Description

Kiera Conway
Seattle, USA
Kiera.Conway@trojans.dsu.edu
My experience with the Udemy-like online short course on Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Penetration Testing has been equally a challenging and rewarding experience. One of the most significant hurdles I faced was overcoming my struggle to speak seamlessly during recording sessions. Even with meticulously prepared notes, I often stumbled over my words and lacked the fluidity I had originally envisioned for my course. I could spend hours studying a topic, but as soon as I began recording, my mind would go blank. This is something I have struggled with during interviews in the past, but to experience it when alone was one of the most internally frustrating situations I have dealt with.

In an attempt to overcome this challenge, I decided to adopt a scripted approach. However, this brought forth its own set of challenges, as reading made my voice dull and not engaging. Despite numerous re-recordings, I acknowledge there’s still room for improvement, but I have started to find a better balance between being engaging and informative. This process pushed me mentally and emotionally, and I believe my communication and research skills have significantly improved over this semester.

Also, as this was my first attempt at instructional content creation, I gained a profound appreciation for the intricacies involved in teaching. Underestimating the amount of work required to deliver engaging and informative lectures, I found this project to be one of the most academically demanding endeavors I have undertaken. Despite organizing my course schedule meticulously in OneNote, where I spent weeks searching for research to support my lectures, I was surprised with how difficult it was to plan and organize an entire course.

Although counterintuitive, I do hope for future opportunities to reattempt the creation of a short course. If I could do it over again, I would focus my research on quality over quantity, prioritize time management, and embrace imperfections on audio. Despite the challenges, I am grateful for this experience as I believe this semester has contributed significantly to my overall learning and personal development.