Course evaluation and self reflection.

At the beginning of the semester, I was looking for classes that are different from the engineering classes. Also, I wanted a class that teaches me how to find a job. I found a book "What color is your parachute" recommended in this course website. I thought it must be helpful for my job search. Those were the reasons for taking the course.

After taking the course, I have had a positive learning experience. By experience, I really mean experience. The course did not teach long equations and theories. Rather, we have had the experience of writing a proposal, blogging and interviewing. These seemed not as important as the hard core knowledge. However, I strongly believe that these skills are absolutely necessary to differentiate yourself from the rest who are also well educated.

I really like the fact that I could receive feedback in the class. And I've received plenty from Brad and my classmates in ES2007S. The courses with final exams did not satisfy me because I would never know what was wrong with my answers, essays, or reports.The stimulating thinking process involved in many activities of the course was really enjoyable.
I still remember the "Gone fishing" slides and recently "The social atom" slides. It was interesting to see how Brad draw a connection between the book and communication principles. For the blog posts, I had put a lot of thoughts when I commented in other blogs. Also, it was educational to see how my classmates interpreted and communicated in response to a same question.

I want to thank Brad for giving us relaxing, relevant and insightful lectures. I appreciated that you have encouraged us to pursue our idea for the proposal when the Officer though it was not realistic. I am thankful for having fun and competent classmates. You guys have given me many constructive criticism, encouragement, and something to look up to. I learned plenty from your strength and weaknesses. Without you, my classmates and my tutor, I think I could not enjoy the whole course that much.

Self-reflection for the oral presentation

Firstly, I would like to thank for all the questions in the Q&A. It made me realize that there are a lot more to consider making this idea happen. For my group presentation, there are many areas for improvement.

I found the structure/outline of the presentation was not good enough. We used the same structure/outline as that of the proposal (of course with the survey information added). I felt that the sequence of information presented was logic; however, not cohesive. So, it reduced the persuasiveness of our proposal. I am not sure what we could have done differently though.

Also, we did rehearse together a few times. However, I felt that the transitions between presenters could be improved. As Michelle said, the take home messages were not clear during the presentation. Actually, our “take home” messages were put into the conclusion slide. I think we should have named the slide Take home messages instead of Conclusion, and the presenter should have emphasized that these are the take home messages. Could that work?

During the presentation, I think I was and looked nervous. My mind just went blank so I was not fluent at some pointsJ and I spoke too fast sometimes. Actually, I did not use the pointer effectively. I realized this when I saw how the Rocks used the pointer to direct the attention of the audience today. In the future, I could work on controlling my emotions, improving my language fluency, and paying more attention to the structure of the presentation.

This is the first time when I am a leader role in a group project. I think my group mates are generally good. However, we did have some miscommunications, different ways of working, and different expectations. For the future group projects, it is better to discuss about the expectations and working’s style of each member to reach common expectations and create mutual understandings