Answer the following questions considering the learning outcomes for
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- In this final week, I learned the benefits of having quite a solid plan as well as contingencies from the start of a project as we were able to assess our progress against what we expected and managed to only spend the first 2 days of the week finishing lingering tasks. Although we were behind on our expected schedule (which was ambitious), we were able to use our project management tools and tracked user stories to assess how much was completed, what was left to do, and plan accordingly in order to use our time most effectively.
- Having completed all that we wanted to achieve within the project, we were able to really refine our presentation and from this I learned about synthesising a project into its essentials for more effective communication. Particularly as this project was rather complicated in terms of its use case and all the research that was behind it, it was very important that we give the audience nough to understand what the project is about but not too much so as to overwhelm them, or even bore them with details! This process happened by first laying out the presentation with everything we thought was essential to communicate the project, rehearsals and refinements, slowly pinpointing those parts which are not essential and capitalising on those that are, while formulating them in a way to present a story rather than just the facts. It started longer than required, an we slowly refined to a 10-minute presentation without comprimising on our communication intent. This can be summed up in a quote by Mark Twain (except we did have time to write a short one!):
“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
- Thanks to my peers within the team, I learned how to improve my own communication and presentation skills as we were all able to give ourselves constant feedback through multiple rehearsals. Particularly having Jason in the team who has a background in theatre was useful, he was able to give valuable public presentationa advice which I believe helped me communicate more effectively and be less nervous when the presentation time came. Hearing how Jack presented his slides and getting feedback from him helped me better craft a story out of my slides rather than plain facts and I think made my script more engaging.
2. Show an example of some of the learning outcomes you have struggled with and/or would like to re-visit.
- I struggled a bit formulating an engaging narrative within my presentation script and also presenting it confidently while referring to notes. I am more used to presenting with less preparation and adopting a more natural/fluid approach to what I will say, but it was important in this case to prepare thoroughly, particularly because we had the time to. However, when I have a script more or less prepared, I cannot think clearly about what I should present and tend to read the text and be more nervous than I would be naturally. Not sure this is something I necessarily want to revisit but rehearsing with the team and getting feedback from everyone was particularly useful for me to get over this hurdle. I think I did better than I could have done without this feedback from the team, I also know it wasn't perfect and there is still much more work to be done if I want to refine this skill.
[Course Facilitator name]
[What went well]
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