Objective evaluation of oral presentation skills using Inertial Measurement Units

Oral presentation is considered as one of the most sought after skills by companies and professional organizations and program accreditation agencies. However, both learning process and evaluation of this skill are time demanding and complex tasks that need dedication and experience. Furthermore, the role of the instructor is fundamental during the presentation assessment. The instructor needs to consider several verbal and nonverbal communications cues sent in parallel and this kind of evaluation is often subjective. Even if there are oral presentation rubrics that try to standardize the evaluation, they are not an optimal solution because they do not provide the presenter a real-time feedback. In this paper, we describe a system for behavioral monitoring during presentations. We propose an ecological measurement system based on Inertial Measurement Units to evaluate objectively the presenter's posture through objective parameters. The system can be used to provide a real-time feedback to the presenters unobtrusively.