When I first signed up for this course, I never expected it to be as eye-opening and helpful as it has been, I thought it would be just another core course where I’ll have to learn things that I would never actually relate to in my day to day life. However, I was completely wrong about this, I actually learned a lot in this course, let me take you on my learning journey! To begin with, I learned a lot about myself seeing that during the course we learned a lot of aspects and then were given the tools and the time to reflect how this particular topic relates to us , this was particularly evident in the “my biases and I” assignment , when we saw several videos about biases and othering in class, I really did not make much of it , then came the hypothesis reading where we had to read” the problem with othering” think and then annotate , whilst reflecting on my thoughts and reading my colleagues’ opinions and thoughts I learned a lot about a side I chose to ignore thinking it was a bad trait , only to discover it is completely normal and I was then able to play the intellectual game/ quiz about my biases and actually discover a lot of them! I accepted them and even wrote a very long post about it , this brings me to my second point , acceptance something I really learned during this course is acceptance , of myself and others, I was taught through several assignments that whatever I feel/think is a right of mine and is not something I should hide or feel guilty about , this was also constantly praised and encouraged during our conversations in class, we always made it a safe space for everyone to talk even if they have unpopular opinions, not once did anyone argue over conflicting thoughts or anything , and I was also encouraged to voice thoughts that I normally would not have! I also learned that there can be creative and attractive ways to present very basic information about myself, I believe this is a very important skill in order to be able to stand out in the “real” world especially that I am a marketing major and creativity can make a lasting first impression in my field of choice, I was taught this during the making of my “alt cv” and comparing it to my normal CV. Then the pandemic came along and the content became even more relatable, I even learned about time management through the module that we read about and this was a skill needed especially at this time, I learned that to do lists are almost essential and that dividing tasks intro small increments with rewards is great and very motivating and has actually helped me when things got too overwhelming. I also learned about several real-life issues through playing the professionally made games such as spent and refugees, this gave me knowledge about issues that I am not familiar with seeing that I am not in that position. I have also learned several attitudes throughout the course, I learned patience and understanding and to be able to listen attentively and put myself through different people’s shoes, I learned this mainly through Soliya and the discussions we had on their solely about these attitudes. Finally, the game also allowed me to dig deeper in a topic I deeply love, health and wellbeing, and allowed me to put my knowledge in a project and make it fun and interactive as well, I have also learned several things about my own field such as family effect on food habits in children. With that being said, the attitudes I learned will always be very beneficial to me in both my career and my social lives seeing that these are very important in terms of communicating whether with friends in terms of being understanding, honest and accepting and with work partners in effective communication and honesty with your seniors. As I also mentioned , being creative in assignments and being able to express serious things in more fun and spontaneous ways is essential to my chosen career path of marketing and the time management skills will most definitely help in my career seeing that workd eadlines are extremely strict and crucial.
whilst every piece of this course managed to add to my learning experience if it came down to three things the very first would be the “my biases and I” assignment because it showed a lot of self-exploration and confessions being brought to the light, it also shows that there are tools available that can help us reveal a lot about our identities , things we never knew about and I would not have known about had I not taken this course , it also showed a great deal about me being at peace with my biases and how I have taken the time to self-improve and move past some of them and that makes me a more accepting and wholesome person. All In all, it shows how one slight lesson can be such an eye opener and it shows what a long way ive come. Secondly, I would choose my ALT CV , this is because im really proud of how creative I can get when the right tools and lessons are given to me , and this is something I have always had self-doubts about, it also shows how this course allowed me to show all sides of my life and personality rather than just the work and achievements mentioned in the normal curriculum vitae and it also shows how this course and Dr Maha encouraged us to be out there and was very interested in all aspects that we care about and want to show off in a sense. Lastly , the game I created, I believe this game taught me that I know things too and that my journey in something I have struggled with and put effort into learning is most definitely something people can benefit from and I can even make it lighter by using technology and creativity to make it into a fun game that can educate people and entertain them at the same time and hopefully even guide them into the correct path.
on the other hand, there were some things that I would like to enhance in the course, to begin with , I would allow an alternative to the online exchange program “soliya” seeing that sometimes people are extremely uncomfortable with having to talk to strangers on camera for a couple of hours ,whilst it is extremely beneficial it can also be a burden to introverted or shy students and therefore, I would definitely keep it and encourage students to take part in it but also allow them to have an alternative assignment that would maybe make them a bit more comfortable with the assignment as well seeing that it was a rather big part of our course. Also, whilst the course does allow some reverse teaching as in allowing students to bring in their own content occasionally and having a discussion, I would definitely increase that as it allows us to explore more about ourselves and others for example the coronavirus meme assignment allowed a lot of us to express how we feel midst a very stressful time in a way that relates to us , so I would definitely see it as an improvement if students were allowed to fulfill their assignment requirements in a form that allows them to express themselves for example maybe instead of writing blogposts people can create mind maps or interesting videos. Lastly, I believe a person that is on a journey of self-exploration and craves interesting learning is one that should most definitely choose this course.
I really loved the opportunities presented in this course seeing that it allowed each of us to stay true to ourselves and our interests and we always felt that Dr Maha was always interested in our differences and was eager to see our individual mindsets and talents, I really did value that most of the time our differences were catered to for example there was always a reading or a video about a certain topic, I found this extremely valuable as people were always engaged because there was always something they preferred over the other and were therefore motivated to do the work and take part in our fruitful discussions, I never found any of the ways not valuable because each aspect taught us something different.
