Reflective Reports

How to reflect effectively

Log your thoughts at the very end of a studio session, creative period, team meeting, etc.

• Write thoughts in bullet points first (do the blog later)
• Try answering the prompting questions in the following section
• Remember to take videos/photos/screenshots for each session to enhance the post
• Research before a session to apply a new technique/process in anticipation of a task
• Research after a session to make improvements/recommendations to something that did not turn out well in reflection
• Add external concepts and ideas wherever possible and reference them properly
• Don't forget the CIU Blog Quality Rubric

What to reflect on (Prompting Question examples)

Soft Skills/Transferrable Skills - Project Management

• ­Identify several important events/ issues that occurred during the project.
• What positive thing happened? - How can you make sure this happens again?
• What negative thing happened? - How can you avoid this?
• What were the circumstances, equipment, humans, behaviours, techniques, soft skills etc. - think of your role and the team's role (interactions)

Hard Skills/ Creative Work

• What are the key creative processes that have been used in the project?
• Which have worked well and which can be improved?
• What are solutions for the processes and outputs that need to be improved?
• What areas of your craft can you improve? How might you do this?

Reflection on the Planning - Usually done at final stages

• How are we travelling in relation to what was planned?
• Has the planning document been updated regularly to reflect changes in direction?
• Was the plan effective as a guidance and support tool?
• How much the execution diverged (if applicable) and why