Reflective Journal for ITECH 5500: Weeks 1 through 10

This reflective journal chronicles a student's learning experience over ten weeks in a professional research and communication course (ITECH 5500). The journal entries detail the acquisition of essential skills, including problem-solving, communication, and research methodologies. Key topics covered encompass the evaluation of communication and problem-solving skills, research philosophies, statistical analysis, non-verbal communication, business intelligence, ethical theories (Utilitarianism and Deontology), ethics application forms, literature review synthesis, and oral presentation techniques. Each week's reflection highlights the application of these concepts, the use of various online tools, and the evaluation of real-world scenarios. The journal concludes with an assessment of the overall growth in research capabilities and the application of these skills to future career goals, emphasizing the importance of effective communication and problem-solving in professional settings. The student has provided this document to Desklib, a platform offering AI-based study tools and past papers for students.

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B. Reflective Journal

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Week 1
The first week helped in evaluating the different aspects and the importance of the need for
developing excellent communicational and problem-solving skills. The use of effective problem-
solving skills facilitates the overall growth of the firm throughout the concerned work activities.
I have gathered knowledge regarding the evaluation of my scores for skills of problem-solving
(Abernethy et al., 2014). The use of the various online tools also helped me finding out my
confidence level. The week helped me in evaluating my ways of handling a particular situation
by utilizing my strengths.
Week 2
The second week provide me immense knowledge with the use and utilization of the further
exploration and understanding of the various theories along with different concepts on the
research philosophes with paradigms. The evaluation of the YouTube link that was provided in
the second week reflected the different concepts of Ontology epistemology and methodology
(Boulianne, 2015). Moreover, I have encountered the fact that before solving a problem it
becomes more important to identify the sinigifnace of the concerned problem and t identify the
desired which will help in resolving the exact issues.
Week 3
In the third week, the evaluation of the statistics of my everyday life was executed, and also it
helped in reflecting the desired differences between the populations as well as the samples.
Moreover, the week also provided knowledge on the difference of interval and the ratio scales.
The use and understanding the different aspects of the graph is supposed to be vital, and it was
done in the third week which revealed dependent variable, independent variable, an interest of
the population, sample and other variables like ratio scale and nominal scale (Greiff et al., 2014).
Week 4
The aim of the fourth week was to investigate the theories along with the practices on the effects
of non-verbal communicational methods. The week provided a YouTube link which helped in
revealing the concepts of the qualitative and quantitative approaches. It also provides me with
extensive information regarding the main features of both the methods (Moser, 2016).

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Quantitative method reflects the data provided about the quantities and the collection of sample
size and data. The use of interviews and survey are executed with the use of these data methods.
The second part of the week focused on the research area and helped in finding ways to solve
issues and focusing on the problem statement.
Week 5
The finding of the different facts associated with the business intelligence has helped in
providing me immense knowledge regarding the handling of the issues for various small
companies. I understood that business intelligence consists of applications, tools, and
infrastructures along with the best practices. Business intelligence is considered to be the
booming industry, and the strategies are supposed to be intimidating for many of the small
enterprises (Palermo et al., 2016). The week reflected that there are many challenges for the
small companies like ensuring potential growth, achieving speed, use of the expensive business
analytics, lack of the desired expertise, the limited amount of funding, improper training and
challenges related with the solution and data quality.
Week 6
I have gathered vast knowledge regarding the ethical theories reflecting Utilitarianism and
Deontology. Moreover, a case study was provided, and the answers were evaluated by associated
with the concepts of these theories. I have understood the fact that the effective use of the ethical
dilemmas is vital to enhance the effectiveness of any of the business processes concerned.
Utilitarianism reflects the ethical theory which states the best action that is maximized by the
utility (Patterson, 2016). Deontology refers to that approach which focuses on the wrongness or
the rightness of the set of actions perceived by people.
Week 7
The learnings of the week seven were also divided into two parts where the first part helped in
evaluating the different areas required for a standard ethics application form. The document
retained 19 sections in it where each of it has its significance (Simpson et al., 2015). The second
part reflected that one of the vital requirements of the formation of the ethics application is the
use of plain and simple language that will help in making it easier for the people read it. The use

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of the plain language helps in evaluating the effectiveness of each of the vital points as
mentioned in the ethics form.
Week 8
The week eight reflected the importance of selecting the right sources to perform the literature
view. Synthesis Matrix revealed that the literature review section effectively requires the
synthesis of different subtopics or the sections highlighting different areas (Swain, & Gale,
2014). The creation of this matrix will include the vital points of the concerned kinds of literature
and it helped in enhancing my knowledge and strengths regarding the information sources and
the collection or gathering of the relevant documents. I have understood that the matrix should
reflect the summarizing of the different vital points that are evaluated throughout the various
sources used for the review of the concerned literature.
Week 9
The desired aim of the week nine was to provide information regarding the delivering of the oral
presentation that will help in communicating the desired knowledge gained with the concerned
people. The techniques used by the US president are vital, and they need to be utilized during the
delivering of the oral presentation. I have also encountered the fact that use of the proper
structure is essential for the development and communicating of the exact and precise
information to the concerned audience. On the other hand, there were different ways used in the
methodology section, and it has provided me the immense knowledge to perform adequate
research.
Week 10
The week helped in evaluating different factors regarding the evaluation of the problem-solving
skills and proper ways to present the research that has already been carried. Moreover, it has
strengthened my knowledge regarding the use of required sources and exact information to
execute the entire process. The learnings will help in providing the desired shape to my future
career jobs.

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Conclusion
Each of the reflections provided in all the weeks' help in boosting my overall strength to carry
research processes. I have learned regarding the different way and the importance of using
effective problem-solving skills with the communicational skills. These reflections will help me
in achieving my future career goals and will enhance my ways of solving any issues in my future
workplaces.

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References
Abernethy, A. P., Capell, W. H., Aziz, N. M., Ritchie, C., Prince-Paul, M., Bennett, R. E., &
Kutner, J. S. (2014). Ethical conduct of palliative care research: enhancing
communication between investigators and institutional review boards. Journal of pain
and symptom management, 48(6), 1211-1221.
Boulianne, S. (2015). Social media use and participation: A meta-analysis of current
research. Information, Communication & Society, 18(5), 524-538.
Greiff, S., Wüstenberg, S., Csapó, B., Demetriou, A., Hautamäki, J., Graesser, A. C., & Martin,
R. (2014). Domain-general problem-solving skills and education in the 21st century.
Educational Research Review, (13), 74-83.
Moser, S. C. (2016). Reflections on climate change communication research and practice in the
second decade of the 21st century: what more is there to say?. Wiley Interdisciplinary
Reviews: Climate Change, 7(3), 345-369.
Palermo, T. M., Law, E. F., Bromberg, M., Fales, J., Eccleston, C., & Wilson, A. C. (2016).
Problem-solving skills training for parents of children with chronic pain: A pilot
randomized controlled trial. Pain, 157(6), 1213.
Patterson, P. (2016). Retrospective: tracking the impact of communications effectiveness on
client satisfaction, trust, and loyalty in professional services. Journal of Services
Marketing, 30(5), 485-489.
Simpson, D., Meredith, J., Boyer, K., Dilts, D., Ellram, L. M., & Leong, G. K. (2015).
Professional, research, and publishing trends in operations and supply chain
management. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 51(3), 87-100.
Swain, N., & Gale, C. (2014). A communication skills intervention for community healthcare
workers reduces perceived patient aggression: A pretest-posttest study. International
Journal of Nursing Studies, 51(9), 1241-1245.