Reflection on Mail Merge and Group Task: Higher Education Skills

This report provides a comprehensive reflection on the use of mail merge software, detailing the steps involved in its creation and its benefits in simplifying tasks such as sending messages to large groups and managing data changes efficiently. It then delves into a comparative analysis of school versus college environments, focusing on time management, learning styles (visual, auditory, and tactile), and the development of critical reading and thinking skills. The report highlights the importance of these skills in higher education, including the ability to analyze information, make informed decisions, and effectively manage time. Furthermore, it discusses the process of collecting and recording information from academic resources, emphasizing the significance of reading skills, including speed, comprehension, and critical analysis, to enhance learning and understanding. The report draws on several academic sources to support its arguments and provides a clear understanding of the skills necessary for success in higher education.

HIGHER EDUCATION
SKILLS AND
COMPETENCIES

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Reflection on Royal Mail and Post Office............................................................................................3
How I created Mail Merge...............................................................................................................3
Reflective report on group task .......................................................................................................4
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................7

Reflection on Royal Mail and Post Office
How I created Mail Merge
Mail Merge helps to send message to a large group of people at once. All the documents are
merged in a single form and than send. It facilitates changes related to name and address also. Mail
merge is a software function that is having capability to make massive number of documents from
one single template (Jääskelä, P. and et.al., 2016).
The software is a feature of MS-word through which similar letters could be send to more
than one person by easier way. The use of mail merge is such that it helped me to send single
message to a large group by different address and salutation. It is the most useful facility which is
offered by Word processor (Bouras and et.al., 2016). Mail merged helped me while making changes
related to date in every letter without going through each and every letter again. It simplifies the
work of the user. Thousands of words can be produced quickly once the mail merge is made which
again helped me to lower down my work load. It copies the same letter in all the addresses after
making necessary changes it decreased my work load as now I just have to read a single letter rather
than reading all the letters (Delaney, and et.al. 2017).
Mail merge also provides the facility to save a letter which could be use in future again. As
now I can use saved letter again it reduces the chance of errors which can occur while writing a new
letter. Mail merge is a set of tools which helps the user to simplifies a set of documents which are
same but contains some changes. I used mail merge for making invoices, inventories, labels, letters
etc. where I have to send the same data to a large group of people and by making some changes in
terms of date, salutation etc (Sadler, 2016).
Steps involved in creating mail merge are:
First step which I involved in the creation of mail merge was to prepare data in Excel for
mail merge. It is the most importance step that is to be done in the process of mail merge. After
creating main document next steps is to create the source from where data is collected for research.
Than comes the point when defining the merge field in the main document takes place. When this
step gets completed third step which I took was to merge the data with the main document
(Schoenmakers and et.al., 2017). The final step which I involved in making mail merge was to
insert a merge field. By inserting more than one merge field we can pull information from
spreadsheet into document. Finally the merged fields were saved and exported. These steps helped
me to make mail merge through which I can send same letters, graphs etc. to a large number of

people at once which made my task easier.
After briefing the above stated steps I have divided the mail merge process into three
categories which are:- Main document; Data source and last is Merged documents. By following all
these stated steps one could be able to use mail merge which helps to reduce the duplication of
work. It helped me to serve a large number of people in some easy steps and thereby reduced my
work level (MacDonald and Shriberg, 2016).
Reflective report on group task
We all know that school environment is much different from the one we experience in
college whether in terms of education, time management etc. in the description coming ahead I will
show you how environment differs in schools and colleges (Aguila and et.al., 2016).
Time management:- It is the most difficult step which we have to make whether we are in
school or college. Success of an individual largely depends on how we manages his time and make
the best use of it. Opportunity comes with a time restriction we if are not able to achieve it on time
than we are going to loose it. In schools our schedule is made by teachers in terms of division of
course, conducting exams etc. but it is not such in colleges as we have to manage everything own
our own (Schoenmakers and et.al., 2017).
When I faced this phase I was not able to understand how I am going to divide my time so
that I am able to complete my course on time. This problem which I was facing was not only mine
but it was find from a survey that many college students were facing the same problem. Half of the
lot said that they were struggling with time management in colleges (Jääskelä and et.al., 2016).
Next difference which is seen in school environment and colleges are the learning styles followed.
On the basis of three learning style I am going to brief this topic:
Visual, auditory and tactile:- learning style are the basis followed. In visual learning
materials are used for explaining the topic. Maps, graphs etc. is used for learning purpose this style
is mostly adopted by schools as students are small in terms of age and have less catching power as
compared to college students. In auditory form of learning conversation takes place between
teachers are students (Sadler, 2016). Use of the common phases such as “tell me” , “let's take it
over” etc. is used for learning purpose this style of learning is seen in colleges where students are
capable of making their answers own their own. Next style which is followed is tactile or
kinesthetic style in which materials are feel and touched in order to check its texture. In this style
use of the phases such as “How you feel” etc. is asked from the students. This style is used for
enhancing the learning ability of the students in colleges (Schoenmakers and et.al., 2017).

