Reflection on Web Folio
Creating a web folio had been an interesting and fascinating process. I must admit it felt overwhelming in the beginning when I looked at the assignment. I do not consider myself tech friendly individual, hence it naturally made me apprehensive. I decided to tackle this project as I had tackled my last project of the formal report. I divided the web folio into different units on Microsoft word. This helped me organize my thoughts so my folio can have a smooth and transient flow as readers browse through it. Google and YouTube channels on different types of portfolios have been helpful resources throughout. In the end, I did have some fun with this project. Once all the data was gathered and headings made, I was excited to place it on the web and to my surprise, it came together nicely. I relied on my team here to give me feedback as well which was another helpful resource.
Final self-assessment
Designing a web folio had been a creative process. My design included a short bio accompanied by my educational and professional achievements thus far. It presents my work in the best light with easy navigation to various tabs where detailed information is provided. I experimented with various themes and eventually settled with the Coraline theme but I ended up choosing my own pictures to make them more relevant to my profession as a dental hygienist. I individualized the web folio to market my skills as a dental hygienist and added additional tabs such as professional membership and LinkedIn. Overall, my design is creative and relevant to my profession. The web folio is easy to navigate and the opportunity to connect is highlighted on the home page.
Some strengths I can identify in the learning process are curiosity and willingness to learn about technical writing. I can see now why this course is a mandatory elective in my degree program. Self-reflecting in the end has helped me become a better writer where I specifically pay attention to certain aspects of technical writing. YOU attitude and reader-centered writing are of particular interest to me. I struggled with time management as oftentimes there will be a couple of assignments going on in the week. Being and staying organized was a difficult task but I did try my best.
As for the assignments, the strength is the amount of learning that took place. Every assignment was aimed at a different type of learning. For example, a technical definition aimed to describe a complex term by breaking it down to simple sentence but a formal report focused on being concise but comprehensive at the same time to provide enough information to the reader. I cannot think of any drawbacks to the assignments. Peer review is often provided for revisions and examples in the instructor blog were another resource which made assignments straightforward.
I gained so many important skills during this course. I would like to start with peer review. Being a dental hygienist, I often come across dozens of peer reviews. This helped me understand the ins and out of peer review process. I am positive as I enter my fourth year in my degree program, I would be asked to facilitate peer review at some point. Another strength I gained is recognizing the importance of social networking. Social networking plays an important role to make connections with people you may otherwise not be able to meet. I plan to do instructional dental hygiene in future, so starting to connect with faculty now is a great way for me to stay in the loop.