2. Learning, teaching and assessment process

2a. An understanding of teaching, learning and/or assessment processes

During my teaching experience I have worked on course creation, planning, class activities and assessments. I have delivered lessons with the integration of relevant useful digital technology, in the form of powerpoint presentations, collaborative tools and other multimedia formats, such as videos, audios and game-based applications. 

When planning for the Master's level courses "Universal Design for Learning" and "The Role of technology in Education" I began with a brief analysis of the type of students that would be enrolled. My analysis revealed that these students were in their second semesters, thus suggesting that they had some previous knowledge about the course and were more experienced in terms of accessing content material via the LMS and other online tools. If these were students of the first semester, I may have considered to integrate an onboarding and introductory session, to ensure that all learners were aware of the material that would be used through the duration of the course. 

I further evaluated the types of learners that would be taking these courses - these were students of the "Innovative Technologies in Education (ITE)" department, suggesting they all had a strong keenness to become experts on the use of digital technology and its impact on learning. Consequently, they would be considering relevant career paths to this, or may already be educators or experts in their respective fields, hoping to enhance their skills with this course. I began designing the course content with this understanding and goal. In the very first session, as an ice-breaker, I asked the students to share a little about themselves: their name, their academic/professional background and what they expected to takeaway from this particular course. This helped in gaining insights to their expectations and consequently helped me to adjust the content according to their expectations and address these needs as closely as possible in the following sessions. 

Building on the aspects of constructivism, which includes building knowledge on previous knowledge and having an active and participatory form of learning, I kept a number of activities within each of the classes, along for a less passive environment. These included collaborative tasks, using Google workspace, Padlets, presentations, discussions and use of various technologies. In regard to assessments, I built the assignments and projects on real-life scenarios, including creating useful learning projects, by identifying existing problems in education and coming up with appropriate and relevant solutions with the help of digital technology. Students responded with various types of projects which included web-based applications, games and technology-infused lesson plans. 

It was the student responses and feedback that supported my approaches. This significantly built on my confidence as a teacher. In this regard, the HoD also offered his appreciation on the positive student feedback on the first course "Universal design for Learning", and thus offered me to teach the second course "The Role of Technology in Education" for the following semester.  

When developing the course outlines I focused on providing a complete and goal-oriented overview, along with clarity on the objectives and purpose of the course. Once again, this was developed keeping in mind the students participating and their expectations. For the course entitled "Role of Technology in Education", I incorporated on the basis of research and current trends, the important aspects around digital technology and learning. This included providing students with an outline of relevant topics such as: educational models, an overview of educational technology (Edtech), instructional design, LMS and EMIS, web technology, importance of UI and UX, mobile learning and augmented reality, VR/AR, online and blended learning, role of teachers in the digital age, educational games, AI and education, entertainment and education and possible careers after the completion of the course.

For the course "Universal Design for Learning" I developed the course outline considering the overarching goals and themes associated with UDL. Adopting the UDL guidelines and framework provided by CAST, I prepared the course to signify the importance of UDL integration. This was supported alongside an overview of the theories of learning, including the importance of scaffolding activities to address learner's zone of proximal development (ZPD). Eventually, I provided examples of UDL in practice in various subject areas, such as History, Art, Mathematics and Science. I integrated readings and research papers as part of the course. Discussion around assistive technology and how to support learner needs was also included, where students were asked to explore the role of such technologies and how they lead to improve accessibility and inclusion. 

In my recent-most role, as a teaching assistant at Ulster University, I marked student assessments on the basis of rubrics aligned with the learning outcomes. These provided me an opportunity to develop my skills in marking with consistency and fairness. Through the use of Blackboard I shared the outcomes of the assignments with the students, providing them with comments on the assignments at various instances as well as an overall feedback on the submission. 

Comments on the assignments accessed and marked via Blackboard