Meridith Davis

November 23, 2016

Introduction

Meridith Davis works as an Instructional Technologist at a private, all-girls high school

where she focuses on the use of a Learning Management System (Canvas) in course content,

student and staff technology issues, and Web 2.0 tools and resources. Meridith has a Bachelors

degree from Penn State University in Media Studies (2001) and a Masters degree in

Instructional Technology from UMUC (2014). She is currently finishing her second Masters

degree in Online Distance Education from UMUC and expects to graduate in 2017. To complete

her degree, Meridith is presently taking a course on learner support in distance education. This

essay will examine Meridiths experiences as a distance education student as well as her history,

knowledge, and growth in the area of learner support.

Learner Profile/Background

Meridith grew up in a household with parents who both hold advanced degrees and where

education was highly valued. She excelled in school without much support from external

sources. Meridith was always seeking out new ways to lead and challenge herself. She was

elected President of the Student Council at Penn State University during her senior year, an

accomplishment she is very proud of and one that allowed her to utilize and expand her

leadership skills. During this time Meridith also developed her time-management,

communication, and diplomacy skills. Working with administration, faculty, and students for the

betterment of the college often required her to use all of these skills conjointly. These skills,

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leadership, communication, and time-management have served her well during her time as an

ODL student at UMUC. She has been prepared to deal with multiple challenging tasks without

direct supervision throughout her three years as a distance education student.

OMDE at UMUC

Meridith enrolled in the OMDE program at UMUC as a dual degree student in order to

have a better understanding of online learning using technology tools. She has found the program

to be well thought out with courses that cover a wide range of issues in the context of online

distance learning. She has, however, found a large amount of variation between courses and

instructors in the OMDE program. Some courses are very hands-on while others are limited in

the amount of discussions and interactions. Some courses are overloading students with work

while others are working at a minimum. The ability to work on her own time is the driving factor

behind taking online courses. Often times, working at night and on the weekends is the most

convenient and something that is often not afforded in traditional face-to-face learning

environments.

Time management is one of the biggest challenges in online learning for Meridith, as it is

with many distance education students. The factors that continue to draw students, particularly

graduate students, to online education are scheduling flexibility and the freedom to manage

other responsibilities (Newbury & DeLuca, 2014, p. 25). As a distance learner and a full-time

employee she has had to use her time management skills on a weekly basis to ensure that she

gets everything done. Coping with time constraints has been difficult, especially in the Fall of

2016 as she began working in her new professional position. Having a good support system at

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home and an intense drive to succeed in her graduate work will help Meridith complete her

OMDE program in 2017.

OMDE 608 Reflections

OMDE 608 is one of the courses prescribed for the OMDE graduate program at UMUC.

The goals of this course are to explain learner services in distance education and training,

describe learner support functions, and analyze current learner support issues in order to develop

a plan and recommend a strategy for leaner support in a particular system (OMDE 608 Syllabus,

2016). The prescribed units were as follows:

1. Context and Elements of Student Support

Each unit covered material about learner support systems and training in distance education from

all around the world. Every unit ended with a written assignment as well as guided activity

questions meant to reflect on personal learning experiences. Course discussions were based on a

set of guiding questions related to the topics set forth in each unit in addition to personal

experiences within those topics.

Unit 1 was an introduction to learner support systems and the elements of learner support.

These services include library service, counselling, advising, tutoring, administrative support,

technical support, and general student services. New research is showing that the more

customized the learning plan and support services can be for each student, the higher the

retention and recruiting rates will be for the institution (Khanna & Basak, 2010). With this new

push for individualized student support, many universities are relying on web tools and services

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to meet the needs and demands of the students. Meridith focused in on the course readings as her

primary means of learning the new material. The most challenging part for her in Unit 1 was the

complexity of the case studies presented in the course materials. Through the use of

personalization she was able to make new connections to the content in order to meet the course

objectives. She is confident that she came away with a deeper understanding of learner support

systems in online distance learning.

The second unit of the OMDE 608 course focused on learner support characteristics and

development. One important lesson from this unit was that learner support comes in many forms

in order to accommodate the many groups of students that participate in online courses. This unit

also discussed the extent to which corporate culture plays into the success of e-training. Many

articles in this unit (for example Hoey, et al., 2014; Macdonald & Kozak, 2010) mention that

without managerial support e-training will not be successful for employees. The final section in

this unit explored how important evaluations are in online distance learning courses as they give

faculty the opportunity to assess and adjust course offerings for future semesters. Meridith was

immediately interested in the staff development section because she is responsible for much of

the staff development at the school where she works. She was particularly interested in the idea

that a company culture must adopt an emphasis on innovation in order to be successful in the use

of e-training (Gregory & Salmon, 2013). This is an idea that she may bring to her workplace in

order to get more support from administration and faculty in the use of online training. Having a

high level of interest in the content was helpful in learning the material in this unit.

