MSLD 500 Module 9- Course Reflections

The Leadership Found’s in Research course was an overall excellent experience. Since this class was my very first graduate course, I was initially worried about the level of difficulty, my lack of work experience, and the “different language” that might have been involved. Perhaps the most positive aspect of this class is that it helped me overcome these fears, and this wouldn’t have happened without the discussion board activities.

Personally, I found the discussion board activities to be the most helpful thing in this course. Unlike undergraduate courses, a lot of the questions are opinion-based and these questions cannot be answered in a sentence or two: resulting us to really let out our “true knowledge”. For instance, when I used to study for my undergraduate exams, most of it was memorization. I honestly didn’t bother to learn all the details and just recognized keywords. For example, if the answer to a question is diversity, I know that this is the right answer because the definition in the question contained the word “multiple” or “culture”. If we were to change this question in the same manner as our discussion board questions, it is for certain that we don’t completely know the definition of diversity. We are forced to think critically, which establishes a more detailed answer.

While establishing the environment to think critically helped me out in this course, reading and replying to others were also very helpful. Though the majority of other answers all mentioned the same or similar answers, some students looked at the questions at different angles. Both replying and reading these comments provided us more opportunities to think critically again, which resulted in richer knowledge. At the same time, having the opportunity to read and reply to these comments made me overcome my fears since we are all learning from each other.

I honestly cannot think of any negative things in terms of course contents, however things could have gone bad if the professor didn’t reply soon enough or understood the students’ struggle for the course. As a full time worker and student, the balancing of time can be challenging. I am aware that most Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide courses’ assignment due dates are at midnight Eastern time. As a student in the Pacific coast, this would have been a challenge since this meant that I only have roughly three hours each day to complete all my assignments. I am usually slow-paced in completing my assignments and usually require an hour to eight hours to complete one assignment. Since the professor considered and adjusted to those in the Pacific region, I was able to study and complete my assignments with ease.

MSLD 500 Module 8- Good Presentation Design

Whether it is something persuasive or informative, the goal of any presentation is to effectively deliver your knowledge to the target audience. Most of us probably came across horrifically boring presentations to the point we daze off or become distracted in something else. Almost always, the ending results we get from the audience is the lack in absorption of the presentation (memorization). Boring presentations can be a dangerous situation for leaders especially since it their goal to gather as many people to look up to and support them. To avoid this situation, one critical quality all presentations should have are something interesting.

Interesting elements of a presentation can come in various forms, however the one thing they all have in common is that they target the potential interests that the audience has. Classroom sessions provide a perfect example. Almost always, most students are stressed and bored since the topic is often something irrelevant to their goal or interest. With most professors aware of this, they often input something eye-catching such as a discussion, story, or image. For instance, I had several professors back at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach campus often implementing video clips from popular television series. They are often funny enough for students to engage in, which often results in better attention and stronger abilities for students to absorb information. Adding interesting elements is most important at the beginning of the presentation since this will allow immediate attention to the presentation.

Though adding something interesting is good, it is important to make sure that these interesting things are relevant and for your audience. For instance, I had a professor back at the Daytona Beach campus who was a huge fan of DreamWorks’s Kung Fu Panda. Though I was able to make some connections to the lessons, most examples from the film were irrelevant and the professor often ended up being too carried away. This is a dangerous habit to have in any presentation since relevance is an important quality in any form of communication. Having relevance to the presentation provides the audience the mentality that you truly understand the topic, but relevance also maintains your audience’s interest. Though implementing Kung Fu Panda might be funny, it is important to keep in mind that not everyone has seen or like the movie.

When it comes to visual presentations, design matters. From numerous experiences, the one common mistake I see is too much information shown. Personally, I believe too much information is not only is confusing, but it also “gives out” too much of what the presenter needs to present. The goal of the presenter is to explain as much as they can without the dependency of the visuals. Too much dependency in my opinion represents uncertainty or even laziness of the presenter. This might be something important to consider in leadership since these two characteristics can lead to some dislike from your followers.

 In addition to design, quality is also important. Quality can refer to the information or images provided in a presentation. It is important to always ensure that the information you implement in presentations are reliable and dependent. For example, when providing charts, perhaps receiving them from government websites might be more reliable than charts from someone’s blog since the source can be altered by anyone. How the chart looks is also important to consider. It is important to make sure that the chart is not overflowing with details to confuse your audience and is clear from any flaws. For instance, I came across numerous presentations where pictures were overstretched to the point they were pixelated and hard to read. It is also important to make sure that the pictures don’t look squashed since this too will cause some difficulty and look unprofessional in general. This can be dangerous in leadership since professional image usually establishes trust from your followers.

