Personally I feel that this course is very useful and inspiring in my four years of study in university as well as the life after graduation.I have learnt about the principles and skills of communication and teamwork during the tutorials.In addition,we have been given group projects for us to apply the communication and teamwork skills in real-life cases.
I strongly feel that after the programming and problem-solving projects I have greatly improved my communication skills.I am also having a better understanding of the importance of teamwork in today's world.
First of all,I have learnt about the 7C's of effective communication and have been practicing them throughout this course.During group discussion,I tried my best to make myself clear by speaking loudly and pronouncing correctly.I also kept my sentences short but concrete in order to achieve conciseness of effective communication.In fact,I think this is the part which I have improved the most.Other than 7C's of effective communication,I have also improved on my verbal and non-verbal communication skills.This can be seen from the two oral presentations.Before I took this module,I was very weak in presentations because I was a very quiet person and dared not to speak in front of people.However,I personally feel that my performances in the two oral presentations of this module were satisfying.I have improved my eye-contact with the audience.Other than that,I have been more confident during the presentation.I also tried to use appropriate hand gestures to capture the attention of the audience.However,there are still many skills that I need to practice and improve on.For example,I should be more confident in sharing my ideas during group discussion.Most of the time I was listening to my team members without speaking a word.I hope I can speak out and share as many ideas as possible during the group meeting in the future.
Throughout the programming project,my team managed to apply the skills of effective communication and teamwork to achieve as best result as possible.For example,one of my team members was not doing his part responsibly and always looked for excuses when he failed to accomplish his task.Although the other three members were feeling unhappy about his behaviour,they avoided having interpersonal conflicts with him.Instead,we tried our best to help him to resolve his problems and finish his part of the project.We even encouraged him to do his part as much as possible and told him that we would settle the rest as a team.Through all these actions,we managed to achieve effective teamwork throughout the project.Besides,we also saved the time spent on resolving conflicts for improving our program.
On the whole,I have improved my overall communication skills through this module.I also have a better understanding of myself since I have known my strengths and weaknesses better.I am sure there will be more opportunities for me to practice the communication skills taught in this module and they will help me to achieve as many successes as possible in the future.
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Hi Li Kai,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the programming and problem-solving projects are very realistic and effective. It provided us the opportunity to practice and apply the skills we learnt during the tutorials. In addition, it gave us a preview of some of the team-related problems that we might face in the future.
Even though you came from a different cultural background and English was not your main language of communication, I can see that you put in a lot of effort to improve your communication skills. I personally feel that you have succeeded and improved, in particular your verbal presentation skills. You were able to grasp the audience’s attention with your confidence and gestures. Furthermore, your pronunciation and clarity of speech were brilliant therefore I was able to understand what you were trying to bring across easily.
All in all, I would like to say you have definitely improved in all aspects of communication after taking this module. I wish you all the best in the remaining years in university. I hope that you will remember and continue to put those skills that were learnt in this module in use.
Regards,
Hao Tan
Hi Li Kai,
ReplyDeleteI have read your post, and it does give an insightful reflection of what you have learnt throughout the course. It is good to see that you have put into practise what you have learned from the module into our projects and meetings such that it will allow you to communicate effectively with members of your team and thus preventing conflicts from arising. It is good that you have give consideration to members of your team who are of different cultural background. It shows that you are practising what we have learned during the module to use and it is a sign of progress.
You mentioned that your team actually have conflicts ongoing, but none of you actually tried to resolve it. It is good that you have spend the energy on working towards the project success rather than trying to resolve conflicts. However, I think that it will be best if you had resolved the conflict. Firstly, by resolving the conflict, it helps to ensure that the person involved knows why the conflict arises, and hopefully seek to change the way he/she do things. Secondly, he will be able to take on his roles more responsibly and thus allow space for further improvements.
This course has truly helped us all in learning things that we previously may think that it is of low importance. I hope that you will be able to apply the skills and knowledge that you have learnt in this course in your future projects.
All the best in your future endeavours and I hope that you will face success in all the things that you do. Good luck!
Regards,
Ryan
Hi Likai,
ReplyDeleteBeing your team mate for the CG1102 project, I totally agree that your presentation and communication skills have improved leaps and bounds as compared to when we first started. In the beginning it was only me and Cherlia talking and you would only acknowledge our points by either a murmur of consent or some non-verbal gesture. However as we progressed, you slowly opened up us and always managed to come up with ideas and contribute to the team when we were stuck.
Regarding that particular team mate you were talking about, I feel that we have dealt with it admirably. However, there could have been better ways like taking the time out to talk things over with him, helping him to understand the concepts instead of doing his part. I do understand that given the time constraints, it is much easier to just ignore the situation altogether and just do a little bit more for him. Nonetheless it is only a temporary solution which would not work in the long run. In my case, I personally had an internal conflict as to whether or not I should have a conflict with that team mate.
It is evident in your blog posts that you have adhered to the 7Cs closely. Furthermore you heeded many of our advice made in the comments section to improve on your subsequent blog posts. I am deeply impressed with the effort you made to continually improve yourself as many people would just write a blog post and ignore the comments altogether.
In conclusion, I feel that your reflection is honest and insightful as you managed to identify your own strengths and weaknesses by evaluating your own performance throughout the course. I do hope you will carry on practicing effective communication as we progress on our NUS journey together. Lastly, I have a few words for you, great job, great team mate and great friend!
Regards,
Jay
Hi Li Kai,
ReplyDeleteYour blog presents a true picture of the benefits derived from the module and the important role it plays in shaping our future. You have brought out very succinctly the importance of communication skill and team work in our life leave apart our career.
I agree that the step by step approach starting from concept writing, presentations followed by projects has really put us through very methodically in learning, understanding and reflecting the skills through this process. You have very lucidly brought out how this whole process has made you analyse the shortcomings in various aspect of communication and presentation skills and how you could overcome those aspects. I am sure your candid admission of your shortcoming is a starting point for correction since no solution is found unless problem is properly identified. I am sure you will overcome this by your constant and continuous practice. My advise will be continue your effort by active participation in group discussion and take the lead by putting your views without any apprehensions. That is the way we shed our fear of public speaking so that you are heard in a group discussion.
Nothing is a better teacher than a practical experience is evident from your blog as to how you and your team have to shoulder the additional responsibility and at the same time motivated one of the team member thus avoiding possible conflict but at the same time made the person understand the need for better team work for successful completion of the project.
It is nice that this learning has helped all of us in improving our communication and understanding the need for team effort thus enhancing our skill set. I take this opportunity through this to wish you all success in your future endeavors.
regards
abbinayaa
Hi Li Kai,
ReplyDeleteYour post has a very honest and simple approach. You were able to identify the various difficulties encountered during the projects as well as the skills applied to overcome them. It also nearly summarized all the important skills learnt in both CG1102 and CG1413 projects. It is really great that you are trying to put these skills in your life.
As a group mate and a class mate I could see a very significant change in you communication skills. At the starting you didn't open much in the class. However gradually one could see the change. Your oral presentation 2 was much better that your first one. You indeed tried to improve yourself during the course. I
Being in group of all Indian girls could have been a little challenging for you, however you handled it very well and gelled with all very easily. personally feel that you are a very intelligent and cooperative . It was great having you as a group mate.
I hope to work with you in the future! And wish you all the very best in your future endeavors.
Regards
Ayushi