My Learning Journey

Faizah's Learning Portfolio
3 min readNov 1, 2022

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Right now, right at this moment, as I sit and pen my thoughts down, I am eager.

I am enthusiastic, I am engaged, I am motivated and I am learning. I feel challenged.

These are the mishmash of thoughts and feelings I have had as I have worked on my portfolio the past few days.

When I started my online learning journey with the course, ‘IMAESCII516: Teaching Adult Education Online’, I was quite confused and mostly lost. I remember meeting Professor Andreas for our orientation in person, and he seemed confident, expectant, assured in the way of knowing what he wants from us. Then I met him again during our IMAESC walk to the Kelvingrove Park, and he seemed so relaxed, welcoming and friendly. It was odd to think we would not see him in person again for the foreseeable future but only on video calls.

As I started my online learning journey, it all seemed confusing, overwhelming and I did not know what to expect.

However, from Module 1 to Module 2, Module 2 to Module 3, and so on, my confidence grew as did my understanding. I could see that Professor Andreas has structure to all this madness, that every module provides a different perspective to education and then how that overlaps and impacts teaching adults online.

I enjoyed that he offered a blend of academic articles as well as videos and even funny materials, to serve the needs of different learner types. In particular modules such as Module 3: UNDERSTANDING ONLINE PEDAGOGIES, I appreciated a mix of first reading and then watching videos to consolidate my understanding. I enjoyed the overall generic viewpoint that ‘Adult learning theories: implications for online instruction’ by Arghode, V., Brieger, E. W., & McLean, G. N. (2017) offered but also the videos explaining further on each separate learning theory.

I also enjoyed the slightly different sociological perspective offered by Module 6: THE “OTHER” ADULT LEARNERS, which looked at how other perspectives such as identity, gender, class, status can impact our expectations of adults as learners and the educational approach we might take to them. In this Module, I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of sharing materials outside of our readings such as films, music, videos, books and arts that our IMAESC cohort were asked to share, which opened us up to a whole new collection of cross-cultural perspectives and how each individual peer in my cohort views the idea of ‘othering’.

As the course progressed over the weeks, I also enjoyed how detailed and reflective our forum discussions among peers became, bringing in different references, arguments and counterarguments and plenty of ‘food for thought’.

The only aspects of this online learning journey so far that I do not enjoy is the quality of replies on the forum discussion, and the need to reply to people with words of agreement if no further information is added onto it. However, I also understand that this offers a sense of community and a sense of connection as much as offline discussions offer a sense of bonding.

I believe I have grown more reflective and aware of the different learning theories happening around me, and have been more retrospective of amalgamating my past experiences with current learnings, teachings and reflections. I see myself constantly pausing for reflection, asking critical questions and asking peers whether their views on the matter are similar or divergent.

Lastly, I also see myself changing and growing, but also equally knowing that there is much else left to learn and perhaps that I am not doing enough. The drawback of being an IMAESC student is that things are always new, always moving and always shifting and there is no time for pause. The expectation is that you adapt, you carry on and move ahead.

While I am aware I signed up for this, quite enthusiastically might I add, however, it does get tiring and overwhelming often, which impacts my learning and true potential in delivering quality work during assignments. But just like anything else in life, the show must go on and I shall continue to do my best, whether that is 20% on one day and a 110% on another.

I am learning and that’s all that matters.

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Faizah's Learning Portfolio
Faizah's Learning Portfolio

Written by Faizah's Learning Portfolio

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Faizah is affectionately called ‘The Little Penguin' by her friends. She dabbles in poetry, micro-memoirs and reviews here and there. She reads and she learns.

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