Critical Reflection

At the start of the module, I was rather skeptical about it as I knew that the module was mostly about presentations and reports which was one of my weaknesses. I often find myself having difficulties in converting my thoughts into speeches and have lack of confidence during speeches. Throughout my polytechnic days, I must practice multiple times just to get a simple presentation done. I always struggle speaking in front of large crowds as I will get nervous, and my sentences will get broken down. Another issue with myself that I have identified over the years is my ability to work with different group members. It is hard to work with people that I am not familiar with as there will be lack of communication. I did not do very well for my reports either as I have trouble outsourcing relevant content for the report.

This module effectively shows me and provides me with different frameworks and rubrics that can help me drastically improve the quality of my presentations and reports. All of which I have not seen before. For example, using the Paul-Elder framework as a guideline for my summary reader response which was the first assignment we had. Without the Paul-Elder framework, I would have found it a struggle to write the reader response. The module showed me the different frameworks available for presentations and reports and how I can apply them to my everyday assignments, be it in school or future workplace.

The very last time I remembered having to present or speak to a group of people was during polytechnic days and I was afraid that I wouldn’t get used to it. However, the classes challenged me by having activities that require us to speak in front of the class and as time flows by, I got more and more used to it. The professor was very passionate about his teachings and always encourages us to actively participate in class. Through the constant class activities, my confidence was boosted, and I found myself to be speaking more fluently than usual. Normally in lectures, there will be no questions asked by the lecturer. However, it is not the same for UCS lessons. The professor will always call out names of individuals be it to read out some content or just have their opinions on something. This approach was very effective in cultivating class participation, and everyone has a chance to voice out their opinions. 

The skillsets we learn from this module can be applicable to our work life as well which is something I found to be very beneficial especially for future engineers like us where there is a requirement to write out reports. The module taught us on how to do appropriate APA citation, proper grammar usage and proper sentence structures to form our report. Not only that we also get critical feedbacks for our reports so improvement can be done on the spot with relation to the feedbacks by our peers. Both parties get to learn from the feedbacks given. Critical feedbacks work better for me as there wasn’t any sugarcoating involved so I knew what was wrong and I could change it on the spot. 

For me, throughout the whole module, my interpersonal communication skills improved the most. Different assignments require us to work with different people. There was a constant switching of group members and we had to step out of our comfort zone and work with people whom we were not familiar with. It is very important to be open minded when working with different groups of people as everyone has their own opinions and it is better that the group take each other’s opinions to further improve on the task. Different opinions can help to widen my scope of view and improve my content. 

Another improvement made through the module is my writing skills. Some information from the internet can be a bit too complicated or too lengthy for the average readers to understand and what I have learned from the module is to only cipher out the relevant information and paraphrase it to something that is easier for readers to understand. One difficulty I had while doing the reports were outsourcing relevant information online. Through the library lesson, whereby we were taught on the different websites we can use for outsourcing evidence for our reports, I find outsourcing information online way easier now. 

The major key takeaway from this module is the importance of communication in a team. Without effective communication and delegation of tasks, it is very hard to get things done. In every team, there should be a leader who delegates tasks diligently according to individual strengths. There might be a conflict of interests during the projects, and it is very important for the leader to decide for the team. Throughout the tech report, I was very grateful that I have members that can communicate well with each other. We all knew what the task requirement was and what had to be done so the tasks were delegated well, and the process was very smooth.