Professional Development plan.

Overview

The assignment consists of an individual plan for continual professional development that requires an informal presentation, draft with peer review, and an action plan. The intent of this assignment is self-awareness, research, planning, action, and reflection on professional skills as they connect to career selection. Your final plan should be 5-7 pages, double-spaced, and include at least three sources to support your content/findings.

We want you to leave the course with an awareness of how you plan to spend you next few years here at Mason to better prepare your resume for your future success. What activities will help you grow and experience what you need to in order to reach your end goal.

Professional Development Plan

Introduction

Discuss why you are interested in pursuing a degree in business (or another selected area). What major (accounting, finance, information systems and operations management, management, marketing or other) are you most interested in and why? What would be your ideal job upon graduation? Try to provide more than just a surface-level discussion—do some serious self-assessment here.

Industry Skills Requirements

What specific skills are needed for the job or career field of your choice? Your response to this question should be based on research. Plan to utilize databases such as the Occupational Outlook Handbook (

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/

) and O*NET (

https://www.onetonline.org/

) as well as at least one professional business source (see approved list below) that tells why these skills, or the one skill you plan to develop, is relevant in today’s business world. Be sure to use APA-style in-text citations to indicate where you got your information. Use at least three different sources for your information.

Articles may be taken from the following: The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, The Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek.

Individual Development Needs

Choose ONE of the skills that is important in your field and that you feel you need to improve, and answer the following:

Why have I identified this skill as one I would like to grow in?

What knowledge/competency do I currently have in this skill area?

How have I already developed this skill through this course and other opportunities?

How will this skill contribute to my personal success?

Action Plan  (Example of action plan is attached below)

Create a table that shows how you will go about gaining experience and knowledge in this one skill area for each of the following timeframes: this semester, in the next 6 months, and by the time you graduate. For each time frame:

List some resources/activities (specific classes both in and out of business, workshops, events, work experiences, online tutorials, readings, etc.) you will use or engage in to advance in this skill area.

Tell what you did or can learn from these resources/activities to develop the skill.

Describe how these resources/activities will contribute to your future success.

Please note that you are expected to act on your professional development plan for this semester and write about what you accomplished in the reflection portion of the final version of this paper.

Below is an example of what your Action Plan should look like. Copy the headings on the side and top but put your own bullet points into the gray areas. You should have at least two items in each timeframe.

Reflection

Conclude your plan by answering the following:

Did you accomplish the things you planned to do during this semester? Why or why not?

What challenges might arise in the future as you attempt to execute your action plan? What is your backup plan?

How will you apply the knowledge learned from this assignment to school success and your future career? Give specific examples.

Be sure to specify where your evidence came from by including in-text citations and an APA-format reference list at the end of your paper.

Example Action Plan
The skill I am working on building is Online Curriculum Development. I named specific tools I will use and
I am focused on only building my online teaching skills.
This semester
The next 6 months
Resources I will use
and/or activities I will
engage in
• Participate in
Kaltura Training
Course
• Complete five week
online curriculum
development course
offered by Stearns
Center
What did/will I learn
from this experience?
Contributions to your
future success
• I will understand
how to use Kaltura
for my online
lessons.
• I will learn to
develop courses
online that are
engaging for my
students
• Kaltura is a great
resource for
students to still get
lecture information
while seeing the
instructor and
Powerpoint
• This course will
help me to know
what tools are out
there for me to
include in my
course and how I
can use them for
my students
• Watch Daphne
Koller’s TedTalk
on- What we’re
learning from
online education
• I will learn the best
practices for using
online teaching in
my own class
• This book will help
me to make the
online experience
more meaningful
for my students
• This video will
help me to
convince the
university that
online learning can
be effective
• This will help me
to be a better
teacher in the
online setting
• This will help me
to learn more skills
to utilize in my
class
• I will learn what
best practices my
peers are using in
their classes.
• I will receive a
certificate at the
end that I can share
with my boss.
• This will help us to
make sure all
students are getting
the same
experience and the
best tools.
• I will read Small
Teaching Online by
Flower Darby
By graduation
• I will complete the
LinkedIn Learning
course called
Learning to Teach
Online
• Collaborate with
my colleagues
through Web-Ex to
see examples of
what they are doing
and share what I am
doing.