Introduction
In a lot of ways this ePortfolio has been the most demanding task for me in the M. Ed program. Even though the various courses that I took throughout the program were very challenging, the development of the ePortfolio has been a very extensive and thorough reflection writing process. There have been a lot of lessons learned that can be credited to my experience in the M. Ed program. Reflection is a very challenging and thoughtful process in my opinion, as it forces you to think back on your experiences and identify specific experiences that had a significant impact on your learning process. One of the reasons I enrolled into the M. Ed program was to help me to develop my theoretical understanding of instructional design. As I started my career in the distance education field, I was always comfortable with the technical skills involved, and improving on them came easy. However, explaining why we do what we do as instructional designers was always challenging. It was difficult for me to articulate and defend any new ideas that I would come up with, or even understand others' ideas of designing a course a certain way. The challenge was simply that I didn't understand what benefits there were when designing a course a certain way.
Another very important reason for my enrollment into the program was because I started working at Athabasca University as an Instructional Media Analyst, and while I was working I wanted to take advantage of the ability to take courses and pursue graduate level education. Prior to working at Athabasca University, I always procrastinated on the idea of taking the courses but never got around to it.
Before beginning the program, I was always nervous about the idea of learning via distance, it was a difficult prospect given that there are risks of isolation; the chance that my learning style might not match that of the course design offered; the significant discipline involved with having to learn individually; etc. Participating in the courses through Moodle and discussion forums was an eye opening experience, which I found extremely engaging. I learned the value and convenience of learning on-line. I can say by taking the courses via Moodle alone taught me a lot about the Do's and Don’ts’ of distance education. I also learned a lot about my personal learning style.
Prior to beginning the program, I had a very general goal, which was to simply improve my theoretical understanding of the distance education field. However, as I took a couple of courses, my goals changed and become much more specific. I wanted to answer the following questions:
• Why is distance education becoming popular?
• Why is it difficult for some people to learn via distance and easier for others?
• What can be delivered via distance education?
• How do you carry out a Needs Analysis?
• How do you decide the format a course should be delivered in? i.e. face to face, blended/hybrid, distance, synchronous, asynchronous, etc.
• How do I effectively collaborate with individuals that are of a different age group than me? (i.e. different demographics; different phase of life, etc.)
• How does one manage instructional design projects?
The courses that I took in this program were:
MDDE 603 Foundations of Instructional Design
MDDE 617 Program Evaluation in Distance Education
MDDE 604 Instructional Design in Distance Education
MDDE 620 Advanced Technologies for Distance Education
MDDE 660 Pro-Seminar
MDDE 601 Introduction to Distance Education/Training
MDDE 650 Tutoring & Student Support in Distance Education
MDDE 602 Research Methods in Distance Education
MDDE 610 Introduction to Distance Education Technologies
MDDE 605 Planning & Management in Distance Education
MDDE 618 Instructional Project Management
As a result, I have chosen the following five artefacts:
Artefact #1 – Learning Management System (LMS) Implementation at CWB Group - The reason I selected this artefact was because it provided me an opportunity to apply my skills from the Program Evaluation and Instructional Project Management courses. I had done an implementation of an LMS previously; however, this one in my opinion was the most successful, smooth and well-coordinated in comparison to the previous implementation.
Artefact #2 - MDDE610 group project - This artefact allowed me to learn to collaborate effectively and work in a relatively large team (6 individuals) to deliver a presentation. It taught me the means of communicating effectively with individuals from varying backgrounds.
Artefact #3 - Comparisons of LMS' - I selected this artefact to represent my learning experience of what Learning Management Systems offers to education in general, not just for higher education or K-12, rather any organization or group that wants to deliver some form of training using LMS' as support.
Artefact #4 - Instructional Design Model - The reason I selected this artefact was because it best describes the instructional design process that I have learned, used and adapted. Over the past couple years, I have been applying the instructional design skills learned from the M. Ed program to my work.
Artefact #5 - Business Development Project - Selection of this artefact was to highlight my knowledge of the financial and business side of distance education, and which variables are involved in operating a business that provides educational services.
