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Competency 5: Engage in Professional Development

Demonstrates the disposition for life-long learning and continuous professional development

Demonstrates the disposition for life-long learning and continuous professional


development
My competence in engaging in Professional Development is demonstrated by my
attendance and participation in workshops and conferences for professional development
purposes. I attended the ATD (then ASTD) International Conference in March of 2014 as I was
just beginning to embark on my journey through this program. I attended with a few of my
teammates who were also new to the field of Training, Learning, and Development. Since we
were all so new to the field, our focus for sessions we attended was on how to create effective
self-paced learning modules, how adults learn, as well as taking in all the information on
available technologies that we could. During that conference we spent most of our evenings
sharing things we learned at our separate sessions and brainstorming on how we could
incorporate the things we learned in the classes we facilitated and the modules we designed and
developed.
As my role on the team became more specialized, I wanted to learn more specifically
about designing learning for the independent learner completing self-paced modules, how to
make the modules the best they could be to facilitate learning that stuck with the individual, and
the technologies available to create the modules as well as Learning Management Systems
available to house them. Although we already had an LMS and I was developing modules using
Articulate Storyline, I wanted to be sure that what we had and the way we were currently doing
things was still the best option for our learners and to suit our needs. To this end, I attended the
ATD TechKnowledge conference in January of 2015.
Never satisfied with knowing enough about my area of specialization- designing and
developing self-paced eLearning- I also attended the Chicago eLearning & Technology
Showcase in August of 2015. At this showcase, the sessions I attended focused on technologies
that I had little experience with such as Adobe Captivate, free tools and resources available for
budget-strapped teams such as my own, and designing engaging face-to-face learning sessions
with the help of technology. Although my specialization is in creating self-paced eLearning, my
team also facilitates live synchronous classes and I found the last session mentioned most helpful

for thinking about these classes and how I could contribute my technical prowess in a different
way.
Also during this time span, I have participated in a multitude of webinars offered by ATD
as well as different vendors on topics ranging from assessing learner needs and content, through
different aspects of design and development, technologies, methodologies, and tips and tricks for
design and development, to evaluation in its various forms.

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