Good online teaching is more than placing materials online and hoping for the best. Good online learning experiences require more than readings and quizzes. To be a great online educator, you must be able to gather appropriate resources, design effective instruction, build community, and assess student learning on multiple levels. Effective online instruction does not happen overnight, it requires careful planning, a commitment to student success, and building a reflective professional community.

Welcome to my ePortfolio for the University of Wisconsin-Stout Certificate of Advanced Study in eLearning and Online Teaching. In this portfolio you will find my work from the four required courses for the program. Each course in the program is designed to build the skills and knowledge of participants so that they may become more effective instructors and designers of eLearning experiences. This program has been invaluable to me as I worked to hone my skills as an online educator. Though no stranger to the field, I gained valuable insight and understanding into the world of online learning, which helped to make me a better online educator.

To understand online learning, one must first embark on a journey of self discovery through reading, discussions, reflection and hands on activities. The artifacts you will see throughout this portfolio were all designed for an Historical Fiction course that was originally authored for the MidHudson BOCES Consortium, a consortium of 4 regional Boards of Cooperative Education Services in New York State. Throughout the program at UW Stout, I made drastic changes to the course and curriculum to create a more conducive learning environment. Careful consideration was given to learner, content and context as each of these artifacts were designed. Although the transformation happened over the four courses, I choose to present the artifacts as conceptual chunks, rather than aligned to the specific courses in which they were created.

I cannot properly express my gratitude to the instructors in this program, who helped to guide me on my journey of reflection to improve my practice. In particular I would like to thank Sara Turansky, Jim Erbe, Dr. Susan Manning, Dennis O'Connor, but most importantly, Dr. Kay Lehmann, for not only teaching me how to build community in my online courses, but also for being my mentor in the Practicum Experience, and my inspiration to follow my dream.