OK, so before I get the rotten tomatoes🍅🪰, hear me out!😅 I am a big proponent of lifelong learning. In fact, I joke, on this very blog, that I am "Pondering what my next degree should be 😂" Go ahead, look to the top of this page, I'll wait. In case you're from the distant future and my blog's subtitle has changed, it basically said what's in the quotes, and I added this subtitle after I completed my doctorate in 2021.  Anywhoooo.... where was I?  Ah yes, Lifelong learning!

Since completing my dissertation and graduating in 2021, I've tried my hand at professional development through various means. I've done a month-long synchronous online workshop on coaching (one full day sync per week), I've done day-long workshops on Kanban, I've self-studied and done a scrum cert exam, and I've taken a couple of graduate (MA) classes. I've done some things LinkedIn Learning. I've even done one or two xMOOCs, but to be honest I've done far fewer MOOCs than I thought I would.  There are a fair number of courses on my Coursera, FutureLearn, and EdX accounts that I probably will return to someday.

So...what have I learned in this romp across modalities and formats these past few years?🤔

My first observation/confirmation is that physical proximal learning (aka F2F to use the vernacular, or pLearning to use Jon Dron's nomenclature) simply isn't for me anymore.  I took a course in 2023,  which - to be fair - I enjoyed immensely; and the pLearning requirement was warranted because more than half of the session was essentially a hands-on laboratory. However, it was after work, and around 6:30 my mind was thinking "Are we done yet?!"  The course ended at 6:45 and those last 15 minutes dragged... For what it's worth, I will do pLearning again, but only if absolutely required for work or something that's unavoidable. Even as a hobby, when things are fun, there comes a point when you're just too tired to enjoy it.  The course that I took in 2023 was a course in archival practice, and we were physically active (we were processing a newly donated collection to the University Archives), which kept me moving long enough to not fall asleep 😅.  Another shortcoming of pLearning courses (at least the ones after work) is that they have the effect of making one's day all that longer because the day starts at 7am when you leave home for work, and ends at 9pm or 10pm when you return.  Thanks, but no thanks 😅. The two reasons I took the course in 2023 were to (1) try out my patience for pLearning and (2) it was an interesting topic that was offered for the last time at my institution, so it was a bit of curiosity-driven FOMO.

My second observation/confirmation is that Live sessions (aka synchronous online learning, or "remote" classrooms) are not bad. The devil, as we all know, is in the details. This is something that I've known from my role as an instructional designer, but ERT brought out a lot of bad live lectures. For what it's worth, if it's a choice between sitting in a classroom and having to deal with traffic and parking to into campus for a lecture,  or listening to it (or engaging with it, if it's designed that way) from home, I'd much rather be home😇. I did take the opportunity to take one ERT-style class while we were still sort of quarantining. I did this to get a sense of the medium in a higher education setting; and the course was of similar high interest (unsurprisingly it was also another archives-related course).  Over the years, I also balanced this out with some designed and expertly facilitated workshops (day-length, or half-day length). The most engaging ones were ones where people jumped in and engaged.  I think this is where I saw the biggest difference. The professional workshops (i.e., coaching, Scrum,  Kanban, etc.)  were all professionals joining in, and they brought examples and engaged (which made the time fly). The graduate ERT course was a bit different because the newbie graduate students were still learning what it means to be a graduate student, so fewer folks engaged.  The classroom dynamics and chemistry between learning community members should not be underestimated in the course setting ⚠️.

My third observation here comes from asynchronous courses. I can confirm that I still have an affinity for asynchronous courses 😂. The time and space allowed for asynchronous thinking, articulating ideas, and connecting with folks online is great! Seeing the forums really active (and listening to posts via TTS is great).  Forum posts by participants have been a bit of a mixed bag. Some posts have been super-freaking awesome! The posters were writing a small paper every time they posted and made some awesome connections, which helped me expand my own thinking. There have also been times when the posts were quite 'basic,' which may highlight the inexperienced nature of some participants with connecting complex ideas.  There are parallels here to the ERT example above and the difference between more experienced learners and more newbie learners in your learning community, and the norms/expectations of academia. This was also during the beginning of the whole LLM "era" we're currently living in, and there have been one or two instances where I've wondered if ChatGPT wrote the response...🙄. As much as I like forums, the key thing that emerged for me is that learning community skills, background, and chemistry matters. The more novice the community, the more I am personally inclined to just check the box of having done an original post and two responses and not bother much more with the forums. The more advanced and engaged the community, the more I am propelled to go beyond the box-checking.

My fourth observation... I'm a picky eater...or perhaps I should say that I am a free-range grazer.  What do I mean by this? When taking a course, I like two things the most: I like reading and learning new things, and I like the interactions that occur between participants, either in forums or in synchronous venues like Teams or Zoom. Back in the MOOC days, this kind of interaction was also seen in blogs and microblogging services like Twitter.  What I've learned over the past few years is that I am not a huge fan of other people's assessments. For whatever reason, it feels like assessments are often a kind of box-checking mechanism.  This is probably due to my experience and that courses I've dabbled with over the past few years have been geared toward newbie graduate students, a category in which I am not. That doesn't mean that the course design was wrong! I've, in fact, jotted down some notes over the years about things I want to try in my own course teaching.  I am just saying that they are not congruent with where I need to be.  This semester I am auditing a course on corpus linguistics, something I've wanted to do for a while, but it was always a bad time. Auditing has its perks, like I can work on the materials on my own time (and I am, for the most part keeping pace with the class), but I am skipping all the things that I have no time for, or that I am not all that interested in. On the other hand, I am also not getting a grade/credits for the course, which leads me to my last point...

Finally, I like having a bowtie to wrap everything up at the end. This looks like a degree, or certificate, or badge of some sort.  The workshops I've done over the years do have that recognition (via a certificate or badge), but random one-off classes do not. To earn that kind of token you need to go through the established and prescribed pathways.  Another MA degree isn't as exciting of a challenge to me any longer (or perhaps even useful on the CV,  IDK🤔).  I wonder if pursuing a degree in another language (like Greek, for instance) would feel like a worthy challenge?  A graduate certificate is a shorter journey, so I could learn a lot and I could focus on the things that mostly interest me. I have pondered the possibility of doing another doctorate (PhD this time), but the challenge is finding a university where I'd only need to do a dissertation. I could see myself geeking out on new research over a few years. It would scratch the research itch, I might get some papers out of it, and the degree would be a cherry on top.  I've met a few PhD EdD folks over the years at work, but it doesn't seem like a common path, so that could be a worthwhile challenge.  IDK yet. I am still pondering the tangible career (or life) benefits of another attainment signifier (degree) versus the psychological dopamine hit of having completed something else 😂🙄😅.  So... do I want to do this because "I need it" (probably not😂) or because I want it? And...do I really want? So many deep questions 😬.

Phew... that was a lot. OK.  Now you may go back to thinking I am a nutty overachiever... but leave a comment with your thoughts before you do! 😂. What do you think of all this malarkey? 🧐