Blog |
This portion functions as a record of my viewpoints and reflections on the material covered in the course.
WEEK 14
In this week, we were introduced to our next project, Project 3. It was an individual assignment, and we were all assigned to create our resume as well as draft a cover letter for a desired organization for internship purposes. This class was conducted via a Zoom session and the professor walked us through the rubrics and some examples on what to include the resume. She also shared techniques and strategies for creating an effective CV and a fitting cover letter. Dr Mary also broke us down in the form of groups and gave a cover letter to each group for analysis purposes. My group mates and I discussed what should be changed in those examples and what we can do to improve the cover letter. Later, we discussed our analysis with the rest of the class and Dr. Mary. It was conducive and aided us in understanding the importance of being precise and to the point while also carefully expressing ourselves. We spent the remaining week working on the Resume and Cover Letter and presenting our solution statements from Project 2.
During this week, I read our next project’s marking rubrics and realized that I had never written a cover letter before. However, it proved to be the most useful skill taught this semester because I believe that writing a professional resume and cover letter is very crucial for a professional career. I did my research and learned the importance of this during my research on the said topic. We looked at certain examples and they helped us understand the tone and style used in the cover letters and how they made a difference.
During this week, I read our next project’s marking rubrics and realized that I had never written a cover letter before. However, it proved to be the most useful skill taught this semester because I believe that writing a professional resume and cover letter is very crucial for a professional career. I did my research and learned the importance of this during my research on the said topic. We looked at certain examples and they helped us understand the tone and style used in the cover letters and how they made a difference.
WEEK 13
In this week, we began working on our technical report. Dr. Mary also helped us along the way by sharing a few examples on the board to help us clarify what was needed from us. We made a video that contained the potential solutions that we had brainstormed during our lectures. Later, we presented our technical report to our peers and received feedback from them. The rest of the week passed on by practicing our presentations and setting meetings with the group mates to work on the technical report and feedback.
It has been a comparatively tough week so far. It was also because it was midterm week, and it preceded our Eid holidays. The tension increased between all group members, but we somehow pulled through it. We began working on our technical report. While doing so, I also watched a few videos on the research questions and the types of research i.e., primary and secondary research. These videos helped me a lot to determine the most effective solution for our project, i.e., single-use plastic pollution in Qatar’s Marine Ecosystem. I also learned to work on the graphs and charts for my report and we used those in our report as evidence and help support our claims.
It has been a comparatively tough week so far. It was also because it was midterm week, and it preceded our Eid holidays. The tension increased between all group members, but we somehow pulled through it. We began working on our technical report. While doing so, I also watched a few videos on the research questions and the types of research i.e., primary and secondary research. These videos helped me a lot to determine the most effective solution for our project, i.e., single-use plastic pollution in Qatar’s Marine Ecosystem. I also learned to work on the graphs and charts for my report and we used those in our report as evidence and help support our claims.
WEEK 12
Once we had enough insights from Miss Betsy and Miss Lola. We then commenced this week with valuable feedback and got started on our posters and presentations. These were presented to both instructors who reviewed them and provided us with constructive criticism on the content, design, and overall structure of our presentation and poster. We also received peer comments to help us improve our presenting skills and presentation combined. A few examples of the pieces of advice that we got from our peers and instructors are as follows:
- Know your target audience
- Maintain eye contact while communicating with the audience
- Try a confident posture and use gestures to keep the audience engaged
- Visualization is an aid that can prove fruitful in presenting huge data
- Practice is the key. Keep practicing to polish the skills and learn new ones along the way
WEEK 11
This week, Miss Betsy came to guide us about poster skills. She taught us about headlines and fonts for creating a poster as we approached towards the final draft of our project 2. As we wrapped up things, we discussed a few principles for using various formats. Moreover, Miss Lola also stopped by the writing center and taught us about presentation skills. She also evaluated a few samples from preceding years and shared her insights on those so as to help us with evaluating our strengths and weaknesses. We also discussed hooks for the opening sentences and discussed ways on how to make them engaging for our target audience. The week ended with a group of exercises that comprised of reviewing several technical reports and providing our analysis and feedback on them.
