Week 2 Learning Strategies, Time Management, Project Management and Capstones

Part 1: Effective Learning Strategies

After reading the webpage post about Effective Study Skills by Dr. Bob Kizlik, I realized that there are numerous ways to study and be successful in academics. This guide will undoubtedly enhance my learning, grades and future within the computer science program here at CSUMB. As I was reading the guide, I recognized three study habits that I am good at and three that are very weak and ought to be strengthened.

The 3 study strategies that I have found to be proficient at are:

1. Taking Notes: In terms of taking notes, I have always been adept to it. My process in taking notes involve creating both a physical copy (paper or notebook) and a digital copy (in most cases a google doc or word doc). As I listen to lectures or watch lecture videos I would take physical notes with a pen and paper. Highlighting and taking notes in bullet points/blocks are also essential. In most cases I would add visuals to the notes and affiliate them to certain topics or sections. Finally, I would take these notes and apply them to a digital document.
2. Creating/Revising a schedule: I have always been competent at creating and revising schedules. In previous courses I would utilize spreadsheets to map out my schedule and recently I have been keeping a schedule by mapping out my day through Google Calendar and a physical scheduling notebook. I would monitor what I will be doing throughout the day and prioritize tasks that need to be done whether it be for work or in academics.
3. Reviewing: In terms of reviewing I have found efficiency by creating flash cards. There is also a method called retrieval practice to enhance memorization of course information. The process of retrieval practice is to recollect information by creating self-quizzes and flashcards.
   

The 3 study strategies that I have found to be weak at are:

1. Reading and Extracting Important Details: I have a tendency to overlook important details and focus on every single little detail when it comes to lectures or books. I will need to work on gathering only the important details and main ideas. According to Kizlik, reading out loud or moving your lips may be a detriment to studying efficiency. I will keep this in mind, as I have always been reading by moving my lips. By not reading out loud it would help me understand information and read faster.
   
2. SQER Method: Within this method I have found to be weak in asking questions for learning. I have never really asked myself questions when studying, as I would just merely take notes and review. So a matter I need to strengthen is to ask myself critical questions on academic topics from my notes and review sessions.
   
3. Study Space: Something I am weak at is creating an efficient study space. Most of the time I am studying I would have loud music and retain an uncomfortable work environment. I need to fix this by studying in a quieter area or relieving distractions in my office. In addition, to make my office more comfortable I would need to improve the lighting and get more ergonomic components like chairs, keyboard and mouses.
   

 Part 2: Time Management/Activity Log 

Here is an activity log of my week from 1/15/25 to 1/19/25 that analyzes what I have done with my time:

 

Part 3: Project Management 

Introduction to Project Management

 

The video offers an overview on the notion of Project Management and the factors that would essentially create a successful project. It covers numerous topics and concepts such as defining what a project is, understanding the entities that construct a project, the person who leads the project also known as the project manager and their duties, and the life cycle in which a project is managed. There is also a small history lesson of how projects were constructed in the past from Ancient Egypt to the 21st century. The video goes over the definition of a project, in a way it is a complex pursuit with the aim to accomplish/complete a goal. The factors that make up a project are integrated into a concept called "triple constraint" which introduces three variables: scope, time and cost. These three variables need to be balance in order to create a successful project. It included a discussion over the events that would cause a business to even deploy a project like market needs or law regulations. The video goes over the role of a Project Manager and the fundamentals that make them successful. The Project Manager must hold accountability, and make use of certain skill sets like business knowledge, people skills and leadership. Finally they discuss the lifecycle of Project Management, where they talk about how projects are conducted within a PMO or project management office along with a way to coordinate management such as the use of a portfolio management.

 

Work Breakdown Structure 

 

The second video goes over how to create successful project management by utilizing the method of the Work Breakdown Structure. By doing so it highlights the process in breaking down the hierarchy of deliverables to organize, identify and manage projects optimally. It defines a deliverable as a "thing, process or event". In order to break down deliverables there is a systematic way into doing so by first analyzing the project, then breaking them down into sub levels from "keyline" or main deliverables of the project, then into smaller sub-categories called sub-deliverables. In a sense it is a way to chop up a project into smaller pieces allowing for better planning and resource distribution. The video delivers ways to present the work breakdown structure and the practicality amongst businesses.

