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Portfolio Summary
Portfolio Summary
This portfolio showcases my achievements as an instructional designer and developer with an emphasis on effectively implementing technology into instruction. These achievements are demonstrated through my artifacts, in which my abilities and growth within instructional development are evident. I have gained a strong understanding of how analyzing, planning, designing, developing, and evaluating contribute to the overall success of learner outcomes and program success. My accomplishment in becoming an instructional designer and developer is additionally evidenced by my approaching graduation from The Learning Design and Technologies, M.Ed. program at The University of South Carolina with a 4.0 GPA.
Self-Evaluation
Self-Evaluation
Throughout my time in the M.Ed. program, I have seen myself grow and gain two major understandings of instructional design and development. The first insight I gained was the power of properly selecting and using technology within instruction. Prior to this degree, I would often use technology resources as a filler activity at the end of a lesson or for an early finisher activity, which is not entirely invalid, but it was often not beneficial to my students. I have learned that when there is purpose behind instructional technology use it can be used to boost student achievement. Throughout this degree I have researched and created a list of resources that aid me in effectively using technology. These resources include items that allow adaptive learning, gamification, simulations, and most importantly, online tools for meeting accessibility guidelines.
The second insight I have gained is the importance of intentional planning for instruction. This includes ensuring that needs assessments are conducted to determine any instructional problems that may be occurring within a target audience. This process allows for clear goals and learning objectives to be set prior to the design and development phase. Without this intentional planning, the instructional materials developed may not be beneficial to resolving the instructional problem. Intentional planning can be even more detailed when utilizing instructional design models such as the Morrison, Ross, and Kemp (MRK) model, ADDIE model, or ASSURE model, etc. These models are research-based strategies that provide steps for detailing the stages of analyzing, planning, designing, developing, and evaluating.
I have come to realize that while these various instructional design models are helpful for large scale trainings or learning scenarios, they are not realistic for daily instructional use as it is a time-consuming process. This presented a challenge for me as to how I could utilize all that I have learned into my personal career of teaching. To counter this obstacle, I have learned to use bits and pieces of these instructional design models for my daily work. For example, each lesson I create is based on an instruction problem, a topic that a student is struggling with, and goals are set for student growth. I have also modified these processes by using larger parts of the models for unit planning. This allows me to conduct a needs assessment (pre-test), analyze data, write unit goals, and make a plan for how I can develop instructions to meet those goals. Lastly, I have learned to evaluate every learning material that I use in my classroom. When I use instructional materials, it can range from showing significant student engagement and growth to completely failing. I see the range through personal observations and knowledge check results. Some days I can look at the data for an immediate reflection and correction; other times I make notes for the next time I need to use the materials. This self-evaluation guarantees that all instructional materials are improved for future learning experiences.
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