EDS 199 ePortfolio - eJournal 7: The Problem With Small Details

... is that they are so easy to miss.

My project reached a bottleneck when I failed to find a content expert multiple times. Therefore, finally finding a content expert who was willing to evaluate and validate the Self-Learning Modules I developed has been one of the greatest feats I have ever achieved in this project. My previous entries are a testament to the struggle I went through to invite experts and finally securing the agreement of one made me feel so happy. The process went smoothly save for a couple of delays in days due to the expert’s own schedule.

I approached one of the high school teachers I know in person to ask her to be my content expert. She is an Araling Panlipunan teacher at my high school alma mater and serves as the school’s guidance officer. Her background in Sangguniang Kabataan as the council’s former chairperson convinced me that her expertise would be helpful and relevant to the project. She agreed to my request and I sent the necessary documents to her via Facebook Messenger. This includes the evaluation checklist I developed (see Content Expert and Appendix E).

I answered her questions regarding the module’s content, especially the learning activities, and partner institution, and then waited for the results of her evaluation. After a week, she gave me her evaluation and additional notes. Initially, I felt embarrassed because most of her notes, although minimal, pointed out the smaller details I missed. For example, the numbering of headings and subheadings in Module 3 is incorrect. I spent long hours looking at the module on the graphic design tool I use but I still overlooked it.

I realized the importance of having fresh eyes looking at your output. I was so concerned with the “bigger” details of the module i.e. improving the visual properties and creating assessments that I forgot to be mindful of the rest of the aspects in the module. This is a newfound weakness I discovered while working on my Special Project. This also served as my wake-up call as I immediately scanned all three of my modules after her evaluation.

I kept this in mind for my next steps toward pilot testing and evaluation as I aim to never commit this mistake again. Today, I kept a checklist of everything I need to re-examine in my project no matter how small they are. I even note down the outline of the update I will send to my Gatekeeper to ensure that I will not miss anything. I believe that aside from the insightful evaluation that my content expert gave me, one of the things that would stay with me for a long time is to never neglect small details.

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Get in touch at ajfujino@up.edu.ph