MDE Program: Personal goals and objectives
In 2002, I started in a new career direction which led to my association with University of Maryland University College. After almost 30 years in the Hi-Tech industry, first as an engineer and then moving up to the senior executive ranks, I decided that I would like to return to academia and hopefully passing on some of my practically acquired knowledge and skills. I quickly found out that having a Doctorate degree was the admission ticket to a university teaching career, so I started on a Doctor of Management (DM) degree at UMUC. The program at the time used a hybrid format of face-to-face and distance education. This was my first experience of distance education, and coming from a technology background I immediately felt comfortable with the technology. I also found that I enjoyed the flexibility and freedom of working in my own time from anywhere I happened to be. However, I immediately realized that being a Distance Education (DE) student was challenging as it required discipline, independent learning with little support, and a high level of organization.
My association with UMUC through the DM program first led to an undergraduate adjunct faculty appointment, and then in 2005 to an administrative position as the undergraduate Academic Director of Marketing. In this position, I was suddenly confronted with being an administrative manager in an online learning organization leading over one hundred online faculty members in providing an outstanding educational experience to over five thousand students per semester. While I had significant management experience and had some experience as a DE student, I had no formal training in teaching. As an adjunct faculty member, I had been using the “seat of the pants” method of course design and development: trial and error. While this method had been successful based upon student feedback and evaluations, I certainly did not feel it was an appropriate basis for me to help the faculty members teaching in my department to be effective online educators.
So the culmination of a continuous learning philosophy and desperate need to learn led me to embark on a Certificate of Distance Education program in 2007.
The MDE journey
OMDE 601 was an excellent opening window to Distance Education, as it expanded my practitioner’s view of DE with a broad array of current literature especially around pedagogical planning, student support structures, and communications (especially Dr. Börje Holmberg, emphasize on the empathic communication approach). Michael Moore’s theory of transactional distance was further intriguing in highlighting the view that the physical distance leads to a communication gap and a psychological space of potential misunderstanding between the instructors and the learners that has to be bridged by special teaching techniques.
Next up was OMDE 610 - teaching and learning in online distance education. I was especially interested in taking this course, as it was the essence of the reason why I signed up for the program, and it did not disappoint. The course required one to reflect on ones teaching philosophy, which was especially a challenge for a “seat of the pants” instructor to articulate. However the process was extremely useful, as the use of academic literature enabled me to provide clarity and focus to my teaching philosophies. In my readings, I was especially intrigued by Collins & Berg (1996) framework of the instructional roles requirement for successful online instruction – pedagogical, social, managerial and technical. This framework provided an excellent platform to discuss and reflect upon teaching philosophies. My final paper enabled me to utilize my new found learning on DE learning with a personal interest in culture, by writing on student learning effectiveness within a multi-cultural online learning environment; I later turned this paper into a conference paper and presentation.
By now I was hooked, so instead of taking a leisurely single course per semester, I moved to two courses per semester, and my thoughts moved from simply taking a certificate to completing the full Masters program. My broad interests in the subject matter lead me to explore all areas in the DE universe: Management & Policy – DEPM 604, DEMP 609, DEPM 622, OMDE 606; Teaching & Training, DETT 607, DETT 611, OMDE 608, OMDE 610; and technology – OMDE 603, DETC 620. I was really glad that I started the program before the decision to split the MDE program into three specializations as it enabled me to explore each area without having to delve into one area at the expense of others.
Reflections on the Journey
I can say that I really enjoyed and benefited from the MDE program; each course provided useful insights and learning for me both as an Academic administrator and a distance education educator. While some courses were more challenging and demanding than others, each provided an excellent perspective on their respective subject matter, and left me wanting to learn more.
An especially unique characteristic of the program is that as the subject matter is relatively new, as such we (the students) are extremely fortunate in having instructors who are the global experts in the field. In fact, over the program I received instruction from eight different countries in three different continents: Australia (Anne Foster), Britain (Greville Rumble), Canada (Jane Brindley, Tony Bates), Germany (Börje Holmberg, Thomas Hülsmann, Olaf Zawacki-Richter, Ulrich Bernath), Israel (Gila Kurtz), South Africa (Jill Freesen), Switerland (Christine Walti) and USA (Michael Beaudoin, Nick Allen). Learning from these global distance education experts is truly a unique and rewarding experience and reflects upon the quality of the MDE program. The second resultant consequence of the new subject of teaching and learning in distance education is the quality of the students. Many of my student peers had a broad and extensive experience in many areas of education. As such their background knowledge and expertise made our conference discussion and group activities highly enjoyable and insightful. In fact I would say that I learnt as much from my peers as I did from the course.
My MDE journey has turned me from a novice to an experienced distance education administrator and educator. I feel confident to advice adjunct faculty in online teaching best practices, in designing and developing the program and course curriculum, and in understanding and meeting the needs of the student. While there is always more to learn, the knowledge and skills that I have acquired in the MDE program have opened the doors on this exciting and growing area of education.
