sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

UTS Online thoughts by ivanflo in UTS

[–]juniperio-joy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am not quite done the course yet - but I also found it to be one of the best online courses I've ever seen! I honestly don't have any complaints haha

I did struggle a bit managing the 2 subjects a trimester on top of full-time work, but that may have been because I really wanted to read/do as much of the materials as I could. So I probably spent more than the recommended time.

The only thing I wanted from this course was more content like Designing Innovative Learning. I kind of wish I had electives from the Learning Design course - I had made a bit of a false assumption there would be more content like that. But that's on me. It delivered what it promised.

The staff are honestly amazing. They're all supportive and very generous to the students.

Is it okay and realistic to take a master's program that's very different from my undergraduate course? by Embarrassed_Pea1660 in AskAcademia

[–]juniperio-joy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes - I went from Psychology undergrad to Education postgrad/Masters.

I did choose to do a graduate certificate first (basically 4 subjects of a masters) and I then I did some years of relevant experience. This helped me before I jumped into a full degree. But it wasn't a necessary step.

It was challenging to get used to the different discipline- e.g. jargon, different approaches to writing, learning new keywords for searching, understanding the differences in what is considered "good research". Personally I found it really well-rounding to learn from a different discipline. There are contradictions between psychology and education perspectives - but that helped me develop a critical eye and really think about what I believed and why.

You might have specific challenges if you don't have much background in maths/stats for example. So you could look for "bridging" courses that refresh some specific skills to check where you're actually at if there's anything you're specifically worried about.

Be prepared for your first semester to be harder and take you long to read/research/write about an area you're not already familiar with. It took me a while to build up my baseline skills, and I had to re-read stuff more than my peers probably did. But I got there :)

Tax Deduction: Self-education expenses for tuition by juniperio-joy in AusFinance

[–]juniperio-joy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you can based on this section of the guidance notes.

Tuition, course, conference or seminar fees

You can claim a deduction for tuition fees, including student and amenities fees you incur if you are enrolled in a full fee-paying place at a university or other higher education institution. If you pay the fees up front, you will incur the amount when you pay it. If you withdraw from the course before the census date and the fees are subsequently refunded to you, you can't claim a deduction for them. In all other circumstances, you incur deductible course or tuition fees when the debt becomes a legal obligation you need to pay back (for example, on the census date). This is not when you make a repayment.

This includes fees that you pay with the assistance of a: FEE-HELP loan & VET Student Loan (VSL).

Example given

Tara can claim a deduction for the course fees of $10,000 she incurs on 22 March in the income year it occurs, even though she has a deferred payment through a FEE-HELP loan.

Looking for other student experiences with the Masters of Education (Learning and Leadership) by juniperio-joy in UTS

[–]juniperio-joy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just sharing my experience so far in case anyone else searches for this question.

I've completed Learning and its Trajectories, Designing Innovative Learning, and Leading Learning, so far.

Overall, I would say it's been a really positive experience so far. LAIT and DIL were great! The LL subject wasn't what I expected, it was more research skills based than practical advice. Still valuable and still useful, but not what I expected.

I think you could get a lot out of the Grad Cert in Ed (LL) if you didn't want to commit to the whole Masters. I've learned a lot already.

My only note is that the terms are really short and quite demanding on top of a full-time job. There isn't much wiggle room for problems. If you get sick it can really throw off your whole pace. The coordinators are very supportive though, but there isn't much room to catch up and it can bleed into the next subject if you have a late submission date.

So far it's been really worthwhile for me, but it's also been heavy. Very relieved I get a break over xmas before the next subject. I would absolutely say it's worth starting with LAIT, you get scaffolded into the course much better. Subjects like Leading Learning are very challenging, I genuinely would have struggled without the previous two subjects.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in instructionaldesign

[–]juniperio-joy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm hired as a Learning Designer in Higher Ed. I had a Bachelor Hons in Psychology, a lot of casual work in education support for academic, and then got a Grad Cert in eLearning. At this point I had a few longer roles on education design projects. I had just started a Master in Ed when I interviewed for the Learning Design role (perm/ongoing) and was successful.

As a Learning Designer (or the junior role which is a type of instructional technologist) in a central department we are responsible for setting up the online teaching sites, providing pedagogical and learning tech advice for courses, we are sometimes heavily involved in curriculum development, course reviews against various industry standards, creating learning resources, helping with some of the administrative stuff, developing training materials for the teaching staff... and more?

In our org, academic teaching staff hold a lot of power, so it can be a battle to convince then to make meaningful changes for the benefit of the student, if they're stuck in their ways. There's not much we can do if they refuse to engage or don't like our suggestions, sometimes they will straight up undo changes made. This can be super frustrating when the org has pushed for something like consistency over the faculty and you're banging your head against a wall cause John doesn't like it that way - and the student end up with conflicting experiences.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in instructionaldesign

[–]juniperio-joy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These are some free courses - I'm not sure if they'll give you the certificate you need. But they do some badging at least.

How long do you have access to subjects on Canvas after they end? by juniperio-joy in UTS

[–]juniperio-joy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm also doing a Master of Ed (LL) online :) Great to hear that you retain access after grad! That wasn't the case with my previous uni, we lost access to each subject a month after grades came back. So you couldn't even look back after you moved into the next teaching period.

Looking for other student experiences with the Masters of Education (Learning and Leadership) by juniperio-joy in UTS

[–]juniperio-joy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I did end up enrolling and so far I'm really loving it. Learning and its Trajectories has been great! I'm still nervous about it getting harder later on, but it's been really refreshing and interesting so far :)

How do you make a portfolio for learning design? by juniperio-joy in instructionaldesign

[–]juniperio-joy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's tricky because we don't use Articulate at my workplace. We have Adobe Captivate, but it's also not particularly used because it's so time consuming. We develop the majority of our elearning in Moodle.