Pecha Kucha, Japanese for chit-chat, is a Japanese founded presentation approach and movement to encourage more focused presentations. The format of Pecha Kucha is 20 slides at 20 seconds each, ideally the slide as only an image.
I use Pecha Kucha in my Student Affairs Administration classes. I have tried this approach with a variety of projects including creating a conference presentation about a topic of interest, creating a presentation about personal leadership philosophy, and creating a presentation to train college students on various mental health issues. Students use an existing technology (PowerPoint, Brainshark, Jing, etc.) to create a slide presentation with 20 slides and record 20 seconds of narration on each slide, creating a consise 6 minute and 40 second presentation.
I originally used this format for my online only courses but after seeing such great results in the professional presentations I expanded the approach to include in my face-to-face class presenations as well. I have enjoyed using this format for a few reasons. First, using the Pecha Kucha approach, the students create presentations that are focused, informational, rehearsed, and professional. The format lends itself to a shorter, more direct presentation with a goal to get people introduced and focused on a particular topic. Next, the format is used by one of national organizations which has professionals present their content using this format (examples from ACPA 2014), exposing my students to the format, often in a storytelling format, but also other professionals in Student Affairs. Finally, this approach has allowed my students to create presentations that are usable outside of the classroom. Some students have used the presentation to lead professional development conversations with colleagues, some students have been able to network with others interested in the same content, and other students have used the presentations to embrace further speaking engagements.
More information about the Pecha Kucha approach can be found here: http://www.pechakucha.org/
Submitted by Tori Svoboda, Student Affairs Administration
