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REFLECTION OF MY LEARNING JOURNEY

A Reflection of My Learning Journey

The purpose of this essay is to reflect what I have learned through out the Instructional Psychology
and Technology (IPT) program. How time flies! I have spent two years in this exciting program.
When I look back on the whole process, I believe I have made huge progress not only in the
instructional design field, but also in my career path. I really appreciate the OU IPT program for
equipping me with the courage and ability to improve myself.

Overview
This reflective paper contains three main parts: 1) My growth and development throughout IPT
program; 2) Project reflection: an assessment of the three instructional design projects I developed
at different (early, middle, and late) stages and the thoughts about how I would revise each of my
previous design works by applying my acquired knowledge and skills in instructional design. 3)
Conclusion: the summary of the principles I have learned and applied in instructional design
practices and my expectations in my future career.
My Growth in IPT Program
Someone said, I only compare myself to the previous me. Comparing to the previous me, I think I
made the huge transition. Because of the IPT program, I have gained a solid understanding of a
variety of instructional design theories and mastered the skills in the analysis, design, development,
and evaluation of instructional project. Additionally, I have been more and more active and
confident in learning and working. In the following paragraphs, I will share my feelings, thoughts
and changes during my learning journey.
The Previous Me
During my school days in China, I was a quiet student. I preferred to answer questions when called
upon, instead of voluntarily raising my hand. I usually performed well in standardized tests.
However, the high-points I got did not reflect my lack of verbal class participation. Although I had
been learning English for a long time and had a huge vocabulary, I could not even create a proper
English sentence.
No matter how shy I was, I had always been fascinated in the research of education and psychology.
Before entering the IPT program, I got my first Masters degree in Higher Education in China. After
obtaining the Masters degree, I joined the MBA Center in School of Management to work as a
MBA/EMBA program specialist. Although I had certain education background and relevant work
experiences, I did not have any instructional design related knowledge or skills and did not know
that the IPT program would bring so many surprises to my life.
The Changes in Me

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Coursework. I have learned to adaptively apply learning theories, instructional design models,
Blooms taxonomy, and advanced technology tools in a variety of instructional design projects. In
order to identify the key points of learning and development in IPT program, I created an image of
coursework overview.

My course plan throughout the program was made in consultation with my academic
adviser, Dr. Ge. The courses in the IPT program provided me with useful knowledge and skills in
the instructional design field. Specifically, a series of courses from Dr. Bradshaw, including Intro to
Instructional Technology, Visual Literacy for Educational Media Production, and Web-Based
Instruction focused on the technology part of instructional design. I was really excited to explore
how technology could be used creatively and effectively in educational settings. After taking these
courses, I have developed a deep understanding about how to use professional design software
(such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Dreamweaver) and incorporate technological
tools to facilitate student learning and to help the instruction run smoothly. Instructional Design I
taught by Dr. Eseryel helped me understand the instructional design process and the correlation

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within analysis, design, development and assessment. The two courses: Motivation and Learning in
the classroom taught by Dr. Hong and Cognition and Instruction taught by Dr. Greene provided me
with the important theoretical foundations of instructional design. I have learned a series of learning
theories, such as behaviorism, social cognitive theory, information processing, cognitive learning
processes, theories of motivation, and social and cognitive constructivism. Theories, Pedagogy, and
Tools for Online Learning, and Instructional design Theories and Models are the courses taught by
Dr. Ge. These two courses enabled me to adaptively apply instructional design models and
strategies to develop effective instructions. Measurement and Evaluation taught by Dr. Hennessy
equipped me with the ability to design and assess reliable and valid learning outcomes. Last but not
least, the course Instructional Design, Faculty Development and Higher Education taught by Dr. Lin
helped me build the skill set and professionalism necessary for instructional design and faculty
development jobs in higher education.
Professional Experience. I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to work in several
different units at the University of Oklahoma (OU) during these two years, such as the Center for
Teaching Excellence (CTE), the K20 Center, and Online & Academic Technology Surveys Office
(OATS) in the College of Arts & Sciences. At CTE, I have frequently assisted in the development
of a variety of online courses and faculty learning workshops. At K20 Center, I used game-based
learning approach to promote incidental learning in an ill-structured learning environment. At
OATS, I have been involved in online course development, such as the Capstone online course and
the Gateway online course. I enjoy working with instructors to help them achieve their vision while
ensuring that we provide a quality-learning environment for learners.
The Current Me
The IPT program has equipped me with the critical attitude for research, the commitment for
learning and the passion for technology. The current me is a responsible, dedicated, and dependable
professional. I really appreciate all my professors for delivering the knowledge, sharing the
experiences, and building the inviting atmosphere in classrooms to allow me to gradually become
an independent learner. In addition to acquiring the expertise in instructional design field, I
improved myself in English speaking, concise writing, interpersonal communication, compelling
articulation, and critical thinking.
As to the remaining weaknesses as a designer now, I need to improve my communication skill as an
instructional designer. I think I may get the so-called disease to please, which means I do not like
the idea of letting someone down. However, I know I have to learn the art of saying no if I want to
be a productive and efficient instructional designer. It is always important for us to value our time,
recognize our commitments, and identify our priorities. My concerns are focusing on how to say no
without hurting the relationships with colleagues, supervisors, and clients. It is beneficial to adopt
the systems thinking and growth mindset to consider the context and the particular person
before making the decision (Christy, 2010). I am still working on it.