 

Gannt Chart

The third video overviews another method of project management through the use of the Gannt Chart. This tool or chart similar to the work breakdown structure creates proper visualization and planning of a project's progression. According to the video the chart contains a horizontal axis where time is tracked and the vertical axis where activities/tasks are tracked. The Gannt Chart in a sense is mapping the activities over a timeline. Each activity is associated with a rectangular bar in which its position and the length of the shape is associated with the duration on the timeline. The Gannt chart allows organizations to manage when activities or tasks start/end, what kind of activities/tasks there are, and if any overlap with each other. All in all the Gannt chart is a great tool in creating responsible time management and status checkup of a project. 

 

Part 4: Capstones

 

We were told to look at previous capstone projects to understand what projects have been done before and to get a broader idea of what the capstone project entails. Three projects that stood out to me the most had to be A Bird's Song, Out of Mana and National AI-Campus. 

 

A Bird's Song was a video game experience that utilizes real world issues as a method of activism for the environment. Essentially it was a tool/project to raise awareness to real life challenges. The game was very thorough and thoughtful, bringing in variety of interesting design elements from art, to game play and sound. The project stood out to me the most because it was very different from the other projects where most were creating tools to enhance businesses, and on the other hand A Bird's Song was a video game. I have grown an interest in video game development so that was another reason I chose to talk about this project. The project was well done as each member of the team had equal amount of responsibility and planning. The utilization of Unity caught my attention as well due to my current endeavors with the tool. In all honesty the project was perfect and creative along with the presentation being very in-depth. Though I would add that the game-play UI could be improved on but that's just a personal opinion, it was great overall.

Another project that stood out to me was another video game called Out of Mana. The game was another unique endeavor compared to other projects. This video game was a 2d rogue-lite game and focuses more on game-play rather than the prior video game which had a vision in mind as a video game meant for activism. I still found this interesting due to my interest in video game development. The creator of Out of Mana had great video presenting his planning and challenges and also demonstrating the video game itself. I also felt that this project was interesting because it was a solo effort compared to most of the other projects which were group oriented. At the end of the presentation the creator mentioned they would continue developing the game and improve upon it. I definitely would like to try to this game out.

Last project that was interesting was the National AI-Campus. This project was also a solo endeavor which explored existing algorithms to identify tumors within brain MRI scans. Personally I have always found development of tools in healthcare interesting as my original goal in school was to explore the tech side of the healthcare industry. The presentation was well done as it went into in-depth explanation of the tools they used and the ideas behind the project. For example they explained Image Segmentation and Baseline Model, and how these concepts were used in their project. The only thing that was missing in their presentation was a demonstration of their code as it only gave a general idea of the concept.

 

 Part 5: Summarize

 

This week overall was very straightforward and a change of pace compared to the week prior. The amount of assignments were less than before but the workload in each assignment was enormous. The reason was because of the Industry Analysis Draft. 

 

The lecture portion of this week gave me a general idea of how the world is changing and accelerating. The video by Peter Diamandis gave an overview about how we are living in the best and fastest timeline with greater opportunities and problems due to the increase in communication, computational power, wealth, connection through the internet and knowledge that is accumulating. Another part within the lecture module was an article about trends in software engineering in 2024 and the key factors to look out for. Within this article it explains the future of software engineering as they become more involved within multiple industries. The article also goes in depth about past, current, and future methods of engineering. The future methods are the utilization of AI, energy efficient hardware, and industry standards. The article also mentions the problems software engineering has faced in 2023 and the trends that are going to reshape the industry including skepticism about the takeover of AI. Lastly, I would like to make a note on the video about project management and how this video gave a broader idea on the aspects of project management: from understanding what a project manager is, what a project entails, and the way project management is coordinated. Also the essential tools to get better at project management such as work break down structure and Gannt charts. 

 

With regard to the writing module I've learned multiple writing strategies to look out for such as paying attention to the audience and the purpose of an essay, the usage of proper language in an academic setting, and sentence structure. Along with this is the peer-review guidelines and how we as students can conduct extensive peer review to help other students by looking out for formatting, completion, language, style, proper research, and usage of APA. 

 

This week has been a prominent and interesting one, and I am looking forward to the next week.