Exploration of Walden Resources

Welcome to Walden

Introduction

Welcome to your first course in the Master of Science in Adult Learning at Walden University! As a new member of the Walden professional learning community, you are beginning a journey that will provide tremendous opportunity for you to learn and grow in many aspects of your personal and professional life. To ensure that your journey will be personally meaningful for you, it is important that you reflect on your professional goals and consider how this master’s program will help you reach them. To set your sights academically, it is important to become familiar with Walden University, the Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership, program goals and requirements, tools for online learning, and resources to support your success throughout the program.

This first week of the course provides an opportunity for you to explore the aspirations that drew you to the field of adult learning and to clarify your professional goals. It also serves as an orientation in Walden’s vision and mission, as well as the expectations that the University holds for you as a graduate-level scholar-practitioner, including developing scholarly writing skills and participating in a culture of scholarship. This week you will explore various aspects of online learning and discover an array of support resources that will be at your fingertips throughout the program.

Learning Objectives

Learners will:

Evaluate how their professional goals and aspirations align with Walden University’s vision and mission, as well as how these goals can be achieved through participation in the MS in Adult Learning program
Identify and evaluate a variety of support resources and academic skills that will help them be successful throughout the MS in Adult Learning program

Learning Resources

This page contains the Learning Resources for this week. Be sure to scroll down the page to see all of this week’s assigned Learning Resources.

Required Readings

The following resources are designed to support your academic success throughout your Walden master’s degree program. It is important that you become familiar with these resources and be proactive in using them to increase your effectiveness as a graduate-level student, scholarly writer and researcher, and active member of the Walden community of learners.

Program Document:Welcome to Walden University and Graduate Study
Read this program document thoroughly to become familiar with Walden University and your MS in Adult Learning program.
ePortfolio: Go to your myWalden page and click on the ePortfolio link to access all documents related to the electronic portfolio that you will build throughout this program. Your ePortfolio will be comprised of Major Assessments that demonstrate you have successfully met program outcomes and standards. Complete the ePortfolio Student Training, and then read the ePortfolio documents, including the instructions, rubrics, and due dates for the Major Assessments. You will be given time to work on these assessments in Week 8 of selected courses in your MS in Adult Learning program.
Note: This course contains no Major Assessments.
Web Resource: Walden University. (2011). The Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.waldenu.edu/Colleges-and-Schools/College-of-Education-and-Leadership.htm
Click the Learn More links under “About Richard W. Riley” and “About the College” to find out about the history and mission of Walden University’s Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership. Also, click on the link for your master’s specialization to find out more about your selected area of focus.
Document:Walden Resources Electronic Game Study Sheet
For this week’s Application Assignment, you will play a Jeopardy-like electronic game that will quiz you on the resources you explored. Your task will be to identify the appropriate question for each answer listed on the game board. Review this pregame study sheet to help you score big points in the game. Good luck and have fun!
Walden Links: Walden University provides a wealth of resources to orient you to the University and to help you become a scholarly writer and more effective learner. You can access these resources in the Walden Links area, on the left navigation bar.
Scholarly Writing Resources: This overview provides links to resources that will help you with two of the most challenging aspects of scholarly writing: APA style and avoiding plagiarism. These resources can be accessed in the Scholarly Writing Resources area located on the left navigation bar. Also download and save the following documents to use throughout your master’s program:

Scholarly Writing Checklist
Walden University. (2009). Walden University Online Writing Center: Paper templates. Retrieved from http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/57.htm
Click on the items under “Course Paper” to access templates for submitting papers in APA format.

Document:Skills for Graduate Study
Reference Text:Essential guide to APA style for Walden students. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.vitalsource.com
Note: This text is available as an eBook (electronic book). It will be provided to you via an email from the Walden University book store. Study this guide and use it as a reference throughout your MS in Adult Learning program to ensure high quality writing assignments.

Media

Multimedia: “Scholarly Writing”
Complete this tutorial, which includes modules on finding and evaluating sources, paraphrasing and avoiding plagiarism, APA style, and reviewing feedback from your Instructor.
Multimedia: “Walden Resources Electronic Game“

Note: Throughout the course you will be hearing from six adult educators working in diverse settings of adult learning—an adult developmental education instructor, a non-profit arts educator, an online distance learning instructor, a community organizer/adult literacy educator, a corporate trainer, and an adult English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor who also teaches yoga. These “voices from the field” will help you to better understand what it is really like to be an adult educator. After clicking on the link, be sure to watch the video segment for each of the six educators.

Multimedia: “Adult Educators’ Journey” (total approximate length for all six segments: 19 minutes).
Six adult educators share their personal journeys which brought them to where they are today. They also discuss where they work, what they do, and how they feel about their careers.

Optional Resources

Website: American Psychological Association. (2011). APA style. Retrieved from http://www.apastyle.org
Article: eLearners.com, LLC. (2007). How to be a successful online student. Retrieved from http://www.elearners.com/online-education-resources/online-learning/study-secrets-of-successful-online-students/
Note: The first two sections of this document, “How to Prepare for Your First Online Course” (pp. 2–3) and “How to Set Up a Home Office for Online Learning” (pp. 4–6), may provide helpful hints about planning and creating a context for study, even if you have previously taken an online course. Focus on the third section, “How to Write an ‘A+’ Discussion Posting” (pp. 7–8). This section provides ten tips to keep in mind as you prepare your postings and responses for the discussion board.

With these Learning Resources in mind, please proceed to the Discussion.

Application: Walden Resources Electronic Game

This week, you explored a number of resources provided by Walden University to support your learning throughout your master’s program, and you used the Walden Resources Electronic Game Study Sheet to guide your exploration. Now it is time to play the game and self-assess your learning.

Click the link below to play an electronic game that quizzes you on Walden Library and Writing Center resources, scholarly writing, and the components of your online classroom. Select the appropriate question for each answer provided on the game board. Continue playing the game until you have identified the correct question for every answer.

Walden Resources Electronic Game

After completing the game, summarize your exploration of Walden resources by responding to the following questions:

What information about scholarly writing did you find most relevant for improving your writing skills?
Which of the APA guidelines were new to you?
What components of the Walden Library do you expect to use the most, and why?
What resources and services in the Walden Writing Center do you think will be of greatest value to you, and why?
How have you increased your confidence in using Turnitin and the Assignment submission link?
What are the benefits of accessing announcements, e-mail, and Instructor feedback in a timely manner?
What remaining questions do you have about any of these processes?

The purpose of this assignment is to check your familiarity with the Walden resources and expectations for graduate-level writing. Although your answers to the above questions may be rather brief, take the opportunity to begin practicing the skills of scholarly writing as applicable. Scholarly writing will become a greater focus in subsequent assignments in this course; by next week, your papers must follow APA style. I will need three references and correct use of subtitles.

(Assignment length: 450 words)

…………….Answer Preview……………..

Exploration of Walden Resources

What information about scholarly writing did you find most relevant for improving your writing skills?

Walden Library/Writing center contains a wide range of information on scholarly writing that learners can use to improve individual writing skills. In my case, I found information on plagiarism very helpful. A simple definition by Neville (2010) terms plagiarism as the act of using another person’s work or information without acknowledging the sources. Plagiarism has proved to be a major concern for both the administrators and instructors/teachers who are determined to ensure that learners produce work that reflects their learning……………………

APA

685 Words