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WebTycho Master of Distance Education
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OMDE 690 Syllabus
The Distance Education Portfolio and Project
Course Objectives
At the end of this course, students should be able to:
- Create a personal distance education portfolio which will serve as an ongoing professional resource, as well as a useful job search tool.
- Develop and document a case study/project for an organization in the area of distance education and training. The purpose of this is to provide the student with an opportunity to display and practice a variety of skills and knowledge in the area of distance education and training.
Required Texts and Materials
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, D.C.: APA. ISBN: 1-55798-791-2
Course Requirements
Grading
The final course grade will be determined as follows:
OMDE690 will be graded an a Pass/Fail basis
Writing Standards
Effective managers, leaders, and teachers are also effective communicators. Written communication is an important element of the total communication process. The Graduate School recognizes and expects exemplary writing to be the norm for course work. To this end, all papers, individual and group, must demonstrate graduate level writing and comply with the format requirements of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition. Careful attention should be given to spelling, punctuation, source citations, references, and the presentation of tables and figures. It is expected that all course work will be presented on time and error free.
Policy on Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
UMUC policy on academic dishonesty and plagiarism
UMUC offers the Vail Tutor, a tutorial program covering scholarly documentation practices.
The University has a license agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism from internet resources. Your instructor may be using this service in this class by either requiring students to submit their papers electronically to Turnitin.com or by submitting questionable text on behalf of a student. If you or your instructor submit part or all of your paper, it will be stored by Turnitin.com in their database throughout the term of the University's contract with Turnitin.com. If you object to this temporary storage of your paper, you must let your instructor know no later than two weeks after the start of this class. Please Note: If you object to the storage of your paper on Turnitin.com, your instructor may utilize other services to check your work for plagiarism.
Students with Disabilities
Students with disabilities who want to request and register for services should contact UMUC’s technical director for veteran and disabled student services at least four to six weeks in advance of registration each semester. Please email vdsa@umuc.edu or call 301-985-7930 or 301-985-7466 (TTY).
Course Evaluations
UMUC values its students’ feedback. You will be asked to complete a mandatory online evaluation toward the end of the semester. The primary purpose of this evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of classroom instruction. UMUC requires all students to complete this evaluation. Your individual responses are kept confidential.
The evaluation notice will appear on your class screen about 21 days before the end of the semester. You will have approximately one week to complete the evaluation. If, within this 21-day period, you do not open the file and either respond to the questions or click on "no response," you will be "locked out" of the class until you do complete the evaluation. This means that you will not be able to enter the classroom. Once you have completed the evaluation, you will regain access to the classroom. If you have any problem getting back in your classroom, you should immediately contact WebTycho Support at 1-800-807-4862 or at webtychosupport@umuc.edu.
The Graduate School takes students' evaluations seriously, and in order to provide the best learning experience possible, information provided is used to make continuous improvements to every class. Please take full advantage of this opportunity to provide constructive recommendations and comments about potential areas of improvement.
Technical Assistance and WebTycho Support
Understanding and navigating through WebTycho is critical to successfully completing this course. All students are encouraged to complete UMUC’s Orientation to Distance Education and WebTycho Tour
The online WebTycho Help Desk is accessible directly in the classroom. In addition, WebTycho Support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at 1-800-807-4862 or webtychosupport@umuc.edu.
Course Outline
There are two tasks required in OMDE690: Completion of a Project and a Portfolio. It is estimated that your time investment should be approximately 2/3 on the Project and 1/3 on the Portfolio. Both the Project and the Portfolio must be achieved within 15 weeks in Spring and Fall semesters and within 10 weeks in the Summer term.
The workload for this 3 credit course is similar to the workload of other OMDE courses. It is estimated that a 3 credit course requires a MINIMUM of 150 hours of work, but may require more.
What is a Project?
The Project should be derived primarily from your experiences within the MDE program. You should reflect on the courses that you have completed, and determine if a particular aspect of distance education has piqued your interest, which you wish to pursue further. Youmay find it useful to develop a file of ideas, so that when it is time to propose your 690 Project, you have a number of possible options to consider.
The Project is intended as both a reflective and a constructive activity. It demands that you reflect on the knowledge and experience you have thus far gained in the field, and to then create a new product that represents the work of a professional in the field. You might thus think of the outcome of this effort as an "apprentice" piece whereby you have an opportunity to create something that demonstrates your continuing professional development.
The Project could take many forms, so you should not confine your thinking about this assignment as simply choosing a topic and then writing a major "term" paper. It could, for example, be designed as an action research project, wherein you identify an issue or problem in your own setting, conduct research on how best to address or resolve the situation, then propose an action plan based on your findings and analysis. Or you might propose to convert one or more classroom-based courses for use in an online format, design a training program to assist faculty t make the transition from face-to-face to distance teaching.
The expectation is that whatever direction you decide to pursue to satisfy the Project requirement, it will convincingly show that you have achieved a high level of knowledge and/or mastery in the area you select. So if, for example, you want to further develop a topic similar to a paper completed for a previous MDE course, the Project must be a substantive enhancement of any prior work. It would not be acceptable to state to faculty that your style is succinct and then submit a short paper to satisfy the Project requirement at the end of the 15-week/10-week period.
