Monday, November 24, 2014

November Monthly Summary


Angela commented on Group 1 and 3
Gigi commented on group 1

NOVEMBER MONTHLY SUMMARY

November was a challenging month for Angela and me to successfully complete our assignments on time.  This month the final demonstration project and program evaluation were both due. Both of these assignments required several hours of work, research and collaboration.


The most interesting research of the assignment was the program evaluation.  We enjoyed talking with experts in the field of adult education.  The program evaluation taught us about best practices and about adult learners that do not follow the more traditional path in education.


For both of these assignments it was essential to understand the requirements of the assignment, admittedly there were times when we were concerned about whether or not we understood our facilitator’s instructions.  


Angela and I have to contact our instructor by telephone and e-mail several times this month to get clarification and what we were supposed to report in the final Project Demonstration.  There were occasions when our interpretation was not what the assignment required. 


Due to scheduling and other assignment deadlines, it was apparent that two assignments required a substantial amount of research and good clarification.  In the future, I would recommend a brief conference call perhaps with the instructor and other in the class prior to each assignment. 


We realize online courses are becoming more and more popular every day, however, it doesn’t change how complicated an online assignment can be.  We believe our biggest struggle was the depth of each assignment and trying to understand what does “depth” mean to the instructor.


One recommendation this class might be to have a blended classroom.  Ball State offers many blended courses, in the past I been much more successful in that type of setting.


Dr. Chang did a good job of compensating for lack of physical presence, and she was very responsive to our group, considering the number of e-mails and calls she received from us i.e. me. Still the lack of physical presence for these types of detailed assignments can be a limitation for an online student.


Overall I believe Angela and I have learned a lot about developing a program for adult learners.  This assignment taught us how adult’s learners feel the need to take responsibility for their lives and their education, and why it’s important for them to have control over their learning.

Angela Henry



Finally we are at the end of the road. This has been a journey. I am glad to know that I have finished everything that was expected of me and also for the group. This class has taught us to learn how to manage our time and respect each other’s schedule. We are both very busy but it is important that we recognize what had to be done and made sure that it got done. The final project was completed on time and we were able to make some improvements along the way. Again I must stress that as an adult learner, I have grown in the class over the last few months, and have gotten great information from others blogs.   

One of the highlights for this month was learning how to follow instructions!!! After redoing multiple assignments finally, I think we got it! It was nice to see how everything came together with the final project. 

Overall, we are looking to finish this course out strong. My recommendations for anyone taking this course is to read the syllabus several times and then ask lots of questions along the way. I am so looking forward to the Christmas holidays and wish everyone a joyous holiday season. Thanks for the growth that I learned in this class and I look forward to many more.