Critical Reflection

Module Learning

At the start of the course, I had difficulties penning down my thoughts as I find it hard to choose the right words that are suitable and grammatically correct. As a result, a specific goal of mine was to refine my communication and articulation skills. Albeit that there is room for improvement, I am proud to say that I managed to better these skills in a short period of time. An advice given by Professor Brad that stuck was to re-read the sentence multiple times and understand what exactly one is trying to convey. This way, the verb, noun, etc. becomes prominent and any mistakes will stand out and be easier to correct.  This is especially helpful when heavier content writing is required, and it gets tougher to spot mistakes.

Presentations were never a big issue for me, but that was because I could rely on the presentation slides. Many times, all I had to do was to read off the slides and call it a done deal. During the module, we were taught the importance of non-verbal communication. Some factors include body language, tone, gestures, eye-contact, and the use of visual aids. Truth to be told, all these were nothing new as they were emphasized since day one of polytechnic class. However, we were graded for the content more than the way we presented the majority of the time, which is why it was easy to neglect the proper use of non-verbal communication skills. In this Effective Communication class, however, both were equally important. As we had to pitch and try to sell our idea, proper body language, sufficient eye contact, and the tone used were just as valued as our content. I challenged myself to reduce the reliance on the presentation slides by removing words and replacing them with pictures instead. By doing so, I had to know my product inside out to be able to sound convincing and engage the audience.  I tend to be jittery during presentations, and I always thought that the audience could hear the shaking in my voice. Through the peer feedback, I realized that it is not as obvious as I thought it was, and most of the audiences were oblivious to it, which is a huge confidence booster. Keeping that in mind, I aim to perform better in future presentations.

Project Learning

I was thankful for the step-by-step guidance in each lesson, where we first researched potential ideas, to writing the technical report. The concepts were clearer, and I had a better understanding of where we were heading towards. The mini assignments also served their purpose when we had to post our writings and receive feedback from others. It is often easy to overlook your own mistakes which is why it is always good to have a fresh pair of eyes to look at it. I also appreciated the ever-changing group of people I had to work with on different in-class assignments, as I was then able to have a chance to interact with my classmates and understand their work ethics and accommodate accordingly.

I was fortunate to be grouped with people of good work ethics, where there were no major hiccups throughout the process of the project. The ideas came and clicked instantaneously, and we were quick to allocate the roles and responsibilities. Of course, there was some confusion in between, where we were unsure of certain things due to the lack of knowledge on the project.  However, we were quick to resolve the issues by actively communicating with one another. I realized that it is important to voice out any uncertainties or opinions before any concrete decisions are made to prevent potential problems from arising. One main challenge we faced was that our topic for Effective Communication could not be used for the other affiliated Measurements and Sensor Technology report writing and it was difficult for us to juggle with the tight schedules and to meet the submission deadlines. Nonetheless, I am glad that we managed to pull through and it was a fruitful experience all in all.