My teammates decided and convinced me upon reviewing some samples and ideas for our presentations and poster designs. As we were not well conversed with these things so we decided to learn more about data visualization and become well acquainted with it, to support us with our project 2 journey. It proved to be a fruitful means to portray necessary information and also a powerful form of communication tool. The thorough exercise of reviewing the technical reports of our peers helped us to work a model and made us aware of what mistakes we needed to avoid in our technical write-ups. As the discussions commenced with Miss Betsy and Miss Lola they shared examples, during which a poster particularly caught my attention and interest due to its vibrant colors and theme. I also tried to maintain and incorporate a similar theme and consistency in my work.
My teammates decided and convinced me upon reviewing some samples and ideas for our presentations and poster designs. As we were not well conversed with these things so we decided to learn more about data visualization and become well acquainted with it, to support us with our project 2 journey. It proved to be a fruitful means to portray necessary information and also a powerful form of communication tool. The thorough exercise of reviewing the technical reports of our peers helped us to work a model and made us aware of what mistakes we needed to avoid in our technical write-ups. As the discussions commenced with Miss Betsy and Miss Lola they shared examples, during which a poster particularly caught my attention and interest due to its vibrant colors and theme. I also tried to maintain and incorporate a similar theme and consistency in my work.
WEEK 10
This week, we were assigned project 2. The project was a solution statement and comprised 3 parts: a presentation, a poster, and a technical report. Dr Mary showed us some sample posters and examples of posters and presentation formats. As the week progressed, my group mates and I discussed the structure and design of our presentation and poster over a cup of coffee. Later, we had a Zoom session to discuss things in detail and revise what Dr Mary had taught us.
As excited as I was for project 1, project 2 made me very anxious. Our group was having a hard time maintaining a conversation for the past two weeks, and Project 2 appeared to be pretty hard on us. If I break it down, the poster was very challenging for all of us as we lacked the right aesthetic skills needed to get the work done. We also did not have enough data to know how to structure it. As far as presentation is concerned, we were more fearful of the oral presentation rather than the presentation slides themselves. I believe we all still lack the basic confidence to carry this with pride and confidence. Dr Mary showed us some presentations from the previous semesters as samples. This helped us to polish our presentation as and where necessary. Lastly, for the technical report, we all tried to divide the tasks among everyone so we could complete the task over a couple of weeks.
As excited as I was for project 1, project 2 made me very anxious. Our group was having a hard time maintaining a conversation for the past two weeks, and Project 2 appeared to be pretty hard on us. If I break it down, the poster was very challenging for all of us as we lacked the right aesthetic skills needed to get the work done. We also did not have enough data to know how to structure it. As far as presentation is concerned, we were more fearful of the oral presentation rather than the presentation slides themselves. I believe we all still lack the basic confidence to carry this with pride and confidence. Dr Mary showed us some presentations from the previous semesters as samples. This helped us to polish our presentation as and where necessary. Lastly, for the technical report, we all tried to divide the tasks among everyone so we could complete the task over a couple of weeks.
Week 9
Compared to other weeks, this week was quite unusual for us. During our lectures we were confused on as to how to cope up with the news that flashed right in front of us. The news declared that TAMUQ was closing in 2028 and we all felt demotivated. To this, Dr Queen cleared the misconception and kept us from the anxiety. She cheered us up and we later started working on our video presentation again.
The news kind of demotivated us all but we summed up our courage and started working on the unfinished job. We presented the video that contained potential solutions that we brainstormed during the week in class. The feedback that we got on the video was valuable as it helped us to select the best solution for our problem. We now tried to work on creating a clear audio by balancing it with the background music.
We presented five solutions, and from them we selected one based on our decision matric. The next target was to construct a detailed report on the finalized solution and create a poster or a video explaining the same. The constructive criticism was fruitful to work on the missing gaps and perspectives that we had missed.
Overall, although the week began rocky, it was yet effective due to our teamwork and collaboration. Each member focused on their roles and combined we proved to be a great team.
