MicroMasters® Program in Instructional Design and Technology
University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC)
PERSONAL LEARNING EXPERIENCES
EXPERIENCE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
I was studying in Grade 2 at my elementary school at that time and this learning experience is about a geography lesson. I was very fond of learning world geography facts. The topic in discussion is the indigenous Inuit people who are commonly known as the Eskimos. I was taught in my class that they lived in houses made of snow and ice, called Igloos. My textbook had a nice picture of an Igloo, with an aged Eskimo man standing in front of it. Interestingly, there also happens to be an ice cream brand called Igloo-os (pseudonym). I remember I was able to relate the photo of the Igloo house from my textbook with the logo of the Igloo-os (pseudonym) brand. The visual impact of it enhanced my learning experience at that age.
EXPERIENCE IN COLLEGE
This learning experience is about the time when I was studying in my Bachelor's program at College. I was doing the Introduction to Marketing course. There is a popular concept called "4P of Marketing Mix" where you learn about the Product, Price, Place, and Promotion aspects of the marketing initiatives. I was working part-time besides studying for a marketing company at that time. I was able to relate my class lectures on the marketing topics to my experience at the workplace. This experiential learning had a strong impact on my liking and I ended up doing major in Marketing subject at my Bachelor's program.
EXPERIENCE IN A PROFESSIONAL SETTING
The learning experience that I will share now is from my first full-time job after I graduated from my Bachelor's program. I was working for a restaurant chain called Donan's Peri-Peri Chicken Restaurant (pseudonym). It was a restaurant brand selling Portuguese chickens, so it had a deep-rooted connection with the Portuguese culture and cuisine. I completed a brand induction course from the online learning portal. That was my first online learning experience. The use of audio clips, short videos, photos, and illustrations about the Portuguese culture, cuisine, and how to run a restaurant was so appealing that I got attached to the contents. Later after a couple of years, I took the role of Learning & Development for the brand and that's when I realized my liking for Portuguese culture and teaching while conducting training for a group of adults on restaurant management topics.