VISU #1100 – Skills Inventory and Action Plan

Skills Inventory:

1. My greatest strengths in Drawing I include: Extensive practice in drawing, a keen eye for detail, a gentle and steady hand with a pencil, experience is practicing value and perspective.
2. For greater success in this course, I need to: Practice for a few hours on a daily basis,  have more patience with larger drawings, focus on developing my concentration and finishing one drawing before starting another.

1. My greatest strengths in American Experience include: Proactively taking notes in the margins when reading and having patience with studying.
2. For greater success in this course, I need to: Review my notes more instead of simply taking them and looking them over once.

1. My greatest strengths in Video Game History include: Keeping up with the homework assignments and having a genuine interest in the study of video games (as I am an IGST major).
2. For greater success in this course, I need to: Pay more attention to directions in assignments. I usually do not have trouble following the directions for assignments, but in a couple of cases I have had a few points docked due to misinterpreting the instructions.

1. My greatest strengths in Computing Science Concepts I include: Having an interest in learning and exploring different forms of coding and high grades on assignments despite the difficulty.
2. For greater success in this course, I need to: It’s very easy to get tripped up in coding because there are so many opportunities for error. I need to work on focusing when typing code as it can completely fall apart from one mistype.

1. My greatest strengths in Digital Media and Management include: Thoroughly reading which has resulted in above average scores on assessments and an interest in current events which allows for more engaging in class discussions.
2. For greater success in this course, I need to: Read more thoroughly in order to achieve even better scores on assessments.

Computer skills:

1. My computer skills include: Experience in Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint, basic knowledge of coding in Python, and basic Adobe Creative Suite experience (Photoshop, After Effects, Flash, etc.)
2. I still need to learn: It would be extremely useful to learn html coding, which I’m sure will be included in a class later down the road. Besides html I think i should focus on improving the skill set I have developed already, in order to have advanced or intermediate knowledge in those areas rather than basic.

Research & writing skills:

1. My greatest strengths as a researcher/writer include: Having a passion for writing (though mainly for creative as opposed to analytical) and ability to find and utilize necessary information from sources.
2. I need to work on these aspects of research and writing: Writing more than one draft on most papers is something I need to improve on. I usually create one draft and revise it as I go. I think working on creating a rough draft or two then a final draft would definitely have improved past papers that could have been much better grades.
3. I learn best & accomplish most when: When I learn from things visually, have clear instructions on how to tackle the task at hand, when I can find an area (such as my room) to sit down, focus, and lose myself in my work.

Action Plan:

The class I believe could use the most improvement is Computing Science and Concepts I. I’m not necessarily doing “bad” in that class, but definitely not as well as in the rest of my courses.

Steps for Improvement:

1. Memorizing different operators, coding tools and other techniques in order to pull them from memory rather than looking through notes.
2. Paying closer attention to assigned readings.
3. Allowing more time to study and prepare for class assessments.
4. Asking questions and participating in discussion more frequently.
5. Practicing coding outside of class.
6. More attentive note-taking rather than only taking notes straight from the PowerPoints.
7. Meeting with the professor in office hours to ask for advice on studying for assessments.
8. Practicing mock assignment provided by the textbook outside of classwork and homework.
9. Practicing different methods of coding in order to achieve similar results, as there is likely more than one way to achieve a goal when coding.
10. Discussing or meeting with classmates to better improve my understanding of whatever topic(s) we are currently focusing on in class.