Critical Reflection

At the start of this course, I thought this module would be like other communication modules in polytechnic. However, I found that this module was very engaging compared to others as there was more emphasis on interacting in class with each other. I learnt a lot about communication and critical thinking through this module. One key takeaway from this module I took is the skills to find information and properly cite them in my reports. I did not know much about how to find information for technical reports beyond just searching it up on google scholar. While doing the technical report for this module, I found that using key words for searching made it easier to find relevant information quickly. For citations, I was taught how to cite in polytechnic in my communication modules, but the importance of citation was never emphasized in polytechnic. Most of the time, just having a reference page with the links to the sources you took from was enough. The only times I had to properly cite my sources was for my final year project and internship report which made it difficult as I had to rely on old notes and information on the internet to do proper citations. However, now that university places proper citations with high importance, I have begun to practice proper citations in my other reports to ensure that  I keep this skill even after I graduate. Even though making the citations is tedious, I found that it helped me to focus on focus on finding the relevant sources to back up my report.

I learnt a lot about how to give a presentation in this module. Previously, I would try my best to remember every word I thought of and cause me to make a long script or have long winded slides that I could read while presenting. This would cause my presentations to look very awkward as I was reading off the slides rather than presenting information. When practicing presentations for this module, I tried to just understand the content and present without any script. I felt that I could not present this way as the information I had did not come out fluently. Instead I made the slides for my presentation to have short bits of information to tell me what order to present the information. There are still things about my presentation skills that can be improved on. Firstly, my eye contact. I have a bad habit of looking at the screens when presenting as it feels easier to present when I am staring into the screen. This results in me not making eye contact with the audience. Secondly, my volume. I feel that this has improved a lot since before as I am able to maintain a good volume after reaching it without slowly going back to being soft. Finally, my body language. I have been able to make use of my hands while presenting but towards the end of my presentation, my hands will start to remain closed in front of my body. Overall, I feel that my presentation skills have improved after this module but these areas still have room for improvement.

Through this module, I have learnt a lot about communicating in with people I did not know to complete projects, how to find information quicker and write reports with proper citations and about the way I present and how I can improve on it going forward.