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My Reflection

Plan 

When I first started planning, I faced a lot of self-doubt when making my own decisions, wondering about what deliverables I could showcase and the appropriate order for it to be done to document my semester-long learning. Starting our being very uncertain about everything, filling up the learning contract, refined learning proposal, and learning logs that were very new to me, was difficult without constantly seeking opinions from my peers and getting their reassurance and validation for my own ideas. This uncertainty and indecisiveness within myself was something I had to work on and was slowly replaced bit by bit with more confidence as I go along this journey.

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I found the Plan stage to be extremely intimidating as I had to set a whole timeline and come up with deliverables that I wanted to achieve prior to even starting the whole project. I thought: How could I possibly know what I needed to do when I haven't done it yet? However, I soon came to realize how important and useful it is to think and plan far enough when it comes to being self-directed learner. Though it was something I dreaded in the beginning, the detailed plan became very handy and was what I depended on to stay on task and have a clear view of what I needed to do throughout the performing and monitoring phase. 

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Perform

During the first few weeks of performing, I was very fixated on documenting evidences of my learning that it took away the joy of researching on basic parrot care and graphic design. However, I was reminded by my facilitator and resource person that I needed to enjoy the process and focus on the result as well. Their words  shifted my mindset completely and I soon started to find more enjoyment in my self-directed learning process. 

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Through the perform stage, there were many components for me to reevaluate and change accordingly. For example, I decided to do a poster/infographic instead of a brochure, and a survey on basic parrot care instead of a quiz. I realized that it was completely fine to make some changes to my initial plan along the way according to the circumstance. I also learnt how to manage and be more flexible with time. This was when I also realized the importance of planning for sufficient buffer time for my tasks to give myself some leeway if I was unable to complete them in time.

 

Having to do everything online - from researching to using Illustrator and even creating this e-portfolio, really pushed me to use the different tools of technology, be more familiar and comfortable with it. All this contributed to becoming more digital and information literate. 

Monitor

Challenges

To ensure that I was on the right track and improving, I reached out to 3 people (resource person): Dr Neo, Ms Tia, and Wan Yen, to learn more about avian care and graphic design from them, as well as to get them to guide me along the way, evaluate my work and give suggestions on how to improve. Through contacting them, as well as the bird shops, l got to practice being confident in communicating more tactfully and effectively to convey the purpose of my project etc. to persuade them to become my resource people/external partner. This definitely taught me how significant it is to hone our communication and collaborative skill. 

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Monitoring is a constant process and was something I had done diligently to ensure that I headed in the right direction and remained on track. I would frequently ask for feedback from my learning facilitator and resource people, and constantly check if my learning milestones were achieved in my set timeframe, and would think of how I can make up for it if I didn't. 

The main challenge throughout my self-directed learning was time management. Though I would say I am a rather disciplined student, the other modules in my course were very content-heavy with multiple assignments and tests that I had to juggle with this semester. Yet, I had also set many tasks to do during the first few weeks of perform stage. Researching for both avian care and graphic design took hours of combing through and finding reliable sources, consolidating my learning and presenting it in a document or presentation slides. Being a very non-tech savvy person, picking up a completely new software meant spending more time figuring everything out, much less becoming proficient in it. Hence, there definitely were times when I was tight on time where I was conflicted about whether I should prioritize GL or other modules.

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Another challenge was being very indecisive and lacking confidence. Because of those traits, it was difficult for me to be sure of what I wanted to do in the beginning. I also took a long time thinking about what plan I should go with when I was considering between actions to take. 

Reflect 

Overall experience​

  • Looking back at this 4 month-long journey, I have certainly grown in subtle ways and couldn't be more proud of myself for sticking through and not giving up even when things were a little rocky in the beginning. The sense of accomplishment that came with planning and executing all of this myself, like arranging consultation sessions and being fully responsible for what and how I want to learn, is incomparable to anything I've done in Y1. I am glad to have this opportunity in GL to explore what I like to do and making something meaningful out of it.  

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Areas of improvement/What would I have done better?: 

  • Crafting of survey and survey analysis. I should have reached out to someone expert in this field like consulting my SAS lecturer instead of struggling alone. 

  • Reaching out to more places for the distribution of my physical posters. As I still have 3 more posters left, I am planning to contact more bird shops/ veterinary clinics to distribute them.

  • Be more daring in experimenting and making mistakes instead of worrying so much in the planning stage.. After all, failure is part of the learning process. 

  • Ask for help when I am stuck on something for too long. 

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Things that went well: 

  • Setting up manageable timeframes to work with enabled me to find a steady pace and prevent burnt out throughout the PPMR phases. 

  • Being disciplined enough to follow the deadlines I set for myself

  • Successfully learnt the basics of using Illustrator, had a better understanding of what graphic design is as well as its elements and principles.

  • I also now have a deeper understanding of proper avian/parrot care and successfully created a poster and distributed it both in-person and online. 

  • Positive and encouraging comments and feedback for the poster/infographic from my family, peers, teachers, and the public. 

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Skills that I picked up:

  • Communication/collaboration with lecturers, students and bird shops

  • How to create Google form 

  • How to use Illustrator

  • How to design a poster 

  • How to use Wix 

  • Project planning 

  • Documenting PPMR process

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How can I incorporate what I have learnt in the future?: 

Besides the skills that I've acquired along the way, I think the values that GL taught me and qualities I learnt more about myself will definitely take me one step closer to being more prepared in various aspects of my life. For example, having a better grasp of the PPMR framework allows me to handle my own student-initiated- project in my final year. I can also use my graphic design skills as a side hustle in the future. Through my self-discovery in GL, I can continue to work on my confidence which is crucial in my next phase of life, like in University or my future job, especially if I were to continue in the Veterinary industry that is highly stressful and deals with life-and-death matters of animals.  

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- The End - 

This e-portfolio is partial fulfillment of the subject Guided Learning. 

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