Guide for Hosting Student Presentations in AP Capstone Courses

AP Capstone presentations must be delivered in real time, and not prerecorded. The following guidelines can be used to manage the delivery of student presentations for AP Seminar and AP Research assessments, whether your school is providing instruction online, in a hybrid/blended, or in-person learning environment.

Virtual Presentations

• Students should deliver their work with the current online system your school uses for remote classes (e.g., Zoom or Google Meet).
• If students experience connectivity issues or district/school regulations do not permit the use of cameras, it is acceptable for students to present verbally without a camera.
• The usual time limits still apply to the TMP and IMP (for AP Seminar) and the POD (for AP Research). However, if presentations are interrupted because of disconnection, teachers should allow students to resume where they left off or restart as necessary and exclude the disconnected time from the presentation.
• For TMP (AP Seminar only): Teams may choose one member to share their screen to display visuals and should consider practicing transitions between speakers. With students presenting from different locations, teams must still convey an argument for a unified team solution or resolution, rather than isolated ideas from their individual work.

In-Person Presentations

• If students are wearing protective face masks, schools may want to consider providing a microphone and speakers for clarity.
• For TMP (AP Seminar only): Follow physical distancing guidelines. Students can take turns in the front of the room to deliver their portions of the presentation. Alternatively, students could remain standing in appropriately distanced areas of the classroom.

Recording of Presentations

Recording of presentations is still required and students presenting virtually must turn on their camera unless school/district regulations do not permit. Teachers should schedule presentations accordingly to score presentations live if they will not have access to refer to a recording when scoring.

Interpretation of Rubrics

The TMP, IMP, and POD component requirements in the AP Seminar and AP Research course and exam descriptions and the scoring rubrics have not changed. Teachers have flexibility on how to interpret the “Engage Audience” rubric rows only.

With students likely presenting through different modalities, teachers are advised to focus on the auditory component of presentation skills, rather than the physical performance elements (e.g., movements or gestures).