Reflection on Group Project and ES2007S

Throughout the second half of our semester, our group has been working on the written proposal as well as the oral presentation together. Although we distributed the workload, we would always come back together and agree on things before we put everything together.

Our group was also able to collaborate effectively through the use of wiki.NUS. With the wiki, it seemed as if our group did not even have the need for face-to-face meetings as we were able to upload our materials on to the wiki platform anytime. It was easy to use and organise as well. However, not all technologies are without shortcomings. Once, our group typed out a Chinese version of our sample survey questions and we forgot to save a copy on our hard disks. In the end, the Chinese copy of the survey was literally ‘lost in translation’ as wiki.NUS does not support Chinese characters. Although wiki.NUS had a function which restores previously saved files, we did not manage to recover the lost file.

We started doing our surveys early and managed to gather a large sample size through a period of 9 days. I was glad that my group mates were very honest in the conduct of the survey as that would aid us greatly in the analysis of the survey results. We met up for several discussions before finalising our ideas and suggestions for our proposal of implementing rooftop gardens. With the help of Dr Radhika, we realised the need to narrow the scope of our proposal in order to be focused in tackling a specific problem.

I remember a time when all three of us were stressed out near week 10 and our group suffered from a miscommunication when compiling the proposal draft for peer review. However, we were able to sort out our misunderstandings quickly so that our group was able to work cohesively again to produce a seamless proposal.

I definitely would not have been able to take on this project myself. Three is always better than one. Doing project in a group might seem like a hassle, but the inconveniences pay off. Group members help to criticise one another’s work and sift out errors. Doing the project in a group also meant that the workload is shared. I would have burnt out in my course of studies if I were to do this project alone.

I really enjoyed working together with Seow Peng and Yijie. Both of them are hardworking and reliable group mates. As both of them worked in NParks before, they contributed several valuable insights with regard to implementing a rooftop garden and foresaw several problems to our proposal before they arose. Thus, we managed overcome these potential problems and produce a ‘wholesome’ and complete proposal.

Although I did not know Yijie before I took this module, I quickly found out that she was an amiable person who gets along with others very easily. Sometimes she’s a bit quiet, but she is a really helpful person. Seow Peng is also very helpful. There was a time when both of them knew I was busy and offered their time to do part of what was allocated to me. Although the workload of this project was slightly heavy, I am sure we enjoyed the working process.

In conclusion, all of us in ES2007S still have a long way to go in being professional and effective presenters. Our learning will never end. However, taking ES2007S was definitely a good start. Through its non-exhaustive materials, the module has thoroughly equipped us with basic social and communication skills that are essential for communicating effectively and professionally in the working world. Thank you Dr Radhika for tutoring us and for being so patient with us. Thank you!

Dr Radhika and I

Reflections on Oral Presentation

The oral presentation for ES2007S was one of the few times in my NUS life in which I had to do a presentation. As compared to the peer teaching, this time was slightly different as it was more formal. From the peer teaching experience, Dr Radhika said that I knew my content well, distributed my eye contact evenly and projected my voice well. Hence, I continued to make sure that I maintained these qualities during the oral presentation as well.

On our way to the Oral Presentation. Go Go Green Garden Group!

Although my classmates remained the same from the peer teaching, the “audience” was different, and every presentation has to be catered specifically to the audience. If I had any “take homes”, it would be that I learnt how to be focused in my presentation. I learnt that every good presentation has to be able to sum up into a sentence. That kept our presentation on track. I also learnt that, if we wanted to deliver a strong and convincing presentation, we have to keep the ‘meat’ of our presentation compact. As such, certain details like case studies were left out and only important ideas remained our presentation. Quoting Garr Reynolds, an effective professional presenter, he said “Eat only until 80% full”. He meant that we should not bore our audience with details after details but give them enough to leave them thirsting for more.

Dr Radhika gave good and encouraging comments to our presentation, and it really boosted my self-confidence in public speaking, provided I was well-prepared. Her positive comments let me know that our preparation for the oral presentation itself did not go wrong. Actually, I thought that the comments given by Dr Radhika might be a little too generous. She could have been more critical of our presentation, as I thought that there were still areas that we could improve.

Working with my group mates was fun because both of them were always so cheerful. However, we might have been a little too tardy with work on the presentation, as slides were only readied less than 2 days before the presentation. However, I am sure each of us has put in huge amounts of thought and effort into creating an engaging and interesting presentation before sending to me for compilation. I, being a slight perfectionist myself, put myself in charge of the consistency of the slides, in terms of alignment and font colours. I was picky about the nitty-gritty details I found on the presentation of other groups and I realized my group would not be spared from the chopping board either. Other than that, I thought that the flow of the presentation was quite smooth. This was probably because that problem had already been overcome in our project proposal. All in all, I would say that our group efforts paid off.

Thank you Dr Radhika for teaching us and guiding us, and thank you Yijie and Seow Peng for bearing with my late work. Thank you to all my class mates for being such friendly and supportive people, always giving friendly and constructive comments. J