During the whole course in CG1413, I learnt quite a number of useful communication skills that can be applied to many areas in my life. Below is a list of skills that I feel that it would useful not only in our working lives but in our daily lives as well.
Communication skills
• Models of communications
• Methods to reduce miscommunications• 7 Cs of writing
• Format of emails, proposals and letters
• Email etiquettes
• Effective listening skills
• Non-verbal communication
• Inter-cultural communication
• Presentation skills
• Conflict resolutions
• Conducting effective meetings
• Primary and secondary research
• Principles of problem solving• Making critical arguments
All these skills are important, especially effective listening and conflict resolution skills.
The main purpose of communication is to convey your idea across so as to create a common understanding of the subject. In order to achieve this, effective listening is required, so that the listener can get the full message that is being brought across.
When working in a team, especially in one where we are working with strangers from different cultures, conflicts can occur quite easily, when there is a clash in opinions. Therefore, conflict resolution skills are important, as it will help to prevent conflicts and also help to bring your opinions across to the other teammates.
Reflection on modules
Most of the skills we learnt were applied in CG1102 and CG1413, where many of our assignments require us to communicate, either to our teammates or to a group of people. Therefore, we were able to reinforce the skills taught to us by applying them in our modules. After each assignment, we would also have reflections. The reflections showed us that the skills taught were indeed useful, as we would compare our previous meetings or experiences where we do not apply the skills taught.
CG1102
In this project, I am assigned to a team with two other foreigners. It is my first experience working in a group with such a diverse team. It is quite a challenge working in this team, not because of the different cultures, but due to the different schedules of each teammate. We do not face much difficulty in communicating our ideas, as we have a common language that everyone understands.
For this project, I felt that the main aim is to improve our presentation skills after gaining feedback from our first oral presentation. There is also a focus on taking minutes, using agendas and also on our research skills. These are essential skills that we would be using as we progress in our university life and even more so when we enter the working force.
In conclusion, this module as been very enriching as it taught us skills that we think that we know when we do not really understand it. Our understanding of the skills taught should not stop here as well, as we should continue to practice and improve on them.
Leonard (C06)
Hi Leonard,
ReplyDeleteIt is good that you have listed out the various communication skills that we learned in this module. It certainly helps us recall what we have learned and give an introduction to other who do not take this module what this module is about.
You have added more photos in this blog post and it makes it less dull, compared to your previous blog posts. I believe that’s something that you have learned after this module – to make your blog posts more interesting which will help to entice visitors to read your blog.
However, you may want to strengthen your point of having teammates with different schedules. Is it difficult to find a common meeting time for meetings? If yes, how did you overcome it? In addition, you may also want to list some of the challenges you face when working in a diverse team.
Lastly, good luck in your future endeavors and keep up the improvements!
Li Hua
Hi Leonard,
ReplyDeleteI like how your post starts off summarizing what our whole course encompasses, this gives readers a good overview of what we learnt so far, and how you reflect on what we have learnt. (:
Its also good that you explained how communication is important, and how it affects us, thus justifying why exactly we need to learn how to communicate more efficiently. This reflects on what we have learnt during this module, and what does it affect in reality.
I also like the pictures you injected into the post. It looks relevant, and gives more life to your blog.
Generally your post seems clear and concise, and it is a joy to read it. Sufficient analysis on the events that lasted through 1413, and how you learnt communication from those events, are also clearly dished out.
I hope you gained much knowledges from this module,and hope that it will benefit you in future endeavors.
Cheers,
Cher Lia
Hi Leonard,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, the skills that we had learnt in this module are indeed very comprehensive and these skills can be applied almost everywhere.
We are very fortunate to be able to attain these valuable skills.
It is good that you made a summary, by giving the list of skills that we have obtained in this module, this will allow the reader of your blog to have an overall idea on what is being taught in this module.
I agree with you that the reflections that we have done on ourselves and also the feedbacks given by our peers and tutor, are very useful as these allowed us to realize our own weaknesses and thus being able to take the appropriate actions to correct them and improve ourselves.
Working in a diversified team is indeed not easy and sometimes we would feel that it is extremely challenging in this kind of environment. I am glad that the different cultures of you and your teammates do not have any serious impact on the performance on your team. To add on, I feel that every individual should be responsible for being part of a team, and therefore it is important to seek out each other and have the initiatives to get together as a team to do the work required.
Lastly, this module has been very enriching as we have obtained valuable communication skills that will be useful for us in the years to come. I wish you all the best and hope that you will continue to improve on your communication skills.
Regards,
Jason
Hi Leonard,
ReplyDeleteBy listing the skills you have learnt and writing a summary, you not only give the reader an overview of what you have learnt and it also proves that you are fully aware of the skills you have attained from this module.
In your reflection, you describe the different ways we learnt communication skills. I agree that all of those methods are important, and I liked how you linked them together and implied how these methods build upon each other to reinforce the skills we learnt. This shows that all the aspects of the course were relevant and equally important.
However, you only concentrated on the aspect of the presentations in this post, while I was under the impression that that the module more comprehensive than that. Perhaps, you could have alluded to other aspects such as that of the reflections and your opinion on them.
I hope you will continue to apply the skills you have learnt in future encounters.
I wish you all the best for finals.
Regards,
Kimberly
Hi Leonard,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I would like to show my appreciation to you for contributing greatly to our CG1413 Problem Solving Assignment. You had been a great teammate as well as a friend in CEG, and I would gladly fight on the next 3 years in this tough course alongside you.
You have done a great reflection, following the 7Cs of writing as well as placing effective illustrations to reinforce your points. Certainly you have gained alot from this module, which is a heartwarming fact. Especially so is your description of the importance of the skills learnt in CG1413, when you elaborated on it by using existing project groups from other modules. This shows that you can apply the concepts taught in CG1413 into other modules, further highlighting the level of success and relevance of this module to the CEG course. Hopefully our juniors of CEG would also reap what we gained from this module.
Nevertheless, you could also have given some reflection on this blog itself, its purpose and the benefits of writing an academic blog. Let this be the inspiration for those who are interested or are doing this course.
Last but not least, all the best for your finals!Keep up the grades that you achieved in the 1st semester!
Brandon