Reflection on Virtual Microbe 2016

Assalamualaikum, and a very good afternoon (it's noon at the moment) to you who is reading this. I hope you're having a good day. 😊

Oh, let's not forget to say Hi, Dr. Wan! 😁

Today is Sunday, 20th Nov 2016. And as you are informed, third year students who took Virology course are having their Test II today. I just got back (3 hours ago) from the test too. Alhamdulillah, it went well. 

I would like to take this opportunity to say my thanks to Dr. Eddie as well! Thanks to him, I now have a better insights to the virus world. Also, thank you to Prof. Azeezah. Their way of teaching is very good that I will feel troubled or guilty if I dozed off during the class (it's not because they're boring, really no! It's me, I have been sleeping late haha) 

Ok. Now I will talk about my experience with Virtual Microbe! 

To be honest, during the first briefing I do not really understand how the flow of this activity. The rough idea that I managed to get that day is that we as well as other university students will have to do a virtual meeting and discuss about the questions provided in the module of this activity. It is kind of like UPM's LAX course, you have to do a group meeting every week, discuss the progress of the activity that we're asked to do and finally produce a final product. The difference is that this has to be done 'virtually' via any application that can provide video conference. 

The idea appeals to me, but I'm also nervous because during the starting of this semester, I know my ability, that I have very low knowledge about viruses compared to the other microbes. Hence, when Dr. Wan said that the third year students have to work on the virology part (because we're currently taking that course), I think that I will not do well because I feel like I won't be able to talk much about viruses. You know that feeling, right? So, I imagine that the other university students will talk 'fluently' about the mechanism and life cycle etc of viruses and I will not be able to understand immediately or slow to catch on. 😐

However, as time goes by and weeks passed, one to two video recordings passed, I think I managed to grasp the idea of this activity. My knowledge on viruses is gradually increasing too because Prof. Azeezah and Dr. Eddie taught us well! They explain each of the viral processes in depth and clearly, so while doing this activity; Virtual Microbes also give me the confidence to talk about viruses because it feels right to talk about something that you have knowledge on. 😊 It is also easier for me to find and extract information from the Internet or from the journals when gathering information about the virus of our choice because I have managed to familiarize with the terms used in virology. 

As for the final products; montage video and infographic. We divided the task among ourselves and agreed that the UPM students will work on the montage video while UKM students will work on the infographic. By now, we, the UPM students should be familiar already with this kind of task, thank you very much to Dr. Wan! 😄 My skill in using the applications improved from semester to semester. At this point of our study year, it doesn't feel hard anymore to use these helpful applications (unlike the very first time during Adopt-a-Microbe and so on, it felt impossible to finish haha).

Aside from the output of this activity, the input is actually the most important thing in order to get a good output, right. Just like what Dr. Wan always reminds us at the beginning of this collaboration that this is a platform and an opportunity for us to connect with the people outside university besides it is also a peer teaching activity. 

It taught me how to communicate and tolerate well with people in our surroundings. Besides that, it is very important to cooperate with others when engaging in an activity in which we have to plan properly such as ask when every members of the group are available to do the video conference. Also, like Dr. Wan said it is a preparation for us, the third students that will go for our internship later on. This activity managed to give us the experience on how to work and deal with people out of our circle and also cooperate with each other as a team in order to get a desired output. If everybody put their very best effort in a group work, the outcome will come out good as well, so everybody will feel satisfied and proud of their group work at the end of the activity. 💟

We have reach the end of my reflective post on Virtual Microbe 2016, I would like to thank Dr. Wan as well as the other lecturers involved for giving me/us the opportunity to do this activity in collaboration with other university students. It gives us exposure as well as guides us to manage our time efficiently.  

Next, thank you to my group mates, from both UPM and UKM for the efforts in finishing this activity successfully. I also want to apologize for all the miscommunication occurred. It's regretful, really, but I hope we can all learn from this and improve ourselves in the future. 😺 I really really really hope that we all can end this activity on a positive note and if we ever meet outside the 'virtual world', do not hesitate to say 'Hi'. ✋

If there is another collaborative activity in the future, or Virtual Microbe 2017, it would be a nice experience for me to join as I can improve myself. 🙆


P/S 
If this makes you feel good, Dr. Wan, I downloaded the Zoom app on my phone and on my little sister's tab so that I can video call her when I'm in UPM. There's this one night, I used Zoom to 'see' my family at home because I miss them. Even though we are just 40 minutes away. I'm excited to use it! 😂