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Overview of CPD activities over the past three years
Introduction
This section contains three areas of CPD activity from 2018-2021.
1) AFHEA certification
Description
In 2018, I assembled a portfolio to apply for Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA) status, and achieved it. The two core areas I chose (A1 and A4) required me to carry out sustained reflection on my ability to develop effective learning environments and approaches to student support and guidance, as well as my approach to learning design: this included my knowledge and application of learning theories such as constructive alignment, Understanding by Design, and Universal Design for Learning.
Evidence
Original PDF certificate.
AFHEA cert PR149324-HEA0301475.pdfReflection
I found the process of creating my AFHEA portfolio significantly different from the process of applying for CMALT certification. I created this portfolio at the same time as developing UCEM’s new module design guidelines. Spending a great deal of time exploring and articulating the most appropriate learning theories for different use cases was beneficial for both AFHEA and our approach to module design. I see AFHEA as an initial step on a journey to higher HEA levels, but it has been helpful in itself to gain further formal recognition of my experience to date.
2) Technical training
Description
As mentioned in my original ‘future plans’, I wanted to continue to develop my skills in learning technology and design; my 100+ Lynda.com certificates were documented in my original portfolio and in this period I took 20+ more, including on authoring tools and delivering training. In particular, I needed to deepen my knowledge of web development that I’d initially gained from establishing the Online Academy website so that I could set up CEmPaC’s online learning website to WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards.
Evidence
Two PDF certificates: please note these are a selection. I took more courses, especially on Wordpress and PHP for my contract work. Unfortunately, when my organisation migrated to LinkedIn Learning in 2019, my certificate history was lost including the dozen additional Wordpress and programming certificates I’d added. I have included two that were completed after the migration.
CertificateOfCompletion_Articulate 360 Advanced Actions.pdfCertificateOfCompletion_How to Design and Deliver Training Programs .pdfReflection
This training was extremely useful. I used my ‘Articulate 360 Advanced Actions’ knowledge to update Storyline files during our mass conversion of old Storyline 1 files to a current format. Technical training on Wordpress also enabled me to act as a learning designer, learning technologist and web developer on the same project (CEmPaC) and to carry the knowledge over to my day-to-day work at UCEM; I used the open-source authoring tool H5P heavily for CEmPaC after reading all the documentation and training available online at the time. I found that some aspects of H5P were not accessible 'out of the box', and carried these accessibility investigations over into the H5P template for UCEM described in the previous section.
3) Quiz writing
Description
In 2020 I attended a full-day training workshop provided by external consultants on approaches to writing effective Computer-Marked Assessments (CMAs). This covered various aspects of quiz writing, including pros and cons of different question types, how to avoid writing bad distractors, “writing questions that work”, and “the power and purpose of feedback”.
Evidence
Original PDF certificate.
ELLI2 2020-06-09 CMA Training.pdfReflection
I quickly applied this knowledge as I was developing a set of Foundation-level modules at the time. I assisted the programme leader with the creation of summative multiple-choice CMAs and formative weekly ‘knowledge check’ quizzes to provide formative feedback. These were used throughout each module to keep students on track to meet the intended learning outcomes. I have also been able to assist module leaders in developing UCEM’s other Transform modules to include multiple-choice quizzes with formative feedback.