ES2007 Blog post #6: Reflection

I have learned many things about effective and professional communication after this course. What I love most in this module is that I learned everything in an interactive manner. We participated in many different activities, but not only one lecturing style like many other modules in NUS. From these activities and the debrief sessions, we gained lessons for ourselves. I believe the teaching style made the learning process very effective and interesting.

An example of this is the mock interview sessions. In the activity, we had chance to play the roles of both interviewees and interviewers. By standing from the position of an interviewer, we could think like interviewers and see what they may expect from interviewees. And also, we could learn from others on how they did in the interview. Each person has a very unique style and by sitting in many different mock interviews I could picked up some effective interview tips from my fellows for myself. If the class was conducted in lecturing style, we could learn from what teachers tell us only. Moreover, since I participated in the activity, what I actively picked up for myself will be much more enduring.

Another thing I love in this module is the way Brad made us work with different classmates in different activities. This helped me to have chance to interact with everyone in the class, which I could not have in other modules. There are more than just things I could learn from them. We have become really good friends. This class has always made me feel happy to come. I always came to class with an expectation of new experience. Also, I felt I was much more confident in this class thank to the support and encouragement from all of you. For example, during presentation, sometimes I feel nervous and start thinking to myself whether I’m saying anything stupid. However, in this class, I have never felt that way. I saw you all still listening to me and I was encouraged to continue the presentation. And in the final oral presentation, I have one of the best moments in my university life when for the first time I put myself in the presentation. I presented with my emotion and belief in it.

Although after taking this module, I could not become an effective communicator right away, it gave me a lot of useful lessons which will help me to continue learning to how to communicate effectively.

Thank you and all the best for your final exams J Hope to see you around J

ES2007S Blog post #5: Oral Presentation Reflection

Together with my teammates I had a good time doing the oral presentation. Our group and others in the class all have done very well. For me I think I made a huge improvement as compared to all my previous presentation in NUS.

Some of my strengths are
- I fully controlled the content of my part without memorizing the script. This surprised me since previously I always wrote full script and memorized it.
- I maintained eye contact and volume quite well, good gestures and standing position, much better as compared to the peer teaching session.
- The slides were clear and concise. This style of no bullet points is new to me but I found it's very effective when you present some topics that require emotional appeals. On the other hand, bullet point style is useful for presenting information in details.
- And the most thing which I think makes me satisfied with this presentation is my confidence. Previously in the peer teaching session and even other presentations in different modules I took, I did feel nervous a lot and when I did I forgot everything I prepared. This in turn badly affected my eye contacts, volume (which was eventually softer), and etc. I guess because I put a lot of thoughts on my part which is to argue for smokers' right, I was really confident and enthusiastic to present it.

My weaknesses:
-  During the presentation, I'm always looking at others' reactions and think myself whether they understand me. This eventally distracts me from controlling my voice (as I am nervous my voice will get softer). In this presentation it happened a few times.
- I did not interact with the audiences.At some points I intended to make some interaction bet most of the time I was afraid their response would be out of my control, which might make it difficult to continue my part.

Nevertheless, with all the new things I have learned through the oral presentation assignment, I really believe that it will help me to develop good presentation skills.