Reflection

· What did you find surprising or striking as you furthered you knowledge about how people learn?

At this course it made me surprised as I furthered my knowledge about not only how people learn but also how much people have thought about how people learn. The course provided me so many hard and soft resource materials which broadened my understanding about learning. As learning is of critical importance to both individual and society I was very much interest about the course materials provided, and activities assigned to us. We came a long journey starting from the pretheoritical attempts to modern learning theories such as multiple intelligence theory. I began to think about us a multifaceted process that individuals typically take for granted until they experience difficulty with a complex task. When my understanding about how people learn expanded further I realized how challenging and striking the task of an instructional designer as he or she has to cater to the broad spectrum of individual differences, learning styles, and motivation.

· How has this course deepened your understanding of your personal learning process?

At this course I continued week by week with the resource materials provided, discussions conducted, and applications it deepened my understanding of personal learning process. Due to lack of computer literacy, limited access to on-line resources (Reasons: Lack of computers, limited internet facilities available and its slowness, lack of skills in browsing internet), poor awareness about the potential of on-line resources, and limited time available to spend in the library for several years I did not get enough opportunities to reflect on my personal learning in relation to existing and emerging theoretical and research bases. But, during last two months this course stimulated me in different ways to reflect on my own learning process. Both books and on-line resources, comments and feedbacks from the instructor, posting assignments, commenting on others posts, familiarizing with the modern technology, and discussing with the colleagues form all over the world who have a wide range of experiences in the field of instructional design are the experiences I gained through this course. All these experiences nourished my understanding of personal learning.

· What have you learned regarding the connection between learning theories, learning styles, educational technology, and motivation?

For eight weeks I engaged with the activities related to learning theories, learning styles, educational technology, and motivation I have understood that an instructional designer has to develop a set of learning instructions by considering the particular content, potential of various learning theories in achieving successful learning, individual differences of the learners and their learning styles, most suitable technology that can be adopted, nature of the learning environment, and motivational factors that keep the learner engaged with his/her learning. A proper connection of all the factors mentioned above has to be achieved to facilitate a fruitful learning event.

· How will your learning in this course help you as you further your career in the field of instructional design?

What I learned in this course will help me in many different ways to as I further me career in the field of instructional design. Now I might think of which learning theory or combination of those bring about best learning in a particular subject, what are the possible learning styles that a learner can use in learning the particular content, which technology brings about the best learning, and what factors will keep the learner motivated in learning.