COMM 314 - End of the Semester Reflection Post

This was my third and final semester of building my eportfolio. Knowing Nonverbal Communication would require me to continue to build upon the one I created for a previous course, I was hopeful to not only curate and add more content to my page, but also make it feel more complete. By updating the content about myself, adding this course’s paper, and editing the look of my page as a whole, I’ve felt very happy and satisfied with the continual improvements. I think being able to add my site’s link to my resume, and business cards that I used this past semester, really established my online professional presence; I can say after this semester that employers have actually utilized my site to get a representation of me. My eportfolio provides me with a place that I can visually showcase myself, my skills and proficiencies, and being able to constantly edit and update it is an advantage that I have for job searching in the professional world. I believe it will help me to stand out among other contenders for future career opportunities.

As stated for my previous courses, the thing I like most about my eportfolio is that it never has to be finished. It is a place that I can constantly control, edit and curate whenever I feel the need to include new work, change the style, or add new experiences and abilities that I have gained. It’s a very beneficial way for students to create their own personal brand, and I believe I have still only begun to use this tool to its full advantage. What’s most exciting is that I plan to continue to improve upon the design and content as needed after graduation, and as I learn new skills and gain experience outside of school, I will update my page to convey my professional development.

Again, I’ve reflected on this for the previous courses, and I still feel the most challenging aspect of the eportfolio project was in the initial stages, when I created the page for my Persuasion course. This semester of using my page was much less stressful; the only thing I had to do was curate a few details, write the first few blog posts, and add assignments to my page. The most challenging aspect pertaining to this specific class was writing the Popular Press Analysis paper. It was our only research assignment, and required the longest paper length, but I enjoyed writing on the subject. Overall, I feel my eportfolio definitely benefited from this class’s challenges. I’m also proud to say that my hard work on the site paid off, as I was awarded as having one of the top three eportfolios for Fall 2017 by the ODU Department of Communication and Theatre Arts.

I actually got the chance to talk and present on the importance of eportfolios this semester during a PRSSA meeting. I attempted to explain to a few students how to build their first eportfolio, and I hope my advice will be helpful to them during their experience with it! Some of the most important advice I would give to anyone would be to first, make sure they set time aside to work on it. Planning time to be fully committed to designing it is important because it is not just a place to create blogs posts and post assignments; it can be used as an online resume and help establish a person professionally. You want it to look its best and appropriately display all of your skills, achievements, and character traits so that they translate well to employers or interviewers. I’d also advise that they read tips and view examples of other successful pages to get an idea on what should be included, and make the initial stages much easier.

I have learned a lot from this course, and I would say that one of the most interesting aspects was studying the use of vocalic behavior. A lot of people, at least in my mind, tend to think of nonverbal behavior and communication as everything but the use of vocalizations and paralinguistics. But it really is such an important part of our communication, and can totally change the perception of a message. The saying “it’s not what is said, but how you say it” is absolutely correct, and I find it interesting how two people can say the exact same thing, but one can be perceived a totally different way simply because of their voice qualities.

The Popular Press Analysis paper was interesting to write as well, and I gained insight about nonverbal communication from the research. Something that stands out for me is that I learned just how important nonverbal behavior can be in the workplace; my paper topic perfectly tied into Module 11’s content, and helped me better grasp the material in it. What I learned about employee’s perceptions of immediacy behaviors in the workplace will be useful to me as a supervisor, and for the rest of my work career. So, at the very least, this course’s paper alone has benefited me as a future professional. But all of the modules contained a lot of information that is important to know and use, especially as someone whose career field of choice requires strong communication skills. Understanding that nonverbal communication is a very powerful feature of the delivery of a message will certainly benefit me in a public relations career.