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Below are the two tables I created to demonstrate my knowledge and skills that have been
developed during IPT program.

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Project Reflection
I have selected three instructional projects to represent my progress throughout the IPT program.
They are 1) early stage: Instruction on Creating ADA-Compliant Captions; 2) middle stage:
Teaching with Collaborative Tools; 3) late stage: Motivation for High Performance (DHS
Leadership Community). For the individual project, I will provide the summarized information,
critical evaluation, and my thoughts on how I would redesign or improve the project.
Early Stage: Instruction on Creating ADA-Compliant Captions
General Information. This project was developed from the course EIPT 6143 Instructional Design
I in Fall 2013. This was exactly the first instructional projected I designed and developed in the IPT
program. Below is a table of the project information.
Basic Info
Name: Instruction on Creating ADA-Compliant Captions
Course: EIPT 6143 Instructional Design I (Fall 2013)
Instructor: Dr. Eseryel
Project Host Organization: Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), OU
Purpose
Designing a comprehensive instruction on creating captions for faculty
from different departments to create ADA-compliant teaching videos.
Learning Goals
Faculty will get applicable knowledge about the ADA and skill about
creating ADA-compliant captions.
Target Audience
The primary audience was the faculty newly hired by OU, while the
secondary audience consists of currently employed faculty.
Deliver Format
Face-to-face workshop and online resources as supplementary.
Design Rationale
The instruction used social learning theory. The social learning theory
addresses people learn from each other through observation and modeling
(Morrison et al. 2007).
Instructional
The design of this document was based on Smith and Ragans Model,
Models Applied
which contains eight phases. As to the instruction part, according to
Expanded Events of instruction (Smith & Ragan, 2005, p.130), this
instruction included four consecutive components: introduction, body,
conclusion, and assessment.
Instructional
Based on the analysis of need, learner, task, and test items, both generative
Strategies Applied
and supplantive strategies were used in the instruction.
Project Evaluation. I still remember the overwhelming feeling at the very beginning of this course
when I was required to choose a subject and to submit the proposal of the project. I learned useful
knowledge and skills through developing individual part of the document and receiving helpful
comments from Dr. Eseryal. The behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism learning theories I
learned from this course helped me develop a systematic instructional project. I also learned a lot
about Blooms learning taxonomy, Gagnes nine events, the Smith & Regan model, the Morrison,
Ross & Kemp model, and other ID models, such as: ADDIE model, Dick and Carey Model, and

