Julianna Donaher

My Professional Landscape and Goals

In the spring of 2021, I began my graduate coursework with a project dedicated to reflecting on my existing professional competencies, my goals, and how the former needed to develop to meet the latter. Now, nearly twenty months later, I am resurfacing that project to re-assess my goals, and also reflect on how I have risen to the groundwork and aspirations laid out in that paper.

My professional goals have not changed, but they have become more specific and informed by the strengths unveiled and developed in this program. I would like to design educational content for English language learners, particularly those displaced by war, climate disaster, or persecution. In my initial reflections, I listed ideal job postings from companies like International Rescue Committee and Save the Children. Just today I saved a Program Manager and Instructional Designer position from IRC.

My specific aspirations in this sector are grounded in my ability to apply a unique balance of compassion and empathy with a deeply analytical, result-oriented approach to systems development. My background consists of work and certifications around ELL students, but it also now features years of development in the remote start-up industry. By working tirelessly with two separate international EdTech initiatives, I have honed in on the skills needed to innovate while still building scaleable, sustainable curricula that support the well-being of students, and their academic outcomes. I have become efficient at identifying risks and developing interventions that are agile, iterative, and measurable. I accept ambiguity and limited resources and I thrive in situations that require the ability to define gray areas and develop the scaffolding needed for forward momentum.

Why is all of this relevant to my particular field? Simply put, the refugee crisis we are facing globally will continue to grow. At the beginning of my program, I believed that ELL education was a lynchpin in securing possible futures for displaced persons. I believe that strong, universally accessible learning modules could develop the foundations needed for recovery after the events many people will continue to face.

Now, I know that educators and volunteers behind our support systems must also be armed with a far more developed skill set and training to coordinate the responses needed in this deeply complex and evolving environment. Training must be responsive to feedback. It must be grounded in objectives that appreciate the full scope and complex nature of changing educational needs. And most importantly, it must be defined by assessments that create qualitative data for even further iteration.

My education has equipped me with not only the technical tools to carry out these learning experiences, but the design modules to build them. Each step of the ADDIE model, as well as a consideration of numerous other models, has led me to develop a personal design brand that is iterative and reflective of the learner and instructor's exact needs at any given moment. In developing my knowledge of effective evaluation, I have also turned that same approach inward. In the next section, I will break down my growth within individual competencies.

Captston PCM v2.pdf

Evidence and Explanations

A systems thinker

📍Sees how parts relate to the whole, including the implications of systems and organizational change

Workshop Proposal: Equity in ESL

The proposed workshop here was based on an observed problem of inequity in ESL classrooms. The issue identified is a subtle and nuanced issue caused by the cultural systems and expectations in place in our classrooms for generations. While typically unnoticed, my DEI training allowed me to perceive the aspect as it related to the whole of the ELL experience, and pose an actionable solution.

📍Perceives self as an educator participating within a larger system of education

At -risk Intervention in Student Support: A learning module Design Plan

In the training module listed above, I help student advisors diagnose outcome lag by examining the multitude of systems influencing their student's performance. By identifying an educator's place in our institution's larger socio-economic ecosystem, I demonstrate my ability to perceive such systems, as well as how they impact learning.

A communicator

📍Proficient as a writer and as a presenter

Gamification Proposal: College Orientation

This proposal is outlined clearly, and with a balanced mix of audio and visuals. It also is a strong utilization of the authoring tool, Canva.

📍Facile with technology, keeps current with emerging technologies and social media

Lesson Revamp: Injecting an existing Lesson Plan with new tools

The changes suggested in this document represent multiple different modalities and learning mediums. It incorporates opportunities for the students to open up their discussion to the larger online context while utilizing the proper tools to do so.

A creative problem solver

📍Situational awareness and leadership in identifying and defining challenges

SME Project Plan: ESL Pathways

This project insisted that I anticipate the potential challenges facing a long-term, widescale project. The score here is particularly high because it also lays out a scaleable, and systematic solution to each problem that may arise—as well as an unbiased mechanism to identify it.

