Monday 9 April 2012

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.

12 comments:

  1. Hi Joel!
    Yes, I agree that you've displayed a high level of confidence! Well done! I noticed your hands too, they look actually rather distracting because I was focusing on them after awhile. :P But nevertheless, I think you did a great job and so did your team.
    I think it makes a difference that your team rehearsed and pointed out each others shortcomings for improvement and I can see that each of you were very clear of your stuffs and were very professional in your delivery. Well done! Glad to hear that you have learned valuable skills and has become my confident! :) :)

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    1. Hi Jacq,

      Thanks for the feedback! All the best for the upcoming finals!

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  2. Hi mate!

    I must say (again) your delivery during both the mock and actual OPs was very smooth, esp the actual one! & yeah, thanks for your idea of leveraging on the use of pictures to share our proposal. I think it helped, a lot! & I didn't think your hands were flying around too much. I thought the gestures did help to better convey and reinforce certain ideas. Anyhow, well done and I enjoyed working with you!

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    1. Hi mate,

      Don't mention! I'm glad we all agreed that we should use pictures. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for being a wonderful teammate and for the hard work and effort you put in for the project. Thank you!

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  3. Hello Joel,

    As discussed in the debrief last week, your presentation style was a lot more 'showy' than 'sincere' when compared to your team mates. I think that that's actually not as bad as it sounds. I could see that you could have just been your own comfortable self, but instead, you made an effort to look exciting and professional. So I don't think this is a bad point at all, just different presentation styles.

    Needless to say, you've improved a lot since your mock OP because I remember you were visibly free-styling then haha. I think one of your main strengths is how comfortable you appeared. Your stance was very natural, your voice delivery was normal and you even smiled at times. Good job!

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    1. Hi Ariele,

      Thanks for the feedback! I did put in the effort to make the presentation interesting. I guess I wouldn't be able to pull off Kristyn's style of presenting. I'll probably bore everyone to death.

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  4. Hi Joel! I think your presentation had fewer okays? Haha;p As compared to your mock interview, the actual one definitely had more content and you clearly had a better grasp of it. You never fail to lift /excite your audience whenever you start speaking and always appear professional and credible. Personally, I think the former quality is one that is rather difficult to emulate. Overall, you did a great job! ;)

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    1. HI Xi Min,

      When I looked through the video of my presentation, I spotted one "k". haha. I have to admit that I did put in a conscious effort to reduce the number of "k"s. I wonder where I caught that habit.

      When I speak I never fail to excite my audience? Really? haha. Thanks for the feedback!

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  5. Hello Joel,

    I enjoyed your presentation! Although as mentioned in class, you were "presenting", and not "talking" like what Kristyn did, I thought you did a fine job. Personally, I didn't have any issues with the way you presented. I thought the way you presented was really "gentlemanly" so that was appealing.

    I could tell that your group really rehearse a lot for this OP, and that is commendable. Good job! (:

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    1. Hi Gladys,

      First I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for being such a wonderful teammate for the peer teaching (Xi Min, you too!). Even though there were times when we were "debating" on what should be included, they were constructive. During the last lesson, when the class was discussing about the skills that we exercised/learnt, I thought about you when "preparing inventory" came up. haha. Thank you for getting the materials ready for the peer teaching! It was also very thoughtful of you to write a "Thank you" card. Thank you! (I hope I don't appear insincere here, haha)

      Back to the OP, I guess like Ariele said, we all have different styles and I'm glad my style appealed to you. Thank you for your feedback!

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  6. Hello Joel!! I think you did a nice job as what you did as usual in your mock OP! your speaking speed is comfortable and fluent, sounded very ok for me. Indeed as you said, more engagement with audiences is better than just stand still, but your gestures are appropriate and your smile and eyes contact are very good! One suggestion, your are an tall guy so would look more energetic is your keep body straight.:) As for your slides, I like them as nice pictures witch well described what your ModReview looks like, even thought not much animation fancy things, but they are convincing and clear! Well done! Good luck to your finals!

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    1. Hi Zi Hao,

      Thank you for your feedback and suggestion! I have to admit I unconsciously slouch a bit sometimes. I guess really tall people tend to do so? That being said, I hope I didn't slouch much during the OP. I agree with you that I should keep my body straight as I'll probably look for confident.

      All the best for your finals too!

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