Critical Reflection

Reflection

 

Module learning

 

At the start of this module, I wrote a short essay introducing myself. In that essay, I have mentioned my weaknesses and goals for this module. As mentioned in that essay, one of my weaknesses is that I hope to improve my technical writing and oral presentation skills. Those are some of my weaknesses in communicating effectively in a professional environment. Coming to the end of this module, I would say that I have achieved my goals to a certain extent. I have learnt how to write professionally through essays such as "why some choose to wear a mask, and some choose not to", a summary/reader response and a technical report on improving an existing robotic system. I have learnt to identify some grammatical mistakes and am more aware of my sentence structure to avoid mistakes such as comma splices and fragmented sentences. Although I sometimes make some grammar mistakes, I can notice them after proofreading them. By writing the summary/reader's response and the technical essays, I have also learnt how to correctly cite the sources in the American Psychological Association (APA) style. I learnt how to paraphrase the cited sources and give credit to the author(s). I have learnt to analyze a source and not to trust everything I have read by thinking critically. I have also learnt how to compartmentalize my thinking process by thinking critically. 

 

Other than report writing skills, another goal is to improve my oral presentation skills. I have learnt how to pitch my ideas to my target audiences. I have also learnt presentation skills such as being engaging, using hand gestures, maintaining good eye contact and, of course, using proper English when presenting. 

 

 

Project Learning

 

Having gone through the research project, I have learnt how to work as a team and divide each task to suit the strength and weaknesses of each of the members. Having multiple meeting sessions taught me the importance of writing a minute for the meeting and how to write a good minute before the meeting, as the meeting contains information such as the agenda of the meeting. The meetings are more focused with the minutes prepared beforehand, and the teams can tackle the agenda quicker. I have also learnt that writing a report in a team is very different from writing a report individually. In a team, every member has a different level of skills and style of writing. As each member tackles each part of the report, learning how to make the report cohesive is one of the skills I have learnt by writing the report as a team. With multiple people working together, I have learnt how to listen to other people's ideas and suggestions. As mentioned in my self-introduction essay, one of my goals is to improve my oral presentation skills. Through this research, I have better understood how to create effective PowerPoint slides and how to present them engagingly. I have learnt that my slides should not contain too many words and instead present them so I can elaborate on the points on the slides rather than having everything on them and just reading it. I also learnt how to present engagingly. Methods such as asking rhetorical questions and making eye contact with the audience are crucial skills to know when giving a presentation to keep the audience focused on your presentation. Through this research project, by thinking critically, I can now think of the ideal solution for a problem, identify the gap with the current solutions and propose a modification to reach the ideal solution.