I feel like I do have more of an understanding of eLearning theories for adult learning. I found those resources to be very interesting. However, I am sure I could learn more. I think activities within this area to practice for understanding would be helpful or to have more feedback on blog posts if my thoughts were confused or erroneous.
I enjoyed the aspect of emerging technologies but I really don’t recall us doing much of this. I would have liked more resources in this area.
The hands-on project was the most effective for me in assisting with achieving these goals. I felt the reading and resources were effective and the reflective blog post. I did not find the comments and responses to blogs to be the most helpful. I also did not find much benefit in Twitter. Although, I did learn of more resources within Twitter which was helpful to know.
I would say the 1st and 3rd I still need to work on. I recall some articles around the development but I would love to know more. The resources surrounding community, feedback, etc was helpful but I would have liked to have seen more examples. I think a large portion of our learning occurred through self-reflection and then feedback was relied upon for further learning and understanding. However, that only works if the content of the feedback is written in a way that pushes or furthers that understanding. Otherwise, I don’t find it very helpful. That could be a personal thing. However, I think perhaps more facilitation was needed for further understanding or development in certain areas. If facilitation is not available then perhaps activities which our optional to further understanding in certain concepts would be neat. As you can see I guess I tend to rely more on my self and self-assessment then others, which might be why I found the community aspect a little more challenging. I really enjoyed creating the site and creating the lessons but I did not feel like I had a whole bunch of time to develop the content within the site and get feedback. I think I would have preferred to have started the development at the beginning and practice the theories or such discussed through that and then use the blogs to receive feedback, perhaps? I don’t know.
I kind of feel like I am always beating the same drum, I am slightly predictable in this manner. However, as far as other things to improve I do have a suggestion. This is not just this course but multiple courses with the Adult learning tract. I feel especially for those going into instructional design, there needs to be more emphasis on diversity, accessibility, and 508 compliance in regards to material and course development especially in eLearning. At least the basic expectations. I feel with this specific course a lot of theories and technologies are shared but we really need to instruct individuals on how to design for everyone. If someone begins working for a federal agency and designs material that has no design or awareness for compliance it will be frowned upon. In general though by creating courses and online content that excludes a population of people it is not effective nor is it conscientious, we are possibly creating barriers to content to learning for certain individuals. As time goes by more and more indviduals are demanding equal access and in some cases this has opened up certain organizations and companies to liability. I really feel it is doing students a disservice by not covering this content in some form.
Thank you for this feedback, it is very helpful.