Lastly, the language of the presentation is also important to consider. I had a project one point during my undergraduate days where we had to make a presentation on a business park and airport expansion to the elderly citizens of Volusia County. Our goal of the presentation was to ease the anxiety these citizens had: such as noise, safety concerns, and the loss of land. During the making of the presentation, I constantly got in an argument with a group member also part of the project. He had the part to discuss information on runways, but as a pilot, he added very complicated terminologies as well as unnecessary numerical information. Though the information he implemented in the presentation might be helpful, it is important to keep in mind that our target audience are general elderly citizens and that not all had prior pilot or aviation-related experiences. For any presentation, you need to consider your audience and not yourself. Similar to the Kung Fu Panda example, it might provide examples and might be fun for the presenter, however not everyone watched or like the movie and it can only cause confusion to the audience. 

MSLD 500 Module 7- Quantitative Research Reflection

Last week, we went over qualitative research. Though analyzing one’s research and thoughts establishes rich information, sometimes statistical data or experimental results provide enough information to support a reasoning. Quantitative research is defined as the idea where social phenomena can be quantified, or measured and expressed numerically (Mamia, n.d.). Surveys, experimental results, and demographic statistics are examples of numerical data that can be used in a quantitative research.

Unlike qualitative research, quantitative research aims to answer why something happens or happened. Scientific reports provide good examples of what makes up a quantitative research. Every research needs to have some sort of idea: such as an actual thought or a guess. For a scientific report, you may have a rough idea on a result, but you usually start off with a hypothesis, or a guess. These parts of the scientific report is similar to the first four parts of the research process. The next step of the research process is to establish a research design. For the scientific report, this will be equivalent to establishing and determining how the experiment will be conducted. This may include what materials are required, the measurements of the materials, and identifying the variables involved during the experiment. Once everything is clear and ready to go, data collection can be made. After the collection of data, we then analyze the data. Numbers itself doesn’t provide enough information to support your ideas, so it is important to proceed to the next steps of the research process: answering empirical research questions, making theoretical interpretation of the results, comparison with earlier research (maybe comparing with the founder of a scientific phenomenon) and making a conclusion.

Similar to my last post on qualitative research, this has a tie with systems of thinking. Personally, I believe the key concept of quantitative research is to transform body of knowledge, or a cluster of information into something meaningful and clear. As previously mentioned, numbers itself doesn’t provide enough information. Though they look reliable at first view, it is important to understand and explain what these numbers represent and how it relates to your topic. As we analyze data, we are gaining understanding and making sure that our ideas are accurate and strong.

Sources

Hill, T. W. (n.d.). Scientific Reports. Retrieved from The Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/scientific-reports/

Mamia, T. (n.d.). Quantitative Research Methods: General Studies/ISSS. Retrieved from https://erau.instructure.com/courses/34959/files/5407384/download?wrap=1

MSLD 500 Module 6- Qualitative Research

Though numerical results tend to provide some evidence and understanding to research, analyzing another research or thought provides researchers the opportunity to not only gain understanding, but also apply and establish further thinking. This is also known as qualitative research: a research that produces findings without statistical or any quantification (Hoepfl, 1997).

Qualitative research is often found to be richer in information compared to quantitative research. Numbers might be used as proof or see some sort of trend, but numbers itself isn’t enough for critical thinking. The hiring process might come across and notice this difference. Grade point averages (GPA) are often shown in one’s resume to inform the reader that they have prior education. People will almost always assume that ones with a high GPA is highly intelligent. Though the number does stand out and might be desirable, a high GPA doesn’t always mean that they are qualified for the job. Since GPA itself does not provide enough information, we do job interviews to gather further information. After conducting interviews, you apply your “research”. For this case, maybe you are looking for someone who has excellent computer programming skills. The person with the high GPA seemed like he was qualified, but during the interview, you realize that the person did get a high GPA on a computer programming education, but never had enough hands-on experience. You then apply this knowledge to your preference to determine whether the individual is or is not qualified for the position.

