Professionalism

Prior to enrolling in the ETAD program, I worked as a teaching professional, but through this experience I believe that my professionalism has grown substantially. In reflecting on my experience, I think that professionalism is a less advertised outcome of this program, but is important to much of the work we do. Throughout my courses, I was put in situations that were much different than the teacher-student situation that I was used to and comfortable with.

When I began I was very comfortable presenting to students, but was not comfortable with discussing, sharing, and presenting to my peers. I remember quite clearly the night at the end of ETAD 873 when I presented my project to my peers. I was extremely nervous as I sat through the Collaborate session waiting for my turn to be on the spot. When the time came, I ripped through my slides and then received very positive feedback from Rick and my peers. I see that as a turning point in my program and perhaps even in my life.

Evidence of the growth in my professionalism began in ETAD 873. In this course, I had Horizon School Division as a "client". We did not have an official contract, but the fact that I was creating an instructional tool for my teaching colleagues raised the bar for me. I went to great lengths to maintain professionalism when contacting teachers about the project, surveying teachers for my learner analysis, and when performing usability tests. A small example of professionalism was when I ensured that I maintained student anonymity when using my student markbooks as examples within the instructional tool.

Example student markbook maintaining anonymity

My experience with this instructional prototype project prepared me to work with the Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society (SHFS) in ETAD 874. To complete this project we had to consider and respect the wants and needs of our client. We had to balance these with our knowledge of instructional design and the results of our usability tests. Alongside all of these considerations, we also had to work as a productive team. Our class slogan was, "On time, under budget, and above expectations!". When working as a team, there were tasks that I wanted to do and other tasks that I did not want to do. As a team of professionals, we negotiated the distribution of work in such a way that proved to be very effective. Another opportunity to learn professionalism was in the creation of the project report and transition document to give to the SHFS. Since our client and project were real, it was really important that we effectively prepared them to utilize and maintain our creations. To cap off the project we had a presentation party at the University Club. For our final presentation, I represented the Baker Slides group--this was a big deal for me because I was standing up and presenting in front of a room of my peers as well as the clients. My ability to do this well showed significant growth from where my confidence was when I began the program. The entire SHFS project was an exciting experience, one in which I feel I learned a lot, including a lot of intangible skills.

Throughout ETAD 874, we were also responsible for creating reading reports. These reports were not only for our own personal sake, but also for our team members. As a team we were able to read many more articles than we could on our own. To make this useful for one another, we read articles, provided summaries, and explained the relevance of the articles to our project. This is a task that is common in many professional settings where co-workers depend on one another to provide overviews and summaries of reports rather than each employee needing to read every single item.

Later in the program, to complete the video assignment and final project in ETAD 803, I interviewed two University of Saskatchewan faculty members. I approached these contacts in a professional manner. If I were to have done this before my experiences in 873 and 874, I would have been extremely scared to ask these faculty members to contribute to my work, but through my growth I felt comfortable asking for their time and trust in creating videos that they could be proud of.

Further to that, in ETAD 804, Kelly Wandler and myself completed an investigative report on a distance learning program in northern Canada. We explored a fish tech program offered by Yukon College. To complete this report, I contacted and had an online call with the instructor and designer of the program. I approached this experience as one professional contacting another and it went very well.

Other evidence of professionalism can be found in our online discussions throughout many courses. I posted my thoughts and provided constructive responses to my peers week after week. In certain weeks, I was responsible for posting the question, moderating the discussion, and providing a summary (such as the ETAD 802 summary video below).

Throughout this program, I have grown from a teacher who was comfortable in front of a classroom environment of young students to a professional instructional designer who is able to present to colleagues as part of my daily work and can also lead presentations to a room of professionals at international conferences. I am also communicate with other professionals in a more effective manner. I know that there is still room to grow, but I am a much more comfortable and confident person.