Critical Reflection

Submission 3: Critical Reflection

1. Module learning:

Before the start of the course, I had two goals in mind, writing and non-verbal communication. I believe that I have achieved one of the goals over the course of 13 weeks. As most of the assignments involved group discussions and writing. I was able to practice writing and there were a lot of reading involved to complete the assignments. I feel the technical proposal has really helped improved my writing skills, there were a lot of parts to the proposal and it was important that there was a flow to it and in getting our ideas across. Secondly, non-verbal communication. Because I identified this as a weakness at the start of the course, I started to pay closer attention to this aspect of communication. I made it a habit to keep an eye out for the body language of the listener and my own body language as a listener or a talker. I have made progress in terms of my communication skills, however one key take away from this would be speaking slowly. I realised I tend to speed up my speech at times and it becomes really hard to follow so one thing that could be done would be talking at a constant tempo. 

2. Project learning:

Solution of the research project. There are various possible solutions that can be adopted and integrated into the same settings however everyone has differing views on what they feel is the best solution. To come to an understanding, we must first convince our peers that the solution presented is better and peers should provide constructive feedback to further improve on the given solution. To be able to convince others, he needed to be confident and well-versed in the subject so this also helps improve presentation skills. I learnt that the more familiar you are with the subject, the better your presentation will be. However, presenting the solution and writing it are two different aspects of the project. In the report, technical terms or data should be included to support the solution however during the presentation. The audience may not be all engineers, therefore it would be an advantage if we would be able to convey the idea of the solution in simpler terms making it easy for the general audience. Through this experience, the key takeaway for me would be teamwork skills. Being efficient in inter-team communications helps increase effectiveness and productivity. 

3. The Presentation Showcase: There was one team that left a lasting impression in my mind, their topic was regarding sustainable bricks. I felt that overall the team’s content presented was sufficient in getting the message across yet it made me curious for me as well. The team’s delivered the presentation quite well however one or two of them were slightly nervous and it affected the overall presentation a little. The great thing was the showing of a video to demonstrate the brick’s capabilities, because of the video, I felt that it was a lot easier to remember what their idea was about and what their message was. What made the presentation a success, I felt, was how knowledgeable the presenters were. They were calm and composed, whenever they were speaking they spoke with confidence and that really made me feel that they knew that their idea is something special. One thing that could have made the presentation even stronger would be practice, individual presenters have varying presentation skills and it would be a huge advantage if they were all on the same level to help make the overall presentation leave an even deeper impression in the audience’s mind.