Overview

Throughout the 8-week term, there were a lot of assignments to complete. As part of the course assignments, we were asked to choose one focus area based on the results of a survey in Module 1 regarding self-regulated learning (SRL). My focus area was creating a strategy for planning.

Recap

In my first blog post I outlined a plan to use a calendar app as part of my strategy. I reported in my second blog post that I failed to effectively use my calendar app as part of my strategy but that I was going to give it my strategy another shot. In this third and final blog post of the term I will report on how well my strategy worked in the second half of the term.

Adapted

During the second half of the term, I had a lot going on between work, school, and home. Add on top of that grad school. My schedule was packed.

As such, I wasn’t able to effectively employ my calendar app in the second half of the term either. However, I did find another strategy for planning that worked well and I had been doing it without even thinking about it. For each assignment I put the due dates on my calendar app so that I could keep track of when they were due. To actually plan out the coursework for each assignment, I wrote down what I had coming up and what my daily goals for completing each assignment were. Where my original strategy was ineffective, I adapted and implemented another strategy for staying on task and completing my work and I did so without even realizing that was what I was doing.

Writing out my daily goals for completing assignments is the winning strategy for the second half of the term.

Self-Regulated Learning

Going through this course using self-regulated learning was a good experience and I’m glad to have had the opportunity to do so. With realistic projects similar to what I would find industry I understand that as a technical communicator I will have to employ a strategy for self-regulated learning to be successful. There is always going to be an assignment or thirty that I will have to keep track of and with topics that I will have to learn about. That is the nature of what we do as technical communicators.

As I matriculate through the Master’s program, I have the prime opportunity to practice different strategies for self-regulated learning before I go into industry.

Looking Forward

I really enjoyed taking this class. The opportunity to gain familiarity with some of the tools that I will use in industry was challenging at times but was a good experience despite the challenge.

I found out that I like content management, at least the part that we covered in this course. Using Flare for the single-source publishing project for me was like putting a puzzle together. Each piece or component had to be put in place before the full picture started to take shape. I really look forward to the content strategy course I’m taking this coming spring semester.

The screencasting project was a lot of fun to make despite having some things to fix before I put the video on my permanent portfolio. I enjoyed putting together a quick start guide for WordPress.

Looking forward, I know that there are some things that I need to work on such a strategy for planning among other aspects of self-regulated learning especially once I’m closer to entering industry. The time to practice is now while I have the benefit of being a student and receiving feedback to improve. As I continue my journey, I will continue to work on self-regulated learning so that I am ready for industry and for further graduate studies. No matter the situation I can adapt and find a way to make it work.