REFLECTION

This section contains my reflection after the completion of the project.

STAGES OF WORK

My journey through each of the plan-perform-monitor-reflect (PPMR) stages.

PLAN

When I was doing the planning, I was still very unsure of how this project would be carried out. Since it was my first time doing an individual SDL project, I did not know what to expect and was rather nervous and not very confident in my decisions. However, I soon learnt that the project is mine, and there is no right and wrong in the execution of my project. Although I had some trouble with the deliverables (e.g. learning contract) as I was unsure of how detailed and how realistic my plan should be, I was able to seek guidance from my learning facilitator and managed to complete them. I also had a lot of things that I had not decided on (e.g. software to use for designing the booklet). Hence, I felt that I could have decided on this prior to the start of the project to save some time. Overall, I felt that the plan stage was not the smoothest as I constantly felt anxious and nervous about what I was doing and felt that I was not doing enough.

PERFORM

I felt that this was the most successful stage of my project. I was able to stick to my schedule well and completed my planned tasks for each week either on schedule or ahead of schedule. I also was not very stressed at this stage as I had given myself ample time to work on each section. However, this stage was also where I encountered the most technical difficulties. Hence, I feel that it was the right move to allocate myself sufficient time for each section as I had to spend a considerable amount of time figuring out how to do/format certain things.

MONITOR

The monitor stage was where I encountered the most hiccups. There were many things that could have been improved on, especially the timeline. I did not expect to have to make so many changes to my passport after receiving feedback from various people, and did not allocate myself enough time to do the amendments. I also did not consider the time that people will take to reply me. Hence, I started to fall behind schedule as I had to wait for everyone to reply me with their feedback, which took longer than expected. Also, I had to make changes more than once, which was also unexpected, causing me to fall even more behind schedule. The monitor stage was also when I feel like I was the most stressed, as I had to worry about not being able to keep to the timeline, as well as having many assignments and tests for my other subjects. Hence, I feel that one improvement that I can make is to allocate more time for the monitor stage so that I have enough time to gather feedback and make the necessary changes. I should also be prepared to make changes more than once to ensure that I have done the best that I can.

REFLECT

I feel like I really learnt how to appreciate the reflection process. I am personally not someone that regularly does such reflections. Hence, I was slightly afraid that I had to do so much reflection for this project. However, while doing it, I started to find myself enjoying doing the reflection as it allowed me to think back on my entire GL journey and realise how much I have learnt and grown through the whole project.

WHAT I LEARNT

Some things I learnt from doing this project

DIGITAL DESIGN

While doing this project, I learnt how to use Microsoft Publisher to design my booklet. Prior to doing this project, I had little experience with digital design, and never considered myself a tech-savvy person. Through this project, I encountered many difficulties like not knowing how to add certain elements to my booklet to being unsure if my settings were correct. However, I persevered and managed to solve my difficulties using the internet to search for solutions. Additionally, since I had to create an e-portfolio for this project, I also had to be familiar with basic web page design to ensure that my e-portfolio was easy to navigate and contained everything that was required while looking nice. The digital skills that this project has taught me will stay with me for a long time to come and hopefully, will be of use in the future.

INFORMATION LITERACY

This project allowed me to get better at information literacy. For the educational portion of my booklet, I had to research more about vaccines and other relevant information to be included. Of all the information gathered, I had to filter through them and decide which pieces of information were necessary and what could be omitted. I had to ensure that I was able to get my message across, without having too much information that people were not interested in or found difficult to understand.

COMMUNICATION

For this project, I was assigned a mentor by the partner organisation, SVA. Since I had never had an external resource person for my projects prior to this project, I was not sure about how to go about communicating with her. Throughout the duration of this project, I got more comfortable with communicating with people that I did not know and have not met before, and were professionals in the field. When I started off, I was extremely nervous but have grown to be more confident now.

SELF-DIRECTED

This project was the first time I had the opportunity to embark on a self-directed project individually. Since I was the only one doing this project, I was responsible for creating my own timeline, ensuring that I stayed on track and making decisions by myself. Previously, with group projects, my friends and I relied on each other for motivation and to ensure that we are all on the right track. However, for this project, I had to be independent. I had to be accountable to myself and ensure that I followed through with my plan. This was rather tough at the beginning as I was always unsure of myself and if I was doing the correct things. However, I slowly became more comfortable with doing things myself and slowly gained confidence that I knew what I was doing.

WHAT WENT WELL

Parts of the project that were smooth-sailing

TIME MANAGEMENT

I feel that I was able to manage my time well and complete my tasks according to my timeline. I was also quite strict on myself and made sure that I completed what had to be done before the deadline that I had set for myself. I also managed to plan my time well so that I was able to cope with doing this project alongside my schoolwork.

SELF-MOTIVATED

Since I choose to embark on this project, I was very excited to begin working on it. It hardly felt like "just another school project" but rather more "oh this is something I am interested in". Hence, it was not difficult for me to find the motivation to work on this project. I looked forward to working on this project and am extremely happy to see the result of my work the past semester.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Parts of the project where I encountered difficulties

PLANNING

Although I had a detailed timeline and managed to stick closely to it, my initial planning for the design was not as detailed, leading to me missing out on some information and a whole section that I had to include. Hence, I had to spend extra time to include these things in my design. I also underestimated the amount of time required for people to reply to my emails, and could have allocated more time in between asking for feedback and updating the design. All these things caused me to have to rush through some of my work and I even had to deviate from my timeline slightly. This was especially in the weeks where I was supposed to do my monitor stage. I feel that I could have been more organised when planning my timeline and deliverables for each week, and to include some buffer time to prevent this from occurring.

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

When doing the design portion of this project, I found myself running into several difficulties. I do not consider myself someone that is IT-savvy. Moreover, I was using a software that I had barely used before, and never for the purpose of creating a booklet. From the start, I already had some apprehension as I did not know if I would be able to manipulate the software to do what I wanted it to do. I spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out the settings and formatting that I needed to input in order to get the document displayed in a way that I envisioned. When I had difficulties, I had to search the internet for answers, but also encountered some difficulties here as I did not know what terms to use in my search. However, all the time spent trying to familiarise myself with the software and get the hang of it helped me to be more comfortable with using this software, and I am confident that I will remember what I have learnt.

WOULD I TAKE GUIDED LEARNING AGAIN?

IN SHORT, YES!

If I was given the choice to take Guided Learning again, I would definitely take it up if I had an interesting idea for a project. Although my journey with GL has not been a smooth one, I felt that it was the challenges and obstacles that allowed me to grow and learn the most. I felt that I learnt so much more from the execution of this one project than if I were to choose any other subject. Hence, I would choose to take GL if I had to choose again.

"There is nothing truer in this world than the love of a good dog."