Personal Development Reflection in Social Science: Online Learning

This assignment is a reflective journal entry by a student, analyzing their experiences and development within an online educational environment. The reflection explores the evolution of the student's future work skills, specifically focusing on technological and social interaction skills, and their application in remote work settings. The student discusses their initial perceptions of online learning, the importance of communication, and the challenges of maintaining motivation and engagement. The assignment also addresses the significance of team development, verbal and nonverbal communication, and the implementation of online security systems. The student draws on personal experiences and relevant literature to support their arguments, ultimately concluding with insights on how to create a dynamic and productive workplace environment. The reflection also includes a comprehensive list of references to support the student's claims and insights into the online learning environment and the development of future work skills.

Running head: SOCIAL SCIENCE
Social Science
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

2SOCIAL SCIENCE
Introduction
Online environment is an era of changes and dynamism. Thus the industries are also
changing their working styles so that they can maintain a proper sync with the current scenario.
Online education, online tutoring and the working of the remote employees have become one of
the most important modifications in the era of science and technology1. I am very thankful to my
University as they have helped me to take part in all the weekly activities that have dealt with the
online educational environment. I have been able to learn many new and useful aspects about the
online education system.
Future work skill 1
Technological skill
I have realized that in order to carry on the online tutoring system in a sound manner it is
important to have a sound understanding of the scientific technological tools. The duty of the
online tutors does not end just after taking one or two classes. They have to make sure that
students are able to reach put to them whenever necessary2. The technological tools like instant
1 Truong, Huong May. "Integrating learning styles and adaptive e-learning system:
Current developments, problems and opportunities." Computers in human behavior 55
(2016): 1185-1193.
2 Popkova, Elena G., Oxana S. Chechina, and Sergei A. Abramov. "Problem of the human
capital quality reducing in conditions of educational unification." Mediterranean Journal
of Social Sciences 6, no. 3 S6 (2015): 95.

3SOCIAL SCIENCE
messaging system, chatbot systems and also the online student forum systems so that students
can get all their doubts clarified from teachers3.
Future work skill 2
Social interaction skill
This is one of the major drawbacks of the online environment as the students rarely get
the chance to meet one another unlike the traditional classroom systems. Thus there is a lack of
the opportunity where students can exchange their ideas or their doubts with each other. Group
studies is one of the best ways in which students can actually get to clarify their doubts and also
exchange valuable tips from one another4. Thus in future while working with remote employees
or distant employees I will always try to arrange for group work or team based works so that they
can get to see each other through the video call sessions.
3 Abdul-Kader, Sameera A., John Woods, and Thabat Thabet. "Automatic Web-Based Question
Answer Generation System for Online Feedable New-Born Chatbot." In Science and Information
Conference, pp. 80-98. Springer, Cham, 2018.
4 Tawfik, Andrew A., Todd D. Reeves, Amy E. Stich, Anila Gill, Chenda Hong, Joseph
McDade, Venkata Sai Pillutla, Xiaoshu Zhou, and Philippe J. Giabbanelli. "The nature
and level of learner–learner interaction in a chemistry massive open online course
(MOOC)." Journal of Computing in Higher Education 29, no. 3 (2017): 411-431.

4SOCIAL SCIENCE
Current knowledge of the online environment
In the beginning of the teaching period I was not much aware of the need for the
communication skill in the online educational system. I was of the mindset that online education
will only be done through the reading of the materials that are available on the internet and
taking the ideas from the internet to prepare the high school or the University assignments.
However I have been able to learn about the importance of the communication system during the
course of this period. I realized that the students who stay in the distant places have to often
interact with their coaches or their supervisors in case of any doubts or any queries. I was having
several doubts in my business management course. Though all the materials were available on
the internet but I was not able to understand about the core management definitions as they were
taught about a month ago. I was not able to recollect the lessons that were taught. The online
tutor was also not available all the time.
Initially I felt that all the students who undertake the online learning system will be
motivated to learn the new things. However my personal experience has been in contrary to this.
I started the online educational course with a lot of encouragement. However as time went by, I
was becoming very demotivated and also negligent5. As the online tutors were not always active
there was a kind of negligent and procrastinating tendency that kept on growing within all the
students. Thus I realized that there must be a proper follow up system so that the interest of the
students is maintained.
5 Allen, I.E. and Seaman, J., 2015. Grade Level: Tracking Online Education in the United States.
Babson Survey Research Group. Babson College, 231 Forest Street, Babson Park, MA 02457.
Arkorful, V. and Abaidoo, N., 2015.

