After giving my presentation I received the following feedback from the class I presented to, this and my own opinions will form my evaluation of how my practice presentation went:
What went well
Overall I was pleased with the content of the presentation as most of my feedback seemed to comment on the information in it, I am especially pleased with how I managed to give examples for most things such as a question in my questionnaire and a strength and weakness of a type of source (academics). I think the use of examples when explaining really helped people understand where I was coming from and made the presentation more accessible to them. In a similar fashion I believe my use of screen shots, especially with the long term planning as that is what gained quite a bit of positive feedback, because it meant I didn’t have to explain what I did which would be a lot more confusing than just showing an image and neither did they simply have to take me at my word. These orally given examples and screenshots added a depth of explanation and understanding to my presentation which it would have lacked if I’d just told people what I did rather than shown them.
The feedback seems to suggest that I got across that I have a clear vision with where I want to take my project which is good because that was what I was trying to do.
What I think went most well was the fact that none of the questions asked in the Q&A session threw me and I could answer all of them, for instance I was asked what drew me to Alexander the Great and was able to answer that it was simply the fact that nearly everyone has heard of him but very few people actually know about him and then was able to give some interesting facts about him when asked.
In terms of the presentation itself I think the use of consistent background, font and animation gave it a professional look and I am proud over how it turned out.
What could be improved
The beginning of my presentation didn’t get off to a good start because I had shared the presentation, which I had made on PowerPoint, through Google Docs with my supervisor but then didn’t know how to open it again in PowerPoint which meant that the beginning was a bit of a shambles. However I have learnt from this and now know that I must go File, Download to do this or I could just put it on a memory stick so that next time I do a presentation I can begin in a much sleeker and professional fashion.
The majority of the feedback I received from my presentation seems to relate not with the content but with the delivery such as voice projection and eye contact. This is something that I thought as well because I was very nervous, adding to this I think I could slow down my speaking as well and be less in a rush to get it over with to give a better impression. To improve this I believe for my next presentation I will plan it much more thoroughly so I know exactly what to say and when as well as knowing the layout of my presentation better, this can simply be achieved through practising it so that when the time comes around to give it I am much more confident and can give a better, more confident presentation.
Some of the slides, in particular the one about what I’ve done, involved a lot of clicking due to the animated list. This meant I was focusing on clicking rather than speaking so next time I would decrease the amount of animation and only use it for emphasis so it is both less distracting for the people watching and for me. This should also aid my confidence as I will have less to worry about when I am up there.
What I need to do next
This presentation is good practice for me but for the real one I need to take all of this feedback and the ideas I have on improving it and put it into place in order to give a sleeker and more confident presentation. However my depth of detail was good so I should keep that up. Problems I imagine I will encounter will be improving my confidence so that next time I can make eye contact, project my voice and speak slower as that does not happen overnight! Basically I need to practice speaking in front of people so maybe make my next presentation in advance and learn it off by heart than practice in front of friends and family so it is polished and more prepared by the time I have to give it for real.
Overall I was pleased with the content of the presentation as most of my feedback seemed to comment on the information in it, I am especially pleased with how I managed to give examples for most things such as a question in my questionnaire and a strength and weakness of a type of source (academics). I think the use of examples when explaining really helped people understand where I was coming from and made the presentation more accessible to them. In a similar fashion I believe my use of screen shots, especially with the long term planning as that is what gained quite a bit of positive feedback, because it meant I didn’t have to explain what I did which would be a lot more confusing than just showing an image and neither did they simply have to take me at my word. These orally given examples and screenshots added a depth of explanation and understanding to my presentation which it would have lacked if I’d just told people what I did rather than shown them.
The feedback seems to suggest that I got across that I have a clear vision with where I want to take my project which is good because that was what I was trying to do.
What I think went most well was the fact that none of the questions asked in the Q&A session threw me and I could answer all of them, for instance I was asked what drew me to Alexander the Great and was able to answer that it was simply the fact that nearly everyone has heard of him but very few people actually know about him and then was able to give some interesting facts about him when asked.
In terms of the presentation itself I think the use of consistent background, font and animation gave it a professional look and I am proud over how it turned out.
What could be improved
The beginning of my presentation didn’t get off to a good start because I had shared the presentation, which I had made on PowerPoint, through Google Docs with my supervisor but then didn’t know how to open it again in PowerPoint which meant that the beginning was a bit of a shambles. However I have learnt from this and now know that I must go File, Download to do this or I could just put it on a memory stick so that next time I do a presentation I can begin in a much sleeker and professional fashion.
The majority of the feedback I received from my presentation seems to relate not with the content but with the delivery such as voice projection and eye contact. This is something that I thought as well because I was very nervous, adding to this I think I could slow down my speaking as well and be less in a rush to get it over with to give a better impression. To improve this I believe for my next presentation I will plan it much more thoroughly so I know exactly what to say and when as well as knowing the layout of my presentation better, this can simply be achieved through practising it so that when the time comes around to give it I am much more confident and can give a better, more confident presentation.
Some of the slides, in particular the one about what I’ve done, involved a lot of clicking due to the animated list. This meant I was focusing on clicking rather than speaking so next time I would decrease the amount of animation and only use it for emphasis so it is both less distracting for the people watching and for me. This should also aid my confidence as I will have less to worry about when I am up there.
What I need to do next
This presentation is good practice for me but for the real one I need to take all of this feedback and the ideas I have on improving it and put it into place in order to give a sleeker and more confident presentation. However my depth of detail was good so I should keep that up. Problems I imagine I will encounter will be improving my confidence so that next time I can make eye contact, project my voice and speak slower as that does not happen overnight! Basically I need to practice speaking in front of people so maybe make my next presentation in advance and learn it off by heart than practice in front of friends and family so it is polished and more prepared by the time I have to give it for real.