Critical Reflection

 

Module learning

Before taking this module, I was not sure if I had the confidence or skills to present in front of the class and write a technical report. Previously in my introductory email, I mentioned that I aimed to improve my presentation skills as I tend to speak too quickly when I get nervous. I also mentioned that I wanted to improve my active listening skills to provide constructive feedback to others.

After going through 13 weeks of this module, I can firmly say that I have achieved these goals. Being asked to read paragraphs to the class helped build my confidence for the final presentation. Additionally, the peer feedback forms we had to frequently do helped me in my goal of being an active listener when others are speaking. I have always struggled with my rate of speech during presentations and this module has helped me with that. Being more conscious of my rate of speech helped me speak slower and clearer to help the audience understand my presentation better. I have also learnt to make effective slides that grab the audience’s attention. Before being exposed to the materials of this module, I had always made my slides like everyone else with many bullet points, so I have something to read off during my presentation. But after this module, I created my slide with one key takeaway of the slide and a related picture. This module has provided me a good platform for myself to improve in terms of communications and critical thinking.

 

Project learning

The technical report part of the project taught me many things. This was the first time I was writing a technical report. The materials in this class helped me a lot in terms of writing the technical report. It required a lot of reading and cross-checking sources to corroborate the information. I also learnt a lot from the library workshop about finding reliable sources. I learnt how to filter out materials to find the main point of the article and I believe that this is a critical skill that I would need not only for the rest of my academic life but also for work. I have also learnt the right way to cite sources and I have already used that knowledge for other modules when writing reports.

              Another takeaway from the research project was teamwork. We all had different schedules and workloads. The team managed to compromise and do the best to contribute individually to the research project.  At first it was hard as we did not know what we were doing, and it was the first time we were working together but we managed to pull it off and wrote a report we were proud of. I feel like each of us did our best and we worked well together and improved our critical thinking and communication skills together.