Reflections
The Journey to MDE
When I finished my Associate’s degree in Computer Science the thought of a master’s degree was nowhere in my mind. I was just happy to have some kind of degree under my belt. At that time I was more concerned with focusing on working full-time and raising my children. As the years passed the lack of a full degree began to weigh on me. It became a bit of an embarrassment when I was the only one of my peers who did not have at least a Bachelor’s degree. In 2004 I was presented an opportunity to move from the Information Technology division into a business line group. This new job offered the potential of running the company’s educational website; however, I did not have the credentials to assume a leadership position. At this time I made the decision to go back to school. My children were still young and I did not want to have to travel evenings for school, so I researched online education opportunities and found UMUC. Taking one and two classes at a time, I completed my Bachelor in Business Administration in 2004, graduating with a 4.0 GPA. At the same time my son graduated high school and we had a joint graduation party! Again, while I was completing this degree I really never thought about going on to a Master’s but when I graduated my career was still following the online education path with potential for growth. So I figured what the heck, the Master of Distance Education was for me. Four years later and I am now at the culmination of this process.
MDE – The Program
One of the first things I remember about being enrolled in a graduate program – no final exams. I kept waiting for the schedule for mid-terms and finals but they never came. This was actually a relief. The biggest challenges have been group projects, conference participation and learning journals. Group projects are a challenge in a face-to-face class and the addition of an online venue only adds more challenges. I have been extremely fortunate to have been part of great groups throughout the program and all of our projects were quite successful. I find I am one of the lurkers often referred to in discussions of online education. I am not the type of person who can post for the sake of posting. I gather a lot of information from the posts of others and contribute when I feel it is meaningful. And learning journals, well they are just painful - reflection is not my strong point. But I did it and have been successful – it’s all a learning experience. My intention was to maintain a 4.0 GPA throughout my graduate program, so one of the most disappointing moments was my first B. It did not matter that there was no formal recognition of GPA like there is in the undergraduate world, it was my own personal standard. I did not adjust to that standard, but rather came to terms with that one grade. Subsequently I have only earned one more B (which according to my rounding an 89.6 should have been an A) and have a 3.818 GPA - that's a GPA I can live with.
One of the best experiences has been having my daughter express her pride in my ability to work full time, take care of the family and be successful in school. I have enjoyed having my children take part in the process which has included them telling me that Facebook is not homework and providing feedback on my work including this ePortfolio. It has really allowed me to lead by example and not dictate my expectations for my children’s grades or path through school. They understand that quality is key and if I can do it so can they.
Highlights of the Journey
Throughout the curriculum it has been extremely beneficial to be able to apply my real life job to class projects and in return apply the learning obtained in the classes to my real life job. Some of the key contributors to this include the following.
Instructional Design and Course Development in Distance Education and E-learning - Instructional design is something that is often neglected in course development. Instead courses are developed and delivered based on the developers' ideas of what the user needs. Unfortunately this often delivers a course that is not intuitive or useful to the student. During this class I was able to take an online educational course that was currently under development within my company and take it through the instructional design process. With permission of the course's content authors I was able to create a different version of the course for my project. The biggest takeaway was how much of an impact a good instructional designer (and that is not me) can have on the delivery of a quality course.
OMDE 606 Costs and Economics of Distance Education and E-Learning provided a new perspective into understanding all the elements that need to be considered when considering development of a distance education course. Up to that point I had been involved in basic budget analysis and tracking and this gave me considerable insight into the various aspects of course planning as well as determining per student costs and breakeven analysis.
OMDE 630 Emerging Technology Trends and Issues in Distance Education and E-learning created the opportunity to discuss the use of ePortfolios and a proposed educational module that would aid students in understanding the use and need of an ePortfolio. This project was definitely something to be considered going forward with the MDE program. I think more information for students on the use and development of an ePortfolio would be a good idea as I feel this is still an area that is in its infancy. A key need is an understanding of why and how it may actually be used. From my experience the corporate world is still using a resume as the basic look at a person; they do not ask to see their ePortfolio.
OMDE 608 allowed me to develop a proposal for a Learner Support System for the non-profit association where I was employed. While the proposal was never delivered to the association, it did allow me to assess the internal workings of the organization and take some of the information I learned during the development of the proposal and apply it to my daily tasks.
Working on my research paper in OMDE 670 made me realize I like the research and the ability to take a reference from a paper and expand the research. e-Learning makes this easy by being able to search the web for the paper in the reference. One paper can lead to many others. The downside is you can just keep on finding information. It's hard to know when to stop. There is so much knowledge out there and our e-Learning world makes it access possible. It's a fun place to be.
The Journey Continues
I do not know what the future holds, but my goal is to be able to continue to apply the knowledge I’ve gained over the last several years and hopefully provide a positive impact on learners and education providers alike.
