The Journey Continues

One of my first assignments in TECM 5191: Digital Literacies was to complete a baseline survey that gauged my perception of self-regulated learning (SRL) and to identify areas of opportunity for improvement. Overall, I am stronger in the categories of interest, elaboration, and help seeking but weaker in the planning. For this reason, my focus area through Module 4 is planning.

Typically, at the beginning of each semester I think about what I need to get accomplished and write an elaborately detailed plan. My plans are often so elaborately detailed that I cannot follow through with them within the timeframe provided and I wind up taking on more than I can manage at one time. Given my past experiences with planning I recognize that changes are necessary to be successful as a graduate student and as a professional entering the field. One of those changes is to employ a strategy for effective planning.

Strategize

Thinking about my failure to develop a plan successfully and effectively, it is apparent to me that I have not developed a strategy for planning; I have just made a list of actions without any accountability to myself or anyone else for that matter. After reviewing the list of possible strategies provided in this module and recognizing the need for change, I will use the ‘enter one small goal each day on your calendar’ strategy.

My rationale for using the aforementioned strategy is that there is a lot of material that we must cover in as shore timeframe. Therefore, treating the assignments due midweek as a small goal to be completed each day in the beginning of the week will help to ensure that I can manage completion of these assignments in advance of the due date. Likewise, assignments due at the end of the week can be divided into a series of milestones for lengthier assignments so that I am not trying to complete them all at once. For example, this week we have a tutorial for using MadCap Flare that takes about four and a half hours to complete. Since there are five days left to complete the tutorial, I can work for about an hour each day to complete the tutorial. Using a calendar app such as Google Calendar I can choose an hour-long time slot to make progress on the tutorial and complete it on time.

Final Thoughts

As I continue my journey as a technical communicator it is imperative that I learn from past experiences so that I can effectively learn to use the tools of the trade and the skillsets that come with them. In the field as in graduate studies I will be in charge of my own learning for the most part which means that I must develop an effective strategy to learn new information quickly so that I can remain successful. Part of that strategy is learning to create a plan that is manageable so that I can stay on track with established goals. Even though developing a plan is part of my self-regulated learning (SRL) strategy, the act of planning requires a strategy as well. The planning strategy that I am going to use is to put a small goal, assignments, or parts of assignments in this case, on my calendar app so that I can follow through with a plan. As I use this planning strategy, I will see what needs to be changed or what needs to be added to this strategy so that I can make it the most effective strategy at my disposal. I will provide an update on my progress with planning in my next blog post. I look forward to trying something new that will help me to be a successful technical communicator.