My MAED Portfolio
Showcase
Welcome! This page highlights eight artifacts from my MAED coursework, at Michigan State University, that represent both my learning and my growth as an educator. During the program, I developed skills in instructional design, assessment practices, and teaching across different learning environments.
The artifacts are organized around these three themes to show how I study education and how I practice it. Each piece reflects my commitment to designing thoughtful, research-informed learning experiences that support student success across modalities.
Assessment Practices
These artifacts demonstrate how my understanding of assessment evolved during the MAED program. They reflect my shift from viewing assessment as evaluation alone to designing it as an intentional part of the learning process that supports growth, feedback, and deeper understanding.
Creative Assessment
The project presented in this artifact demonstrates how I design interactive evaluations that support learning and professional preparation. Created for my Electronic Assessment for Teaching and Learning course, this project is an interactive review module used in my Mortuary Science Board Preparation class. It introduces students to what to expect on the National Board Exam, explains the application and registration process, and integrates embedded quizzes, polls, and interactive tasks to check understanding throughout the lesson.
The project models how assessment can function as a learning tool rather than simply a measurement tool. For example, students respond to quiz questions about exam purpose and structure, and complete interactive prompts that reinforce key procedural knowledge, such as application timelines and requirements. These low-stakes assessments allow me to gather real-time feedback on student understanding while giving students opportunities to practice retrieval, self-monitor their progress, and reduce anxiety about high-stakes testing.
This work reflects my commitment to combining traditional assessment preparation with creative and inclusive evaluation strategies. As I explain in my reflection, Thoughts on Creative assessments, I intentionally blend structured test preparation with innovative assessments so students develop both exam readiness and real-world competence
My goal is not only to prepare students to pass the National Board Exam, but also to ensure they understand the material deeply enough to apply it confidently in professional practice.
Instructional Design
This section highlights my growth as an instructional designer throughout the MAED program. Across these artifacts, you will see how my approach evolved from creating engaging classroom activities to intentionally designing learning experiences grounded in theory, audience needs, and real-world application. Together, they reflect my shift from focusing on how I teach to thinking more deeply about how learners learn and how thoughtful design supports that process.
Structured Creativity in Action
This assignment was developed in my MAED course Creativity in Teaching and Learning, where we examined how constraint-based design can foster deeper engagement than unstructured approaches. In Mortuary Science education, specifically Microbiolog Pathology for Mortuary Science, students must accurately identify bacterial pathogens, transmission pathways, and clinical symptoms. This knowledge that directly impacts embalming safety and public health compliance. Rather than relying solely on lecture and rote memorization, I designed a game-based review grounded in research on creative constraint and structured innovation.
By adapting the traditional Go-Fish format, I transformed content recall into collaborative problem-solving. In Bacteria Go-Fish students where able to assemble complete bacterial profiles, reinforcing conceptual relationships rather than memorizing isolated facts. Before dividing the class into groups, I conducted a full-class “dry run” to ensure clarity and build confidence in the rules. Although students were initially skeptical of playing a card game in a college science course, the instructions were simple and quickly understood. After dividing the class into four small groups, the atmosphere shifted dramatically. Within minutes, the room was filled with laughter, competitive energy, and animated discussion of microbiological terminology. Students spent over thirty minutes playing and replaying the game, and several even asked to borrow a deck to continue during their lunch break!
Beyond engagement, the activity produced measurable results. I observed a noticeable improvement in exam performance on the bacterial pathogens section compared to previous cohorts. Students demonstrated stronger recall and clearer connections between organism, transmission, and symptom presentation.
This artifact reflects my belief that thoughtful instructional design considers not only content, but context. While this activity is intentionally built for in-person interaction, it demonstrates how structure, constraint, and social learning can transform rigorous technical material into meaningful, memorable experiences. It represents my commitment to designing learning environments rather than forcing one-size-fits-all solutions.
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Micro Lesson Design for Adult Learners
In the course, Adult Learning, I was tasked with designing and delivering a micro lesson grounded in adult learning theory. I chose to redesign a lesson from my Funeral Service Management II course titled The Who, What, Where, and When of Marketing and Advertising in Funeral Service. The lesson included a detailed lesson plan, a PowerPoint presentation for the students, a structured student handout.
