Portfolio


 * Marvin R. McClean | Educational Technology**
 * Research and Practice in Distance Education**

Collaborators: Stan Haines & Cindy Jennings (Evaluations, rubric) Reginald China (Lingo Learner course)
 * = **Goal 1** |||||| **To be knowledgeable about research in aspects of distance education and the use of telecommunications in educational and other settings** ||
 * =  || Chapter 10 Review || Chapter 13 Review || Annotated Bibliography ||
 * =  |||||| These assignments were to review chapters 10 and 13 of the text used for the course, Theory and Practice of Online Learning (Anderson, 2008), and scholarly articles related to a topic of choice in online learning. These assignments exposed me to the wealth of information related to the construction, maintenance, effectiveness and impact of online learning environments. Many researchers have conducted studies, raised debate and charted the history of the development of distance education, allowing me to understand what goes into making one relevant and of quality for today's and future learners. It taught me what to look for when attempting to either evaluate or create a course or training environment that would be delivered online. The chapter reviews added the opportunity to convey my interpretation of information regarding the subjects, and the annotated bibliographies in the topic of choice, "Considerations of Creating Quality Online Instruction", provided the practice of researching and compiling related and relevant information in the field of education and other settings. This allowed me to look at many different perspectives that help me define quality in this arena. I would like to cite these or similar compilations when called on to critique future works, and the presentation styles I used in the chapter reviews will definitely be used again to communicate with voice in an online capacity. ||
 * = **Goal 2** |||||| **To critically evaluate examples of distance education implementation in educational and business settings** ||
 * =  |||||| Evaluations of Online Courses: Camp Magic MacGuffin and Best Practices in Online Teaching ||
 * =  |||||| This assignment was an exercise in evaluating two distance education related sites. It was particularly relevant and interesting because the development of the evaluation measures would be determined by a preceding exercise that was an introduction to collaboration. The impact of this format of completion and the activity on the sites of choice had multiple benefits that tied this course together. It expanded the groundwork set by the researching activities, allowing us as a class to put what we observed researchers and experts do to distance sites into practice. This was very pertinent to the objectives of this course for the development of a beginner online delivery module of my own, and important to my professional life, both as someone charged with evaluating courses or preparing course artifacts for evaluation, and someone involved in, and looking to take further, the development of distance education modules. I learned what key things to look for when time came for the development of my own course. The experience also delves into one of the most direct applications of the Educational Technology degree program, and sheds light on the inner workings and rationale of the very 755 course itself, as we can see the considerations put into several aspects that bring the learning environment together. ||
 * = **Goal 3** |||||| **To construct effective delivery of courses, topics, or training by using existing CMS tools** ||
 * =  || Lingo Learner || Reflection: Lingo Learner ||   ||
 * =  |||||| This assignment was designed to put theory and research into practice, building a learning module. As another collaborative exercise, it modeled the importance and benefits of communicating electronically to develop a product meant for electronic delivery. This gave me another perspective on online course creation, since aside from understanding components of making a quality course, practical implications of the creation process, application of components to the specific course subject (that may not be related to those researched), and the combination and refinement of two or more individual interpretations of the materials learned and the processes being attempted, made me think of specifics that I would not have had there been no hands on activity. One overarching learning experience was how to tie progression of increments of coursework together that will integrate varied forms of evaluation. Mastering that process and the skills required is going to be a continued practice of mine since I would like to develop a number of courses in the near future that will be based on the theories and practice experienced here. In addition, this experience will aid me in the educator field with the online aspects of courses current or possible in my department. Based on freely accessible courseware, this also allows me much freedom of practice and refinement, and independent implementation of a module should the need present itself. ||
 * =  || Lingo Learner || Reflection: Lingo Learner ||   ||
 * =  |||||| This assignment was designed to put theory and research into practice, building a learning module. As another collaborative exercise, it modeled the importance and benefits of communicating electronically to develop a product meant for electronic delivery. This gave me another perspective on online course creation, since aside from understanding components of making a quality course, practical implications of the creation process, application of components to the specific course subject (that may not be related to those researched), and the combination and refinement of two or more individual interpretations of the materials learned and the processes being attempted, made me think of specifics that I would not have had there been no hands on activity. One overarching learning experience was how to tie progression of increments of coursework together that will integrate varied forms of evaluation. Mastering that process and the skills required is going to be a continued practice of mine since I would like to develop a number of courses in the near future that will be based on the theories and practice experienced here. In addition, this experience will aid me in the educator field with the online aspects of courses current or possible in my department. Based on freely accessible courseware, this also allows me much freedom of practice and refinement, and independent implementation of a module should the need present itself. ||

6/28/2012  ||