Virtual Symposium Critical Reflective Academic Blog Post – Unit 1 | Activity 3
The Virtual Symposium, organized for students in the Master of Arts in Learning and Technology program, was a great experience which introduced me to the world of online learning, environment and community. Although we did not have the chance to participate in the live sessions, having the opportunity to listen to recorded sessions and keeping them as future references is highly appreciated and beneficial. As I listened to several sessions talking about online learning community and environment, I was interested to know more about the higher education industry and new roles that have been recently emerging in it , several speakers have introduced new roles incorporated with the broad field of digital learning from theoretical and practical perspectives and as someone who is at cross roads on career path, I believe “Instructional Design” (ID) and “Online Project Management” (OPM) caught my attention the most.
As Nelson Mandela said; “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” I am considering higher education as a new career, as I am on a cross road with my career path. After listening to professionals in the academic field and the corporate field talking about the new role of online project management (OPM) and instructional designers (IDs), it was an eye opener to explore these new professions. Forssman, V. (2018) expressed that individuals who are in leadership roles the higher education field, need to be aware of the online project management terminology. She also stressed on their important role through raising a critical question “whether that particular college or university had the capacity not just to build the first online course or program but did they have the capacity to maintain and sustain those programs” (Forssman, V. (April 17, 2018), 22:26). Reflecting on this question made me resonate and understand the role of OPM in building rapid capacity of online courses in higher education where updates and revisions are always on the run. Also, I believe there is a growing need for online project management professionals in higher education. Therefore, I believe this interesting profession will be in demand in the upcoming years.
Another question asked by Dr. Marti also raised an interest to know more about instructional design (ID), “why is it I think the role of instructional designers, learning designer or educational developer…is going to be one of the most important roles that we have in higher education moving forward?” (Cleveland-Innes, M. (2019), 6:09). The answer is related to different kinds of collaboration that are required in the field of higher education between students, students & faculty, faculty and instructional designers. Cleveland-Innes, M. (2019) argued that students are changing not only demographically, but also in the way they learn. Faculty also are facing changes not only with students, but also with technology therefore, alone will not be able to keep up with these changes without help. Cleveland-Innes, M. (2019) also added that a change in the curriculum format that supports collaborate education with peer-to-peer learning is also required and faculty need the help of instructional designers in developing curriculum to that supports the skills of learning how to learn. Consequently, Instructional designers will play a significant role in leading the change in higher education. When talking about instructional designers, Cleveland-Innes, M. (2019) said: “We are change agents”. Along comes with my understanding of the role of instructional designers, the great responsibility of their role since it is interrelated with several stakeholders and has a great impact on the overall experience of both students and faculty.
At the end, I am really grateful that I had the pleasure in participating in the virtual symposium; the speakers in different fields have provided me with an initial understanding of several new roles that are incorporated with the online learning, environment and community and I have created an interest to further explore more about online project management (OPM) and instructional design (ID). The question that I am sure MALAT will help me answer is: “Will this interest remain? Or Would I explore further options throughout my long interesting journey in the upcoming two years?”
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