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Spiral model. Overall, the design package was organized logically and clearly. I applied the learning
theories and instructional design principles to guide the development of the project.
Project Improvement. Given that this was the first instructional design project I have developed, I
found out certain things that need to be improved. If I had the chance to redesign this project, I
might revise the following items. First, the target audience should also include teaching assistants
(TAs). It is critical to consider the audiences, since understanding the audience will help designers
develop an effective instruction (Smith & Ragan, 2005). As mentioned in the original document, the
major audience was OU faculty members in this project. Actually, editing video captions was a task
not only for faculty members but also for TAs and other class instructors. Second, besides the
flowchart, I would like to create a series of instructional videos. According to Morrison et al.
(2007)s procedure analysis, using visual images and verbal message to represent and demonstrate
the steps may better instigate audiences interests and help them get a better understanding of the
learning content. Third, I may add certain group engaging activities during the instruction. The
original instruction used social learning theory (Morrison, Ross, & Kemp, 2007), which was
appropriate for this design project. But since this theory emphasizes on observing and interaction
with others, it would be helpful to design an interactive activity. I may integrate a show your
works activity in face-to-face workshop and also build an online forum so that learners will be
provided with the opportunity to share their works and interact with others. It may inspire other
learners to use the skills adaptively.
Middle Stage: Virtual Learning Community-Teaching with Collaborative Tools
General Information. This project was developed from the course EIPT 6433 Theories, Pedagogy,
and Tools for Online Learning in Summer 2014. Below is a table of the project information.
Basic Info
Course: EIPT 6433 Theories, Pedagogy, and Tools for Online Learning
Instructor: Dr. Ge
Project Host Organization: Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), OU
Purpose
Introducing emerging collaborative tools to OU faculty members and TAs to
enhance their teaching, research, and productivity.
Learning Goals
OU faculty members and TAs will be able to utilize proper collaborative
tools in teaching and research.
Target Audience
The primary audience was the faculty OU faculty and TAs.
Deliver Format
Virtual learning community platform: Mixxt
Design Rationale
From constructivist perspective, knowledge is developed and used in its
related context. Community of practice is a process of social learning. When
people have common interests in specific topics, they are more likely to join
the community and then share their thoughts, participate in groups, and
generate new ideas (Lave & Wenger, 1998).
Instructional
I applied the R2D2 (read, reflect, display, and do) model to integrate various
Models Applied
learning activities with appropriate technologies for effective online learning
in this virtual learning community (Bonk and Zhang, 2006).
Instructional
In this community, teachers were facilitators and they provided several
Strategies Applied services for members. Such as presenting organized interface, inspiring

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community members to apply critical thinking skills to explore different

topics, providing proper and prompt feedback and keep sending reminders to
members, and revising the community learning agenda constantly according
to members learning pace.

Project Evaluation. This project was developed from my first online course. Different from the
previous classes I had taken, this online class offered me the opportunity to have hands-on
experience in online learning and discover the essentials of online learning. As a well-designed
class, Dr. Ge integrated a series of meaningful activities in class teaching and provided constructive
feedback to our performance. Through online discussions, real-time meeting, case study,
community exploration, blog building, and artifact design, I made further progress in understanding
online learning. Just as Bonk described, learning can be spontaneous for casual insight, and it can
also be more thoughtfully and purposefully designed (Bonk, 2009). This project was one of my
favorite projects during IPT program. There were some noteworthy points in the design package.
First, this community was a knowledge-based community. It did not require community members to
complete each activity. Community members participated voluntarily and regulated themselves
during learning process. The facilitators could measure members performance by observing their
participation in each activity. Second, there were five learning activities in this community, which
were aligned with the learning objectives and outcomes. Third, the R2D2 model is applied to
integrate various learning activities with appropriate technologies for effective online learning in
this virtual learning community.
Project Improvement. Here are my thoughts about how I would improve this project.
First, the functions of the blogs in the community need to be rethought. The content of the blogs
was more like introducing what these tools are, rather than how learners could integrate tools into
teaching or researching. I may consider the Blog as a platform to allow community members to
express and share their thoughts, such as share learning experiences, ask questions, and debate a
controversial topic. According to Ormrod (2011), the sense of autonomy and relatedness are so
critical to learners, since they are important needs for self-motivation. I will give the community
members the power to decide what they would like to post. Second, the approach to engaging
community member could be improved. The community was well designed, but how could I
encourage others to make contributions to the site? A specificity of connection to virtual
communities is different from the connection participants in physical communities (Renninger &
Shumar, 2002). In the virtual environment, there is no physical contact and awards. I may create
some badges, (e.g., the active member) or added some game-based learning elements to encourage
members to participate in the learning activity.
Late Stage: DHS Enterprise Learning (EL) Project- Motivation for High Performance
General Information. This project can be considered as the latest instructional design project I
developed in IPT. I worked with Xinyun Peng and Wei Yin in developing of the community
homepage and framework, and I was taking individual responsibility for the Motivation module. I

