In the course of this module, I have learned many valuable and useful skills that will be useful to me, be it applying it in school or at work. Referring to the goals that I have initially set for myself to address my weaknesses which is the ability to breakdown complicated information and make it easily digestible for others and ability to develop proper communication skills to present clearly to the intended audience. Through the technical report, I was able to improve on my writing skills with the feedback from my classmates and Professor Brad. When doing various assignments, I initially struggled with grammar and sentence structure. I would spend hours proofreading my work and asking my friends to comment on my work. I felt that the peer review for the assignment was useful as it pointed out to me the areas I am lacking in such as grammar or tenses. By receiving and giving comments, I was able to sharpen my use of the language as I am now able to reduce the error I make. I felt that the oral presentation assignment was also very useful as it has helped to improve my presentation skills. I used to have a habit of speaking very fast when I am presenting and I keep using the word “thus” when I am presenting. With the feedback from my classmates, I realized the problem and rectified which was evident in the presentation showcase. At the end of the day, this is a module I truly enjoy a lot as I was able to see myself grow in terms of language use and presentation skills with the results to speak for it.
I was really interested in the dynamics of my group and how it would play out. At first, i felt that all of us are shy so I took the initiative to break the ice and make the group more lively. I was grateful for the diversity in my group having each member showing contributing to the project in their own way. They were really fun to work with and I really enjoyed working with them. For example, when we were reviewing the group report and I realized that a sentence has changed. I had to clarify with the group and speak up about accountability as keeping others in the dark may affect the group dynamics and communications. Having individual responsibility and accountability for the report will be important in subsequent projects as it will help in receiving constructive feedback.
I felt that the presentation experience in the showcase was very meaningful for me as it was my first time presenting to a huge crowd with other teams to judges and classmates. I had many worries before going to present such as forgetting about the content or repeating my mistakes in the previous presentation. The key takeaway for this was to live in the moment when you are presenting. I found myself enjoying while I was presenting and the words came out naturally. I feel that my strength in my presentation was my confidence as we had done enough research and I had absolute faith in what I was presenting. One weakness in my presentation would be my voice projection. I felt that I could have spoken louder so that I can grasp the attention of people sitting in the last row. I was able to improve on my presentation by eliminating my excessive use of the word "thus" and the speed of my presentation.
To conclude, this module was meaningful as I felt that there were more interactions between classmates. I was able to achieve the goals and understand the importance of communicating. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all my classmates and Professor Brad for this module so interesting.
