In 2005, I started on the path to attain my Masters of Distance Education degree through Athabasca University (AU). Though excited about new prospects, I was nonetheless nervous and anxious. I began to reflect back on my previous educational experiences which had presented some significant challenges. Some of the questions that arose were:

• Was I prepared to enter this new learning environment?
• Did I have the necessary skills to achieve goals (i.e. a passing grade)?
• Could I obtain a sense of fulfillment from this program (i.e. self-improvement)?
• Did I have the adequate self-regulation mechanisms (i.e. motivation)?
• Would I be able to “stay on course” even when challenged by other priorities in life (i.e. persistence)?

And as I progressed through my learning experience at AU, the following concepts began coalescing in my mind, with common themes continuing to re-occur throughout my work:

1. Respecting the Learner
2. Engaging the Learner
3. Building Learner Resiliency
4. Inspiring the Learner

So how did my educational experience help to inform these issues and what did I discover? My final paper attempts to summarize major themes of learning and discovery that I experienced over the past five years ... My AU Learning Experience - A Bountiful Harvest   

As part of developing my e-portfolio, one of the steps that I undertook was to take a trip back in time. I reviewed the more than 30 assignments (close to 50,000 written words) that I worked on during the past 5 years of study. I was pleasantly surprised to see how of the essays and research assignments still made sense...  

I hope that you enjoy them as well!  Grant.