Introduction

Welcome to my capstone portfolio!  I’m not sure how you’re here, since, it seems like just last fall I started this program.  But, a lot has changed since I took my first course here at Penn State even though the time has gone quickly!  I became a mom, moved four times, and most relevant to my new degree in Learning, Design, and Technology, I began my career as an online teacher.

I am excited to highlight some of the standout projects and papers that I have completed over the last three years.  During this time I have grown as a teacher in general, an online teacher, a designer, and a student.  I will always love learning and teaching and I’m excited to use these new skills wherever my new degree and skills take me!  The first project that I have selected, one of the many Design Blueprint’s that I made in my three years here, this one is from EDTECH 440.   It highlights many of the things that I have learned in multiple classes.  This project, in particular, stood out as one that was particularly well thought out and I feel really shows my understanding of the program as a whole.  The second project is really more like two projects, but it shows my growth as I reflected on my learning philosophies.  The first paper is from the beginning of 2016, and the second was must more recent, written this past spring, 2018.  My final project is from one of the most unique courses in the program, LDT 550.  The project highlights my diversity and skill level in a whole new area, HTML, jQuery, Databases, Flipped Classrooms, and Photoshop.

Learning Design Projects

Project 1 – Blueprint #1 (EDTECH 440 June 2017)

The first project that I’d like to highlight is my first Blueprint from EDTECH 440.  I am already reminded how much has changed since I began my program (and how quickly online learning can change!).  My LMS changed and also our curriculum, even our synchronous classroom changed!  One thing is the same though, the need for a fast, high-quality screencasting extension to use to communicate quickly, efficiently, and effectively with my students.  Many times in my job, I need to create short tutorials for assignments and tutorials that do not need to be created within our classroom.  I like to send these in announcements or directly to a student in their email when specific questions come up.  Additionally, as I point out in this Blueprint, there is a need for more “flipped” classroom approaches in online learning so that students are given more time to actually complete their assignments during “active learning time” instead of just listening to lecture-based lessons.  Since writing this Blueprint, our school has actually done just that – we’ve moved toward a much more asynchronous approach to learning with live sessions now being supplemental (rather than mandatory).

What I really loved about this project was that I was asked to identify a problem that affected my school, and then asked to come up with a creative solution.  From the beginning to the end, I went through the steps (right down to budget concerns) that this solution would present.  It was a great activity and really got to me think about my current situation, design, and how technology can help create solutions in new and innovative ways.

Project 2 – One of my earliest Learning Philosophy Papers (LDT 467 April 2016) compared to my most recent online Learning Philosophy Statement/Final Paper (LDT 581 April 2018)

For my second project, I decided to highlight two different learning philosophy papers.  The first, taken from LDT 467 in April 2016, and the second taken from LDT 581 in April 2018.  Between these two courses, I had completed two more years of teaching, and five additional LDT courses.  When I look back at my first learning philosophy, I am reminded that I learned a lot not just from the content in the courses that I took, but also from the courses and how they were designed themselves.

In my first paper, I said that learning, “learning should constitute of instruction, application, review, reevaluation, and a revised application.”  In most of my LDT courses we had readings, videos, or other direct instruction, followed up discussion opportunities, then reflection opportunities, and finally a summative assessment opportunity.  Even if the research didn’t show that this leads to deeper learning transfer (and I feel that it does), seeing how it worked in practice after three years…certainly helped me come to that conclusion!

In my second paper, I said that “learning transcends the four walls of a classroom.  It is having endless resources and imagination at one’s fingertips.  Learning is both the receiving and conveying of information and should be both individual and collaborative, asynchronous and synchronous.  Learning is never-ending.”  I can see from this definition that I was struggling to have as “simple” as an answer as I’d had two years prior.  I feel that as I have continued to study how people learn, keeping that definition simple is more and more challenging!  

In this paper, I love how I was able to take a passion that I have fostered throughout my courses (gamification and game-based learning) and thread it into the theories that we’ve covered and explored.  Additionally, I was able to create a really cool and relevant infographic with Canva, to highlight my thoughts about how learning happens.

It was so interesting to see the ways my ideas about learning have changed over the years!  I’m sure they will continue to change (since then, I’ve now taken two and nearly finished a third) more classes, and as I continue to teach and attend professional development in my district I’m sure they will keep changing.

Project 3 – Pecha Kucha (LDT 550, July 2016)

For my final project, I chose to highlight the Pecha Kucha from LDT 550.  This is very different from the other two projects that I chose, but it’s actually one that I am most proud of from the entire LDT program.  LDT 550, was not at all what I was expecting.  It was challenging, out of my comfort zone, frustrating, but in this course, I learned to push through hard, unexpected, and frustrating things…things I thought I couldn’t do to create something I was truly proud of.  The purpose of this course was to become more familiar with some of the many behind the scenes features within LMSs and things needed to create and design quality online courses.  There were multiple Modules for students to choose from and explore, for my technology Modules in this course, I selected: HTML/CSS/jQuery, Flipped Classrooms, Databases, and Photoshop.

I think that Flipped Classrooms is the only one that I’ll really use in my day-to-day job, but the others gave me a huge appreciation for the behind the scenes work it takes to create quality design features that I take for granted in my LSM and in the work produced by the curriculum design team that our school has hired.

For me, the outcome of this course was the added appreciation and understanding of the complexity of these tools that designers will sometimes need to work with (or at the very least, have an understanding of).  I feel is a pivotal part of being an instructional designer and one that I’m glad to have experienced in this course in the program.  Practicing and learning the basics of HTML/CSS/jQuery and Databases, in particular, was a great step in my understanding!

Reflection

As I reflect on my three years in this course, I am in awe of how much I have read, collaborated, written, produced, and reflected.  When I signed up to start my Master’s Degree, I really didn’t know what to expect.  I thought – this is just going to be like my undergrad was, only more specialized in technology and education, which was my favorite part of undergrad and it became my minor.  It was actually so much more.  The depth of topics covered, from theory to design, practice to predictions… was more than I ever expected to cover.  In addition – this program took a very anti-collaboration/group project student to a very excited-to-work-in-a-group student (and that’s saying something).  I enjoyed my classes here, the professors, and the other students immensely and while I’m looking forward to the extra time with my family, enjoying our new home, and having time to read for fun again – I will miss the deep conversations that I looked forward to here in these classes and the continued knowledge that I have enjoyed as well.  In what feels like a blink of an eye I cannot believe I’m nearly finished.  I am looking forward to going out into the world and using all these new skills to my fullest ability!

Thank you for taking the time to read my Capstone Portfolio for the Penn State Learning, Design, and Technology Master’s Program!

Megan S. Riggers