I just finished my first semester at Monash University! đ„ł
In order to keep my productivity during holiday, I was writing this to share my study experience so far.
Here we go!
I started my first day of semester one on March 2020, and it's such a roller-coaster journey. So many things happened: happy, shocked and sad moments!
I enjoyed studying four units in this semester, such as Strategic Communications in Digital Era; Engaging Audiences; Data Analytics in Communications; and Campaigns, Advocacy and Change. I love the unit materials, tutors, assignments! I like how the tutors led the students to learn many cases and analysed it based on the given theories. They are very valuable to enhance my academic and practical skills in the field of communications.
Let me elaborate each unit briefly.
1. Strategic Communications in Digital Era
This unit taught me how communication practitioners should be able to strategically convey the message in the competitive public sphere. The advance of digital media or ICTs have made everyone become consumer and creator of contents simultaneously. It means that we have to compete with countless actors to attract the publics by making our message personally relevant to the target audiences ethically.
I learned many cases from various fields, such as corporate communication, government communication an NGOs. My final assignment was writing a case study from any field that performed strategic communications in digital and/or non-digital media. I analysed the communication initiative based on relevant theories including the ethical concerns.
2. Engaging Audiences
Besides attracting public attention, communication practitioners also need to generate audience engagement through strategic tactics. In this unit, I learn the "politics" of online platforms (websites and apps) wherein each features and affordances of the platforms is set in such a way to engage with the user and generate expected behaviors of the users. For instance, the icon position, action flow and communication style of an app is designed to lead the user to expected action, such as staying on the app for a long time or purchases.
I very enjoyed this unit as I learned many practical lessons, such as making infographic poster, meme, bitmoji and website. It really helps me to improve my business plan - Lolganizer.
3. Data Analytics in Communications
This unit is the advancement of Engaging Audiences unit in which the students deeply analysed the social networks of selected Twitter accounts to evaluate the user engagement. This unit required good literacy in operating several softwares, such as NodeXL for collecting data and SentiStrength for sentiment detection. However, the tutors are very supportive! They guided the students well and were really helpful when we face technical and theoretical difficulties.
I chose two global brands in fast-moving-consumer-goods (FMCG) industry. I identified their online communication strategies and analysed the customer engagement as the outcomes from those strategies. In doing so, I did three research methodsL: content analysis of the brands' tweets, customer sentiment analysis and social network analysis. Honestly, I was quite stressful with the given tasks since I'm not used to deal with data science. But I was really curious about this unit, so I forced myself to cope with it. And yesss, I did it and was very happy!
4. Campaign, Advocacy and Change
In order to speak on behalf of marginalised groups and make changes, advocacy actors should pursue apt communication strategies and tactics to attract public and media attention. The actors must strategically use images, videos, media and narratives to frame the issue in the public sphere.
This unit is very fun since I was able to design my own campaign based on given lessons from the unit. I chose to design a campaign plan in the field of COVID-19 health communication for my home country. I enjoyed the making process as I learned many new things from previous academic journals.
Each unit was taught in only five weeks - two units (no. 1 & 2) in the first half and two units (no. 3 & 4) in the second half of the semester. Thus, it was very intense! I'm really grateful that I could finish all tasks well and on time amidst shocking and down moments.
I haven't experienced face-to-face classes and it makes me upset. I never expected to study online abroad. In the first two weeks, I was overwhelmed with many emails, online tasks from tutors and updates from the university. Nonetheless, I was successful to obtain my support systems: family and friends who calmed me down. And, I'm happy that I used to the online system.
Furthermore, I was very shocked when my tutor passed away during zoom tutorial. I was very speechless and could not believe in what I saw. The sad news make me afraid and a little traumatised. Fortunately, that feelings were gone quickly once I shared the experience with my friends.
The last and the most sad moment was when I know that my father passed away suddenly. I was very shocked and panic. At that time, I could only think about how to return to Indonesia as soon as possible. I cried a lot during when I was preparing many documents required by the governments to return safely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I arrived safely in Indonesia last month after facing many "dramas". This is the lowest point in my life. Even though I still cannot believe what has happened, I'm starting to make peace with this new condition.
So yes, I'm currently in Indonesia and waiting for a miracle that Australian governments allow international students to return to Australia before new semester begins.
Lastly, despite the adversities, I feel so blessed! Many good things happen in my life too. I was able to finish my study well, I could stay close with my family and I was loved by God and many people. Thanks to God!
I think that's all for this time. Thank you for reading my story đ
Stay safe, everyone!