COIT20249 Portfolio Assessment: Communication, Ethics, and ICT Skills

This portfolio assignment demonstrates a student's application of communication, teamwork, and ICT skills within the context of the COIT20249 unit. The student provides examples of effective listening, verbal communication, and reading skills used in a project involving captcha development. The assignment also covers teamwork and interpersonal skills, highlighting collaboration and coordination within a team. Ethical considerations and legal aspects within the ICT domain are addressed, along with examples of intercultural competency when working with diverse teams. Furthermore, the portfolio explores communication and collaboration technologies like Smartsheet and Google Docs, and evaluates ICT technologies for improving organizational communication. The student reflects on the unit's learning outcomes, particularly the importance of communication, and suggests improvements to the unit's curriculum. The assignment provides a comprehensive overview of the student's learning experiences and skill development throughout the unit.

Portfolio 4
PART A: JUSTIFICATION
1. Describe an example where you used listening and verbal communication skills
effectively (1 mark).
I was working on the project of development of captcha as the graphical password for
websites. While working on the project, I came across a situation where I needed inputs from
one of the security professionals to understand security measures better and use the inputs to
guide my entire team to proceed with the work. At this point, as I had to sufficiently transfer
the knowledge, I needed to be both a good listener so that I do not miss out on the points of
the senior and a good communicator to effectively explain what I had learnt to the team.
2. How did you use reading skills to effectively develop an academic document? Provide an
example (1 mark).
I read through a large number of documents on the subject of security and used my
observation to capture insights. The captured information was to be critically analysed in
order create an academic literature review which needed me to not just read one view but
multiple views of multiple authors son the same subject. A lot of security related literature
was easily available where there were quite a few documents talking about the use of captcha
for security. To make my reading fast, I used skimming such that I read only the most
important pieces of information in a document rather than doing a complete in-depth
exploration of the studies. My approach was to skim a document and make notes alongside
and then I would move to a new document and see if it something new to say, if same
methods have been explained, I would add to the notes and go ahead to the next document
reading. I kept reading until the point I was able to make a good sense of the complete subject
and then I combined all my findings in my critical analysis.
3. Provide an example of using your teamwork skills and interpersonal skills in this unit.
Provide specific examples for each skill set. (1 mark).
I am a team player and I used this skill to help our project team in task completion with
collaboration. I would discuss and take important decisions for task performance during my
team exposure. I could connect to the team members very well and was good in coordinating
with them. For the development of my interpersonal skills, I had taken an experience of
working collboratively on the project with other team members exploring the same subject of
captcha security and completed the work effectively.
4. Provide an example of an assessment task or an activity in this unit that helped you to
understand ethical behaviours, and/or social, privacy and legal aspects within the ICT
domain. (1 mark).
Research has helped be understand the ethical considerations and guided me to follow the
principles that were required as I had involved people for giving inputs that even included

some personal information. I was using my social capabilities while I was interacting with
the. I also learnt about the security concerns, challenges with captcha systems and the legal
hassles that could be faced with security solutions.
5. How did you use the diversity and intercultural competency skills to work with staff
and/or students from different cultures? Use example/s from COIT20249 (1 mark).
When people from different countries come together to work on a single project, intercultural
competency is needed to remain effective. I had worked with people from China, a country
that has a completely different culture from mine. I am an Indian and I differ a lot from the
people in China. However, there were also some similarities. As per the Hofstede model,
Chinese respected authorities and line of command which is also common in India in most
companies. They were also the strict followers of seniors but I different in that attitude
somewhat and believed in expressing concerns to seniors rather than blindly following
orders. Also, Chinese students were found to be very long term oriented while Indians are
more short sighted. This has caused conflicts between us as I could not really understand the
high level of patient that Chinese had in them for project completion. I wanted to complete
things fast while they kept reading and reading.
6. Describe an example of a communication and collaboration technology you learnt in
COIT20249. Briefly explain how your selection could be used in an organisation (1
mark).
While working on the project, I learned Smartsheet software that could be used for creating a
project schedule in the form of a Gantt chart using the milestone task details. I also learned to
use Google docs for collaboration between the team members as they all week on the same
document online and express their ideas through comments. I also discovered some security
related forums where I could get the answers to questions I was struggling with when
performing coding work.
7. Describe how you learnt to evaluate ICT technologies to improve organisational
communication processes. Give an example of an assignment/topic and the technology
from COIT20249 (1 mark).
If collaborative technologies like Google Docs are used by the people working in an
organisation, the communication processes can be enhanced. Also, project management
software can be used for preparing Gantt charts and delegating work within teams. A
software called High Rise was discovered by me that allowed teams to create projects, tasks,
schedules, collaborate, and create checklists. This software would be useful in updating all
the team members with announcements while delegate work to others online with least
dependence.

Part B – Feedback
 In Part B of your PA1 assessment, you were asked to a write about which COIT20249
Unit Learning Outcome (ULO) you thought would be most helpful for you when you
graduate as an ICT professional. What was that ULO and how did you think it help you as
an ICT professional? Briefly reflect on if you still feel the same or have your thoughts
changed during the term? Is there another ULO that you feel would be more helpful to
you in your career as an ICT Professional? Make sure you provide your reasons (1.5
marks).
I liked to learn about the importance and methods if communication such as comprehensive
reading and active listening. It was provided out to be very helpful in making me understand
how communication works and developed a better listening skills so that I can understand
better.. I was also able to learn to read with best comprehension so that I could take the inputs
from seniors and learn fast. While reading research documents, I could learn a lot of new
concepts that I was not aware of about security systems. Also, I learned in the module about
giving good presentations. That was very useful while I was making delivery of the
presentation for my project as I was able to collate the key ideas effectively and also
communicate to them with the audience through my presentation.
 Write one example of what you liked best about this Unit and provide the reason or
reasons you liked them (0. 5 marks).
I liked the way importance of the team work in a project was demonstrated. I was able to then
share my lessons as well as views with others. As a part of team, we not just spoke to each
other but were also helping each other to complete the work fast and in this process, I could
become a better communicators as well as make friends my peers who were working on the
same project.
 Suggest one improvement to the Unit and justify why/how your suggestion would
improve the Unit (0.5 marks).
I suggest to add conflict management strategies and overcoming procrastination in the lectures as
they can be most confusing and difficult situations for a student in the project management.