Because many of my students balance careers, families, and academic responsibilities, I intentionally designed the lesson to honor their lived experience while emphasizing immediate professional application. Rather than delivering marketing theory in isolation, I structured the lesson around experiential learning principles. Drawing from Kolb’s learning cycle, students first engaged with real-world examples of funeral home branding and advertising, including discussion of my own professional experiences, including reflecting on their workplaces and prior exposure to marketing practices. They were asked to do some research and make a plan. The lesson culminated in small-group creation of a mock funeral home marketing campaign, including budget development, target audience analysis, branding, and advertisement design.
The assignment emphasized authentic, sustainable, and dynamic assessment practices. Students did not simply recall definitions; they developed a marketing strategy that mirrored real-world decision-making. One student implemented her project directly into her workplace, resulting in the development of a new brand and slogan for her funeral home. Peer discussion following presentations created space for collaborative critique and reflection, reinforcing the dynamic nature of adult learning.
This artifact represents my growth in designing instruction that aligns theory, context, and learner identity. It demonstrates my ability to intentionally integrate adult learning principles, self-directed learning, and authentic assessment into a structured classroom experience that prioritizes both professional relevance and student agency.
I encourage you to watch the recorded assignment which includes some of the students presentations.
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Designing a Professional Training Program for Compliance
In my course on Training and Professional Development, I was tasked with designing a comprehensive training program for working professionals. I developed “FTC & Me”, a one-hour continuing education seminar focused on compliance with the Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule, specifically the General Price List (GPL) requirements.
This program was intentionally designed for licensed funeral directors, funeral home owners, and industry staff, professionals already practicing in the field. The training materials included a structured program outline, a full training presentation. The session was developed for conference or workshop delivery and structured to qualify for one hour of continuing education credit.
This artifact demonstrates how my understanding of instructional design expanded during the MAED program. In the Training and Professional Development course, I moved beyond lesson planning and began thinking systematically about program structure, audience analysis, engagement strategies, and measurable outcomes. Designing this continuing education seminar required me to consider not only what content professionals needed, but how they would interact with it, apply it, and sustain it after the session ended. Integrating facilitation principles and Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model shifted my thinking from “delivering information” to intentionally designing for reaction, learning, behavior change, and long-term results.
This project also reflects my evolving confidence across instructional modalities. Although designed for an in-person conference setting, the training framework was intentionally structured so it could be adapted for virtual delivery. The shift from teaching as delivery to design as experience has become foundational to my professional goals. This artifact is more than a finished assignment; it shows how my thinking about instructional design has grown. I now plan with greater intention, considering the learners, the learning environment, and the outcomes from the very beginning.
Full video of assignment description and outcomes
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Teaching Across Modalities
This section reflects my growth in designing and facilitating learning across in-person, online, and blended environments. Throughout the MAED program, I developed a deeper understanding of how modality shapes student experience. The artifacts included here demonstrate my shift from simply delivering content in different formats to intentionally designing learning experiences that align with the strengths and challenges of each modality.
Asynchronous and Hybrid Design
In my course Teaching and Learning Online, I was tasked with designing two versions of the same assignment using a Roles, Rules, Time, Task, Turns, Steps, and Language framework. Each version had to be intentionally structured for a different instructional modality.
I chose to design an assignment focused on understanding the importance of the autopsy in embalming practice. The first version was built for asynchronous collaboration and feedback. In this format, students watched a recorded lecture, scheduled a virtual group meeting, collaboratively created a slide, posted it to a discussion board, interviewed an experienced embalmer, and returned to the board to respond to peers. The structure emphasized flexibility, accountability, and extended reflection across a two-week time frame.
The second version was designed for a hybrid classroom environment. While the learning objectives remained the same, the structure shifted significantly. Students prepared in advance, collaborated in real time, presented their slides in class, and engaged in immediate instructor-facilitated discussion. Time constraints were condensed to a single class session, and feedback occurred synchronously through presentation and dialogue.
