I worked in a bank for 15 years before coming to Dubai. After getting my financial services professional qualifications I took a degree in law. My subject matter expertise is therefore Financial Services and Law. I first experienced on line learning getting to grips with WebCT when Rob Peregoodoff was the college coordinator. He was really helpful and I realized that the best way to learn something was to have a go but to have access to “just in time” training support as well. I became quite adept at using WebCT and could upload audio recordings for online quizzes and other bits which felt quite advanced at the time. Then it changed to Blackboard and I found that everything I knew how to do was redundant, which was incredibly frustrating. So I started using Moodle. At that point I completed the qualification to be a Certified Member of the Association of Learning Technologists. Then I got another role at DMC and stopped teaching!
Now that I have returned to a role in the Academic side of the college I am keen to get to grips with BBVista and other online forums.
I hope that by completing this course I will get a valuable qualification as like many others I do not have any formal teaching qualification apart from my English Language CELTA. I am most keen to learn from the experiences and contributions of others. As I have now returned to a role within the academic life of the college I also hope to re-engage with the habit of reflective practice which I believe is the foundation of all good teaching and learning.