The news kind of demotivated us all but we summed up our courage and started working on the unfinished job. We presented the video that contained potential solutions that we brainstormed during the week in class. The feedback that we got on the video was valuable as it helped us to select the best solution for our problem. We now tried to work on creating a clear audio by balancing it with the background music.
We presented five solutions, and from them we selected one based on our decision matric. The next target was to construct a detailed report on the finalized solution and create a poster or a video explaining the same. The constructive criticism was fruitful to work on the missing gaps and perspectives that we had missed.
Overall, although the week began rocky, it was yet effective due to our teamwork and collaboration. Each member focused on their roles and combined we proved to be a great team.
Week 8
In this week we explored various topics to ideate, research and analyze various solutions for the said problems and present the same in the form of a video. This was my first time when I had to present my problem in the form of a video and was indeed challenging for me as I had nearly almost no sense of video editing.
We went through the UX and Engineering design page to help us with the designing and Empathy and Product design pages to help us with the ideation process. The second page was helpful as it focused on the role of empathizing when thinking about a solution. It helped us realize how empathizing with the problem helped to become more creative thinker and gave us a different Lense to view the problem from. The readings also talked about making a flowchart with tips, this helped me to think about the problem from various angles and work out a possible solution after brainstorming potential solutions.
The reading was also equipped with various methods and tools to brainstorm our solutions. As a team, we specifically liked the tools that helped us in storyboarding and let us decide how to frame our video. The tool that we decided at the end was Prezi. The task for editing the video was divide among all team members and each member was given a different task. Once the video work was complete, we had a person to do voice over for us. We presented the video in the next class and got a feedback over it. The feedback helped us to improve our laggings. We discovered how important it was to create a balance between the music and the voiceover, which meant that the voice over had to be clear and the background music had to be lower precisely. The background voice was higher as the transitions took place.
As it was the first video that I had ever edited and worked on, I would admit that it was a crucial task for me but I loved the learning environment that it gave me. It pushed me beyond my limits and introduced me to a whole new set of skills that would prove valuable in my professional life as well.
We went through the UX and Engineering design page to help us with the designing and Empathy and Product design pages to help us with the ideation process. The second page was helpful as it focused on the role of empathizing when thinking about a solution. It helped us realize how empathizing with the problem helped to become more creative thinker and gave us a different Lense to view the problem from. The readings also talked about making a flowchart with tips, this helped me to think about the problem from various angles and work out a possible solution after brainstorming potential solutions.
The reading was also equipped with various methods and tools to brainstorm our solutions. As a team, we specifically liked the tools that helped us in storyboarding and let us decide how to frame our video. The tool that we decided at the end was Prezi. The task for editing the video was divide among all team members and each member was given a different task. Once the video work was complete, we had a person to do voice over for us. We presented the video in the next class and got a feedback over it. The feedback helped us to improve our laggings. We discovered how important it was to create a balance between the music and the voiceover, which meant that the voice over had to be clear and the background music had to be lower precisely. The background voice was higher as the transitions took place.
As it was the first video that I had ever edited and worked on, I would admit that it was a crucial task for me but I loved the learning environment that it gave me. It pushed me beyond my limits and introduced me to a whole new set of skills that would prove valuable in my professional life as well.
Week 7
In this week, the team members were to develop specific tasks to polish and develop the second draft of the Problem Statement. We conducted both primary and secondary research, analyzed and compiled the data. This helped us to compose various sections of the second draft and review and edit the existing sections. We also scheduled some meetings with the CTL to help us polish our skills and aid with the composing process.
Working with CTL made us realize how we had a lot of resources at our disposal. The CTL assistant particularly proved helpful in helping us improve our work. They helped us to analyze our mistakes and improve them by sharing valuable insights. I was able to figure out the mistakes that brough down the quality of my work. I gained guidance from the assistant and learnt about tools that helped me overcome my shortcomings.
Overall, working on the second draft, acted as a bridge between us and made our bond stronger. It was an exceptional experience to research a potential problem in the area allotted to us and propose solutions.
Working with CTL made us realize how we had a lot of resources at our disposal. The CTL assistant particularly proved helpful in helping us improve our work. They helped us to analyze our mistakes and improve them by sharing valuable insights. I was able to figure out the mistakes that brough down the quality of my work. I gained guidance from the assistant and learnt about tools that helped me overcome my shortcomings.
