Critical Reflection

 Module Learning:

At the beginning of this module, my goals were to enhance my critical thinking skills and refine my communication abilities. Looking back, I can confidently say this academic journey has been a transformative experience.

In terms of critical thinking, I initially struggled with breaking down complex concepts and understanding them. Some examples were the topics and articles I found online when sourcing for a topic to do in both reader response and technical project. But through the active participation in discussions and learning of course materials. I have nurtured a more analytical approach. For example, one was from the instructional units of reader response, it wrote that “In order to understand a text well, we have to highlight the key points of the text’. Another would be using the Paul Elder elements of thoughts which were the 7 questions in mind. This process not only expanded my understanding of the module but also strengthened my critical thinking process.

Regarding communication, I acknowledged early in the process that communication is a key necessity to successful learning. Thus I consistently made a conscious effort to articulate ideas in both verbal and written forms. Engaging in group projects and participation in class discussions became platforms to upgrade my communication skills. Besides that, I took in constructive feedback from my peers and professor which further aided in refining my ability to convey ideas with accuracy. 

This module also provided comprehensive online materials and face to face in class content to help further improve myself. Such would be the articles posted in the instructional units which I used to my advantage when I approach my assignments. Not only that, this module also taught the importance of citations and there were many articles on how to cite a source properly so that in the future projects, there would be a lower chance of me getting plagiarism. 

All in all, this module has greatly improved my soft skills as a person and these skills would not only benefit me in other communication modules but also be a valuable asset when I set foot into the workforce.

Project learning:

For our team research project, I took on the role as a speaker. As an extroverted individual it was a natural choice for me to take on such a position as I am able to speak on behalf of the team with confidence. Despite being tied to a speaker role, I actually helped my group mates with their roles as their roles would have more responsibility to bear. For instance before every zoom meeting, I will always be the one initiating the time to call and the objectives of our zoom. This helped in making our zoom call more efficiently and we are able to spend more time focusing on our individual assigned parts. 

During these group discussions, I learned that it is important to be open minded, accepting new ideas as some ideas pitched by the group members would be better . During the preparation of the presentation, my group actually had a clash on the format of the presentation slides. Those members with more presentation experience felt the initial format was slightly off which led to me speaking up about it. In the end we decided to follow it as we respected the individual’s direction, however feedback showed that the more experienced members were on the right track. This actually taught me a lesson on how I should have rationalised better in order to benefit the team. This lesson will be essential to me in the workforce as it would be common to work with individuals that might have a more resolved mindset.

My focus for my project was about integrating omni wheels to the robot cleaner itself. I had to research many articles to find out the benefits and how the omni wheel system helped benefit the robot cleaner better. Through this research, I learned how to use the resources being taught in class to further grasp the key points of the articles of the omni wheel. Not only that, this research has taught me that researching is no an easy feat, it requires time and effort to be able to produce a desired outcome, this experience helped me better prepare myself for the future as future engineers, there will be a instances which we would need to do a lot of preparation and research to design a robot in order to meet our company’s needs.

In conclusion, this experience has taught me valuable lessons which I can inculcate in other communication modules and future workplace. One main key takeaway is to have a determined attitude, with a determined mind I would be able to overcome any obstacles that may come along the way in the future.

During these group discussions, I learned that it is important to be open minded, accepting new ideas as some ideas pitched by the group members would be better . During the preparation of the presentation, my group actually had a clash on the format of the presentation slides. Those members with more presentation experience felt the initial format was slightly off which led to me speaking up about it. In the end we decided to follow it as we respected the individual’s direction, however feedback showed that the more experienced members were on the right track. This actually taught me a lesson on how I should have rationalised better in order to benefit the team. This lesson will be essential to me in the workforce as it would be common to work with individuals that might have a more resolved mindset.

My focus for my project was about integrating omni wheels to the robot cleaner itself. I had to research many articles to find out the benefits and how the omni wheel system helped benefit the robot cleaner better. Through this research, I learned how to use the resources being taught in class to further grasp the key points of the articles of the omni wheel. Not only that, this research has taught me that researching is no an easy feat, it requires time and effort to be able to produce a desired outcome, this experience helped me better prepare myself for the future as future engineers, there will be a instances which we would need to do a lot of preparation and research to design a robot in order to meet our company’s needs.

In conclusion, this experience has taught me valuable lessons which I can inculcate in other communication modules and future workplace. One main key takeaway is to have a determined attitude, with a determined mind I would be able to overcome any obstacles that may come along the way in the future.