As this course comes to an end, I realize I have learned many useful skills in a short amount of time. Although writing was never my best talent, I appreciate the importance of having good writing skills as it is a necessity in both personal and professional lives. Creating so many different formats of formal writing and having many opportunities to review my team members writing skills, this course has provided a wide range of experiences and exposure to different styles of writing.
My learning process with this course heavily relied on finishing my textbook readings and instructors blog posts in a timely manner to be able to engage in the assignments or discussions with team members. There were many lessons in this course that were quite foreign to me, this helped ignite my curiosity even more and kept me motivated to learn something that is not strictly dental related – which I tend to enjoy learning about.
Some strengths in my learning process were to ask questions either in the course group chat or by emailing the instructor or other team members whenever needed. With assignments, one of the biggest strengths I have is to follow guidelines provided by the instructor to ensure no areas of the assignments are missed. However, shortcoming with my learning process is that I tend to not proof-read my writing more than once. Although I am well aware of the importance of proof-reading more than once, it is a bad habit that I plan to work on to better improve my writing and editing skills. Another weakness that I noticed in myself during this course was time management. With a busy schedule professionally and personally over the summer months, it was definitely challenging to have a heavy content course to finish. I plan to be better prepared in the coming months for my future courses.
I believe the knowledge and skills learned in this course is something that I need to carry with myself in my future career endeavors. I plan to go into teaching dental hygiene in the future and will require all the assistance available to improve my writing and communication skills. However, assignments such as writing formal letters, creating professional resume, cover letter or conducting research to create a formal report are all very critical skills that I have acquired and plan to keep practicing as we move forward. Having the experience of creating a web folio provides another way for me to showcase my qualifications and skills when needed in the coming years.