Artefact 4 | A Program Critique

First and foremost, effective communication and good interpersonal relationships have been a cornerstone of my distance learning in the MDE program. I realized, very early on, the importance of active engagement in online learning which required a constant loop of interaction and feedback in a given course. Furthermore, I have been able to continue some of the acquaintances that my classmates and I built up into a virtual friendship that has remained connected until today.

During the second semester of the Program in which I took MDDE 602 and 611 concurrently, I became more comfortable with the computer-based conferences. For the previous two courses my online communication and interaction had followed the natural path to learning the “online language” that my MDDE 601 and 603 instructors laid out. The most prominent characteristics of this new language as compared to spoken language were the significance of clarity and coherence when communicating online. The Artefact 4 from the point of online presentation and discussion was an opportunity for me to exercise what I had been learning, hence my adoption of minimalist design and delivery. This approach allowed me to highlight the major points thereby keeping the content concise and coherent.
          
The presentation and the subsequent discussion provided an excellent opportunity for genuine online conversation. While moderating the discussion forum, I was surprised by the degree of interest in the subject; for example, the group brought up various topics from the use of the title “engineer” as a point of contention to the unions and their influence on accreditation of the educational programs.

Neither the presentation nor discussions would have been interesting if I had not asked somewhat risky but stimulating questions such as

“Do you think PEDE as a successful program failed a social goal?”

Retrospectively, the question seems to have a negative connotation nevertheless in the context of Foundations of Adult Education, it was an ordinary question that had developed naturally and is an inquiry into values that has influenced my views throughout the MDE program. In the follow up question I probed
 
Do you feel adult education programs you’ve taken or taught have been used as vehicles to serve the economic growth purposes only?
 
The responses to this question were not discerning however these questions and the presentation in general helped me formulate analytical queries all of which underlined one of the utmost outcomes of MDDE 611, the purposes of adult education. The attitudes I developed in this course became the centre stage to my future coursework.