My reflection blog this week for MSLD 500 is to reflect back on the course and provide my views on a few specific topics that may make the course better for future students and staff.

My perceived value in the course

The value I feel I gained the most in this course is the ability to slow down and understand there is no race to writing a paper.  The change up from previous educational structured programs I have completed, the research course is required to be completed before you can take any other course in the Master of Science Leadership Degree (MSLD) program. This was a challenge for me due to I had no defined leadership topic that I wanted to write about.  I felt like that made me less prepared going into this course, and rushing to meet deadlines.  I do think the real value of this course was designed to help a student think outside the normal status quo about thinking, learning new software tool sets to express your thoughts, organize your research, and communicating with your peers by.

Positive Aspects of the course

The positive aspect of the course for me was the Brain Tool. I remember the first week, downloading this course and wondering why we had to pay $200 for a 3 year subscription for a tool that I would only be using for this course. It took me about 2 weeks to get the hang of how to get through the basic elements of the tool and after weeks of creating concepts maps, I understand how this tool can be used for every course I complete within the MSLD program.

The second positive aspect of this course is the reflection blog assignments. I have been pretty vocal that I did not like them and could not understand why it was important to talk about my reflection about a topic, especially for the entire world of the internet to see. Pretty much the entire course I dreaded this assignment, and it wasn’t until about week 8 did I understand its purpose.  To me, the reflection blog made me slow down and actually think. After serving 20 plus years in the military, I have had to learn to write differently. My military writing appears to be short, to the point, and no one really seemed to care about my feelings or personal views on a topic. I am used to sticking to factual data and omitting touchy felling type of words. I think the reflection blogs are allowing me to put words on paper that reflect how I really feel about subjects. Whether the reflection is right or wrong, it is my reflection.

The next positive aspect of this course is the new types of research assignments that were not required in my first master’s degree program. In my first program, I never was required to write annotated bibliographies or design a resource matrix to sort resources with topic points. The annotated bibliographies were something I enjoyed for the main purpose that it was defining a source and a simple overview of what that source is about. As I travel down the completion of the MSLD course, I can reflect back on those annotated bibliographies and quickly determine if this is a source I want to pull back out and re-review. I think previous programs not using this assignment is a disadvantage to the student long-term. The major disadvantage would be re-reading the same information twice to determine if it still applies to the research topic. The resource matrix is something I know I will continue to keep updated in the MSLD program, as it really was a key in helping me sort out my data.

Negative Aspects

I do not have any major negative aspects of this course. If I was to complain or offer a suggestion is not introduce so much new software in a nine week course. In order to use new software, a person needs time to get familiar with the tool. Too often I found the inability to full embrace tools due to time constraints. Example is week 8 with the Action Research Presentation. I thought I was doing a standard Power Point presentation, but the requirement was to be creative and use one of the recording tools provided. This was a struggle as I have never used tools like this before.  It took me longer to learn about the tools, versus the time to apply its characteristics. Additionally, after 8 weeks of learning in a fast pace environment, new tools at the end is just too much.

The other negative event of this course is when the University rolled out a new blackboard for student courses.  I understand and support the need to upgrade software but it was a deterrent to me as a student in a course that is 100% online. My profile did not load and took 4 working days for the IT support group to fix my online access. I was able to maneuver a back in way via an email notification. Although this is not really a negative, but probably something that should not occur while courses are open. Maybe suggest being done over the summer when there is fewer students in classes.

What might you have done to improve your learning experiences?

What I might have done to improve my learning experience was balance my personal work life balance prior to starting the course. I knew I was taking this writing course, but was not as prepared as I was in the past. Starting a new job a few months back, I over assumed this course would not be very tasking. I realized during week one introductions when the instructor said you could not wait until the weekend to participate that this was going to be a very busy course. I am not a quitter so I just realized that I will deal with it and make it work within my schedule.

How might the university or your instructor provide additional support for your learning?

My personal perception of how the university or the instructor could have provided additional support for your learning is irrelevant. Our instructor was always immediately available, always responds in less than 24 hours to questions.  The only recommendation I could offer is more sample resources of expectations from the course developer. If there is a particular style for writing an annotated bibliography shows a good template versa a bad one. Too often in this course it references APA Format or a link on the internet for APA, but at times it was unclear which format when there is multiple available. I was not ever docked for the wrong format, but it would be user friendly for online students to see good and bad examples.

Were the topics in this course that were relevant or irrelevant to experience

I do not think any of the topics in the course was irrelevant. I think it was outline and structured well. If I was to say anything about topics in the course is it was too much in a nine week period. I felt like it was doing a lot of communicating and reflecting on topics that had no value to my research. At the same time, those efforts were teaching me to think, which was not prevalent at the beginning. I did enjoy this course in comparison to the previous Management 605 proposal course. I think the university has done a great job and revamping this course to prepare a student. My only concern is that maybe this course should be a 12 week course verses a 9, but not adding additional information. I think the student’s research time could be leveled with less of a rush.

What do you expect from future courses?

My expectation from future courses is that each instructor continues to use The Brain tool, and the reflection blogging. I liked the blogging better than the course discussion questions. Only thing about the blogging that was shorted was the sharing with the classmates. I think using the reflection blog with a minimum word count is teaching a student to think about the topic, write their opinions of the topic, and then sharing it for the purpose of blogging. The discussion questions are good, but we are all saying the same thing and get boring after a while. The blogging you get to put more of your personal thoughts into the process. The brain tool should be a must, especially since this course is required first in the program. Students can use this tool for each course to save and sort information pertaining to their research. I know as a student, I plan to use each course in the future focused on my topic of Culture of Accountability.  I really enjoyed the course overall, and would definitely recommend the instructor.