Hello EDCI 339 People!
My name is Tuqa. I am originally from Iraq but left Iraq over 23 years ago! I lived in different countries before my family settled in Canada. Before coming to Canada, I was a medical school student, but due to war, my family and I had to move, and I could not study for a couple of years before moving to Canada in 2018. I started studying at UVic in 2019, and this is my final semester at UVic, where I am pursuing Chemistry for a Medical Sciences degree and will be starting pharmacy school at UBC this September.
I have not been able to enjoy my hobbies lately due to being busy with school and work, but when I have spare time, I love doing digital art, and this is my latest art piece. I drew it in December 2022 (yes, I really do not have time anymore for my hobbies!)
You can check more work here!
My experience as a university student has been enjoyable. I studied at a university in the Middle East where I only had one midterm and one final, while in Canada, my studies have been a mix of online and in-person learning. I started my first year in-person in 2019, except for the last month of my first year when everything switched to online for two years until this year, which is entirely in-person. Although online classes were challenging to navigate at the beginning, they were very useful in going back to the lectures and listening to them and having all the information from the beginning of the semester available whenever needed. Moreover, as a person who learns through virtual images and figures, I choose this class because I want to learn more about teaching online and how to be able to use the information on the internet effectively to benefit myself and others.
I believe education is a lifelong process, and school can provide the fundamental tool to start a lifelong journey that continues beyond the classroom. Thus, education aims to provide students with the tools that allow them to integrate easily into the workplace.
The student’s role in education is as essential as the role of the instructor.
The students must be active participants by taking responsibility for their learning by asking questions and seeking knowledge.
The instructor should develop a learning platform that aligns with the outcome expected of the class they are teaching. Moreover, it is essential that the instructor provide an environment that provides active engagement to allow the students to learn through being engaged with the material.
My goals for this course are:
1- To expand my understanding of open and distributed learning
2- I love learning about medication and its side effects. Since I am starting pharmacy school this year, I would like to develop skills in open and distributed teaching so I can use these methods to be able to educate people about medication and their side effects in an interactive way!
3- improving my design skills by working on platforms I never experienced before to put myself out there to learn new things daily!