Welcome to Esther Njiro's e-Portfolio for OMDE 601 9020 Foundations of Distance Education & E-learning 2014 summer class at University of Maryland and University College (UMUC). In this e-portfolio you will have a glimpse of my objectives and my OMDE journey from the foundations class University of Maryland University College UMUC.
What is OMDE?OMDE stands for online masters in distance education (OMDE) 601 section 9020 i.e. The Foundations of Distance Education (DE) and e-Learning which introduces distance education from the earliest origins to the current trends. The idea was to focus on the political, social and economic forces that dominated this field, the major theories, institutional and organisational development. Predominant technologies which influenced pedagogical developments were introduced as well as the key authors of each wave of DE. Institutions that were developed over time and major scholars were who have written extensively about DE revolutionary movement were taught. In addition, I learned a variety of skills such as the use of digitized spaces and many forms of interactions critical for DE foundational practices.
The overall course objective was to provide foundation of knowledge, skills and attitudes to increase my competence as a DE practitioner. Having gone through several skills builders, e-portfolio inputs, assignments, readings and class discussions I am satisfied that I have acquired the necessary knowledge to identify unique characteristics of DE, describe major social, economic and political influences in the evolution of DE from its early beginning to the current IT-based trends. I have a fair amount of comprehensive theories and methods of DE practices and the changing roles of teaching and learning. I have gained skills to navigate online learning environment, shared virtual spaces, and social media for documenting learning and creating content. Some of these include the LMS, wikis weebly twitter diigo and vimeo. I have also mastered and applied research writing skills to critically analyze issues & topics. Having worked in collaborative groups was the climax of this learning as I am now confident of working in with groups and sharing virtual spaces to create content and successfully complete team projects. My ability to reflect on what was taught was a major milestone of my first class. |
Dr Esther Njiro brief Profile
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