Reflective Journal

 

My name is Nadia Irina Nafisah, and I have been a student of Diploma in Business at Taylor’s University since 31st March 2014. We started off our first week by doing some  orientation activities together with the other new students in order to get to know each other better. The week after the orientation week was the week we start to have lectures an tutorials of a total of 5 modules. Lectures are one-way communication of the topic we are learning, while tutorials are interactive lessons between the tutor and students. Each week we will have one lecture and one tutorial for every module. One of the modules was IT Application For Business. This module provide me a smooth foundation on how I can learn to apply IT to business in the future, this includes the usage of most of the Microsoft Office software. I think what I have learnt will definitely help me when I am working in the business world in the future. This is because our world now is currently surrounded by IT and computers. Everywhere we go, people will use computers and technology. Therefore, without learning this module, it would be harder for us to be a successful businessperson.

 

The program that I am currently taking also includes a Professional Development Week (PDW), which takes place between Week 7 and 8 of each semester, expect for Semester 5 because I will be doing my internship. The PDW is a week when I would have to attend for workshops which were arranged by the university. The workshops that I have attended for the first semester were called “The Mobile Application Workshop” and “The Toastmasters Workshop”.

 

The Mobile Application Workshop took place on May 19th from the morning until the evening and it was organized by Microsoft. I have learnt on how I can build my own mobile application simply by using their software called “The Windows App Studio Maker”. I believe what I have learnt from this workshop will be really helpful to me when I want to create a mobile application for my current online shop so that my customers will be able to order what they want directly from the mobile application rather than ordering it manually by contacting me. I really like the part when I had to publish the mobile application I created on the application store and it was really interesting seeing my own-made mobile application on the application store that I usually just use to download applications made by others. However, I really wished that the workshop could have been more organized.

 

The Toastmasters Workshop was organized by The Toastmasters International and it took place in the morning of May 21st for two-hours. I have learnt on how I can be a better speaker and also a leader by attending this workshop. It also taught me that I should be more confident when speaking to people. I definitely think that this workshop helped me as I am a really shy person and therefore I am not confident when speaking to anyone. I would not know all the common mistakes people make when speaking in front of the public if I did not attend the workshop, and therefore I would not have the chance to improve myself when speaking, especially when doing presentations. My favourite part of this workshop was when my peers were called to give a speech in front of all our peers, and some of it was really funny. Overall, I think that the workshop was a really good workshop as it taught me a lot, which could also help me when I want to do any presentations throughout my program here at Taylor's University.

 

Before the PDW, I had to submit my group assignment for IT Application For Business that was due on May 15th. All I ever wanted was to get as high marks as I could, not only for this module, but for all my modules because I really hope I can be one of the top students in the program. Unfortunately, my group members were not determine like me because they did not really care about doing the assignment with quality and they were so dependent on me. I had to overcome this issue by doing most of the assignment myself as I had to edit a lot of things to make it look more professional. I also had to do all the combining for the video and printing all the cover sheet and feedback form as I was the group leader and I want to submit a professional work. If I did not start doing anything or ask them to do anything, they would probably not even bother, but the marks were so important to me, maybe not to them. Therefore, if I had the chance to do the assignment once again, I would definitely choose my group members carefully and make sure that they are the same type like me that want to get good grades, and if possible an A grade not only for this module, but for all the modules. I have also learnt to always prepare for the worse and to always have a back-up plan, especially when having unparticipative group members.