Ranvir Bahl – Learning Portfolio

Although I am not a teacher by profession, I have conducted product trainings online and plan to offer customized training in the future on various educational technologies.

My e-teaching philosophy is –

• Design my courses with a sharp focus on learning competencies and ensure the learners understand what they are and how to achieve them.
• Use blended teaching approach – Leverage synchronous technologies like webinars, online meetings to add face/voice to a name and ensure periodic learner feedback (taking cues from communication theory and ensuring the messages are understood properly by all learners)
• Facilitate online workshops and discussions to provide guidance and build initial momentum. I believe its important for the instructor to take initiative and kick start the initial discussions so that the learners are motivated and actively participate.
• Use assessment techniques appropriate for the competency to be assessed.
• Have fun with the learners!

I prepared a Research Plan which would serve as a framework for my proposal. Finally, I prepared a Research Proposal based on the Literature Review, Critical Analysis and Research Plan which formed the second part of my final assignment.

Wow, that was lot of learning!

This was the first of my final assignments for this course.  I chose to submit a Research Proposal on leveraging mobile technologies for Medical Education and this Critical Review serves as a basis for my proposal.

An except from my conclusion:

“There is ample evidence to support that mobile technologies can be used to offer generation friendly, personalized learning experience to medical students. However, further research is required if we are to consider it more than just a communication and information sharing tool.”

By this time, I had learnt how to critizally analyze articles and synthesize common threads/ themes. The third Article Critique was more fulfilling…

My second submission was an Article Review. I had read lots of articles in magazines, newspapers and discussed informally with friends and peer. However, writing a formal review was a very enlightening experience!

This was my first Article Review Assignment in ETEC 500. I learned the basics of how to review and crtique an article. It was initially very challenging although I had lot of fun!