Critical Reflection

 Module Learning

My initial thoughts of attending UCS 1001 will be a fun yet challenging module. Personally, the learning process has been an enriching experience for personal and academic growth. My objectives were to improve my writing skills and to sharpen my presentation capabilities in terms of pacing, language fluidity, and sentence structure whilst applying the correct uses of grammar and vocabulary. 

I believe I have managed to achieve most of my objectives through the reader's response and the formal technical report segments, as both require good knowledge of the approaches I should take and apply to complete the report. Presentation-wise, I do believe I display good vocals as I was able to present and project my voice smoothly with appropriate pauses to the class. As a reporter, I learned to filter and combine the contents that needed to be presented in a clear and concise manner. 

However, I do believe there are areas for improvement. Upon reflection, I realised that I made some grammatical errors during my presentation and there was a lack of balance when it came to presentation airtime. Moving forward, I feel that it would be more effective to consider splitting the presentation workload out to be more even, giving my group mates opportunities to showcase and explain more in-depth about our project. I feel more confident to apply the skills I have learnt to present myself better in the future. 

Project Learning

I feel like the main research project will be the group project, from the research pathway to the technical report and presentation. In terms of presentation skills, I feel like I generally can speak with confidence, be it prepared or impromptu. However, I fall short in certain areas like facial expressions and grammatical mistakes. 

 

When it comes to writing skills, I believe I have improved over time throughout the lessons, with peer evaluations and frequent consultations with my classmates to help me check through my work. I would say that active feedback plays an important role as it surfaces mistakes not easily recognisable from a 1st person's point of view. Nevertheless, there is room for improvement when it comes to writing formal reports and using the right APA 7 style. 

Teamwork-wise, I was a little stressed initially since it was my first time working together with people that I was not familiar with before being grouped together. However, the group made me realise that sharing the load will lessen the burden for everyone, with the bonus of putting each of us under positive pressure to make sure we complete our tasks on time. 

I discovered that to make sure that tasks are completed on time so that the team will not feel overwhelmed by the workload, spreading out the workload is important. I consider myself decent when it comes to time management as I try to make sure tasks are up to standard and completed on time. I learned that working with others is paramount in the workforce and is a soft skill that I am happy to have sharpened throughout the course of this module.

Overall, this experience did not change my view of learning. However, I believe in continuous learning, hoping that these skills can be applied during my IWSP and when I enter the workforce.