Two days ago, I delivered a presentation about my practicum experience to a group of colleagues at my library. Although not many of them were familiar with DiscoverLibrary, they were all very supportive and were an excellent audience. The more I present this material, the less nervous I get. It helps that I am familiar with the material and with basic questions about usability, the testing process, and the guide I created–it gave me a sense of confidence to be able to answer the questions that I got at the end of my presentation without straining to think of an answer.
I would recommend doing a practicum to any MLS/MSIS student. Although I’ve gotten a lot of out my classwork at UTK, I learned a ton about project management, becoming a subject expert (or at least not a total noob), interviewing and testing users, and presentation skills. I didn’t realize when I started that even though I might put in a ton of effort on a project, it wouldn’t matter unless I could communicate my findings to the people who could implement changes. That’s a good thing to learn, and I’m glad I got to figure it out during a practicum instead of on the job.