MSLD 500_Activity 9.4_Kemp,Elijah

This course was very beneficial to me and provided me with a lot of great tools that I can use throughout my graduate program. The 9-week format was ample time to cover all of the material and familiarize myself with all of the information presented. I thought that the instructor was very engaging and that the course was laid out well for me to be able to retain knowledge and incorporate the action research into the course assignments.

One of the biggest positives of the course was having a diverse student population. Students were able to incorporate life events and professional experience into discussion board questions, making for some very detailed, engaging discussions. The only negative experience I had with the course was not knowing about the Brain software before enrolling into the course. It would have been a good tool to get familiarized with before starting the course to avoid falling behind.

I thought that the critical thinking activities and information given to me during the course will be very beneficial in my organization for me and my team. I proved this with my action research project, but that was one small piece of knowledge that I incorporated into my routine at work, and this class had so much more than that to offer. It will be exciting to see the results from my team after using the tools and knowledge from this course. Almost every decision, both personally and professionally, needs to be thought out using critical thinking standards and skills, so it will also benefit my decision making in my home and with my family. The action research project was without a doubt my biggest takeaway from the class. It really helped me broaden my research horizons, engage my team at work with change, and challenge my peers at work to help benefit the organization. 

MSLD 500_Activity 8.3_Kemp,Elijah

Good presentation design is crucial to keeping your audience attentive, along with being able to retain the knowledge given. I think that being an effective presenter and keeping slide content to a minimum are the two most important points when creating a presentation.

I have sat through too many presentations where the presenter was either tired, boring, or simply did not care about the material being presented. This made for a bored audience and the information being conveyed was not retained as well as it could have been. Presenters need to be excited about the material and knowledgeable so they can illustrate key points for the audience, rather than filling up a slide with words. Having high energy and actually caring about the presentation will allow the audience to be more engaged, creating a more effective and fun environment.

Presentations should also be created in a way so that wording does not clutter slides, and slides are kept to a reasonable amount. Sometimes a picture can tell a story or convey a point. Audiences are said to respond better when they are visually stimulated, and this could not be made possible when using excessive wording, bullet points, and refraining from using stimulating images and graphics.

Creating a good presentation is not easy, but overcoming a few major obstacles could greatly improve the effectiveness of it.