Whatever topic and approach you have in mind must be written up in a project proposal, and will be subject to faculty approval before you proceed.
Assessment
OMDE690 will be graded an a Pass/Fail basis. Projects may be published internally (within the MDE program - accessible only to MDE students). Some Projects will be judged as publishable to the external community. There may be some exceptions to this policy to protect some content or people. These decisions will be made by both teaching faculty.
Due Dates (tentative for the 15-weeks/10weeks term)
- An idea of your project theme: one week after the semester officially began
- An initial review of the literature of your project: after about 4 weeks/3 weeks
- The outline or project plan: after about 6 weeks/4 weeks
- A draft of an introduction into your project: after about 7 weeks/5 weeks
- A final draft of your project: after about 14 weeks/9 weeks
- The final DE project after 15 weeks/10weeks
- A first draft of your portfolio should be submitted three weeks/two weeks after the official start of the semester.
- A draft of a reflective summative statement as part of your portfolio after around 10 weeks/6 weeks.
- The final Portfolio after 15weeks/10 weeks.
What is a Portfolio?
A professional portfolio provides an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of knowledge, skills and understandings critical for success in your field. When employed as a tool for reflective practice, the portfolio enables you to make sense out of a myriad of experiences, and bring into focus a clear picture of yourself as a growing, changing, maturing professional. Properly used, it can also become a highly meaningful and effective way to demonstrate to others your major activities and accomplishments.
A digital portfolio is more than an electronic collection of course projects, assignments and other professional memorabilia. A thoughtfully crafted portfolio is an organized and articulate documentation of your professional development and competency. Digital documents included, also referred to as artifacts, provide tangible evidence of a wide range of experiences and ideas that you have accumulated as a growing professional.
In documenting your progress toward greater competency, you will actually be developing two portfolios: a working portfolio and a presentation portfolio. A working portfolio includes a general collection of products and exhibits created as part of your coursework in this program, as well as other appropriate items. The primary purpose of the working portfolio is to serve as a framework for self-assessment and goal setting. As you develop your presentation portfolio, you select samples from the working portfolio which best reflect the most important dimensions of your competence as a professional in the field of distance education.
Since the working portfolio is a comprehensive collection of various samples of your work to date, it will be larger and more complete than your presentation portfolio. It contains unabridged versions of all the documentation you have selected to represent your professional growth thus far in this program of study. When selecting items to include in your presentation portfolio, bear in mind that less is often more. The presentation portfolio will nee to be selective and streamlined because the audiences that assess your competence are unlikely to review every item you might have initially included in the working document. Consider the working portfolio as a draft, or work in progress, while the presentation piece is a more discriminating compendium of your best work.
The material you choose to include in your final opus should also include a rationale statement explaining why these particular items were selected among the many. Discussing the importance and relevance of the document enables the reviewer to understand the context of your work and what you intend for the documents to convey about yourself. One thing that both versions of your portfolio have in common is their need for a well established organizational system and an orderly sequence of artifacts presented.
An artifact is tangible evidence of knowledge that is gained, skills that are mastered, values that are clarified, as well as dispositions and attitudes that re characteristics of your professional self. While artifacts may not conclusively prove the attainment of all of these aspects, they can provide some reasonably convincing indication of achieved competence, as manifested in this compendium you have assembled. At first, many artifacts will be aggregated. Later, certain items from the working version will be culled, and more selective material will find its way into the presentation version. These latter exhibits are those that represent your very best work, as a student at an advanced level of study, and as an aspiring or maturing professional in the field of distance education.
Ask yourself: would I be proud to have a prospective employer or my current peer group see this? Is this an adequate example of what I am capable of doing, now and in the future? Does this represent what I stand for as an educator, trainer, administrator or other professional in this field? If not, what can I do to revise or refine this portfolio so that it truly represents my best efforts? Information contained in the portfolio will be of interest to individuals who will be assessing your performance and accountability. While a degree candidate, your portfolio will be reviewed by your faculty, and perhaps others in the university. It also is an excellent way to introduce yourself to colleagues with who you might be collaborating, and it certainly should be useful as part of your overall presentation to future employers.
You should find, as you proceed with this task, that you will gain a clearer picture of yourself as an emerging professional, as it provides a record of quantitative and qualitative growth over time in your selected goal areas and standards of good practice. You will have in hand a trail of evidence of your progress at different stages of development. This should give you a gratifying sense of accomplishment and confidence in your professional abilities as you advance in your career.
Each student is responsible for maintaining a permanent copy of the various assignments and documents from each course that might become exhibits in your Portfolio. You should keep copies on your own computer and remember to keep at least one back-up copy on floppy disks.
Assessment
Your Portfolio will be graded an a Pass/Fail basis.
Due Dates (tentative for the 15-weeks/10weeks term)
Format of the Project and Portfolio
The Portfolio must be submitted as a website. We also strongly urge you to submit your final project as a web document or website. Therefore, we highly recommend that all MDE students purchase web development software (such as Dreamweaver) and learn how to adequately use it. See Creating Online Content more information on how to create an electronic Portfolio/Website on UMUC's Polaris server.