About My MTA Portfolio
A master of all is a master of none... unless you live in the 21st-century
My Master of Transdisciplinary Application – or MTA Portfolio – is a self-directed master’s degree that is purpose-built for the personal, professional and planetary demands of the 21st-century
I Built My Own Education is a website I created to embody my self-declared master’s degree – essentially this site is just one big explorable degree certificate
Why I built my own master's degree
Self-Paced
I learn best when I am allowed to do it at my own pace so I wanted a master’s that I could spread out over a long time period and pause every so often, if needed.
Cost-Effective
Studying online courses can be done for free and, even if you do pay for them, they are vastly cheaper than undertaking a traditional master’s degree.
Big Picture Focused
I wanted to accumulate a holistic education that would empower me to understand how the world works beyond just becoming an expert in a narrow career focus.
Purpose Driven
I wanted to assemble a solution-focused master’s degree, drawn from my personal values and beliefs, and for it to empower me to have a positive impact in the world.
Creative Challenge
Creative projects would’ve been a part of any master’s curriculum I had undertaken, but the idea of the master’s degree program itself being a creative project was too good of a challenge to turn down.
I had no future.
That is how I felt when I graduated from my first degree.
I had been thrust into a confusing world of climate crisis, mass technological transitions, post-truth ignorance, persistent economic upheavals and unstable career prospects.
My traditional formal education had not been built to grapple with the complex and uncertain nature of the 21st-century.
So I built my own education to future-proof my life.
And then I built this website to showcase that problem-solving process.
My MTA covers many knowledge domains sourced from over 800 online courses that I studied for over a decade.
It all amounts to being a portfolio of portfolios with my mastery of each of its concentrations expressed in a range of practical final projects.
This self-directed undertaking goes way beyond being an emulation of a traditional master’s degree.
I wanted to create a strategically designed portfolio degree that expresses my creative passion and professional expertise for being a versatile problem-solver.
Now I have the competencies to build the most beneficial futures.
MTA
Master
Transdisciplinary
Application
noun
: a degree that is given to a student by a college or university usually after one or two years of additional study following a bachelor’s degree
It’s modeled after a master’s degree
Because…
I already possess a bachelor’s degree.
Gaining a master’s degree was the next logical step.
Once I realized the degree I wanted to study didn’t exist, I decided to build one from scratch.
adjective
: when two or more scientific, academic or artistic discipline perspectives transcend each other to form a new holistic approach
I made it transdisciplinary
Because…
The 21st century demands that you possess a broad intellect with a multitalented skillset.
Historically, you would master a specific discipline, you would secure a career based within that discipline and then it would be safe sailing until you retired.
That linear and clearly laid out approach is no longer going to cut it.
Today, you need to be a master of big picture thinking, resourceful hustling and relentless persistence.
noun
: an act of putting something to use
The endgame is application
Because…
What use is knowledge if you don’t use it for something constructive?
This portfolio has two outcomes…
- Future-proofing my life.
- Enabling me to collaborate with individuals and organizations that are making the world a better and more sustainable place.
Master
Transdisciplinary
Application
noun
: a degree that is given to a student by a college or university usually after one or two years of additional study following a bachelor’s degree
It’s modeled after a master’s degree
Because…
I already possess a bachelor’s degree.
Gaining a master’s degree was the next logical step.
Once I realized the degree I wanted to study didn’t exist, I decided to build one from scratch.
adjective
: when two or more scientific, academic or artistic discipline perspectives transcend each other to form a new holistic approach
I made it transdisciplinary
Because…
The 21st century demands that you possess a broad intellect with a multitalented skillset.
Historically, you would master a specific discipline, you would secure a career based within that discipline and then it would be safe sailing until you retired.
That linear and clearly laid out approach is no longer going to cut it.
Today, you need to be a master of big picture thinking, resourceful hustling and relentless persistence.
noun
: an act of putting something to use
The endgame is application
Because…
What use is knowledge if you don’t use it for something constructive?
This portfolio has two outcomes…
- Future-proofing my life.
- Enabling me to collaborate with individuals and organizations that are making the world a better and more sustainable place.
When studying for a traditional degree, you must declare a major to clearly define the focus of your studies.
For my MTA, I declared two majors…
MTA Major 1
Sustainable
adjective
: causing, or made in a way that causes, little or no damage to the environment and therefore able to continue for a long time
Globalisation
noun
: the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale
MTA Major 2
Creative
adjective
: relating to or involving the use of the imagination or original ideas to create something
Enterprise
noun
: a project or undertaking, especially a bold or complex one
I had already been studying my MTA for a good four years until I declared my majors.
Defining my majors was exceedingly important because it applied discipline to my unruly and expansive study approach.
It’s all very well studying a broad portfolio of online courses but at some point you need to start funneling them down into something that is discernible and deliverable.
Each major has a series of concentrations that focus on different areas of its respective parent major.
Within each sub-concentration are learning modules that group together all the relevant online courses I studied.
The unifying thread running through all my studies is the climate crisis.
The climate crisis is the greatest challenge facing every aspect of human and non-human existence in the 21st century.
Solving the complex climate crisis, on all levels of society through a multitude of creative solutions, is the great work of our times.
Confronting the climate crisis is also something that is deeply personal to me.
So it made sense that my majors would gravitate around addressing climate change on a global scale by utilising a dynamic range of creative problem solving.
I had already been studying my MTA for a good four years until I declared my majors.
Defining my majors was exceedingly important because it applied discipline to my unruly and expansive study approach.
It’s all very well studying a broad portfolio of online courses but at some point you need to start funneling them down into something that is discernible and deliverable.
Each major has a series of concentrations that focus on different areas of its respective parent major.
Within each sub-concentration are learning modules that group together all the relevant online courses I studied.
