Finally, my oral presentation (OP) is over!
Although I had rehearsed my lines repeatedly, even with a group rehearsal yesterday, I think that I lacked confidence in my OP today. My mind went blank in some parts, causing me to stumble over some words and repeat others. Several times, I repeated the same ideas but with a rephrasing of the words. An example would be the idea about encouraging the use of ELearning platforms during the Benefits section.
Moreover, I feel that I did not have sufficient eye contact with the people in the room. I had been staring steadily forward at the back of the room instead of sweeping my gaze to each and everyone. Not only that, my hand gestures were minimal and were not helpful for the presentation. Furthermore, I closed the presentation quite abruptly after the conclusion. I had forgotten to thank the audience and tell them that “We hope that you would accept our proposal”. I feel that I also could have contributed more to the Q&A session as I noticed that Chee Siang tended to answer the bulk of the questions thrown to us.
On the other hand, I think that some positive points in my delivery would be that I was loud and had a pretty constant pace, although it increased and became slightly rushed towards the end of the OP. Additionally, I had made use of some quotes to emphasise my point that students having more convenience in charging their laptops is a very important benefit.
As mentioned by Xiang Min during the commenting session earlier, other than the slides, no other audio-visual media had been used in our OP. This was something that I had worried about initially during the preparation, especially as there had been a variety of videos used for the Peer-Teaching sessions. However, we were unable to find any relevant videos that could have been used. Besides, we felt that the PowerPoint slides would be sufficient.
Another reflection that I have is that I suppose that I could have made use of the remote to change slides instead of pressing the keyboard. Then I would have been able to stand out nearer the front of the room instead of staying behind the desk.
I think that the PowerPoint slides were a great job though, with elegant simplicity of the design, pictures to illustrate certain points and minimal wording. It was the combined accomplishment of my group and I thank you guys for your efforts. Mucho gracias!
Final Reflection
15 years ago
Thanks, Abigail, for your hard work with both the presentation and this reflection. I really appreciate it. I'll be giving you more detailed feedback soon. Now I look forward to hearing from your partner group members.
ReplyDeleteHi Abby,
ReplyDeleteI felt you did a pretty good job presenting. Stumbling over words? I can honestly say I didn't notice it at all. (And I swear I was paying attention!) Your body language and tone were generally positive and betrayed few signs of nervousness.
However, one thing I would like to point out is that you were a little stiff while presenting. You can relax more since we don't bite (particularly hard). Smile more and engage the audience with eye contact as you do seem somewhat cold and detached while presenting.
By the way, I thought where you stood was alright, so don't worry about it. Since I was sitting close to where you were standing, any closer and it would have been too close for comfort for me (I hate craning my neck).
And yes, I agree that your PowerPoint slides were really good. Because of its simplicity, it exuded class. Nice work!
Hello Abby! Actually, I like your rephrasing of words because to me, it is more of a reiteration, which helps me remember what your group has presented. I beg to differ with you as I think that your eye contact is actually suffice and your non-verbal actions are not overly excessive, thus I think this is actually a good thing! The reminder at the end might have been a minor mistake since we all have to act as though we are really presenting to the respective departments of interest. However, I can only say that you are one of the most outstanding presenters for the whole of group 9.
ReplyDeleteYou have started off with a quotation and this is actually a rather interesting beginning your part of the presentation. Your voice projection is good and you have a very sound idea of the whole project. As mentioned earlier, you do have good and sufficient non-verbal actions, and you have provided a good linkage of the E-learning platform to the laptop usage. On top of that, your pronounciation is crystal clear.
However, a minor note to take that you have stumbled a bit but there is only a couple of times. Other than that, your replies to the floor’s feedbacks during the Q&A session have revealed your understanding for your project and you do know your stuff well! Good job! Overall, your team has done a rather good job for the presentation and I would gladly love to approve your proposal if I am the representative from NUSEU!
Regards,
Ivan
Hi Abby!
ReplyDeleteWahhh why you sound so pessimistic over your presentation? Cheer up gal! I thought you really did well overall!
As a team, I was rather impressed by your group! =) Your slides were very very nice and the usage of colours was perfect in terms of colour contrast. Your team had a very creative title and a creative catch phrase in the 2nd slide! Also, I see a good flow of content and there was good time management shown. Your team did very well in QnA! However, it would be good if the lights could be on during Q&A as I couldn’t see you guys clearly from my position. Also, all 3 of you could be stand a little bit forward while presentation but of course, I understand that there were space constraints in the classroom.
As for your individual performance. Abby, I really thought that you naturally have a very nice tone in your voice! It makes me want to listen to you more, surprisingly! You were not monotonous and you spoke at a very appropriate pace! Also, you had very good hand gestures at times when you want to emphasize certain points you make! =) However, you seem to appear quite nervous. (I was too during my OP =()
Hmmmm I do agree with you that your eye contact with the rest of the groups was somewhat lacking as you glanced at the laptop screen pretty often. Hence sometimes, I get the feeling that you memorised your script. But fret not! (I also admit that I glanced at my laptop at times because I got too nervous >.<)
Overall, cheer up dear! I really like your team's presentation, especially in terms of visual aids even though there was not video.
Sorry I forgot to add a couple of points.
ReplyDeleteDuring the QnA, I really thought you did a very good job in answering the questions. I could understand the answers. I did not really think CheeSiang answered the bulk of the questions though. I thought you answered a fair amount as well. Hmmm..
As for visual aids like videos etc, don't worry about it! I think your group did great without videos. It is something to enhance the presentation but not really necessary. Don't worry yea?
Hello~
ReplyDeleteI just want to clarify that when I commented on the usage of multimedia, I was not directing at your team’s presentation. In any case, the many photos that your team had photographed were also a great form of multimedia!
I especially liked the strong “student voice” in your team’s presentation. First, your team started brightly with the caption, “Students want more power!” Also, I could feel the earnestness of your proposal as your team could convey the problem issues with great insights, perhaps due to the fact that all 3 of you are from the science faculty. Next, the photos on the possible areas of installation showed that your team knows the faculty very well, and hence, added to the persuasiveness. Lastly, the benefits brought across were really pertinent to every student.
Although it has been nearly a week, I still want to say "good job!" =)
Hi Abby,
ReplyDeleteContrary to your rather pessimistic outlook on your blogpost, I think you did rather well.
The only drawback from your presentation was the eye contact issue which you mentioned in your post. I felt that you were staring straight ahead for a certain parts of the presentation. But it is understandable given that you had no reference material and needed to organise your thoughts well.
I felt that you did an excellent job of not having to refer to the screen at all. It shows your level of preparation as well as confidence you have in your own abilities.
I think you did fantastic on the presentation overall. Thanks for sharing with us!
regards,
aldrich
Hello and thanks for commenting on my OP. It's so very reassuring to know that I had not made as many mistakes as I thought I had. Anyway, about the pessimistic part, I learnt in one of my modules that people tend to focus on and remember better the negative incidents rather than the positive. I suppose that happened to me this time, haha.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I would definitely take note of your suggestions and use them well in my future presentations.
Thanks,
Abigail