Assignment 1: Research Proposal
Before the semester begun, I already knew that I will not enjoy learning this subject by only looking at the module name. The word ‘research’ felt so overwhelming to me, it is going to be really time consuming. I am the type of person that prefer working on physical projects rather than reading a lot of theorical thing but in this case I do not even have options. Before working on our research proposal, we need to first decide on our specialization. I was not ready at all since I was not sure which specialization do I really want. Honestly, until now I am still not a hundred percent sure. But oh well, after doing a lot of consideration and discussing it with some of my classmates, I decided to go with graphic design. Hopefully it is the right path though! Not that I do not enjoy graphic design, but I kind of want to learn UI/UX, animation and visual effects as well. After deciding on the specialization, we were divided into two groups. One group will be lead by Dr. Hayati and the other will be with Dr. Jinchi. I was so happy when I know that the graphic design group is going to be instructed by Dr. Jinchi! I have seen her so many times during my first semester through Design Principles’ recorded lectures and finally I got the chance to talk to her. Jumping in to the first assignment, it was really hard to come up with a research topic. My first two topics were rejected by Dr. Jinchi so I have to think really hard thrice because the topic that I picked will be used for my dissertation later. I had to find a topic that I can at least enjoy a little when doing the research so it will not stress me a lot more. After having the research topic and theme, we need to conduct a research problem, research questions, research objectives and rationale. I still remember being reproved by Dr. Jinchi for not understanding the difference between a rationale and a problem statement. I thought proposing the research is the toughest stage but turns out the next assignment is even tougher.
Assignment 2: Critical Review
Through this assignment, I learnt a lot of new things. I had to write 5 critical reviews which means I have to do plenty of readings. I do read but only for Harry Potter and Enid Blyton’s books, they are exceptions. The most hurtful part of this assignment is when I already read the 80 pages research articles and wrote a critical review about it but then Dr. Jinchi says the article is too old. This happened twice and I almost when crazy. Finding new research articles that are relevant to our research topic was not easy too, I have no idea how did I end up finding 5. Now onto the intimidating part, it is the referencing and citation. I have never done anything like these before so I really felt the pressure when making sure I did not use the wrong punctuation. So many fullstops and commas!
Assignment 3: Research Implementation - Primary Data
At first, I thought this stage is a bit lighter, all I have to do is distribute a survey questionnaire and that is it. Well, reality is often dissapointing, should have remembered that. In this assignment, we have to propose one or more research method, complete with its description and justifications. Then choose which brand to use for the analysis. Initially, I was thinking of McDonald’s and Burger King but later on I decided to replace Burger King with 7 Eleven. After inputing the questions in google form I texted my friends one by one to help me fill the survey as I know that if I send it in a group no one will do it for real. I am only able to get 70 responses so far which is still not enough. Dr. Jinchi recommended 80 responses at least but I can already start summarizing the data in the mean time. I regret elaborating so many questions, it took me forever to summarize the responses. Moreover, I realized that two questions that are important were missing. I was advised by Dr. Jinchi to create another questionnaire for these specific questions so I did. However, I have not got much people to answer my second survey as I did not text as many people as I did previously. Summarizing all the data collected was indeed very tiring, especially when I know that I will need to update it again once I received more responses.
Assignment 4: Recorded Presentation
This is my favourite part among all because I really enjoy creating presentation slides. Ever since high school, everytime there is a group project, I always offer myself to design the slides. But I think I spent too much time working on the slides this time that I messed up the whole submission. I changed the slides like three or four times in total, that is just how unstable I am. I really like the final outcome though, it looks so sweet to me! However, I hate the presentation. Believe it or not, the one I submitted is my 41st attempt. Imagine how exhausting it was explaining the same thing over and over again. And I am still not satisfied with my 41st presentation, maybe it is because I felt weird listening to my own voice. Hopefully Dr. Jinchi and Dr. Hayati can understand my English though, please pardon my bad pronounciation!
Final Reflection:
It was a tough semester indeed but I am grateful that Dr. Jinchi arranged the assignments step by step. I cannot imagine working on all this at once, it must be terrifying. English is not my first language so sometimes it is hard for me to find the right word to describe something and writing a whole document like this was very challenging. Overall, the process was not that bad. I mean, I got through it! Not to say I am ready for dissertation though, I am not and never will. The worst part of all this was actually my own time management. I am aware that I always messed it up but I just kept on doing it unintentionally. I really need to learn how to manage my time better to balance between school, work and other activites so I can finish everything on time. If my friends can do it, why can’t I? My contribution in this semester wasn’t good so hopefully I can offer better work next year. Thank you so much for the last 14 weeks Dr. Jinchi and Dr. Hayati, I have learnt so much from you and looking forward to learn more.
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