Final Reflections

Well, I am towards the end of this class and I must say it has been an interesting and manageable experience. Although I was not excited about the class overall at the beginning, I have to say that I did learn some new areas in IT especially with Online Facilitation. My experience with facilitation was not as involving but it was a huge part of class that kept me interested and motivated although the assignment as an actual facilitator was not. We did have an opportunity to discuss our Facilitator experiences in class and found that some assignments were more involving than other. Although different, I did find that you can learn just as much by observing than being involved. I did understand that because this was a fairly new practice with the IT program, more barriers were involved such as online instructor not wanted interference in a sense, online instructors not understanding the goals of the facilitator, having enough instructors to match the number of facilitators requested and the challenges the students acceptance of a facilitator. In thinking deeper, although I know that the facilitation is new, I might have maybe waited another semester before including to better sell for a lack of words, pilot, test, and develop the concept, meaning and practice to the not only the instructor involved but the students and facilitator just as well. It seems to be a work in progress and experience is the best teacher but I think the overall meaning and expectation are a little grey for most. Again, piloting the program and selling if first might be a little easier.

The overall class did give me details as it related to online practice and facilitation. What I might have changed would be to have a portion of the class required to be online and include the facilitation practice online just as well. I think this would a give a feel for an online experience overall. The class seemed to be a bit long to fit all information necessary and required for this class. The class setting wasn't bad and I can see where the attempt was made to meet all of the objectives, but it did get rather lengthy. The projects were good learning experiences and the instructor was very knowledgeable of the subject. I think that only thing that might have fallen a little short was the reading, but at the same time they we very informative and can be used a collective reference guide.
As this class develops, I can see the IT program getting stronger which is a critical need. I hope is does just that. There is need for change just as there are changes with IT overall. I hope the program continues in its efforts to keep up.