Critical reading and thinking:- gives us an idea how we can become a critical reader. It
guides us the importance of critical reading and thinking. By examining the evidences presented in
the worksheet of Post office, Global company, Lidl and Aldi I have completed my report. By
checking out the evidences which were available while doing research I came to know the factors
that influenced the working of these companies which helped me to understand the hurdles which
they faced while working (Jääskelä and et.al., 2016). Not only critical reading but critical thinking
ability should also be developed in an individual. By thinking distinctly and rationally I got the
logic behind ideas which I could make and applied the same while making my project on these
companies (Quendler and Lamb, 2016).
Critical thinking helped me to find better solutions of the problem which came in my way
while drafting this report this in turn gave me the justification of my values and believes that I
followed. The concept of critical thinking involves observation, interpretation, analyse and decision
making ability of an individual. By adopting this skill I was able to think about my topics
objectively (Sadler, 2016). I now evaluate the arguments by finding how much validity they
contains. The most crucial part involved in critical thinking is the objective which the individual
wants to attain. The aim behind the thinking helped me to make decisions which act as a driving
force in critical thinking ability Once I decided the goal or the objective behind the thinking it
became a beginning point for all the future thoughts and ideas (Schoenmakers and et.al., 2017).
While completing the team task of Volkswagen I learn the ability to locate, collect and
record the information through academic resources like books, reference material etc. I collected
the information about the functioning of the company , their rival companies, available share of
market etc. which helped me to take my work to the next level that is to record the information.
Collecting the information from academic resources is a secondary source of data in which
individual cannot make any changes (Delaney and et.al. 2017). The information gathered from these
references or sources is already collected by someone else which can't be altered. Recording
involved the information that is required for our report or study. Out of so many information
available from books and other academic resources I have to pick the best lot of information that I
need for my project (Bouras and et.al., 2016).
Reading skills involves reading of not only English language but also in all the other classes.
For this the learner should adopt speed, comprehension and critical reading of the text or message
which will improve the reading ability of the reader. First the reader have to improve his reading
speed while reading any text or message. The method I adopted while improving my reading skill
was to start with sentences than raising it to the level where now I can read a complete page in some
couple of minutes. After improving speed the next level came was the comprehension part where a

reader have to understand the text or message (Jääskelä and et.al., 2016.). The level of my
understanding level have improved while I was enhancing my reading skills. To increase the
understanding level or comprehension I started reading more books and reading materials available
which helped me ton know many new terms which were used as synonyms. Reading skill cannot be
improved or I can say remains incomplete when we lack critical reading of text or message. It
involves careful reading of text from all the aspects which should be checked or looked out while
reading.

REFERENCES
Books ans Journals
Aguila, G. M. and et.al., 2016. Employability of Computer Engineering Graduates from 2013 to
2015 in one Private Higher Education Institution in the Philippines. Asia Pacific Journal of
Education, Arts and Sciences.3(3). pp.48-54.
Bouras, A. and et.al., 2016. Evolution of ICT industry landscape and its impact on higher education
competencies. In 15th International Conference on e-Learning e-Business, Enterprise
Information Systems, and e-Government, EEE (Vol. 16).
Delaney, Y. and et.al. 2017. Transitioning from traditional to problem-based learning in
management education: the case of a frontline manager skills development programme.
Innovations in Education and Teaching International.54(3). pp.214-222.
Jääskelä, P. and et.al., 2016. Models for the development of generic skills in Finnish higher
education. Journal of Further and Higher Education. pp.1-13.
MacDonald, L. and Shriberg, M., 2016. Sustainability leadership programs in higher education:
alumni outcomes and impacts. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences.6(2). pp.360-
370.
Quendler, E. and Lamb, M., 2016. Learning as a lifelong process-meeting the challenges of the
changing employability landscape: competences, skills and knowledge for sustainable
development. International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life Long
Learning.26(3). pp.273-293.
Sadler, D. R., 2016. Three in-course assessment reforms to improve higher education learning
outcomes. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.41(7). pp.1081-1099.
Schoenmakers, E. C. and et.al., 2017. Competencies in European gerontological higher education.
An explorative study on core elements. Gerontology & Geriatrics Education.38(1). pp.5-16.