Overall, working on the second draft, acted as a bridge between us and made our bond stronger. It was an exceptional experience to research a potential problem in the area allotted to us and propose solutions.
Week 6
Next, we worked on the ideation process that helped us to get deeper insight into our problems and solve them. We tested various ideation techniques that were taught to us during lectures. We worked together and came up with tools like Discord, and Google Docs, along with other methods to sketch, and brainstorm ideas. We also wrote a problem memo to our professor. In the memo, we discussed 5 problems that we came up with, during the ideation process. Once we gave out the problems by conducting in-depth research, we also proposed possible solutions for them. Then we met with our professor to discuss clear some points.
Later, we were also asked to make a decision matrix on it. This was an engaging activity and fun to do. We gave a score to each problem according to some set parameters. This helped us to construct a matrix and rule out the best out of all the problems.
Overall, this week was very helpful in helping us document the memo well and go through the ideation process to solve problems and set up a base for our problem statement.
Later, we were also asked to make a decision matrix on it. This was an engaging activity and fun to do. We gave a score to each problem according to some set parameters. This helped us to construct a matrix and rule out the best out of all the problems.
Overall, this week was very helpful in helping us document the memo well and go through the ideation process to solve problems and set up a base for our problem statement.
Week 5
In this week the teams were already formed, and we were giving an engaging activity to get to know each other well and bond for the upcoming challenges. The challenge was to cook food for a family during Ms. Betsy's workshop. As I have already been keen and fond of cooking, so I got along this exercise quite well. We fashioned an effective plan for preparing the meal and it resulted as a great bonding experience for all the team members. We bonded well and got to know each other much better with this creative activity. These activities later helped me to better understand the task scheduling assignment. We held meetings to plan out the deliverables of our upcoming projects.
The workshop also proved fruitful in introducing basic yet effective collaboration and planning tools to us. The tools included Gantt chart, brainstorming and other methods. Then we were asked to annotate a chapter on Perusal. This chapter introduced team roles to us and also essential team documents like a team charter, task schedule and tips for minutes of meetings (MoMs).
It was a first activity together and we have had enough time to find our place in the group and getting to know each other. Moreover, we were also given a document on Qatar's 2030 vision. The whole point was to read and then annotate the document, presenting our analysis on the said topic. The documented brought Qatar's social, human, economic and environmental goals to limelight. The document tickled my excitement as the topic was on my interest. I found the document well written and the use of visual aids to represent things made it even more enjoyable to read.
Overall, this week was enjoyable as it led us to collaborate in a better way and learn new tools to make collaboration effective.
The workshop also proved fruitful in introducing basic yet effective collaboration and planning tools to us. The tools included Gantt chart, brainstorming and other methods. Then we were asked to annotate a chapter on Perusal. This chapter introduced team roles to us and also essential team documents like a team charter, task schedule and tips for minutes of meetings (MoMs).
It was a first activity together and we have had enough time to find our place in the group and getting to know each other. Moreover, we were also given a document on Qatar's 2030 vision. The whole point was to read and then annotate the document, presenting our analysis on the said topic. The documented brought Qatar's social, human, economic and environmental goals to limelight. The document tickled my excitement as the topic was on my interest. I found the document well written and the use of visual aids to represent things made it even more enjoyable to read.
Overall, this week was enjoyable as it led us to collaborate in a better way and learn new tools to make collaboration effective.
Week 4 - Working together Teamwork is the secret that makes common people achieve uncommon results.
