Portfolio


 * 1) **Name and Degree Program**

Jason Cribbs

Degree: PhD Physical Education Pedagogy


 * 1) **Research and Practice in Distance Education**

Goal 1. To be knowledgeable about research in aspects of distance education and the use of telecommunications in educational and other settings.

This goal was reached through the research synthesis project and the subsequent research synthesis presentation. The following are links to my project and presentation:

Research Synthesis: http://cribbs-edet755.wikispaces.com/Research

Research Presentation: http://cribbs-edet755.wikispaces.com/RSPresentation

In my degree program it seems that all we do is geared toward being better researchers for the field. I am currently working on my dissertation and the idea of doing the short annotated bibliographies will really help in my organizing the material for that monumental project. The whole reason I chose educational technology as my cognate was to be prepared for what physical education teacher education will be in the future. The ability to choose the topic of online physical education was also a plus because it allowed me to research a topic that I plan on incorporating into my research plan. Also, the more knowledgable I am about the technological direction universities are heading the more marketable I will be as an employee. The presentation options were also informative. I had done video presentations in the past so when I saw the option where the presentation was synthetically voiced I thought I would try it. To be honest, I like the video better because you can see the person and her inflection in their voice so I probably will not use the one I used again.

The use of a research project provided practice for the research aspect of distance learning. From my understanding the research process was covered in the Maymester course. I do not know of any prior use of the presentation aspects in the program but the examples/choices provided were very useful. I especially liked Nine Slides. I enjoyed the combination of the project and the presentation. I will definitely incorporate this into my future classes

Goal 2. To critically evaluate examples of distance education implementation in educational and business settings.

This goal was reached through the course evaluation assignment and the reflection assignment for our course site. The following are links to my course evaluation and my reflection for the course site build:

Course Evaluation: http://cribbs-edet755.wikispaces.com/Course+Evaluations

Reflection: http://cribbs-edet755.wikispaces.com/Course+Site+Reflection

These assignments were directly related to the goal of critically evaluating examples of distance learning. During the assignment I realized that even universities like Yale and MIT make mistakes in their course design. This assignment coupled with the reading of chapter 10 was helpful in seeing what should be done and what is being done. The fact that these were actual course websites helped in seeing how the particular classes arranged and presented material. I was a bit critical of both of the websites I evaluated and the rubric used helped me a great deal to explain why. This same rubric was also helpful in evaluating the course site build my group did later. During my reflection I focused on the requirements of the rubric to evaluate our performance.

This assignment gave me some insight on what I should and should not incorporate into any future course that I design. I think it is very beneficial to learn from mistakes whether they be you own or someone else’s. I use this method of learning quite a bit in my degree program. We often study bad research to learn what we should not do. I also use self reflection and this would be useful in going back to see what worked and what didn’t. I also incorporate this method in my teaching quite often as well.

Goal 3. To construct effective delivery of courses, topics, or training by using existing CMS tools.

This goal was reached through the course site build assignment and the reflection assignment for our course site. The following are links to my course site build and my reflection for the course site build:

Course Site: []

Reflection:http://cribbs-edet755.wikispaces.com/Course+Site+Reflection

The course site assignment and reflection was very useful. Not only did it allow me to discover more about Blackboard but it taught me a huge lesson about planning and communication that I will surely use in my professional career. Again, I learned so much looking at what others had done. I will incorporate this information into the classes that I teach however, I cannot exactly teach this information in my field of study. I say this because most K-12 teachers who teach online physical education are using pre-designed courses and quite frankly OLPE has not grown to a size that it is even considered in regular physical education teacher education curriculum.

The tools provided to complete the assignment were some of the most popular and up to date tools. I thought the topics provided were very appropriate and useful. The assignment offered what was needed to effectively build and run a course. The best feature was the reflection at the end. By using the rubric used previously it allowed us to see how our build stacked up against those we critiqued earlier. I found this assignment challenging because of my limited knowledge but in the long run I learned a lot.


 * 1) **Summary**

The design of this course was very well done. I liked the constant updates and easy layout. The best thing however, was the fact that the assignments were directly related to the class goals and objectives. As seen above all three of the goals had at least two assignments that were directly related to them. Through my research on OLPE classes I found that this was not always the case which I think is what leads to some of the negative attitudes toward it. Each assignment in this class had purpose and taught a valuable lesson. These lessons were current and relevant to the students taking the course. I personally feel this should be a semester long course because there is so much more to explore. I plan to use several things I learned in this course when designing my own courses in the near future. About the only one of the objectives we did not cover fully was objective number two. I think we could have had a few more requirements in our course site build to accommodate learners with special needs. Overall, I really enjoyed this course and learned more than I though I would.