My Experiences with Constructivism

I used the constructivist approach when I designed this course and that was probably not by chance. After reading this weeks materials, I thought back to my experience with my Master's program. I would estimate that 95% of my courses were baseed around real world situations. These courses were based on the student's prior experience, which is how it is defined in our article titled, E-Learning and Constructivism: From Theory to Application. My courses ranged from conservation education to Institution Record Keeping. Each of these courses had assignemnts and projects that were supposed to be a product that would help us in our own institutions. As I remember back, they really focused on these type of assignements and now I have a better understanding of why they did this. It made for a much better learning experience for me. I also have been able to use some of the projects in my institutions, such as a docent wiki and an excel spreadsheet for docent record keeping.

I am grateful that my experiences have included many courses that were developed with constructivism in mind. It will definitively help me become a better conservation educator and/or online instructor.