Unit 6 Assignment: Microloans in the Developing World

For this assignment you are researching microloans in the developing world and then creating a multimedia presentation on a microloan applicant.

Intro & Background Info

Over 1 billion people in the world survive on less than one dollar a day, which is a figure used by international organizations to measure abject poverty (equal to over three times the entire population of the United States, or one in every five people in the world). This is a problem on a grand scale, and many people are trying to find ways to raise the global poor out of poverty. Poor people in developing nations typically are not able to borrow money to expand businesses and generate wealth, which has been one factor in the ongoing difficulty people around the world have in raising themselves out of poverty.

In this assignment, you will be introduced to the practice and industry of microfinance, learning how the provision of unsecured loans to low-income, small-scale entrepreneurs in the developing world has improved the business prospects and quality of life for many desperately poor people around the world. You will also view profiles of real microloan applicants on the kiva.org website, and prepare a presentation on the stories and businesses of real-life entrepreneurs.

Watch this CBS News report “The World of Micro-Loans”:
After watching the video, were you surprised by the impact of the micro-loan made possible by the young investor Justin?

Assignment Instructions

For this assignment, you will create a presentation then record yourself presenting it. Your visual/multimedia presentation should use words and images to persuade your audience.

You can use any presentation software you like e.g. PowerPoint, Google Slides etc. You can embed the audio into the presentation if your presentation software has that feature, or you can video yourself giving the presentation, or you can submit the presentation and an audio file to go with it.

Assignment Steps

You will be creating a slide presentation with 11+ slides. Follow the steps below, which outline what information to put on each slide.

Slide 1:

Title of Presentation and your Name

Slides 2-5:

List and describe in a short paragraph each, at least four (4) factors that contribute to a country’s economic growth and development.

Slide 6:

Watch the video “How Microfinance Works”
After watching, answer the following questions on slide 6:

What is microfinance?

How are these loans different from traditional bank loans?

Slides 7+

A) Visit the kiva.org web site, at www.kiva.org.

Click on Lend or Start Lending, and a menu will drop down. You can filter by region of the world or by topic for the type of entrepreneur you are interested in.

Browse the profiles of some entrepreneurs on the site.

B) Select ONE loan applicant who is particularly interesting to you and prepare a presentation on him or her, making a case for why he or she should be selected to receive a microloan.

Include the information below and any other relevant details in order to persuade your audience that your selected loan applicant should receive a microloan.

Slide 7:

Name of entrepreneur:

Country of Residence:

Type of business:

Slide 8:

Amount of loan requested:
What will they do with the loan?

Slide 9:

Why was this applicant particularly interesting to you?

Slide 10:

Do you think he/she will pay back the loan (is creditworthy)?

What are the criteria you are using to assess his or her creditworthiness?

Slide 11:

Conclusion

How will the loan benefit the individual, the family, and the community?

Recording your Presentation

•Option 1: Display your presentation and video record yourself presenting. Upload your video recorded presentation to YouTube (we recommend you choose the option of ‘unlisted’ for your video and not public or private; or you can use another video sharing site; or a shared drive like Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive) Do not submit the movie file with this assignment, as the file size of the movie will be too large. Submit a PDF of your written presentation and include the URL link to your movie on slide 1 of the presentation.
•Option 2: Create a voiceover of you presenting in Google Slides or PowerPoint. If your presentation is over 2MB submit a URL link to your presentation from a shared drive like Google Drive etc. If your presentation is under 2MB you can upload the file. If you don’t know how to add audio to Google Slides or Powerpoint check out the links below:

◾Voice Over in Google Slides

◾Record a slide show with narration and slide timings with Microsoft Powerpoint

•Option 3: Record your audio presentation using any audio capture software of your choice, if you don’t have software to capture your voice you can use the audio capture tool from 123apps. Submit both your presentation as a PDF and your audio file as an MP3 file.

Submission status
No attempt

Grading status
Not graded

Grading criteria

Global Economics – Rubric

Oral Presentation

Slides contain student orally presenting information contained in the multimedia/slide presentation using one of methods outlined in the assignment instructions.
Maximum score25

Persausive Presentations Slides of the Microloan Applicant – Slides 7 to 11

All questions for summary of applicant profile are included on the slides.
Maximum score40

Presentations Slides 2 to 5

These slides must contain at least four (4) factors that contribute to a country’s economic growth and development (1 factor per slide). These paragraphs need to contain a minimum of five sentences and be free of grammatical errors.
Maximum score20

Creativity and Organization

Your presentation was creative and well organized. Use of images and design add to the presentation are relevant and not distracting. All portions of the assignment are included.

Maximum score10

Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation

Free from errors.

Maximum score5