Final Reflections

Finally I have arrived at the end of this module. When I was first enrolled in this module, I read a few seniors' blog posts and was especially interested in their final reflections because I wanted to know what they had to say about it after a 13 weeks journey. To my "horror", almost everyone described it as "intense and stressful"! Well, now that I have completed it, I have to admit it was indeed intense and stressful, but at the same time it has been fruitful and useful.

When I chose to take this module with my friends, my main target was to learn how to write a good resume and application letter as I reckoned these two to be very important in landing a job. It was indeed helpful and I even obtained my much-wanted part time job successfully with the help of a good resume and application letter. However, I did not give much thought to the name of the module (Professional Communication), and expected it to be the same as other regular modules, where we participate in some discussions during lessons and that is all. I was so wrong!

The very first lesson has been a memorable one as we were required to "promote ourselves" by offering our services in a particular field or face the fate of banishment from an island. It was the first time I had such "informal" activity in a formal lesson. I think it was this kind of activities and good facilitation from Ms.Lim that helped to bond the class together.

In addition, I learned a lot from the two major presentations (peer teaching and proposal oral presentation). From my past experience before taking this module, I did not have any feedback regarding my own presentations. I usually resolved to script memorization and regurgitate it during my few presentations. After taking the module, only did I realize about the many aspects of presentation, including my non-verbal cues and interactions with audience.

This module has been very helpful in building my confidence and interpersonal skills. Of course, there are times where it became very stressful and time-consuming, and indirectly it helped me to learn identifying my priorities and manage my schedule more effectively. A great deal of time and work have been invested for this module, but the rewards and skills obtained are worth it.

Oral Presentation Reflection

It was a relief that the group project and the oral presentation were finally over. A shout-out to my team mates: Thank you for putting in all the hard work and well done!

During my preparation for the oral presentation, I was getting pretty keyed up because I often get very nervous for an impending presentation. Therefore, I got my slides ready a few days before the actual presentation and rehearsed for numerous times. Initially, I took more than five minutes to finish the presentation of my part. However, after a few practices, I managed to control the timing better and cap my presentation at approximately five minutes.

My group had quite a number of rehearsals together. Everyone was putting in effort to comment on each other’s part and to improve on the transitions between speakers. The group rehearsals helped me to gain confidence for my presentation. By the end of the rehearsals, I had a pretty good grasp of the entire flow of ideas.

During the actual oral presentation, I felt I was more enthusiastic in presenting my ideas and maintained better eye contacts with the audience, comparing to my peer teaching session. I have also tried to smile more and appear friendly to the audience because during the peer teaching session, I was too nervous did not smile as much. I have also inserted clip arts with animation for my visual aids to make the presentation more lively and easy to understand, and I think it worked out well as I saw smiles and nods from the audience. 

However, I think I should have slowed down my speech. I sped up my speech considerably thinking our group was running out of time. As my speech took me about four and a half to five minutes during rehearsals, I have only used four minutes to finish my speech during the actual presentation, and it may have appeared too fast for the audience.

Nonetheless, I would like to thank the audience for nodding your heads and smiling at me during my presentation. It was reaffirming and really helped me to be more confident as a presenter! =)