📍Develops and implements plans for addressing problems and effecting change

Applying Lang’s Small Teachings to Student Support Onboarding

This proposal specifically identifies possible improvements to perceived risks in corporate training. It again scores in the expert category, because it applies learning science and carefully conducted research to actionable solutions.

Culturally responsive

📍Aware of the dynamics of race, class, gender, and the other cultural factors within community dynamics and intercultural communication

Workshop Proposal: Equity in ESL

This example appears again because it demonstrates an awareness of the effects a student's native culture and language can have on both the micro, meso, and macro levels of assessment and learning. My score here lowered from the first term of my program, however. This is because I have become aware of the smallness of my perspective in society, and have sought to expand it—but may never “complete” that mission.

📍Interest in, and capacity to perceive, multiple perspectives

Annotated Bibliography: K12 ELL Integration

The initiative to begin detailed research on this topic reiterates the concepts I’ve outlined above. There is both an interest and a capacity for even further work in this field. The strong score in this category has a lot to do with how many other examples here point back to this capacity and curiosity.

📍Self-aware of cultural perspective and privilege

An education in learning: my path to graduate school

In the video above, I demonstrate reflection on my own upbringing and how the predominantly white, and affluent community shaped my development. Again, the score here borders on proficient, not expert. I have a firm belief that we “don't know what we don’t know” when it comes to race and power dynamics. As a cis-gendered white woman, that is critical to grasp.

Professional Expertise

📍Contribute to the design of learning experiences that are rigorous, grounded in evidence-based pedagogical theory, and informed by the science of learning.

Getting Starting in Zendesk: A Corporate Training in RISE

This particular module was thoroughly developed in ADDIE and resulted in a culmination of learning theory gained over the first several courses in my training. Particularly, this module uses alternating modalities of engagement, pairs objectives with assessment style, and it prompts a strong reflective practice throughout.

📍Gather and assess evidence of effectiveness for the purpose of improved learning.

Data Plan: College Enrollment and Non-traditional Degree Path Awareness

This data plan is all about understanding how aware students are of an educational opportunity, as well as how effective current mechanisms are for encouraging college enrollment. It’s a strong example of gathering evidence, but the score here is not perfect. The Analysis is a weaker area for me, and I hope to increase the depth and examples I have in the future.

📍Manage the development of projects related to learning design.

Recorded Lesson: A crash course in supporting our online students

SME Project Plan: ESL Pathways

While both these projects could have been completed without training, I believe it is particularly evident how much my LXD coursework influenced their detail and how they utilize ID/Data Analysis tools and systems. I’m proud to say this is the biggest number increase in competency rating for me, and I think applications of these specific tools point to growth itself.

Leadership and Vision

📍Seek out and analyze the pedagogical potential of new models, strategies and tools.

Annotated Bibliography: Optimizing Adult Student Outcomes in an Asynchronous Online Learning Environment

The annotated bibliography here outlines a series of sources that both “anticipate and help shape the future of education,” with a focus on engagement in online learning environments. Most notably, it also shows that I have an interest in these new modalities and will both seek them out and employ them. With the research applied, and the reflection that follows, one can observe a marked interest in future thinking, and anticipation of the challenges that will continue to face our educators.

Additional Competencies (ESL Designers)

📍Demonstrated experience in the provision of training, curriculum development, and implementation

At -risk Intervention in Student Support: A learning module Design Plan

📍Experience delivering classes in non-traditional contexts and familiarity with new educational methods and technologies (e-learning platforms)

SME Project Plan: ESL Pathways

Both these projects appear again in this section, as they clearly display an ability to create compelling learning materials in multiple modalities. They also lay out how the use of graphic design tools will improve engagement. Many of the additional competencies in the job descriptions I identified last year point to the duration of experience, so the only high rankings here were around communication skills and the application of tech.

Conclusion

While many categories in my PCM show growth in already strong areas, I do note a major difference between then and now: I can actually display that growth through project-based learning. Where I do see a deduction is in areas where my understanding of the topic has broadened. With that broadening came the realization that I still have a lot to learn. The 'culturally responsive' sections see a lot of this. Essentially, as the world expands for me, I recognize my limited understanding of it.