Personally, I believe the whole concept of qualitative research is similar to the systems of thinking. Systems of thinking is the concept of thinking of the main idea by breaking it down to smaller pieces (Nosich, 2012). Just like looking at numbers, looking at “the top of the pile” results in insufficient information. Qualitative research is rich in details because they look at the big picture and break it down smaller to understand and come up with other thoughts. Businesses often come across approach. As an example, people may persuade a business to establish a particular product because it’s a current trend. As the owner of the business, you may assume that following trends are a good thing, but for your business specifically, you might ask yourself, “is this trend a good idea”? You then breakdown this idea and analyze other similar businesses and consider other factors such as location to determine whether the idea is good or not: another thought.

Sources

Hoepfl, M. (1997). Choosing Qualitative Research: A Primer for Technology Education Researchers. Journal of Technology Education, 9(1). Retrieved from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v9n1/hoepfl.html

Nosich, G. (2012). Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum. Boston: Pearson Education.

MSLD 500 Module 5- Critical Thinking about Critical Thinking

Way before making the decision to pursue a master’s degree in leadership, I’ve always been an overthinking and detailed-oriented individual. Whether it was something small like cleaning to advising my students, I always had the belief that only looking at “the top of the pile” will have some sort of effect (usually negative) later on. This was especially seen during my writing experience in 6^th grade. My English teacher assigned every student in his class to enter an island-wide essay contest. Since I sided with speed, I was often scolded by my teacher due to the lack of effort and details in my essay. After taking his advice and submitting the essay, I miraculously ended up winning first place. This was when I realized how details and effort can really make a huge difference in even the simple things like writing. In the end, I decided to get into the habit of being detailed and thinking deeper.

Today, my critical thinking and detail-oriented habits are stronger than ever. My position as an academic advisor is dependent on this since it is my goal to be clear and informative so students can successfully graduate. Even though I believe that my critical thinking skills has always been strong, being a part of this course has definitely enhanced my thinking and communication skills. As weird as it may sound, I believe that taking part of this course has got me in a better habit of thinking about my thinking. I think the key for taking this class is to identify what we are doing in our critical thinking. For example, I use intellectual perseverance almost every day, but was not aware of it. As a result, I never understood the complete definition of intellectual perseverance. As we did our assignment on intellectual perseverance as well as other topics, I was able to not only understand the definition, but also provide examples, opinions, as well as connect the topic to another. Putting this together, we are actually using the system of thinking, and this will enhance our knowledge on critical thinking and leadership throughout the program. 

MSLD 500 Module 4- Ballet Slippers or Adorable?

Sheena Lyengar’s presentation The Art of Choosing made three assumptions of making choices. The first assumption states that choice is revolved around the individual, therefore all choices are made by ourselves. Lygenar also called this assumption “being true to yourself” (Lyengar, 2010). This assumption in my opinion is not entirely true. It is true that we do make our decisions in leadership, however effective choices are made by the support of the followers’ preferences and ideas. People are what make leadership possible and since they’re an essential source, it is important for leaders to reach their needs and wants as much as possible. My opinion is connected to my current position as an academic advisor. The goal is to help students with their plan and my choices needs to be relevant to help these student. For example, I make one year degree maps (my recommended list of courses) to every student. If I cannot get in contact with the student who needs an annual revision, I usually make a default map based entirely on my choices. When I do get in contact with the student (and usually after they got the revision) however, the choices I make is based on their preferences, hence resulting a more effective degree map.

Lyengar’s second assumption states that more choices will lead to better choices. Personally, I believe this second assumption is true, but I see her assumption more as a fancy phrase for system of thinking. By definition, system of thinking is a method of critical thinking where ones analyze the relationships between the system’s parts in order to understand a situation for better decision-making (Grimsley, n.d.). In the systems of thinking, we have a main idea or goal and branch out into details to understand the situation better. Coming back to the degree map example, the goal is to make an effective annual route for the student to take so he or she can successfully complete their degree. Though making my own choices may help lead the student, my maps will be much more effective when I implement the student’s preferences (choices). When making the map by default, I usually make a schedule of a full time student and consider the classes the students require and place them on the map. When I get a hold of the student, they provide me much more information- such as how many classes per term they wish to take, as well as what times and form of classes they prefer. These preferences are additional “branches” that help me understand what works for them, which will result in a much more effective route.

