Sunday, 8 April 2012

#5 My reflection of the oral presentation


             Throughout my years of education, many have consistently told me that oral presentation is one of my strongest skill sets. Therefore, I felt confident about my delivery of the material once I was able to settle into a rhythm in my presentation. Moreover, the past few weeks saw concerted efforts by my team to organize our proposal, which in turn lead to easier organization of our presentation slides. Every piece of the jigsaw seemed to have fallen into place.

How very wrong I was.

            During the class reflection, my teacher Mr. Blackstone mentioned that I might come off as “a little arrogant” if this were to be an actual presentation to the Deans of various faculties because I did not engage my audience correctly. To my horror, this was met with agreement with the class. Reviewing the video footage of my presentation, I could see what they meant. 



Instead of tactfully engaging my audience, I appeared to show enthusiasm and too much confidence in my presentation, especially on the portion of “Benefits of Academic Mentorship”. The way I presented it seemingly insinuates the lack of cognizance of these benefits from my audience– who have very distinguished titles. In reality, all I wanted was to refresh these ideas and serve as a vector, so that my audience generally knew the direction of the presentation (since our plan of action seeks to crystallize these benefits). 

Due to the logical organization of our slides to give a coherent presentation, the latter objective of my part was met. However, I felt that I should have presented in a more cogent manner. Rather than placing my emphasis on my presentation material, I should have concentrated my efforts on engaging my audience to leave a lasting positive impression.

To this end, my main takeaways from this presentation are firstly, to always absolutely know your audience. More importantly, presentation, like communication is a skill that consistently requires polishing and perfecting. Thank you all for sitting through my presentation and pointing out my mistakes! Although I am disappointed, I think that it is better to make these mistakes in the classroom than in the actual corporate world.

7 comments:

  1. Oh no the video still won't come up! I managed to download it in my computer but the blogger server kept telling me that there is a problem with uploading my video O_O

    Any technical experts willing to help me

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  2. Hey sorry, I'm willing but am without ability /:

    Haha Hi Jr!

    Yeah it's definitely better to err in the classroom rather than at the workplace. Well, I guess the feedback you've recevied will certainly change your way of your presentation, for the better definitely! Actually, I didn't get the "arrogant" feeling from you. The only thing that kinda peeved me was your constant pacing! It didn't feel natural, perhaps that's why. Other than that, and a few minor hiccups (due to extreme nervousness I suspect), I thought your delivery was well-articulated (duh) and very complete! Disappointment is inevitable (I get that all the time) & I think it's more important to make the most out of every situation. I'm sure my little jr will agree with me! Haha, cheers!

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  3. Hello peer teaching group mate!

    I think your reflection pretty much summarizes everything I have to comment. Other than the points you mentioned, the introduction was slightly too long and it resulted in your team exceeding the time given. I feel that your delivery skills was still good even though the tone you used was not correct.

    Overall, it was a good presentation by you. (:

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  4. Hello buddy!

    I am glad you know your mistakes so you can be more careful in the next presentation. Other than what you have written here, our OP made me realized that, confidence is not only about volume and speed. You spoke loud enough with a fast pace, but could feel your nervousness. After further examination, I realized that you repeated some phrases (for example, "to keep up.. to keep up" and "this is currently.. this is currently" as noted on my little green notebook), which reduce the smoothness of the presentation. Also, sometimes you traversed left and right a bit too much. Other than that, you did a very good job and sounds convincing for the audience. Cheers! :)

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  5. Hello Titus!

    I thought you did a good job in the presentation especially with the way you spoke and the confidence that you had. But...... you just had the wrong audience. When I was listening to your part, I felt that my position was lower than you (i.e you sounded like a trainer/coach/teacher). Then, I remembered that you gave me the role of dean/vice-dean. So like what you said, know your audience well. Another thing that I was uncomfortable with was your movement, it felt like it was a sequence that you had rehearsed :( I felt that you presented better during your mock presentation because you seemed more relaxed.

    But apart from that, Titus, I genuinely think that you are a really good presenter, and I really do enjoy the confidence and your flawless articulation you display whenever you present. Although you received quite a number of negative feedbacks in this presentation, it made you aware of the flaws. And I'm happy with that because I know that you'll work on it, and I know that it will only make you a better presenter.

    Good job, Titus!

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  6. Hello Mr. T!

    I think it is extremely admirable of you to be the first to present not only for the peer teaching but also the oral presentation as well. There is always this level of uncertainty that comes with being the 'pioneer' but I felt that you have done a pretty good job!

    I was impressed with your confidence during the presentation. My only complaint, like the rest have mentioned, would be your constant pacing. Maybe it was done out of nervousness or an attempt to be physically engaging to both sides of the audience?

    Overall I think you have done a splendid job Titus and do keep your enthusiasm and infectious charisma alive in your future presentations!

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  7. Dear all thank you very much for your constructive criticisms and your words of encouragement! They will last me a long way to come and I know I will definitely be better in my future presentations because of the confidence and strength imparted from all of you!

    Sincerely, thank you!

    ReplyDelete