The unifying thread running through all my studies is the climate crisis.
The climate crisis is the greatest challenge facing every aspect of human and non-human existence in the 21st century.
Solving the complex climate crisis, on all levels of society through a multitude of creative solutions, is the great work of our times.
Confronting the climate crisis is also something that is deeply personal to me.
So it made sense that my majors would gravitate around addressing climate change on a global scale by utilising a dynamic range of creative problem solving.
I declared majors to bring focus to my studies and then I declared a mission to give purpose to that direction…
MTA Mission
I built my own postgraduate education in Sustainable Globalisation and Creative Enterprise so I can…
Become a knowledgeable flexible thinker and proactive problem solver who can always create beneficial opportunities out of the personal, professional and planetary challenges we will all face in the fast-evolving 21st-century
Declaring a mission for my MTA was an idea I borrowed from the Standford 2025 project.
Stanford 2025 is an exhibition developed by the faculty and students at Stanford University which explores potential higher education innovations that can better serve society and graduates alike.
One key proposal is Purpose Learning whereby a student builds a personalized education experience developed from their core beliefs and values.
“As Stanford graduates would soon be called upon to lead in a world in which economic, political, social and technological disruptions created some of the largest collective risks that humans had yet faced, the University established Purpose Learning, whereby students declared a mission, not a major. The intent was that students couple their disciplinary pursuit with the purpose that fueled it.”
As soon as I decided to build my own master’s degree, I knew that I would also build a website to showcase it.
One of my biggest complaints about my traditional undergraduate degree is that I only had a dead piece of paper to show for it.
Undertaking a degree is a multi-year commitment that involves a dynamic learning experience of personal and professional development; all of which extends far beyond what is written on a degree diploma.
It makes more sense to have an interactive degree certificate that can be opened, explored and actually serve as solid testimony towards your academic evolution.
I Built My Own Education is the explorable degree certificate for my MTA.
My MTA is a master’s degree without the accreditation of a university institution.
The accreditation for my self-declared MTA, as a master’s degree, comes from the testimony of its existence on this website.
MTA Diplomas
Do not award academic credit
Academic credit are points which a university awards for completing the learning components of a degree curriculum; eventually they add up to the attainment of a full degree. I only possess academic credit for my undergraduate degree.
Verifiable on the issuing platform’s website
The majority of the diplomas earned come with a unique url and verification webpage that confirms my identity and course participation.
I’ve been awarded diplomas for over half the courses present in my MTA curriculum, all from a range of online platforms and international institutions.
My diplomas are presented on a series of diploma wall pages that are arranged under their respective parent concentrations.
Gaining certification is one thing, but a true demonstration of what you know is to get out there and do something with it.
It’s through the application of my learning in my final projects that the transdisciplinary nature of my MTA really comes to life.
My MTA has ten final projects, one to capstone each of the ten concentrations that reside within the two majors.
MTA Final Projects
100% Developed and undertaken by me
Wouldn’t be much point building my own education curriculum if I didn’t also build the final projects to bring it to a close.
Made up of multiple mini-project components
Cutting a project up into smaller pieces makes it easier to complete the full project alongside my other commitments.
Built to future-proof
The projects are final in that they tie up their parent concentrations, but they’re also open-ended in that they’re springboards for further life developments.
I’ve built my MTA utilising my own time and finances, so I’ve had to be very resourceful with how I’ve gone about orchestrating so many final projects.
The key was achieving an integrative learning experience.
This means my studies are not a side focus to what I have going on in my life, my studies embody the focus of my life.
My final projects initiated and chronicle key developments in my personal and professional lives.
I’ve been building my own education for such a long time now.
I created this vast undertaking because I wanted to become a polymath – someone who possesses a wide range of learning and creative thinking.
My aim was never about trying to know everything, a true polymath would never think so closed-mindedly.
Being a polymath means accepting that you are still an idiot and, no matter how hard you try, you will never learn everything.
It’s about cultivating a flexible and open mind that is always hungry to discover new things.
Polymaths are highly adaptable creatures who thrive on jumping between different concentrations and applying those disparate areas of knowledge towards new creative innovations.
Peter O'Brien
Really didn’t like school
It was too restrictive and unimaginative; I learned more from reading books.
Wrote an award-winning dissertation
Was also the longest submitted (30,000 words) and highest marked (85) undergraduate thesis of the year.
Drinks herbal tea like its tap water
My MTA has been fueled by an exorbitant amount of green tea and so many other flavoured verdant delights. Stains your teeth though!
Runs and cycles long distances
I love to push myself and it keeps my long-haul determination primed for further challenges.
Happiest when building something
Can you tell?
At heart, I’ve always had the curiosity of a polymath and it was not until I built my MTA that I honed that hunger into something valuable.
Something that can dream big and do big.
I find it painful and frustrating when someone gives up on a brilliant idea just because it seems too insurmountable.
Something being unconquerable is precisely the reason why you should develop yourself to conquer it.
If we don’t stretch ourselves, we won’t grow, individually or collectively.
In our ever-worsening climate crisis world, we need to work our problem solving talents like never before.
The great work of our time is to be creative.
Creativity can manifest itself in beneficial or not so beneficial ends.
Whether it’s the natural growth of nebulae into stars or man-made industrial pollution into global warming, life is all a creative process.
All human beings possess a self-reflecting creative intelligence that makes every single person on this planet a natural problem-solver.
We are all capable of creative positive change, for ourselves and for the world at large.
But change is the price we pay for creativity.
Some people are not willing to change, it’s too uncomfortable.
Some people are quite content to keep their heads buried in the sand.
Personally, I’ve never liked getting sand up my nose.
I’d much rather be a polymath and change things for the better.
Besides, it’s so much more fun to be creative.