic, presenter's name, lab instructor's name, presentation date, and sequence among all presenters. (Students presenting together may wish to submit their abstracts in a single document.)

PAPERS: A written commentary of about 1,000 words on the topic assigned to your group is due following the class presentations (see Syllabus for date) and will count towards your final grade (see General Information). Guidelines and several sample commentaries are on the EPID 168 web site.

TOPICS: Suggestions for topics will be invited at the beginning of the course. A list of candidate topics will be posted on the course web site, and six-to-eight topics selected. Each student will then vote her/his top three choices, which will serve as the primary basis for topic assignments. Each lab group will have three or four participants on each of the six-to-eight topics. Two or three topics will be scheduled for each class day, based on a schedule to be distributed. Therefore, there will be 6-10 participants making presentations on a given day.

12/13/1999, 1/20/2002fix victor_schoenbach@unc.edu