A500.9.4.RB - Manglona,Matthew-Napu Course Reflections

A500.9.4.RB - Manglona,Matthew-Napu Course Reflections

As I reflect on the course dating all the way back to the month of August I really surprised myself on the amount of work and most especially the quality of work I was able to produce with everything that was going on in my life on a day to day basis. From working full time to having no weekends off once a month due to drill, coaching Crossfit, and volunteer work every other weekend, I surprised myself with everything I was able to accomplish. If I was able to improve my learning experience I would have to say I would improve my time management. It was such a blur I am not going to lie now that this course is over it is surreal. However I really did take a lot from this course because as the days went by I was able to apply each module lesson to my job and work.

For the university or instructor to give support on learning? In my honest opinion I think all the support was there from the start. If I had a question an answer with clarity was given especially from a distant learning point of view. An example was provided to include detailed information on what needed to be done. Which I really appreciated because this was my first distant online class and thought it would be a little bit more strict, but I really admire the quick responses and help that I was able to obtain.

There was a lot of relevance to my career from this course especially my confidence to my superiors and my critical thinking process of having a bright idea or recommendation for them. I also challenge my subordinates in asking them the questions needed when it comes to accomplishing certain tasks. I don’t base their answers to me from their perspective, but I ask them to think the questions my bosses would ask me when I turn in a product and ensure that they are able to provide me a detailed answer. In a way I taught my staff a little bit of this course along the way through this course. I expect to learn about things in the future on the more strategic level and apply decision making from the top of the pyramid point of view. I really look forward to the challenges once again as I continue to balance everything I have going on in my life at the same time striving to be the best I can be whether it be at work or my grades while attending this great University.

A500.8.3.RB –MANGLONA, MATTHEW-NAPU_Good Presentation Design

A500.8.3.RB –MANGLONA, MATTHEW-NAPU_ Good Presentation Design

The Good Presentation Design was a great lesson for me because I was able to relate the lesson to both my personal and professional life. Alignment, contrast, proximity, and repetition are all important elements in the brief presentations I prepare for my supervisor and other leaders in my organization. I recall when I first started preparing power point presentations in the military and my presentations being all over the place. I would include fancy backgrounds, the fonts were never consistent throughout, and I had embarrassing spelling errors. My boss would keep returning my presentations to “fix ” without providing guidance or expectations on what he wanted the slides to look like or include.  It took me awhile to figure it out, but I eventually did. I learned to pay attention to detail, even on the smallest elements such as the location of the page number and I often ask my colleagues to read my presentations as a second set of eyes for errors or inconsistencies with the information on the slides.

As I read the pdf document provided, I focused my attention on the slide decks that were included in the document looking for different elements as to what a good presentation design should look like. I quickly realized that fancy backgrounds are not necessary to get a point across, nor do you need a lot of pictures or fancy animation to have a good presentation. In college my professors never taught what a good presentation should look like, nor did they mention that consistency and simplicity are things to consider for a good presentation. I realized this after looking at some of my old presentations on my computer files and remembered that they basically gave an assignment to create a presentation. After this lesson, I was deeply surprised that I received multiple grades of “A” on my presentations.

What needs to be done for a good presentation in general is what we discussed in our discussion question. A good presentation consists of slides that are simple and straight to the point, engagement with the audience, and no shortcuts in the brief. The effort and time that is put into a brief is what the audience will receive when being briefed. Meaningful information on a slide is much better than a slide full of animation, and of course it is always a good idea to include some visuals such as pictures or graphs. Giving direct eye contact instead of roaming the room is something I constantly do and didn’t know it was actually a good practice. I like to do direct eye contact so I can catch somebody if they are sleeping through my presentation.

This module is a great tool for me as I stated above. It is interesting that what my boss was trying to tell me was something he probably learned in his graduate courses or from his previous boss when he was in my position. I now know that this will only benefit me in the future and beyond my years in the military and private sector.