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designed the instructional plan, implement plan, evaluation plan, and the mock-up site. This project
was developed from an advanced level instructional course EIPT 6343 Instructional Design
Theories and Models in Fall 2014. Below is a table of the project information.
Basic Info
EIPT 6343 Instructional Design Theories and Models
Instructor: Dr. Ge
Project Host Organization: Center for Public Management, OU
Purpose
Enabling learner with the ability of facilitating and promoting teamwork and
team performance, motivating employees toward goal accomplishments.
Learning Goals
Learners will be able to apply motivation skills and strategies to develop and
sustain a high performance team.
Target Audience
The management staff below the executive team and just above the county
directors inclusive of titles such as Programs Administrators, Directors,
Assistant Directors.
Deliver Format
Virtual learning community
Design Rationale
Constructivists assume knowledge is based on their interpretations of daily
experiences and is constructed by learners individually and socially.
Instruction should include the experiences so that it can facilitate knowledge
construction (Jonassen, 1999). The student-centered, technology-rich
constructive learning environment can be tailored to every learner, which
focuses on individual personality, motivations and capabilities (Reeves,
1992).
Instructional
This online learning environments pedagogical frame is adapted from the
Models Applied
Four-Component Instructional Design (4C/ID) model. The 4C/ID model
provides a prescription for designing multimedia-learning environments for
complex learning by integrating appropriate multimedia principles (van
Merrinboer & Kester, 2005).
Instructional
Both supplantive strategy and generative strategies will be employed in this
Strategies Applied module. The supplantive strategies can be presented as content overview,
readings, and resource exploration. The generative strategies can be
presented as case study, skill practice, and discussion, which require more
analyzing ability from students.
Project Evaluation. This project was quite different from the previous project, because: 1) It was a
real-life project. It was an ill-structured problem, which provided me a good chance to practice our
design skills. 2) It included both group work and individual work. Group work required me to work
with other classmates to develop our communication and collaboration skills. In this project, the
activity of resource exploration, literature recommendation, and problem solving is aligned with
problem-based learning. Through providing a case for learners to actively engage, they will feel
their responsibility of sharing their ideas. Learners are motivated and have a sense of ownership of
their tasks when they actively engage in authentic tasks.
Project Improvement. Here are my thoughts on how to improve this design project. In order to
build a constructive learning environment, the community should not only deliver the message, but
also inspire community members to apply critical thinking skills to explore the topics. A more
inviting interface should be provided. The original interface was easy for community members

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(especially senior faculty members) to navigate, but it was heavily text-driven. The introductory text
should be more concise and the introduction video could play an important role in inviting learners.
According to Clark & Mayer (2011), the videos would act as worked examples. With explicit
explanations, learners gain a better understanding of the knowledge they were supposed to learn.
Additionally, I would use Captivate software to develop scenario description in the case study
section. Learners identity changed when they explored the community in-depth (Renninger &
Shumar, 2002). Learners are not simply visiting the page, as they immerse in the learning
environment, they feel like they are in charge of helping themselves solve their problems. The
implementation of novel technology in this community will facilitate learners to have a thorough
and comprehensive understanding about the real situation.
Conclusion
I have developed a wide range of skills and abilities that enable me to be a competitive candidate in
the job market. Such as the ability to synthesize information critically, communicate with clients
effectively, generate the learners characteristics successfully, identify learning objective accurately,
collaborate with subject matter experts (SMEs) and team members cooperatively, integrate learning
theories and instructional strategies adaptively, assess student learning outcomes fairly, and deal
with any kinds of unpredictable frustrations efficiently. As an instructional designer in the very near
future, I strive to inspire, enable, and facilitate different types of learning.

I am so grateful for what my professors have done to lead me to finish my Masters degree in IPT. I
thank my professors for giving me the inspiration, encouragement, and suggestions on how to
become a better learner, writer, thinker, speaker and instructional designer. I appreciated the
boundless patience and support from my professors. Words are inadequate to express my wholehearted thanks. The IPT program experience has prepared me to be a qualified instructional
designer and will have the far-reaching influence in my future life.

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10

References
Bonk, C. J., & Zhang, K. (2006). Introducing the R2D2 model: Online learning for the diverse
Christy, S. (2010) Working Effectively with Faculty. University Resources Press.
Clark, R.C., & Mayer, R.E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines
for consumers and designers of multimedia learning (3rd Ed.). San Francisco, CA:
Pfeiffer.
Jonassen, D. H. (1999). Designing constructivist learning environments. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.),
Instructional design theories and models: A new paradigm of instructional theory
(pp.215-239). Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice. Retrieved June, 9, 2008.
Morrison et al. (2007). Designing Effective Instruction. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Ormrod, J. E. (2011). Human learning (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Reeves, Tom, 1992, Effective Dimensions of Interactive Learning Systems Keynote address for
Information Technology for Training and Education Conference (ITTE 92)
Renninger, K. A., & Shumar, W. (Eds.). (2002). Building virtual communities: Learning and
change in cyberspace. Cambridge University Press.
Smith, P. L., & Ragan, T. J. (2005). Instructional Design (3rd ed.).Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley
&Sons, Inc.
van Merrinboer, J. J. G., & Kester, L. (2005). The four-component instructional design model:
Multimedia principles in environment for complex learning. In R. E. Mayer (Ed.), The
Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning (pp. 71-93). New York, N.Y.: Cambridge
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