I'd like to let you know a little about myself, so you can get a feel for who I am and where I am coming from in regard to how I design and develop training.
First, I taught and learned as an educator of English as a foreign language (TEFL) for over fifteen years in Asia. During that time I found myself teaching in a multitude of situations; private tutoring of the young, adult, and elderly, in classrooms at every level of formal education from kindergartens to graduate schools, training public school teachers, and in the boardroom educating company executives. I also taught a variety of types of English courses; conversational, business, academic purposes, and military. To meet the needs of my students and the goals of the administration I had to be flexible and inventive with the development and delivery of each course. In order to accomplish these goals, I sought to stay up to date with educational theory and practice. I completed a master’s program in Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from the University of Birmingham (UK) in 2011. This helped me learn and understand educational theory and developed my academic writing skills. It was also my first experience with distance learning. In 2017 I began a new masters in Instructional Technology with Fort Hays State University. Those studies gave me experience and confidence, building online learning experiences in congruence with adult learning and instructional design theories. In addition, they helped me understand my leadership and training experiences and introduced me to new and exciting ways to create active online learning opportunities that develop 21st-century academic and professional skills.
Second, due to the variety of teaching contexts I was exposed to, I had to find ways to provide content to learners in a current and effective medium. This led me to be an early adopter of technology in my classrooms through a variety of means. Throughout my career I have evolved along with the technology that has become available, beginning with more basic elements of incorporating multimedia, such as pictures, audio and video, my lesson plans grew to include PowerPoint to support learning objectives. For my TESOL master’s thesis I chose to examine the relationship of learner autonomy, and language acquisition through the use of synchronous chat programs via mobile devices. I also taught blended courses at Yeungnam University, utilizing the learning management systems (LMS), Schoology to encourage students’ learning outside of the classroom as well as to provide timely feedback to learners. Finally, I was interested and experimented with the use of learning apps and smartphone technology in class. My familiarity with these types of educational technology and an innate curiosity about how eLearning can be extended beyond the classroom to increase learning opportunities for various learners in different contexts is ongoing.
Finally, as an administrator and teacher living and working abroad taught me to be an effective and thoughtful communicator. Working with administrators, professors, and learners while navigating linguistic and cultural differences helped me develop great listening skills and taught me to ask guiding questions, during the design as well as the delivery of different courses. These skills helped me to define and satisfy the goals of stakeholders for each course, as well as attend to the needs of individual learners. When there is a mismatch between these two I have learned to consider both parties fairly in order to achieve an appropriate compromise. As a leader and innovator in education in higher ed, I understood the fear that professors felt about changing their medium of instruction and educational approach. I learned to be patient and supportive throughout this transition establishing a partnership that leads to a confident instructor and a successful course.
Flexible and engaging instructional design grounded in sound educational and design theory, supported by functional appropriate educational technology, and achieved through effective communication. Have a look at some of the samples of my work and see for yourself.