Individual Evaluative Reflections by Hayley MacNeil

Module 1: Development of the Teaching Module

hmacneil1 — 2024-07-15 10:27:41 UTC

For Module 1, our group decided to focus on the mental health and social participation sessions that our program, Living LGBT, was to offer. When creating Module 1, we chose to have a few group members (two) focus more on the content and creating the corresponding introductory video for the administrator, the educational PowerPoints that aligned with each objective in the respective session, and finalizing the instructional handouts that were to go alongside each activity. The remaining group members (two) focused more on helping the two other members in editing, providing constructive feedback (e.g., comments, questions, and insights), and formatting the finalized appearance of the Module 1 section of the website. All group members had a final say in how the information was to be displayed both on the website itself and within the educational PowerPoints and instructional handouts as well as other important documents (e.g., needs assessment, program design, and program evaluation).

I contributed to the content portion of this module by creating the administrator introductory video, educational PowerPoints, and instructional handouts for each activity for the social participation session. I further created four different PowerPoint presentations (one for the introductory administrator video and three for the education portions of the session) and edited and finalized the corresponding instructional handouts for each activity. I also made edits to the pre- and post-module surveys necessary for the first objective in the social participation session and further added these QR codes to the website.

Module 1: Personal Thoughts and Feelings

hmacneil1 — 2024-07-15 10:32:35 UTC

Overall, this entire experience of creating a Teaching Module for a program that I took part in creating was completely new to me. I have never created anything close to what my group ended up creating for Module 1 before. I was completely unaware of truly just how much time and work would go into completing just one four-hour session of a Teaching Module. Creating four different PowerPoints with one having a voice-over recording to accompany it, in addition, was also very laborious work I was not personally prepared for or expecting. The addition of editing and fine-tuning previous documents (e.g., instructional handouts for activities, needs assessment, program design, and program evaluation) to add in needed corrections here and there also proved to take a lot of time and effort as it was tedious at times. However, I still felt a sense of immense pride in completing my portion of Module 1 and being able to see that I am very much capable of creating a portion of a lesson plan when I set my mind to it. Going forward, I now know and appreciate how much work truly goes on behind the scenes to create a singular lesson that students, or participants of a group in this case, may deem as minuscule.

Module 1: What Went Well

hmacneil1 — 2024-07-15 10:36:18 UTC

I believe that a lot of different areas went well within my group when it came to creating Module 1 of our program, Living LGBT. First, I truly believe that my group's excellent ability to communicate and be responsive to one another's questions, comments, and concerns allowed us to be so successful in creating not only an aesthetically pleasing looking website but also in adding very informative and valuable information into Module 1 as well. I also believe that my group worked very well as a team and further allowed each member to do their portions before circling back to look over and proofread each other's work. Each group member was able to offer the remaining three members help when asked for or felt as though we had become stuck. All group members also encouraged each other to take breaks so that we could be more productive and efficient in our work and not over-work ourselves for any one given period.

Module 1: Changes I Would Implement

hmacneil1 — 2024-07-15 10:45:16 UTC

When looking back on how creating Module 1 went, I believe that going forward the implementation of a schedule with corresponding mini due dates for our group would be beneficial. A schedule would allow us to break up the large workload into smaller, more manageable increments with a set time frame to meet them. I find that a schedule often works very well for me, both in an academic and personal context, and feel as if even going forward my group members do not choose to implement one to help us get all of the work done, I will implement one for myself. I will further assess whether or not a set schedule with the workload broken up into smaller increments was more beneficial to me and the completion of my portion of the work or not in my reflection for Module 2. I look forward to implementing this change, whether it be for just me or my entire group, and hope it helps in creating the next module.

Module 2: Development of the Teaching Module

hmacneil1 — 2024-07-21 20:53:09 UTC

For Module 2, our group decided to focus on the self-care and sexual health sessions that our program, Living LGBT, was to offer. Similar to how our group decided to develop and further create Module 1, we chose to have two members focus more on the content and creating the corresponding introductory video for the administrator, the educational PowerPoints that aligned with each objective in the respective session, and finalizing the instructional handouts that were to go alongside each activity. The two remaining members focused more on helping the two other members in editing, providing constructive feedback (e.g., comments, questions, and insights), and formatting the finalized appearance of the entire website with both Modules 1 and 2.

For this module, I contributed to its overall creation by aiding the two group members who created the content for the self-care and sexual health sessions in brainstorming ways to display information that would be aesthetically pleasing and easy to follow (e.g., through simple PowerPoints), providing my suggestions and insights into how certain portions could be improved or changed, and providing any other additional help when requested. However, there were a lot fewer questions that arose when it came to creating this module, as we had Module 1 as an example and a general outline of what to follow. As a result, the two group members creating the self-care and sexual health sessions had fewer questions and required less help from me and the other remaining member.

Module 2: Personal Thoughts and Feelings

hmacneil1 — 2024-07-21 20:56:57 UTC

Overall, I enjoyed creating this entire program and being able to complete the website, which contained all of the necessary information for the administrator to run our program smoothly and seamlessly. Being able to say that I was a part of creating this program that can provide a lot of valuable information and beneficial activities is a great feeling and accomplishment that I can now say that I have been a part of. I also really liked being able to be there for my other group members and provide them with help and insight into how I believe creating the sessions and further displaying them on the website would be easiest and best from my own experience in creating Module 1. I felt very helpful and was given the chance to validate my group members on the quality work they completed to finish off our program website.

Module 2: What Went Well

hmacneil1 — 2024-07-21 21:02:28 UTC

I believe that a lot of different areas went well within my group when it came to creating Module 2 of our program, Living LGBT. First, I still truly believe that my group's excellent ability to communicate and be responsive to one another's questions, comments, and concerns allowed us to be so successful yet again when it came to creating this module. I also believe that this time around, my group planned out when we wanted to have portions of the module done, which allowed us to complete it promptly with plenty of time to review our work and ensure that everything was completed to the best of our abilities. We continued to proofread everyone's work to ensure it was written clearly and further encouraged work to be done in small periods so we did not feel overwhelmed. Overall, we worked very well together, used our knowledge from Module 1, and made any necessary changes to further make sure this time around there were no complications or issues that arose.

Module 2: Changes I Would Implement

hmacneil1 — 2024-07-21 21:06:23 UTC

After completing Module 1, I felt as though utilizing some sort of schedule to ensure work was done on time and workloads did not become too overwhelming would be beneficial to my group. For Module 2, we implemented this change to some degree and had a deadline for ourselves to be done adding information to the website so we could proofread everything, make sure everything was in the correct sections, and ensure that the website was user-friendly to various administrators. This time around, I believe it went a lot smoother and was a lot less stressful due in part to this new addition of a schedule.

Going forward, the one change I would implement if I were to be a part of another group creating a Teaching Module would be to look into utilizing different software. The Google Websites software was easy to use for the most part; however, it did become glitchy at times as well and would cause my computer to become very slow and overheat. I am unsure if this is an issue due to my computer or the software itself; however, I feel as though other platforms and types of software may be just as easy to use and potentially more aesthetically pleasing in the templates and formats they offer to those who use them.