Critical Reflection

After going through the module, I feel I have achieved the goals I have set for myself to be able to feel comfortable and less nervous when presenting. For the first presentation of the module, I felt very nervous and could not remember what I wanted to say. However, throughout the course of the module I was constantly prompted to step out from my comfort zone. Starting will small steps like having to a loud in class when asked too. This has helped me to get used to the feeling of projecting my voice as well as to gain confidence when speaking. Afterwards we moved on to presenting in small groups where one who had to read up on a given topic and present the key points of the topic to a small group of people. This has taught me how to pick out key points on a given topic and structure it in a way so that the audience would be able to understand the message I was trying to convey to them. We then moved on to having to present to the class as a group. This experience has taught me a lot from how loud I needed to project my voice, the clarity of my speech and how to properly transition to the next speaker.  Having to work in a group has taught me how the importance of communication as we needed to communicate our thoughts and knowledge clearly to our team members to be able to collate when we have researched on. This experience has taught me the importance of communication especially when having to work in a team to ensure that your teammates are able to understand what you are trying to convey and the importance of eye contact and gestures when giving a presentation. I have used the experience gained from this module for my project module in terms in having to work in a team and having to do a literature review on a teleoperating system.  I am able to further improve on these skills by presenting more and asking for feedback to know what areas I am good at and work on the areas that I am not.

The research project has taught me the importance teamwork. The research project would not be completed with everyone in the team doing our part. I learned that everyone has different styles of working and different ideas the want to include in the project. Being able to reach a compromise is important and can only be done once we have listened to everyone ideas are heard. Another aspect of teamwork I have learned is to help other team members when you have completed “your part”. As in the end it is a group project and helping your team members will only benefit the team. The research project has also helped me improved on my writing skills in area such as grammar, paraphrasing and summary. We had to paraphrase and summarize content from different websites for the report. Having to read the portions written by my team members helps improved my writing as I would be able to learn different styles of writing and learning from the errors they have made. I learn a lot in presentation skills in for example eye contact, hand gestures and making use of visual aids. Furthermore, the feedback given showed me area I have improved on since my first presentation as well as areas I could do better in.

In conclusion this project experience has taught me that in order to have good teamwork communication is essential as it helps to solves doubts and conflicts. The important points to take note when presenting which are not relying too much on PowerPoint slides, ensuring your speech is clear and audible, good eye contact with your audience and the use of appropriate hand gestures. Important writing skills such as paraphrasing, summarizing and citation are also a key take away from the project experience as those skills will be commonly used in future projects.