Throughout all of the performances for the Educational Technology program research and review of scholarly writing is at the core. As I put together each of my projects, I became more adept at finding communities, publications, and authors who could assist in background information and grounding my work in good theory. The culmination of learning how to do good research was with the Action Research project I completed for my last performance. From choosing the technology I was going to collect data from to where I was going to find the scholarly writing to support my findings, I had a better understanding of where to look and what my outcome was going to be.
My Multimedia eLearning Environment includes modules adapted from a model of teaching used in the professional organization for academic advisors, NACADA. This method of teaching has been used in a number of online courses that many have found to be very helpful in career development. I have included an assessment method based on keeping a standard of discourse for participants, as well as a survey for participants to complete to help make improvements. Both of these methods of inquiry should help make the learning environment better with each iteration.
My Needs Assessment and Technology Plan are based around the concept of using an ePortfolio in undergraduate advising. For both projects I researched theory behind the use of ePortfolios as well as best practices used at other institutions of higher education who had an ePortfolio program established. This helped me form not only the proposal I would need to put together to have the use of ePortfolios improved, but also the reasoning behind choosing Google Apps as the platform and what modules the students should work through.
My Action Research paper centered on UD's adoption and use of an Early Alert System, Blue Hen Success Collaborative. I have pulled data from the last 2 years the software has been used and discussed how this technology has impacted how I am able to help the students I work with succeed in their undergraduate career. I also include a survey of the field of academic advising and how technology is assisting, improving, and growing what an academic advisor is on a college campus. Through the exploration of the BHSC data and scholarly writing review, I have learned how to best use technology to improve my advising practice, but also solidified what I have been learning throughout the Educational Technology program, which is that technology are tools, not the solutions.