MDDE 605 has been a foundational course that tied together variety of topics including management, organization and leadership in the context of distance education. While learning about these essential skills, which included strategies for effective strategic planning, business planning, and change management, MDDE 605 was also a key course in my learning process about education without a cost to the learner.
 
As I review my MDE coursework, I see an emerging theme that began in my first course. In MDDE 601, I discussed free education on the forums and in MDDE 611, I posted a commentary entitled "Random thoughts on economy, democracy and free education". The following term, in MDDE 605, I developed a business plan for FOSS based on templates that were derived from a for-profit business world. However, a free of charge open school is not a business to pursue in a market-driven world and therefore writing a business plan for a not-for-profit institution by using methods developed for profit-oriented organizations was a challenge. Nevertheless, the opposing nature of the two models gave me a deeper insight into the business development process.

The FOSS business plan was a critical juncture, making me realize that I had fantasized the revolutionary effects of new information technologies and non-market production methods on building a FOSS. The euphoria of FOSS, although my initial aspirations have tapered off, still fuels my desire to impact incremental changes within the existing educational settings (see Artefact 3).