In 2002, I started in a new career direction which led to my association with University of Maryland University College. After almost 30 years in the Hi-Tech industry, first as an engineer and then moving up to the senior executive ranks, I decided that I would like to return to academia and hopefully passing on some of my practically acquired knowledge and skills. I quickly found out that having a Doctorate degree was the admission ticket to a university teaching career, so I started on a Doctor of Management (DM) degree at UMUC. The program at the time used a hybrid format of face-to-face and distance education. This was my first experience of distance education, and coming from a technology background I immediately felt comfortable with the technology. I also found that I enjoyed the flexibility and freedom of working in my own time from anywhere I happened to be. However, I immediately realized that being a Distance Education (DE) student was challenging as it required discipline, independent learning with little support, and a high level of organization.
My association with UMUC through the DM program first led to an undergraduate adjunct faculty appointment, and then in 2005 to an administrative position as the undergraduate Academic Director of Marketing. In this position, I was suddenly confronted with being an administrative manager in an online learning organization leading over one hundred online faculty members in providing an outstanding educational experience to over five thousand students per semester. While I had significant management experience and had some experience as a DE student, I had no formal training in teaching. As an adjunct faculty member, I had been using the “seat of the pants” method of course design and development: trial and error. While this method had been successful based upon student feedback and evaluations, I certainly did not feel it was an appropriate basis for me to help the faculty members teaching in my department to be effective online educators.
So the culmination of a continuous learning philosophy and desperate need to learn led me to embark on a Certificate of Distance Education program in 2007.
The MDE journey
OMDE 601 was an excellent opening window to Distance Education, as it expanded my practitioner’s view of DE with a broad array of current literature especially around pedagogical planning, student support structures, and communications (especially Dr. Börje Holmberg, emphasize on the empathic communication approach). Michael Moore’s theory of transactional distance was further intriguing in highlighting the view that the physical distance leads to a communication gap and a psychological space of potential misunderstanding between the instructors and the learners that has to be bridged by special teaching techniques.
Next up was OMDE 610 - teaching and learning in online distance education. I was especially interested in taking this course, as it was the essence of the reason why I signed up for the program, and it did not disappoint. The course required one to reflect on ones teaching philosophy, which was especially a challenge for a “seat of the pants” instructor to articulate. However the process was extremely useful, as the use of academic literature enabled me to provide clarity and focus to my teaching philosophies. In my readings, I was especially intrigued by Collins & Berg (1996) framework of the instructional roles requirement for successful online instruction – pedagogical, social, managerial and technical. This framework provided an excellent platform to discuss and reflect upon teaching philosophies. My final paper enabled me to utilize my new found learning on DE learning with a personal interest in culture, by writing on student learning effectiveness within a multi-cultural online learning environment; I later turned this paper into a conference paper and presentation.
By now I was hooked, so instead of taking a leisurely single course per semester, I moved to two courses per semester, and my thoughts moved from simply taking a certificate to completing the full Masters program. My broad interests in the subject matter lead me to explore all areas in the DE universe: Management & Policy – DEPM 604, DEMP 609, DEPM 622, OMDE 606; Teaching & Training, DETT 607, DETT 611, OMDE 608, OMDE 610; and technology – OMDE 603, DETC 620. I was really glad that I started the program before the decision to split the MDE program into three specializations as it enabled me to explore each area without having to delve into one area at the expense of others.
Reflections on the Journey
I can say that I really enjoyed and benefited from the MDE program; each course provided useful insights and learning for me both as an Academic administrator and a distance education educator. While some courses were more challenging and demanding than others, each provided an excellent perspective on their respective subject matter, and left me wanting to learn more.
An especially unique characteristic of the program is that as the subject matter is relatively new, as such we (the students) are extremely fortunate in having instructors who are the global experts in the field. In fact, over the program I received instruction from eight different countries in three different continents: Australia (Anne Foster), Britain (Greville Rumble), Canada (Jane Brindley, Tony Bates), Germany (Börje Holmberg, Thomas Hülsmann, Olaf Zawacki-Richter, Ulrich Bernath), Israel (Gila Kurtz), South Africa (Jill Freesen), Switerland (Christine Walti) and USA (Michael Beaudoin, Nick Allen). Learning from these global distance education experts is truly a unique and rewarding experience and reflects upon the quality of the MDE program. The second resultant consequence of the new subject of teaching and learning in distance education is the quality of the students. Many of my student peers had a broad and extensive experience in many areas of education. As such their background knowledge and expertise made our conference discussion and group activities highly enjoyable and insightful. In fact I would say that I learnt as much from my peers as I did from the course.
My MDE journey has turned me from a novice to an experienced distance education administrator and educator. I feel confident to advice adjunct faculty in online teaching best practices, in designing and developing the program and course curriculum, and in understanding and meeting the needs of the student. While there is always more to learn, the knowledge and skills that I have acquired in the MDE program have opened the doors on this exciting and growing area of education.
