Reflection Paper Guidelines

A reflection paper of approximately 1500 words must be written by each student in CSCI 340, ESOF 322, ESOF 326, ESOF 328, and the second semester of ESOF 486. Students who are writing a reflection paper for internships, and those internships are multi-semester, only need write one reflection paper.

Reflection papers provide:

• An overview of the project
• A description of the application domain
• The names and titles of the clients with whom you worked
• A description of the composition of the team that worked on this project

In addition to the above, your reflection paper should help us assess your ability to work in teams. Describe how often your team met, how well you worked together, the dynamics of the team, any conflicts which occurred amongst the team members, and how you resolved these conflicts, if they were resolved. (Relevant ABET Student Outcomes are: CAC d: An ability to function effectively on teams to accomplish a common goal and EAC d: An ability to function on multidisciplinary teams.)

Your reflection paper should help us assess your ability to communicate with clients. Describe how you worked with the clients: how often you met, how your team solicited information from the clients, how often, and in what ways, you informed the client of your team’s progress and of what you were building. (Relevant ABET Student Outcomes are: CAC f: An ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences and EAC g: An ability to communicate effectively.)

Your reflection paper should help us assess your ability to work in one or more application domains. Describe the process that you used to get up to speed in the application domain of the clients, how difficult it was, and how knowledgeable you became about it. (Relevant ABET Student Outcome is SEC 3: The ability to work in one or more significant application domains.)

Your reflection paper should help us assess your recognition of the importance of lifelong learning. List the new technologies that you learned to accomplish this project and describe the techniques that you used to learn these new technologies. (Relevant ABET Student Outcomes are CAC h:  Recognition of the need for and an ability to engage in continuing professional development and EAC i: Recognition of the need for and an ability to engage in life-long learning.)

Overall, describe what worked well and what didn’t work well in this project.

Reflection papers must be well written in the same way as other papers must be well written. That is, they should read smoothly and not simply be a list of answers to the questions above. Reflection papers will be graded using the Team Project Assessment Form.