Reflections on Assignment

Now that the research assignment has been submitted, I thought I would reflect on my experience with it. I was grateful to have had the opportunity to complete this assignment because I think that having the experience of completing research is good preparation for grad school.

I also thought that having the opportunity to observe what other students were doing for research was also a useful learning experience. Other students in the class approached their research in ways that were a lot different to the way that I approached mine. It was good to learn not only from Angela but also from others in the class.

Completing the ethics proposal was a frustrating process because I had difficulty accessing the ethics tutorial on the website. I wish that I had completed the tutorial in advance of writing the proposal because once I was able to access the tutorial, some of the aspects of how to write the proposal made more sense to me.  On a positive note, I am glad that I have now completed this tutorial because it is one thing that I won’t need to do next year.

The research assignment helped me to identify what further learning and/or experience that I need to gain in order to be successful in grad school. For instance, at this point, I am not strong in theory and am aware that this is something that I need to learn more about.

The literature review took a lot longer than I thought it would. This was partly because I needed to learn how to use the online database. In 1994 (the last time that I needed to look up journal articles), the issue was that there did not seem to be enough information readily available for students. In 2014, the issue that I found was that there was too much information. I learned that it takes time and skill to narrow down your searches to find journal articles relevant to your research.

On a related note, I LOVED using Refworks. I can’t believe how much easier it is to track journal articles and reference work properly. I still fill like this is something that I need to learn more about. For instance, it was in about the last hour of writing my research report that I learned how to “add” resources that I had not found using the online databases. I am sure that there are other features with this tool that will be helpful and am eager to learn how to use it fully.

In conducting the actual research, I learned that it is one thing to say that you are going to do something “on paper” and another thing to actually do it.  I understood why we needed to have a thorough process to ensure that we were conducting research ethically (i.e., have an information letter and a feedback letter, explain that the research was confidential and voluntary etc.), it took a lot of time to do that. As I watched people’s body language as I went through the “intake” process, I could see them losing patience with it. I found myself trying to strike a balance between wanting to do things “right” and also maintain good relationships with the volunteers.

The presentation of my research to my classmates went “o.k.” for me. Even though I am used to speaking publicly, I still get nervous. I didn’t think that I was at my best for that presentation…particularly in the beginning as I was rambling away in my introduction! On a positive note, I also appreciated the knowledge translation piece of this assignment that happened “naturally” as we were able to share our research with the Festival Manager.

Thank you Angela and Nina for everything that you did to make this experience such a successful one! I learned a lot from both of you.