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I entered the Masters of Education program in Instructional Technology to learn how to create effective web based instruction for adult learners. I knew from past experiences trying to create web based instruction on my own that I lacked the knowledge and skills that I needed. I wanted to know how to design effective online instruction. I wanted to understand more about how people learn. I also wanted to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of online instructional resources and learn ways to improve those resources. As a result of my goals three main themes emerged as areas of focus for my Masters of Education in Instructional Technology degree. The three themes were Instructional Design and Development, Theory, and Evaluation. As I went through the program I took classes and created projects that would further advance my knowledge and experience in these three sometimes overlapping themes. My Instructional Design and Development theme started with learning the theory and process of instructional design in EDIT 6170 Instructional Design then progressed to using the basic concepts creating instruction in EDIT 6190 Design & Development Tools. My skills in instructional design and development were further developed and refined with the tutorial I created in EDIT 6200 Learning Environments Design I. My formal training in this theme was completed with the team development of a more complex instructional product in EDIT 6210 Learning Environments Design II. But the lifelong learning of instructional design and development is just beginning. An important part of any profession is understanding the theory behind the art and science of the practice, thus theory was my second major theme. I started learning about the theory and field of instructional technology in my first class EDIT 6100 Introduction to Instructional Technology. I learned much more about instructional, learning, and cognitive theories in EDIT 6400 Emerging Approaches in Teaching, Learning, and Technology. Then I focused on learning more about the theory and practice of evaluation in EDIT 8350 Instructional Product Evaluation. The foundation in theory learned from these classes gave me additional knowledge needed to develop more effective instructional resources. The
third major theme was evaluation. I started learning about evaluation
of instructional products during my EDIT 6170 Instructional Design
class. I conducted independent study on usability evaluation
and
designing for usability in my EDIT 6000 Special Problems in Instructional
Technology. In my EDIT 6900 Research Methods in Instructional
Technology
class I applied what I had learned about usability testing and
completed research evaluating the usability of the UGA Libraries
web Site.
Then I learned more about the theory and practice of evaluation
in EDIT 8350 Instructional Product Evaluation. With evaluation
throughout
the instructional design process my instructional products will
be much more effective and learner-centered. |
