Reflections

Tori's Reflections

Approaching our design process, our team came in with many versatile solution ideas that were informed and inspired by our research analysis. Deciding to narrow down our scope was one of the biggest takeaways we determined from our research, and some of the hardest decisions from the process. 

My biggest concern with our current design solution is providing students with an effective balance of group work and self reflection. At the basis of our learning goal, students are supposed to improve their interpersonal skills, which involves a lot of group collaboration. But self-reflection is also necessary for students to take the time to exmine their own strengths and weaknesses on their own. Usability testing will help us determine the proper balance of group and individual work.

Coming into the design phase, our team already had a well-established workflow and method for dividing responsibilities. Maintaining weekly meetings helped to keep the communication channels open and a clear collective vision when moving forward into the next step. Accomodating everyone's schedules (both with school and jobs) is often the hardest part, but our team has been very flexible and understanding when needing to reschedule. When we are not able to ll meet together, we meet in pairs and provide a debreif of key points covered, as well as action items for all team members. This helps us ensure we are always on the same page, even if we are not all able to meet together. 

Cherishe's Reflections

Our group analysis was a crucial component in shaping the direction of our design phase. By coming together to discuss our findings, concerns and opinions about the project, we were able to identify the best way to structure our project. During our scheduled Zoom sessions we spent time collaborating on ways to refine our ideas to develop a more well-rounded approach to our design process. The feedback and suggestions that were provided by each team member in our weekly Zoom sessions helped to keep our project framework aligned with our original learning goal and objectives. Overall, the group analysis played an integral roles in the success of our design phase. 

Throughout the design phase I realized the importance of empathy, self-reflection and self-awareness actually are while working in a group. In order for a group project to be successful, members of the group must be able to display important characteristics such as: effective communication, active listening and flexibility. Not only are these characteristics useful in our group sessions, but they are also major pillars of our group project. After a few weeks of working on the group project I realized that by placing emphasis on self-awareness, flexibility and self-reflection we created a supportive and collaborative environment. By prioritizing the understanding in our group,  we were not only able to ensure that we developed a strong team bond but we also were able to confirm that the outcomes of our project would align with our learning goals.

My concern with the design process is that it may not fully meet the desired learning goals developed by the team.  While we have carefully outlined the objectives and outcomes we hope to achieve, there is a possibility that we will fall short of our learning goals. This discrepancy could be due to a lack of substantial amount of time with the students who participate in our seminar. Although 4-weeks is a significant amount of time to work with students, the overall effectiveness of a 4 week program may be limited. Students who have extreme difficulty handling conflict or difficult situations may need more the 4 weeks to start developing conflict resolution skills. To better support these students, I feel that it would be beneficial to have a support program for students who may need extra assistance. This program will of course be optional but I believe it would be useful to have just in case a student needs individual guidance. 

As a team I believe that we all practiced active listening, effective communication and flexibility. Each group member was respectful when discussing and critiquing ideas that were posed in our schedule sessions. We made sure to consider all ideas with an open mind, while also acknowledging when an idea may not align with out overall learning goals. In the next phase of this project, I believe it would be best to set up more meeting times. Currently our group is meeting on Saturday mornings but at times our schedules change which makes it difficult to meet. Sometimes it can be challenging to find a time to work for everyone and I believe that by developing a morre flexible meeting schedule, we can ensure that everyone can participate in meetings at the same time. 

Elena's Reflections

The thoroughness of our analysis phase was valuable during the design stage, providing a solid foundation rooted in our objectives and identified needs. By continually referencing these foundational elements, we made sure that our design decisions were relevant and purposeful, avoiding the temptation to go off course with irrelevant ideas. The aha moment for me occurred while we were detailing our designs, as I recognized the importance of alignment across all design choices. This realization highlighted the importance of the analysis stage in guiding our design process towards cohesion. 

The remaining concerns are around evaluating skills like conflict resolution that go beyond mere knowledge acquisition. However, I think the approach of integrating collaborative discussion and reflection into the learning process will be effective. By incorporating these elements, we aim to assess not just learners' factual understanding but also their internalization and practice of important conflict resolution skills, setting the stage for real-world application. 

Our team maintained open communication, mutual support, and integration of each team member's contributions. We made sure that all of our voices were being heard, keeping one another informed of our progress and actively building upon each other's ideas. I think this built a supportive environment that helped us flesh out and build on our designs for our project.