Reflective Essay

Standards are an important factor in the teaching and learning environment. Without standards, educators could have difficulty designing a course. This will leave learners lost because they will not have an objective or goal to meet. Throughout my master’s program, the readings, assignments and interactions that took place in the online communities exposed me to a better understanding of the AECT Standards for Professional Education. Below are some of the showcase examples from my courses based on AECT standards:

 

Standard 1 – Content Knowledge:
There are several projects that I can select to support my understanding on the AECT Standard 1 – Content Knowledge. However, I think the my creation of the Psychotropics  Jeopardy Game assignment in Foundation of Educational Technology course fits best. This assignment starts with an analysis of goals and learners. Since this game is part of an exam review, the content was built based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. Each question is multiple choice and at the end of the game, learners will be able to review all of the questions and also receive their score. The design of this game can be delivered online through a Learning Management System (LMS) with an option to be graded. There is an option to have this delivered in a face-to-face environment as well, which would work very well with this format.

 

Standard 2 – Content Pedagogy:
One of the Foundation of Educational Technology assignments was to find a tool that can accommodate multiple theories. The one tool with multiple theories assignment challenged me to select a high-fidelity medical simulator called METIman that is widely use in health sciences simulation sessions. This tool supports behaviorism theory because it can be controlled to provide different scenarios and this will emphasize timely and informative feedback to the student when necessary. Each session will followed by a de-briefing session. During the de-briefing session, learners watch the previously recorded video and are open to discussions that support congnitivism theory. Since most simulation sessions bring the real world into classroom, it also supports constructivism theory.

 

Standard 3 – Learning Environment:
During the course of Computer Based Instructional Development, I developed an online educational website titled “Learning Objects for Online Courses” based on the AECT Standard 3 – Learning Enviroment. The first step in building this online learning environment was to do an audience analysis. After documenting my audience analysis, I moved on to the blueprint of my educational website by drawing a flowchart of my topic structures. With the planning and organizing of the topic structure, the website was able to convey adequate information to users in a easy to navigate and user-friendly environment. Due to the nature of the topic, I incorporated different type of multimedia productions and also included examples of learning objects. Before the website was launched, I did a usability testing to obtain feedback and made necessary modifications based on the pilot group’s responses.

 

Standard 4 – Professional Knowledge and Skills:
Research has shown that learner-learner interactions are the best method for learning. This also applies to the work environment. A successful project exists when there is a supportive community of practice. During the course of Instructional System Management, I collaborated with another peer to implement an instructional system for our client. Because we were from different areas, my peer and I were able to communicate through emails for this project. We were able to divide our leadership role in each process and this was determined according to our working experiences and background. However, there were some processes where we were both leaders. This built mutual respect between us and we were able to learn from each other. Also, with the open communication and interactions, we delivered a successful project to our client.

 

Standard 5 – Research:
In most of my projects, my main focus is online learning. I explored evidence-based articles, journals and textbooks to learn how others enhance learning and improve performance in online courses. In the Facilitating Online Learning course, I was able to learn and understand more about online course by proposing an online professional development course. For this proposal, I explored evidence-based articles and made comparisons. Since there are a many learning models and theories, most researchers concluded that there is no universal strategy to have better outcomes in online courses. However, there is one factor that researchers agreed on. In order to have a successful online course, a sense of community will need to exist. Without this, students will feel lost, which might lead to isolation.