First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow research group mates, Wee Siong and Sau Yeen. Both of them being very helpful and provided me with many ideas and advices regarding the oral presentation. During our rehearsal, I was not feeling well and cannot come up with good ideas to present my part. Fortunately, my fellow group mates had assisted me, giving me precious guidance. Before the oral presentation, I was very nervous as this was the first time where I was required to perform an assessed oral presentation. I was so panic and my mind had gone totally blank during the presentation. All the points that I had memorize the night before was forgotten. I forgot to have eye contact with the audiences and I did not “blank” the slides which was an act that I was supposed to do in our presentation. At some point of the presentation, I was struggling to find the correct word to say and convey my main message to the. I was very disappointed with my overall performance and I think that I can perform much better if I able to control my emotion well. I will learn from this experience.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Final Reflection (Post #7)
As time flies, we have come to the last post for this module. After reading through my first post, which was written three months ago, my understanding of the value of effective communications skills certainly had changed. Initially, I used to think that an effective communicator is someone who can fully express themselves to others and at the same time understands by them. On the other hand, I never thought of an effective communicator should also be an active listener. Through this module, I have learnt that communication is always a two way process.
Personally, I think that blogging exercise do help us in forming interaction and bonding among us. If we were only attending classes, I am not sure that I would ever have any chance to learn so much about my fellow classmates. Through each post, I have a chance to share my point of view with them and at the same time get to know them better.
Next, report writing skill was another useful skill that I have learnt from this module. It was not easy to propose, conduct survey, analyze data and write a report in three weeks time. From setting objective and hypothesis to writing conclusion and interpretation, as well as following the APA format of citing references for the report, this project taught us everything in order to produce a piece of professional writing. Through the effective group communication and teamwork, the three of us were able to make it!
Furthermore, the process of learning how to write excellent resume and cover letter prepared me for my future job searching upon graduation. The peer review section where we went through each other’s resume and job application letter was very effective as I had the opportunity to see how well others had wrote and also received many valuable inputs on how to improve my resume and job application letter. Nevertheless, the mock interview was also very helpful as it exposed me on what type of questions I should be expecting when I go for the real interview.
Through this module, I have learnt a great deal about interpersonal skills, resolving conflicts and practiced active listening. I am now more aware of non-verbal gestures when talking to other people and learning on how to tackle awkward situations caused by interpersonal and cultural differences both at home and at school.
Overall, ES2007S was a very useful, fun, interesting and fruitful experience as I was exposed to various way of communication. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow Malaysian partners who encourage me to take this module together. I am very glad to have Brad as our tutor for this module. He has been very helpful and approachable for consultation especially when my project group was encountering some difficulties with the research study.
