Been a while since I've used this so I think I'll add a blog post as an intro and a summary of who I am and where I am today. H818 feels like a long time ago now.
Hi, I’m Gareth. I’m from Caerphilly near Cardiff in the South Wales but I now live and work in Bangkok for the British Council’s corporate training team. We essentially help local businesses do business in English, so that will involve general business English teaching, E-Mail writing, presentation, and negotiation courses and so on.
However, I am keen on moving more into e-learning facilitation. This is my fourth and final MAODE module having already completed H818 in 2013, H800 in 2014, and just a few weeks ago I submitted the EMA for H810. I’ve actually been studying with the OU now for around 5 years, so I feel very much at home learning online, and now I want to be someone that can help others do that too. As a result, I’ve been setting up a MOOC for people wanting to take the IELTS English language competence test which candidates generally take in order to study at international universities. With the British Council and Education UK, I’ve done a lot of work regarding the promotion of UK universities and worked with Thai students in pre-departure courses to help with their enculturation and in preparation for the expectations of studying in British universities.
I’m also anticipating being tasked with setting up some Moodle courses to provide my department with the scope to offer blended learning packages for corporate clients like the Thai Ministry of Labour. The LCMS I’ve been using for the MOOC is also Moodle, so 2015 for me will very much revolve around actually practicing instructional design while learning to set up courses with Moodle, so it's very encouraging that Deneka is a specialist in that area.
While this course will hopefully provide me with the module that completes my MA and I’ve got the qualification, as in all the modules thus far, I’m hoping that it will provide a vital component to my professional practice. I’m hoping that a lot of what is covered can, if appropriate and beneficial, be incorporated into what I’m doing to create more effective e-learning activities. Due to it featuring innovations, this has been the MAODE module I've looked forward to the most.
Outside of work and study, like Simon, I enjoy (though 'enjoy' shouldn't be the right word for most football fans) watch football. I’ve been a Cardiff City supporter since I was a kid though I am rather a lapsed fan at the moment because of ‘philosophical differences’ with the club’s owners. I’ve also been attending and travelling with a local Bangkok team named Thai Port FC (though they’ve changed their name a few times in the last few years) which I very much enjoy. I generally unwind by playing computer games. I’ve lived abroad and travelled a lot off and on since I was in my early twenties, so I naturally love to travel with people-watching over a beer amongst my favourite ways to relax bar one. And that one is sitting on trains looking at the world go by (with a beer). Here’s a picture of me on the Trans-Manchurian express travelling from Beijing to Ulan Bator in Mongolia as part of a train trip from the Chinese capital to London through Mongolia, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, to London to attend my OU graduation ceremony in 2013. I hardly spoke to anyone for two and a half weeks and at the end of it I had decided to do the MAODE.
New intro post for H817
Been a while since I've used this so I think I'll add a blog post as an intro and a summary of who I am and where I am today. H818 feels like a long time ago now.
Hi, I’m Gareth. I’m from Caerphilly near Cardiff in the South Wales but I now live and work in Bangkok for the British Council’s corporate training team. We essentially help local businesses do business in English, so that will involve general business English teaching, E-Mail writing, presentation, and negotiation courses and so on.
However, I am keen on moving more into e-learning facilitation. This is my fourth and final MAODE module having already completed H818 in 2013, H800 in 2014, and just a few weeks ago I submitted the EMA for H810. I’ve actually been studying with the OU now for around 5 years, so I feel very much at home learning online, and now I want to be someone that can help others do that too. As a result, I’ve been setting up a MOOC for people wanting to take the IELTS English language competence test which candidates generally take in order to study at international universities. With the British Council and Education UK, I’ve done a lot of work regarding the promotion of UK universities and worked with Thai students in pre-departure courses to help with their enculturation and in preparation for the expectations of studying in British universities.
I’m also anticipating being tasked with setting up some Moodle courses to provide my department with the scope to offer blended learning packages for corporate clients like the Thai Ministry of Labour. The LCMS I’ve been using for the MOOC is also Moodle, so 2015 for me will very much revolve around actually practicing instructional design while learning to set up courses with Moodle, so it's very encouraging that Deneka is a specialist in that area.
While this course will hopefully provide me with the module that completes my MA and I’ve got the qualification, as in all the modules thus far, I’m hoping that it will provide a vital component to my professional practice. I’m hoping that a lot of what is covered can, if appropriate and beneficial, be incorporated into what I’m doing to create more effective e-learning activities. Due to it featuring innovations, this has been the MAODE module I've looked forward to the most.
Outside of work and study, like Simon, I enjoy (though 'enjoy' shouldn't be the right word for most football fans) watch football. I’ve been a Cardiff City supporter since I was a kid though I am rather a lapsed fan at the moment because of ‘philosophical differences’ with the club’s owners. I’ve also been attending and travelling with a local Bangkok team named Thai Port FC (though they’ve changed their name a few times in the last few years) which I very much enjoy. I generally unwind by playing computer games. I’ve lived abroad and travelled a lot off and on since I was in my early twenties, so I naturally love to travel with people-watching over a beer amongst my favourite ways to relax bar one. And that one is sitting on trains looking at the world go by (with a beer). Here’s a picture of me on the Trans-Manchurian express travelling from Beijing to Ulan Bator in Mongolia as part of a train trip from the Chinese capital to London through Mongolia, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, to London to attend my OU graduation ceremony in 2013. I hardly spoke to anyone for two and a half weeks and at the end of it I had decided to do the MAODE.