In this week we were supposed to go through a couple of videos and then conduct a presentation on teamwork in the following week. We picked our team, assigned tasks, and voted for a team manager. A lot of videos that we went through seemed pretty much relatable. I was able to relate to so many things that I have myself read and watched like gender inequality. This gender discrimination is a rising concern since ages for countries worldwide. Moreover, another issue raised was someone who would take over the project and then the work would be distributed unequally. I was myself someone who loved to lead and would take on major chunks of the tasks, only to find others being left out or being offended. Even if the tasks were divided, I would expect so much detailing and attention from my mates that it would create a sense of tension among us. But it is not that I have only worked in unbalanced groups, I also have had a chance working with groups where tasks were defined and distributed smoothly which ensured the success of the project. A presentation helped us know each other better and start our first project together. This experience showed our strengths and areas to improve. It also helped me understand the dynamics of the groups and it was like the first time when I was thinking of my group as a whole rather than working on myself individually. Identifying weaknesses early helps us fix them, avoiding mistakes and making teamwork smoother in the future. The team-building activities this week taught me how to work better with my teammates, and I'm excited to use these lessons for better collaboration ahead. |
Week 3- Eportfolio
Now, we were asked to make an e-portfolio on all the tasks and assignments we had done so far. This was done by taking help from the CTL (Center of Teaching and Learning) members at the writing center. They guided us on what to include and encouraged us to begin this exciting project. By taking all the guidance that we needed, we began with the first version of our e-portfolio. Their support taught us how to showcase our achievements and projects online. The annotation gave us useful tips for presenting our work digitally.
After we took all the help, we began by creating pages of the e-portfolio. We further populated the portfolio by uploading our projects. The blog section of the e-portfolio served as a section of reflection of our learning throughout the weeks and assessments.
This week, I learned a lot about creating a good e-portfolio, and the assistance from CTL members at the writing center was really helpful for me. Although, the first version of e-portfolio was not as fine as I expected it to be, yet it was a good start and a great learning tool.
After we took all the help, we began by creating pages of the e-portfolio. We further populated the portfolio by uploading our projects. The blog section of the e-portfolio served as a section of reflection of our learning throughout the weeks and assessments.
This week, I learned a lot about creating a good e-portfolio, and the assistance from CTL members at the writing center was really helpful for me. Although, the first version of e-portfolio was not as fine as I expected it to be, yet it was a good start and a great learning tool.
Week 2 - Email Writing
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This week, we learned about different types of technical writing like emails and letters, and the importance of annotation and professional communication. We had a task to email our professor and requesting her to change our grade and also discuss videos from Dr. Robert and Khanjan with classmates. We also had a lecture introducing us to e-portfolios and different platforms to use.
When I was composing the email, I was confident because I have composed some emails in the past but this seemed different. I had no clue how informal or formal I had to sound. After the assignment was completed, I gained confidence in composing formal emails efficiently. Moreover, while creating the e-portfolio, we were guided to take part in an activity, which included flash cards and explaining how we felt. This was enlightening for me as I explored new ways of expressing myself. Overall, this week was overwhelming but relaxed our minds too as we got to know new ways to express ourselves. Unfortunately, we had one lecture online due to the Asian cup, this created some inconvenience and it became hard to grasp the core concepts delivered during the lecture. However, the overall learning in this week was valuable. |
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Week 1- Introduction
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I was excited to get back to classes and start the semester fresh with new hopes and aspirations. I took the course of Dr. Mary Queen, but had no clue how she would bombard us with loads of assignments and how she expects so high from her students. Neverthless, I like such professors who truly push the students beyond their limits to achieve great heights.
The week began with getting to know each other through name-sharing games in class. We began our lecture by getting a hint about what writing really is and how it can help us to polish our skills. Moreover, we were introduced to a website called Perusall, allowing us to read and add notes simultaneously, fostering discussions with others. this was an interesting experience, as it let others share their thoughts and ideas with other classmates. Analyzing the texts based on formatting such as fonts, organizations, and colors made the whole journey engaging and enjoyable. We later, discussed those annotations in the class that led to clearing our unclear concepts. Towards the end of the week, we created introduction videos on the Canvas platform, responding to questions from the professor. The introductory videos served as an icebreakers for us, helping us to know our fellow mates well and exploring new introductory styles. Some students presented animated videos, which were fun to watch. The feedback received was valuable for enhancing the professionalism of our videos. It turned out to be a learning experience as I discovered ways to improve my video, making it more suitable for a professional setting. Overall, the course has instilled the importance of writing in my mind and cleared how it can also serve as a professional career, and I am so excited to explore what other things does it unpack as we go along the journey. |
