Post #6: Final Reflection on Learning

In the blink of an eye, another 13 weeks in NUS have just passed again. It seemed like I just had my first ES2007S lesson yesterday and here I am now, writing my last blog post for the module. I recall (though, it's really just a mouse click away) the first post that I made about why effective communication skills are important for me. In that post, I highlighted the importance of active listening in both my personal and professional lives. 

Throughout the course, I had many opportunities to practice my active listening skills; from class discussions to interviews to question and answer sessions (after the peer teaching and oral presentation), virtually everything I did in (and out of) class required me to be an active listener. Now that I have completed the course, I would not say that I am an excellent listener (sorry Brad, I did not catch the deadline for blog post #5), but I definitely feel that I am a better listener (my girlfriend can attest to that). I find myself paying more attention to the speaker and interpreting his/her non-verbal cues, showing that I am listening by nodding my head and making small verbal comments like "uh huh" and  "mm", providing feedback and clarifying by asking questions, and deferring counter-arguments. Of course, this list is not exhaustive.

Apart from active listening, I have also learnt and worked on other communication skills during the course. From the skill review we had last lesson, I was surprised by the myriad of skills we covered in the course (we covered almost every single skill, one way or another). One other communication skill of mine which I feel has vastly improved is my presentation skill. As I mentioned in my previous post, although I still get butterflies in my stomach, I feel more confident during presentations now. 

All in all, the journey through ES2007S was an enriching one. As Robert M. Hutchins once said, "The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives." I believe ES2007S has provided me with the knowledge and skills to embark on a lifelong journey to be a more effective communicator.

Post #5: Reflection on Oral Presentation

Prior to our oral presentations, the class was tasked to source for good oral presentations on the Internet that were under five minutes. I must say this exercise was really helpful.

Having the concepts of a good presentation in mind, my team and I met up on Saturday to compile and finalize our slides. As the saying goes, "A picture speaks a thousand words”. We all agreed that a good set of slides should have more pictures (and less words) to complement what we would be verbally presenting. This explains why most of our slides consisted of pictures. Having seen the presentations given by the other groups, I thought that our slides could have been better, aesthetically, if we were not working on a tight schedule.

The day before D-day, the team had the opportunity to rehearse through the slides, during which, we gave each other constructive feedback to improve on our individual segments of the presentation.

After the actual presentation, looking through the video, I thought that it went on quite smoothly. The delivery of each of my teammates was clear and well articulated; the transition of the slides was in synchrony with what we were saying; we managed to get the gist of the proposal across to our audience (at least I believe we did). However, the presentation was not perfect. There is definitely room for improvement. I feel that the presentation would have been better if we had engaged our audience more. Moreover, a demonstration on how NUS ModReview might be like would have given our audience a better picture of the platform.

On a more personal note, although I was nervous during the presentation, the various “dry runs”, i.e. the project discussion and mock presentation, as well as a good grasp of the content helped me portray self-confidence (do correct me if I am wrong). Though, on hindsight, my presentation could have been better if I had more control of my gestures - my hands seemed to be flying all over the place. Nonetheless, I believe with the skills I have learnt and the practices I have been put through during the course, I have become a better, more confident presenter.