Designing these two versions required me to think more deeply about how modality shapes interaction, pacing, feedback, and student responsibility. The assignment itself did not change in content, but the experience of completing it did. This project reinforced for me that effective online or hybrid teaching is not about uploading materials into a different format; it requires intentional redesign of structure, communication, and engagement.
Earlier in my career, I might have attempted to use the same assignment in multiple formats with minimal adjustment. Through this course, I learned to ask not just “What are students learning?” but “How does this environment shape how they learn?” That question now guides my approach to teaching across modalities.
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Design Learning Through Simulation in Online Environments
The following artifacts capture the research, design, implementation,
and reflection behind the First Call Simulation.
In my course Learning Technology Through Design, I was challenged to identify a real instructional problem and work through a semester-long design process to develop and test a solution. My original concern centered on student engagement in online discussions, which many students described as disconnected from real-world application. Through surveys, conversations, and iterative analysis, my problem evolved into a broader question: how can I design meaningful learning experiences that actively engage students in an asynchronous course environment?
Using a design thinking framework, I worked through phases of empathy, definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing. Research and student feedback revealed that learners were more engaged when activities connected directly to professional practice. This led me to develop a realistic simulation in which students participated in a live role-play “first call” with a grieving family member, allowing them to practice both the emotional and technical aspects of funeral service communication.
To implement the prototype, students signed up for scheduled call times and prepared using structured materials, including a guided simulation presentation and worksheet prompts. During the call, students gathered information, responded in real time, and later completed a reflection analyzing their performance and identifying areas for growth. Feedback showed that students gained confidence, recognized gaps in their knowledge, and valued the realism of the experience. Even students already working in funeral homes reported learning something new from the simulation.
This project pushed me to think beyond traditional assignments and challenged me to design learning experiences that were interactive, emotionally engaging, and professionally authentic. It also changed how I think about online teaching. Rather than viewing asynchronous learning as limited, I began to see it as an opportunity to design structured experiences that promote real-world skill development and meaningful reflection.
Technology and the Human Connection in the Digital Age
In my course Education in the Digital Age, I engaged with a series of readings examining how technology, artificial intelligence, and digital communication shape human interaction, learning, and society. For this assignment, I explored these ideas alongside analysis of the film Disconnect, developing a written reflection that explored how digital tools can simultaneously connect and distance us.
A unique component of this project was the requirement to publish the final piece on the online platform Medium. This pushed me outside of my technological comfort zone and required me to learn a new digital publishing environment. While the course readings often critiqued technology’s influence on human experience, the assignment itself required us to actively engage with digital tools for scholarly communication. That contrast encouraged me to think more critically about technology, not as something inherently good or bad, but as something that must be used thoughtfully and intentionally.
This artifact reflects my growth not only as a learner, but as an educator navigating digital spaces. It represents my increasing confidence in using unfamiliar technologies, my ability to critically evaluate digital culture, and my developing understanding that effective teaching in modern learning environments requires both technological skill and reflective awareness.
Read my published reflection on technology, connection, and learning in the digital age.
Reframing Teaching in Postsecondary Education
The teaching in postsecondary education course pushed me to think more deeply about what it means to teach in higher education and how my role extends beyond delivering content. One of my biggest takeaways is that higher education is not neutral, it is shaped by systems, history, and assumptions about success. This challenged me to reflect on my own teaching.
My artifact, The Whole Student , represents a shift in how I view my students. I more intentionally recognize that students bring more than academic needs into the classroom, they bring life experiences, responsibilities, and challenges that impact their learning. This is especially true in funeral service education.
Concepts like andragogy and engaged pedagogy helped me better understand why student-centered approaches matter. It is not just about engagement, but about creating a space where students feel valued and capable. I have become more intentional about connecting course content to real-world experiences and encouraging meaningful participation.
I also became more aware of how students often view education as a transaction. Rather than resisting this, I now try to shift the focus toward learning, critical thinking, and professional growth.
Overall, this course strengthened my identity as an educator. It helped me become more intentional, reflective, and committed to supporting the whole student, both, in the classroom and beyond.