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 The third and final unit of this course discussed challenges and changes in learner support

in an e-learning environment. There were many articles and resources to consider in this section,

each of which focused on a different aspect of learner support design and delivery. This was one

of the biggest challenges for Meridith in this unit. The number of required resources became so

overwhelming that it was difficult to begin working. Once started, however, she found a strand of

information that was of high interest and motivated her to continue through the lessons. One of

the biggest challenges in online learner support is personalizing the learning environment for

students at a distance. The Bray & McClaskey (2014) article provided a thorough overview of

how teachers can prepare the learning environment for students in order to support their various

learning styles. In this unit Meridith was again able to make personal connections to the material

and glean information that she can take back to the staff at her school.

Recommendations

Upon reflection of her work in the OMDE 608 course, Meridith has made several

conclusions and recommendations for the future. This course has encouraged her to take a close

look at her own learning profile as a distance education learner and the types of supports that she

needs and uses. While she doesnt often seek out support from outside sources she does take

advantage of many of the supports that the university offers, such as library services, online

advising services, and administrative support services (online registration, financial aid, etc.).

Without the option of face-to-face learner support, it is imperative that UMUC offers these

services to online students.

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 Her recommendations for the future of the OMDE program at UMUC include personalize

student learning and embrace innovation in online education. Upon entering this program

Meridith had already earned her Masters degree in Instructional Technology from UMUC.

Because of this, she found some of the information within the courses to be redundant. If UMUC

had utilized a personal learning plan some of the redundancy could have been avoided. Bray &

McClaskeys (2014) personalized student learning plan could easily be adjusted and

implemented for students in an online graduate program. Although much of their program is

written for an elementary audience, the ideas of universally designing course methods and

materials and allowing for student voice and choice could absolutely be applied at the graduate

level. This could help students like Meridith avoid redundancy and find a more challenging

approach to the course work.

One other recommendation focuses on innovation in the distance education program.

Stephen Downes defines innovation as the combination of new ideas plus execution with added

benefits (Downes, 2016). As previously stated, the personalization of learning is an innovation

that would be beneficial to graduate students at UMUC. Students would also benefit from the use

of new technologies (virtual reality, gamification, collaborative technology) and badging as an

alternate means of assessment. These new innovations would increase student engagement and

allow students to feel more immersed in their learning. The use of badges as an alternate means

of assessment provide learners with incentives for mastering course objectives. This is another

tool that may encourage students to be more actively engaged in the online learning

environment.

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Conclusion

Throughout her OMDE program at UMUC Meridith has immersed herself in practicing

and learning about online education. Being a practitioner of online learning has given her unique

insight in designing and developing online learning environments and learning support systems

for distance education. The OMDE 608 course has brought her new awareness of the institutional

policies that drive learner support systems as well as the stakeholders that are involved in the

planning and decision making process. These are all factors that she will be considering as she

continues her professional path of online learning development.

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References

Bray, B., & McClasky, K. (June, 11, 2014). Personalize your learning environment. ISTE
International Society for Technology in Education. Retrieved from
https://www.iste.org/explore/ArticleDetail?articleid=11

Downes, S. (2016, July 27). Disruptive innovations in learning. TCU International e-Learning
Conference, Bangkok, Thailand (Keynote). Retrieved
from http://www.downes.ca/presentation/389

Gregory, J., & Salmon, G. (2013). Professional development for online university teaching.
Distance Education, 34(3), 256-270.

Hoey, R., McCracken, F., Gehrett, M., & Snoeyink, R. (2014). Evaluating the impact of the
administrator and administrative structure of online programs at nonprofit private
colleges Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 17(3). Retrieved from
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall173/hoey_mccracken_gehrett_snoeyink173.ht
ml

Khanna, P. & Basak, P.C. (2010, November). A comprehensive web based student support system
for ODL institutions of India. Paper presented at the Pan-Commonwealth Forum 6
(PCF6), India Proceedings. Kochi India. Retrieved from
http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/2096/2010_KhannaP_ComprehensiveWeb.pdf
?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Macdonald, I., Bullen, M., & Kozak, R. (2010). Learner support requirements for online
workplace training in the South African furniture industry. Journal of Asynchronous
Learning Networks, 14(3). Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ909882.pdf

Newbury, R. & DeLuca, C. (2014). Building a foundation for success through student services
for online learners. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 17(4). Retrieved from
onlinelearningconsortium.org/sites/default/files/2-newberry.pdf.

OMDE 608 9040 Syllabus. (2016). UMUC. Retrieved from