Self-Evalutation (LDT 506 Intro)

Classroom Selfie -- Circa 2021

After taking our course’s initial self-assessment, I would rate myself as a 3.5-level evaluator. I initially thought of myself as a 4, but I perused the content of our first week and felt 3.5 was a more accurate response. The majority of my professional experience occurred in a classroom. I began teaching high school English soon after graduating college. The six years that I spent in the classroom helped me grow personally and professionally in so many ways. I began working at Arizona State University in 2022, joining the student recruitment team with Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.  One of my main takeaways from those years was the importance of evaluation. Based on professional experience, I view the term 'evaluation' in two ways:

1. Evaluation of learners

2. Self-evaluation of lessons 

I feel confident about my experience with evaluation in those contexts. In terms of the learning design and technologies field, I think I’m teetering closer to the novice side of the scale in several areas. Here are my first reactions upon completing the assessment:

Current Strengths:

• Ethics: I understand the importance of operating ethically within academia. With the influx of new technologies, maintaining a code of ethics as a learning designer has never been more crucial.

• Culturally Responsive: This one comes pretty naturally to me. Based on who I am and how I was raised, this is at the forefront of my mind when planning a learning activity. I used to take pride in exposing students to a diverse range of writers and creating activities that gave all of my students a platform to showcase their strengths.

Room for Improvement:

• Knowledge of Applications: I am learning about most of these applications for the very first time. For example, I just downloaded the Windows version of JASP to my laptop, per our week one assignment instructions. Aside from having a cool name, I don't much else about it. I know that there are dozens of applications for learning designers to utilize. I want to learn these. I want to find the best ones for my future learners.

• Effective Critiquing: This is where some of my imposter syndrome starts to kick in. As a veteran teacher, I would consider myself someone who has spent countless late evenings and early mornings designing learning. Although, calling myself a learning designer feels new and a bit scary. When it comes time for me to enter the field, I need to feel confident enough in myself and my abilities for the purposes of providing my client or company with honest, thoughtful feedback. I don't want to feel like an imposter. I belong here.

Beyond our class, I would like to take the following steps to bolster my competencies.

Join a Professional Organization

• I really need to do this. I researched professional organizations within our field a few months ago for a class assignment. Unfortunately, I didn’t do anything beyond clicking the “Submit” button. When I studied journalism during my undergraduate years, I was a member of the National Association for Black Journalists. When I began my teaching career, colleagues informed me of various education organizations at the local and national levels. ALSO: Read a Book

• Of course, reading any book would be great (I need to do more of that on a consistent basis). I am the type of person who will begin several books within the same month. Seriously, I received about three books between the span of Christmas and my birthday (February 1). I think I’ve found my issue. Anyway, finding a book relevant to the world of learning design and technologies would be a great way for me to build my competencies in the field. When I was preparing to teach 9th and 12th-graders, I would dedicate some time over summer toward reading a book relevant to the world of teaching. For example, some of the topics I focused on included productive group work, classroom management, and much more. I’ve enjoyed many of the assigned readings from previous classes in our graduate program. Perhaps utilizing Google or even asking one of my professors for a recommendation could steer me in the direction of a good read.

Finally, several of our listed course competencies surprised. Each of these encompass a different element of the learning design field. For example, I felt surprised to learn that we won't operate with a "one size fits all" model. I get the sense that it's imperative for us to treat our learners like we would our students: each are unique and have their own needs. Also, involving stakeholders is not an aspect of our position that I anticipated. I am interested in learning more. Finally, although our position does require high-level technical skills, we still have to be strong communicators with various stakeholders. Here are the official required competencies which surprised me most:

1.3.  I am able to select evaluation approaches and theories appropriately.

2.8. I am able to involve stakeholders in designing, implementing, interpreting, and reporting evaluations as appropriate.

3.3. I am able to describe the program, including its basic purpose, components, and its function in broader contexts.