Reflection for Offshore and Dredging Engineers

Your study is not just about grades and exams. You have chosen the master Offshore en Dredging Engineering to become a knowledgeable and skillful engineering professional. To this end, you will participate in all courses, and demonstrate your skills and understandings in exams and projects.

Becoming an engineering professional involves more than demonstrating your performance in exams and projects. Each of us has her/his personal talents and preferences, and we all suffer from ineptitudes in certain areas. Being effective in the professional field requires a good level of self-awareness. On which aspects can you be a leader and for which domains can you better rely on the expertise of others?

The course Reflection for Offshore en Dredging Engineers aims to open your eyes for all non-technical aspect that contribute to your success as engineering professional. Understanding your strengths and weaknesses helps you formulating goals for self-development and makes you an effective team player.

Running in parallel with all your course work in the first year of your master, the course will help you sharpen your thoughts regarding the projects and elective courses you intend to follow. You are invited to motivate your preferred projects for the second semester and your selection of elective courses for the first quarter of the second year.

While reflection can of course not be graded, proving your development is mandatory within the master Offshore en Dredging Engineering. Therefore, you need to submit an individual portfolio at two instances of your studies, at the end of Q2 and at the end of Q4, with the following corresponding deadlines:

- Part 1 should be submitted latest on the Friday of week 2.8
- Part 2 should be submitted latest on the Friday of week 4.8

Both parts of the portfolio contain your answers to the eight reflective questions (four questions per quarter). In addition, there is a section in each part with your motivated choices for the following semester. In Part 1, you will motivate your choices regarding project work in the second semester and in Part 2 you will motivate your choices regarding elective courses in the first quarter of the second year. Based on your motivations, we can decide to honour your preferences.

The default format of your portfolio is one written page per quarter for answering your questions (A4, font Arial, size 11) and maximum one page with your motivated choices per semester. The size of each part of your portfolio is therefore three pages at max. Nevertheless, you have the freedom to choose an alternative digital formal of your portfolio. You could instead decide to submit your reflection as a voice recording, video or by means of a slide show, or any other format that fits your personal style and preference. The duration of any recording should be between 7-10 minutes per quarter.

You can submit your portfolio in your personal folder on BrightSpace. Both parts of your reflection portfolio will be assessed as pass/not yet pass. Please know that your reflections as such can never be as 'not yet pass'. A 'not yet pass' would indicate that completeness and ownership of your reflections could be improved. In this case, you will have the opportunity to submit an updated version of your portfolio for second assessment. Based on your motivations, you will be assigned to projects in the second semester and approval of your selected will be decided upon.

In addition, you will be invited for a mandatory interview at two instances throughout the year (end of Semesters 1 and 2). Latest one day before the interview, you should submit a draft version of your reflection portfolio. Further information regarding these interviews will be provided through BrightSpace. You can submit your draft portfolio in your personal folder on BrightSpace.

Please note that failure to submit shifts the deadline to the next semester (e.g., from week 2.8 to week 4.8). Part 1 should always be submitted one semester before Part 2. Deviation from these regulations requires approval from the Board of Examiners.