When I finished my Associate’s degree in Computer Science the thought of a master’s degree was nowhere in my mind. I was just happy to have some kind of degree under my belt. At that time I was more concerned with focusing on working full-time and raising my children. As the years passed the lack of a full degree began to weigh on me. It became a bit of an embarrassment when I was the only one of my peers who did not have at least a Bachelor’s degree. In 2004 I was presented an opportunity to move from the Information Technology division into a business line group. This new job offered the potential of running the company’s educational website; however, I did not have the credentials to assume a leadership position. At this time I made the decision to go back to school. My children were still young and I did not want to have to travel evenings for school, so I researched online education opportunities and found UMUC. Taking one and two classes at a time, I completed my Bachelor in Business Administration in 2004, graduating with a 4.0 GPA. At the same time my son graduated high school and we had a joint graduation party! Again, while I was completing this degree I really never thought about going on to a Master’s but when I graduated my career was still following the online education path with potential for growth. So I figured what the heck, the Master of Distance Education was for me. Four years later and I am now at the culmination of this process.
MDE – The Program
One of the first things I remember about being enrolled in a graduate program – no final exams. I kept waiting for the schedule for mid-terms and finals but they never came. This was actually a relief. The biggest challenges have been group projects, conference participation and learning journals. Group projects are a challenge in a face-to-face class and the addition of an online venue only adds more challenges. I have been extremely fortunate to have been part of great groups throughout the program and all of our projects were quite successful. I find I am one of the lurkers often referred to in discussions of online education. I am not the type of person who can post for the sake of posting. I gather a lot of information from the posts of others and contribute when I feel it is meaningful. And learning journals, well they are just painful - reflection is not my strong point. But I did it and have been successful – it’s all a learning experience. My intention was to maintain a 4.0 GPA throughout my graduate program, so one of the most disappointing moments was my first B. It did not matter that there was no formal recognition of GPA like there is in the undergraduate world, it was my own personal standard. I did not adjust to that standard, but rather came to terms with that one grade. Subsequently I have only earned one more B (which according to my rounding an 89.6 should have been an A) and have a 3.818 GPA - that's a GPA I can live with.
One of the best experiences has been having my daughter express her pride in my ability to work full time, take care of the family and be successful in school. I have enjoyed having my children take part in the process which has included them telling me that Facebook is not homework and providing feedback on my work including this ePortfolio. It has really allowed me to lead by example and not dictate my expectations for my children’s grades or path through school. They understand that quality is key and if I can do it so can they.
Highlights of the Journey
Throughout the curriculum it has been extremely beneficial to be able to apply my real life job to class projects and in return apply the learning obtained in the classes to my real life job. Some of the key contributors to this include the following.
Instructional Design and Course Development in Distance Education and E-learning - Instructional design is something that is often neglected in course development. Instead courses are developed and delivered based on the developers' ideas of what the user needs. Unfortunately this often delivers a course that is not intuitive or useful to the student. During this class I was able to take an online educational course that was currently under development within my company and take it through the instructional design process. With permission of the course's content authors I was able to create a different version of the course for my project. The biggest takeaway was how much of an impact a good instructional designer (and that is not me) can have on the delivery of a quality course.
OMDE 606 Costs and Economics of Distance Education and E-Learning provided a new perspective into understanding all the elements that need to be considered when considering development of a distance education course. Up to that point I had been involved in basic budget analysis and tracking and this gave me considerable insight into the various aspects of course planning as well as determining per student costs and breakeven analysis.
OMDE 630 Emerging Technology Trends and Issues in Distance Education and E-learning created the opportunity to discuss the use of ePortfolios and a proposed educational module that would aid students in understanding the use and need of an ePortfolio. This project was definitely something to be considered going forward with the MDE program. I think more information for students on the use and development of an ePortfolio would be a good idea as I feel this is still an area that is in its infancy. A key need is an understanding of why and how it may actually be used. From my experience the corporate world is still using a resume as the basic look at a person; they do not ask to see their ePortfolio.
OMDE 608 allowed me to develop a proposal for a Learner Support System for the non-profit association where I was employed. While the proposal was never delivered to the association, it did allow me to assess the internal workings of the organization and take some of the information I learned during the development of the proposal and apply it to my daily tasks.
Working on my research paper in OMDE 670 made me realize I like the research and the ability to take a reference from a paper and expand the research. e-Learning makes this easy by being able to search the web for the paper in the reference. One paper can lead to many others. The downside is you can just keep on finding information. It's hard to know when to stop. There is so much knowledge out there and our e-Learning world makes it access possible. It's a fun place to be.
The Journey Continues
I do not know what the future holds, but my goal is to be able to continue to apply the knowledge I’ve gained over the last several years and hopefully provide a positive impact on learners and education providers alike.