The third assumption Lyengar made was to never say no to choice. This statement in my opinion is true since choice is what leads ones further. It’s similar to how assumptions work. Assumption is defined as a claim or guess as is one of the eight elements of reasoning. It serves as a starting point to critical thinking (Noisch, 2012). Saying no to choice can either completely halt someone from moving on or can cause complications to whatever outcome ones are hoping to get. This can be seen if I were to not to consider the student’s preferences in degree mapping. Though there are other resources students use to see what classes they need to take for their degree, some students are highly dependent on my degree maps because of the details. If I were to not implement their preferences for those students, they will probably constantly ask me for assistance, become frustrated with me or the university and may even corrupt their route to success.

In conclusion, choices are very essential in leadership. Though Lyengar stated that choices are made independently, it is important to consider other’s ideas and preferences in leadership. People are what make leadership possible so it is critical to consider their needs and wants as much as possible. Doing so will then lead to more choices, which can open up to more opportunities to enhance our leadership. Lastly, choices must be made to move on. Not doing so will result in complications to a complete halt in our leading which can ruin ones image.

Sources

Grimsley, S. (n.d.). Systems Thinking in Management: Definition, Theory & Model. Retrieved from http://study.com/academy/lesson/systems-thinking-in-management-definition-theory-model.html

Lyengar, S. (Director). (2010). The art of choosing [Motion Picture].

Noisch, G. (2012). Learning To Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum. Boston: Pearson Education.

MSLD 500 Module 3- Explore the Hunt Library

The resources of Hunt Library can immediately be compared with the system of thinking versus the body of knowledge. As a recap, systems of thinking is defined as a method of critical thinking where one analyzes the relationships between the system’s parts in order to understand a situation (Grimsley, n.d.). A body of knowledge on the other hand is nothing more than a collection of information. The key difference between the two are how thinking is processed. For systems of thinking, you come up with a big picture, break it apart and analyze each pieces to enhance your knowledge of the big picture. A body of knowledge on the other hand requires you to work the other way around. You have a bunch of information, but you need to put them together to understand the main idea.

When examining the contents on the Hunt Library, ones can easily recognize that most resources consists of books, articles, databases or reports. Though the types of sources are significantly different, the key characteristic that separates resources from the Hunt Library from a simple search are how the information is analyzed. To clarify, I searched on what makes a good leader in both the Hunt Library and search. I first started out with what I am more familiar with: a simple search on Google. The first result was a short article from the University of Notre Dame. The article consisted a list of characteristics and skills leaders should have with a short description of its significance. Since communication in my opinion is one of the most fundamental and powerful concept in leadership, I compared how communication is analyzed. For the Notre Dame article, communication was described as a required skill at every level of business. As you read on, they also provided a list of different tasks such as motivating teams and having a vision to enhance a leader’s communication (Alliance, n.d.). All components were explained briefly and only provided the basics.

When I searched what makes a good leader at the Hunt Library, I came across a scholarly report. Similar to the Notre Dame article, the report briefly explained the significance of communication in leadership. The major difference was that the importance of communication was broken down to several categories: each of them containing a very detailed analysis. As an example, one part of the report talked about the ties of motivation and communication. The report stated that the ability to motivate people is a highly desired quality in a leader and to obtain this skill, the leader must understand their people to obtain their cooperation (Sprinks, 1993).  Other parts of the report also consisted of statistical data that supported the author’s reasoning.

In conclusion, resources from the Hunt Library can aide our systems of thinking by analyzing another. This is significant for my studies since we can only gain so much from just a body of information. With another person’s analysis, we can gain not just the basics, but understand the importance of a reasoning better with their opinions and supportive details. We probably already understand the basics of a topic but comparing another way of thinking can assist us on asking questions on top of their questions- hence enhancing our current knowledge.

Works Cited

Alliance, U. (n.d.). What Makes an Effective Leader. Retrieved from University of Notre Dame: http://www.notredameonline.com/resources/leadership-and-management/what-makes-an-effective-leader/#.VwgqsvkrKUk

Grimsley, S. (n.d.). Systems Thinking in Management: Definition, Theory & Model. Retrieved from Study.com: http://study.com/academy/lesson/systems-thinking-in-management-definition-theory-model.html

Sprinks, N. &. (1993). What Makes a Good Leader? The Role of Communication. Retrieved from ProQuest: http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/205864643?pq-origsite=summon