Reflection on my learning in AEP

a) What are the most valuable things you learned about the process of preparing and delivering presentations? (2 or more)
There are two most valuable things I learned about the process of preparing. First is how to make effective slides. When I did a presentation in ELP class last semester, I had no idea how to make effective slides. I tended to include a lot of keywords in one slide which made audience focus on only slides. In this class, I could learn how to pick effective pictures which have a big impact and how to show them effectively. I always want to remember that the audience will get what I want to say from my words not from slides. Second is the importance of rehearsals. I learned through three presentations I did that practicing well enough until memorizing most of script and having confidence can make a big difference in presentations. Last presentation, I couldn't memorize my script well enough and I was shocked to know how it made difference in terms of having eye contacts and the speed of my voice. At the same time, I could learn form the third presentation that doing rehearsals many times until I have 100% confidence is really essential for giving a good presentation.
There are three most valuable things I leaned about delivering my presentation. First is the importance of making effective body languages such as gestures and eye contacts. Honestly, I learned a lot about body languages and I could practice a lot of them in classes. It was such a great opportunity for me since it will be hard for me to practice them in particular in the future. Second is having passion. By doing 3 presentations, I leaned in order to deliver my messages, it's always important to have a strong passion. That will lead me to have eye contacts with the audience more and emphasize the keywords naturally. Third is the importance of repeating keywords. I learned that in oral presentations, it's important to have audience actually remember the keywords at the end by repeating them.

b) In what presentation skill areas do you feel you have made progress or improved your awareness? (2 or more)
I think I have made progress mainly in two presentation skills.First is an introduction skill. By analyzing TED videos and learning in class I gained a lot of skills preparing for good introduction to catch audience's attention. I tended to wonder how to introduce my main points of the presentation and how to make my audience interested in my presentation. I will always keep ATCP in mind when making my introduction. Second is my body language skill. By watching my videos I have a confidence that I made a improvement on my body gestures. Before I focused only on my contents and I really didn't pay attention to my body languages. However, in three presentation I did in classes, I could set the clear goals for my gestures each time and that helped me improve a lot on my body languages such as eye contacts and gestures. Also while it's kind of embarrassing to see myself presenting in the video, first thing I noticed was that I did nervous gestures a lot which makes me look less confident. I have been trying to avoid them and I think I successfully achieved my goal.


c) What points do you want to improve further in your future presentations? How can you improve those? (2 or more)
There are 2 points I want to improve in my future presentations.
First area is preparation for the academic topic. When dealing with a serious topic such as my last presentation I found myself tend to read the script rather than using my own words. To avoid this, I need to fully understand what are the main points I want to insist especially when my topic is academic and to have enough time practicing until I can describe with my own words without looking my script. This will lead me to have enough confidence and to have eye contacts with each one of audience. So in the future, when I deal with academic topic, my goal will be to spend a lot of time on practicing rather than spending all my time on preparing my script.
Second is Q&A skills. This class was my first one where I learned the formal way of Q&A. Although I've done two presentations with that skills, I tend to forget to confirm questions. I definitely need to have more experiences with Q&A in my future presentations and master it!