That's a wrap!

Honestly, I was perplexed on how I would be continuing my learning journey. Would I simply return to the same old bad habits, or try and incorporate new techniques that I have learned along the way? That feeling lingered until I had an opportunity to review a poster that a friend was creating for an upcoming social event. I found that I immediately had many comments to make on how it could be improved (maybe she didn't want my help after all - ha!). From looking at the colour scheme, contrast, font choices and size, to the language used and the amount of text. I was able to use what I had learned in class to hopefully(!) help her out and make the poster more appealing. After all, like everything nowadays, you need to entice your readers to delve a little bit deeper, your viewer to hold their attention a little bit longer, in hopes of engaging the audience to interact with the materials. It is a rare occurrence to be able to immediately put all your new found skills into practice, and it was certainly a marvel to realize how much I did indeed learn over the past 7 weeks.

The things that stand out for me are:

1. The group project. I had such a fantastic team to work with. It was a rewarding experience, and helped to set the tone for the rest of the class. Although I might suggest that you consider moving it back one week. Two people in our group didn't even join the class until we were already done our project, and we all felt a bit sad that we missed the opportunity to work with them.
2. The hang outs. Online learning can be very isolating without any live interactions. These hang outs added a lot to the class. My classmates were very engaged with the topics and contributed to a rich and vibrant conversation.
3. The section on graphic design. I think I gravitate to visual elements, so this section was particularly interesting to me. 

Next steps:

1. Register for the Writing for Engagement course in the winter term. Then finish up the certificate program as soon as possible thereafter.
2. Continue to learn about engaging my learners through a variety of modes and mediums.

Reflection of Group Assignment

In the opening week of U of T's Learner Design Experience course, learners working in small groups were tasked with compiling a list of 5 things that create an ideal learning experience. It was important to provide a rationale for each item, as well as a reflection on the items that were not included on the list. 

The conversation was easy, and consensus was achieved immediately on four out of the five items: inclusion, engagement, interaction and relatable. We discovered that we may have chosen other words to describe an ideal experience, but when we began explaining why the characteristic was chosen, we quickly realized that we were talking about the same concepts. 

But what would that fifth item be? It was suggested that integrity should be included on this list, as presenting information that is valid, accurate, trustworthy is a foundational value of most post-secondary institutions. When integrity is modeled by instructors, learners can see first hand how they can include ethical practices in their own work. Our conversation was fascinating. We all came from different industries, but could all provide examples of how integrity was necessary in our fields. 

This assignment was also a good opportunity to be creative. We came up with the analogy of building your own burger, with different components of the burger representing items on our list.