AB0601 Communication Management Fundamentals AY2019/20

Self-assessment of Practice Presentation

After the presentation, your video clips will be uploaded to your NTULearn Seminar Group
Site. Review your own video clip according to these guidelines:

1. Play the video once and assess the presentation according to the Rubrics for Oral
Assessment provided on the Main Course Site.

2. Play the video a second time but mute it so you can focus on just the body language
(including gestures, if any).

3. Play the video a third time, but minimise it, so that you only hear your voice. Focus
on the spoken delivery, e.g., pronunciation, variation in pitch and pace.

4. Assess your strengths and identify opportunities for improvement. Be as specific and
constructive as possible.

After you have reviewed your video, prepare a short self-reflection of your presentation.

1. Reflect on your strengths as well as areas for improvement. Identify two things that
you could work on and suggest how you might improve on them.

2. Submit your self-reflection (as a Word document) to the Assignments folder in your
Seminar Group Site. Your tutor will advise on the submission deadline.

Your tutor will provide additional feedback on your presentation.

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AB0601 Communication Management Fundamentals AY2019/20

Guidelines for Self-assessment of Practice Presentation

To gain the most out of this presentation, view your video both informally and in a systematic
way, as described below. Assess your strengths and your opportunities for improvement, set
goals for improvement, and begin developing some strategies for achieving your goals.

Review your video

View your presentation video several times. Although it may seem as if you can view it
quickly and get everything out of it, you won’t get much value out of this exercise without a
set of careful reviews. Here are some suggestions for viewing your video systematically.

1. Watch alone and uncritically

Watch the video alone so that you won’t be defensive or self-conscious. Just get used to
seeing yourself from the outside. Relax and watch non-critically, absorbing how you
sound and how you look. Take note of anything about your performance that seems very
characteristic of you (“I do that all the time!”), as well as anything that strikes you as
unfamiliar (“I never do that!” or “I can’t believe I do THAT!”)

2. Assume a more critical stance

Watch the video alone but with a more critical stance. For example, you might imagine
that you are one of your classmates or some other critical but supportive audience. Look
and listen to that presenter (you) as if he/she were working for you (or as if it were one of
your classmates). Would you be impressed? What would you say that the presenter’s
greatest strength is, and what is his/her most troubling weakness? What would you tell
the presenter if you wanted to facilitate his/her development?

3. Focus on non-verbal aspects

For subsequent viewing, focus on different aspects of the video. First, try the video with
the audio turned off. This will show you how you are communicating non-verbally. With
the sound off, you will become aware of how you come across to others. Do you frown or
look friendly? Do you look dead or animated? Eventually, these kinds of questions
should lead you to others, such as “Do I like this person?” “Would I trust this person?”
Looking at your non-verbal communication should give you a revealing portrait of how
others perceive you.

4. Focus on verbal aspects

After you are finished with the video on mute, turn the sound up and shut your eyes.
What does your voice tell you? Does the voice sound confident and competent? Does
the voice know anything? Does the voice believe what it’s saying? Does the voice sound
interested in what it’s saying? Next, watch the video with the sound on and try to match
your non-verbal communication with your verbal communication. Do the two fit together?
(E.g., does the interest on your face match interest in your voice?)

5. Watch with others

Invite a friendly audience to watch with you. Sit slightly away from your fellow viewers so
that you can watch them watching you. By attending to their responses, you may learn
whether your review of yourself matches up with others’ perspective. After the video is
over, get feedback from them, but do remember that their non-verbal responses may be
more honest than what they tell you. If you are uncertain if the video fairly captures your
speaking style, ask your friends if the video represents your typical performance.

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Analyse your performance

Analyse your presentation from several perspectives. Of greatest importance, examine your
skills in light of your own ideas about your presentation skills and your sense of what kind of
business person you would like to be. Then consider your peers’ responses to your talk, as
well as your experience of watching other participants speak. Finally, consider your skills
according to the criteria listed at the end of this document.

Based on all of these perspectives, identify what you now believe to be your major strengths
as a speaker and your biggest opportunities to improve. Attempt to evaluate your skills
against the criteria for this speech and any goals you might be able to set for yourself in
improving your speaking skills. Avoid defensiveness (offering excuses, ignoring problems,
focusing exclusively on strengths) as well as excessive self-criticism (failing to recognise
strengths, attacking one’s shortcomings endlessly). The memo should neither over-praise
your abilities nor critique them unrealistically.

After analysing your speaking strengths and opportunities for improvement, set goals for
improvement, supporting your objectives with observations of your performance (aspects
that you felt to be weaknesses or less than you would like to be as a speaker). In addition,
suggest some specific strategies by which you might try to reach your goals. Think over your
procedures for preparing your presentation and analyse how they might have negatively
influenced your performance(e.g., did you practice saying the same words so many times
that the talk ended up sounding memorised?) Would different methods help you speak more
effectively? (e.g., rehearsing aloud with an audience to give you feedback?)

Prepare a self-assessment memo

Now you are ready to write up your self-assessment. Your analysis should focus on the
development of your presentation skills, which will serve as a baseline for further
development.

Openly explore your own strengths and weaknesses as a speaker, setting realistic goals for
your improvement by the next presentation. Although you should briefly describe the
methods you used in assessing your video (e.g., getting two friends to view your video with
you), do not go into detail about such matters. The point now is your performance and what
conclusions you draw about it, especially what you believe to be your primary strengths and
opportunities to improve.