5SOCIAL SCIENCE
One of my personal experiences happened during my business studies examination that
was about to take place on February 2019. I enrolled myself in the course during November
2018. After the online tutoring was over in the end of November, I did not login often. I was
always suffering from the feeling of demotivation. I was feeling helpless before the exam as I did
not have proper preparation6. Thus I realized that there mist be a constant connection between the
tutor and the students in the online educational system7. The teachers must try to post updated
about new books, notes and also new study links to the students via some student forum or some
other social media chatbot systems. Technological applications like the instant messaging system
must be carried on so that the students and teachers can maintain a thorough contact.
Unit goal
Team development activity
I have been able to gain a good amount of knowledge over this unit goal. I have learned
that remote or distant employees must be involved in the team so that they do not suffer from
feeling of isolation. Distant education is gaining round rapidly8. Thus efforts have to be made to
6 Tondeur, Jo, Johan Van Braak, Peggy A. Ertmer, and Anne Ottenbreit-Leftwich.
"Understanding the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and technology use in
education: a systematic review of qualitative evidence." Educational Technology Research and
Development 65, no. 3 (2017): 555-575.
7 Gibson, David, Nathaniel Ostashewski, Kim Flintoff, Sheryl Grant, and Erin Knight. "Digital
badges in education." Education and Information Technologies 20, no. 2 (2015): 403-410.

6SOCIAL SCIENCE
make sure that all the students are being able to contribute their opinions in all the activities
being undertaken
Verbal communication
The voice of the tutor must be loud and clear. The distance education learners must be
able to follow whatever is being said by their teachers. There has to be some written records kept
so that the information is not lost after some time. I have learned that in future I will ask all my
team members to keep a written record of whatever is being said verbally
Nonverbal communication
Emails and other written forms must be used to convey the messages. However the tutor
and the students’ taking part in the non verbal communication have to be very careful about the
tone and language they are using. Initially I believed that in case of online tutor students can
copy the work from the website. However now I have gained knowledge about plagiarism
checking tools, academic misconduct and also about ten right ways of paraphrasing. In future
career, I will select the language which will be clear and formal. At the same time, I will gather
ideas from websites but implement my own words while preparing the business written
assignments
Implementing online security system
8 Bowers, James, and Poonam Kumar. "Students' perceptions of teaching and social presence: A
comparative analysis of face-to-face and online learning environments." International Journal of
Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT) 10, no. 1 (2015): 27-44.

7SOCIAL SCIENCE
I have learned that in case of online tutoring I will have to secure the personal details of
all the stakeholders. Individuals taking part in the online educational services have to make sure
that they are having a proper anti-virus system and also the proper software to protect them
against hackers
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that this assignment has been helpful in increasing my
knowledge about the online environment system. I will be making use of this lesson in the future
so that I am able to develop a new, dynamic, free flowing workplace environment in my future
career. I will be recruiting and collaborating with a large number of remote employees from
different socio cultural backgrounds so that they can contribute in providing different kinds of
useful business ides in order to promote the overall welfare and profit maximization of the
organization.

8SOCIAL SCIENCE
References
Abdul-Kader, Sameera A., John Woods, and Thabat Thabet. "Automatic Web-Based Question
Answer Generation System for Online Feedable New-Born Chatbot." In Science and Information
Conference, pp. 80-98. Springer, Cham, 2018.
Allen, I.E. and Seaman, J., 2015. Grade Level: Tracking Online Education in the United States.
Babson Survey Research Group. Babson College, 231 Forest Street, Babson Park, MA 02457.
Bowers, James, and Poonam Kumar. "Students' perceptions of teaching and social presence: A
comparative analysis of face-to-face and online learning environments." International Journal of
Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies (IJWLTT) 10, no. 1 (2015): 27-44.
Gibson, David, Nathaniel Ostashewski, Kim Flintoff, Sheryl Grant, and Erin Knight. "Digital
badges in education." Education and Information Technologies 20, no. 2 (2015): 403-410.
Popkova, Elena G., Oxana S. Chechina, and Sergei A. Abramov. "Problem of the human capital
quality reducing in conditions of educational unification." Mediterranean Journal of Social
Sciences 6, no. 3 S6 (2015): 95.
Tawfik, Andrew A., Todd D. Reeves, Amy E. Stich, Anila Gill, Chenda Hong, Joseph McDade,
Venkata Sai Pillutla, Xiaoshu Zhou, and Philippe J. Giabbanelli. "The nature and level of
learner–learner interaction in a chemistry massive open online course (MOOC)." Journal of
Computing in Higher Education 29, no. 3 (2017): 411-431.
Tondeur, Jo, Johan Van Braak, Peggy A. Ertmer, and Anne Ottenbreit-Leftwich. "Understanding
the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and technology use in education: a

9SOCIAL SCIENCE
systematic review of qualitative evidence." Educational Technology Research and Development
65, no. 3 (2017): 555-575.
Truong, Huong May. "Integrating learning styles and adaptive e-learning system: Current
developments, problems and opportunities." Computers in human behavior 55 (2016): 1185-
1193.