CST300 - Week 2

Lecture: Week 2 Learning Journal Post

Part 1: Review and Reflect Learning Strategy

The Effective Study Skills by Dr. Bob Kizlik is a helpful guide to develop more efficient study habits. The guide is easy to read, providing several practical suggestions on how to improve study skills with respect to time management. After reading and reviewing the document, the three areas I excel in are;

1.      Time allocation: It is important to have a structure and routine to dedicate time for study. The schedule helps me to learn with less stress and to deliver assignments on time.  

2.      Active reading: This is an important factor of saving time especially when time is precious. I like to remind myself that reading alone is not enough to process information. A close reading with critical thinking helps with extracting the purpose of the material.

3.      Taking notes: It is one of my top strengths as I have learned from previous classes that notes become extremely helpful with reviewing. I also find that taking notes hand-on helps with processing and remembering information better.

The other areas I feel it needs more improvement are;

1.      Asking questions: This could be challenging to come up with the right question.

2.      Quality check and revising: While I try to stay on track with the schedule, the negative impact on final reviews and quality checking sometimes is evident. This area requires additional attention.

3.      Time efficiency: Although I have a structure and set schedule for study time, I do feel sometime I am slow at producing results. In other words, I could take longer than expected to study lectures or finalize an assignment. 

Part 2: Preview Time Management Skills

For the past three years, I have spent most of my time studying and working from home, and so far, I have managed my time well. It took quite a long time to adjust my schedule to balance all types of activities comfortably. Since I have been enjoying both work and academic activities, I have found fulfillment in doing both. The daily routine contributes to accomplishing small goals one step at a time; thus, prioritizing tasks becomes intuitive with the experience of success. Additionally, I learned that using Outlook calendar is a powerful tool to arrange my week and invite others to a meeting, and my favorite part is to schedule recurring events. I take smaller breaks to walk or rest before resuming work or study. Additionally, the support I receive from my family plays a tremendous role in building a positive environment and freeing me from doing extra errands and work around the house.

Part 3: Project Management Basics

A project aims to produce a target outcome or a product by planning phases within a specific period and focused scope. The difference between a project and an operation is that the project ends once the desired objective is reached, while the operation is a continuous business practice. The phases of a project are called lifecycles, which include initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, and controlling processes, as well as closing. Managing projects is done by a project manager (PM) trained and skilled to close projects successfully. Projects fail due to failure in time management, cost management, scope management, and quality management. To define a project scope, a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) tool is developed to organize and define the deliverables. According to the PMBOK guide, WBS is "a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables." Another essential tool of any project is the Gantt chart. The Gantt chart helps organize the WBS terminal and summary elements. Moreover, the chart displays the schedule of the list of tasks with percentage completion, tasks dependencies, and activities dependencies. PMs widely use these tools to control and manage projects.

 

How to create a WBS using Microsoft Excel Sheet à Click here

Part 4: Check Out Previous Capstones

Reflection on three presentations from the capstone festival.

1- PetRecs

The project is a web application to keep pet records and track a pet's medical and health aspects. The idea is beneficial and could be widely used as a commercial application for veterinarians or pet owners. The presentation shows the potential of the application to support notification and analytics modules and mobile view support. The presenter explained the available functions, the method used to develop the software, and the challenges the team faced so well. 

2- Like A Camera

The project is an interactive educational website built on JS Platform, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Learning about camera settings is a great topic and will attract many people interested in photography; I always thought there had to be a better way to adjust camera settings to capture these lovely, vivid photos. The added feature of translating to a different language is invaluable.

The demo presentation was good. However, I recommend changing the website background and font appearance. Another feature I suggest is taking advantage of the photo simulator by allowing learners to upload an actual photo and test their knowledge. Overall, the presentation is very informative, and the outcome is beneficial.

3- STEMranks

The demo presentation was good. However, I recommend changing the website background and font appearance. Another feature I suggest is taking advantage of the photo simulator by allowing learners to upload an actual photo and test their knowledge. Overall, the presentation is very informative, and the outcome is beneficial.

Although the data is entered manually in this platform application, the STEMranks addresses a deficit for students interested in STEM programs. The presenter conducted the presentation addressing all significant points. However, it is unclear if reviewers must be authenticated to the website or verified before leaving a review. Data authenticity could play a significant role in the accuracy and reputation of the platform. Overall, the product requires more improvement to add advanced search capabilities and reliable data sources with automation.

Part 5: Summarize Your Week on Your Learning Journal

In this module, we are learning about academic writing to refresh the fundamentals that prepare us for the industry analysis paper. I have completed a large portion of my paper already, but I would check the following items:-

ü  Address target audience - avoid technical terms without clear explanation.

ü  Use an inform tone and maintain coherence.

ü  Avoid idioms and cliches..etc.

ü  Double check the APA Reference page

ü  Fix any in-text citations

ü  Adjust 2-3 paragraphs per page

ü  Focus on part II – 2 to 3 pages

ü  Final check on departmental standards and proofreading

·       I received feedback for the industry analysis outline showing two issues. The major area is to describe how the core courses are going to prepare me for this career.

·       Peer Review is part of the upcoming team meeting. The goal is to review the industrial analysis paper for two team members. There are specifics to address besides the academic writing requirements.

·       The Future is Faster than You Think is the book title that Dr. Eric recommended for this module. The shared YouTube video explains the accelerating forces behind computing power, The video discusses the impact of technology on the world and businesses, including the growing availability of capital investments, world of abundance, increased communication, and a well-connected world. These factors suggest that we may be approaching technological singularity.

·       AI and the future of software engineering: The article explains the limitation of AI in software engineering to suggestions of function names, variables, and suggestions of best configurations; however, building more sophisticated systems remains at the hands of engineers.

Open Learning Initiative (OLI)

Module 2 is focused on learning about teammates and identifying team players. I am learning a lot by reviewing OLI modules. The advantage of this tool is that it targets real-life workforce environments directly by addressing the challenges we face at the workplace.

The findings of the Collective Intelligence Research have provided me with valuable information that I can use during job interviews as a manager. For instance, I learned that diverse teams with more women and can demonstrate high social sensitivity with members who contribute equally tend to be more effective. While researching for my industry analysis paper, I discovered that Accenture, the company I was investigating, is seriously committed to inclusion and diversity.

I took the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test and scored about 65%. The article What Google Learned from Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team provided crucial information for building a team.

Listening to Jesse Schell, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, was informative. The information provided during Jesse's interview is an excellent tip for recognizing who is a team player and who is not. He pointed out the challenges we face when working with people with different perspectives on solving problems.