Have a Wonderful Holiday!

Hi Everyone

I hope that you all have a wonderful break over the next couple of weeks. I'm in Calgary tomorrow to pick up our youngest daughter from the airport, so I won't be in for the rest of the week. I will be checking email consistently over the next couple of days if you need anything.

It's been quite a year! Many of us are working this week on completing projects, which feels quite wonderful. The bigger projects include Hubbard, China, eCampus (OCDF4), and Learning Connections. Other projects are just beginning, which also feels good. And there may be some big things shaking when the DL Strategy is completed and communicated in early January. This is also very exciting as it will likely impact - in very positive ways - many of the things we do.

In early January, I'll be putting together a brief report that describes all the work we've done, so watch for that. I think we need to do a better job of showing off all the good things we do . . . another thing to work on in the new year!

And welcome to Ian, Diana, and Stacey. We're thrilled to have you join our team!!

Thanks to everyone for your contribution to all the work we've done. The team focus has enabled us to be responsive to diverse academic needs on campus, and we've experienced growth in many areas. You are making a difference!

Enjoy every minute of the next couple of weeks. Enjoy your families and your friends - and take the time to play and to laugh - lots!!

Safe travels!! See you in January!

Karen

Here are the results from the EET Mantra survey. The first choice is "Empower, Create, Educate".

The writing is very small on the visual, so I'll send it to you separately as well.

Thanks to everyone for your input on this. We'll talk more about what's next in the new year!

Karen

Ecampus Submissions

Today we submitted three proposals to eCampus for course development projects in the following programs:

- Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Education (FASD)
- Electrician Alternate / Blended Delivery
- Therapeutic Recreations - Gerontology (TRG)

eCampus is reviewing the proposals in mid-January, and we'll know soon after that . . .

Strengths Inventory

Over the past year I think almost all of us have completed the Strengths Inventory. At the Chair Academy in October I had an opportunity to realize the potential of these inventories. One of the things I learned is that it can be an extremely valuable tool for helping us work more effectively with others. It's about understanding our own strengths, respecting others' strengths, and using this awareness to communicate and work more effectively in a team environment.

To get us started on developing a better awareness of our strengths, sometime this week, would you please go into the Inventory Spreadsheet (link below) and add your 5 strength areas simply by coloring in the appropriate box.

If you don't have the Strengths book, just let me know and we'll get you one.

I'll be following up on this with some printed material for you to read, and we'll be discussing this again at our next EET meeting in January.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AldhQrmOOc6VdEtUYzFYcXR5enAtNTQwVVp3cEl4OUE&hl=en

Thanks for your help with this. There's lots to learn . . .

Karen

EET Updates - December 7

Lots going on . . .

Budget (from Townhall on November 27)
- Can watch the recording if you weren't at the session
-Typically provincial grant is +6%; possile ths year it will be -5%
-Won't know for sure until February or March
-Many "what if's" being asked
-Three drivers: Oil, Natural Gas, and Exchange Rate
- Don't see improvement or next 2 years
- Implications?

Curriculum Support - Sue, Debbie, and Julie

PD, Awards, and Conference - Debbie and Julie

New Projects:
- NATOA - National Aoriginal Trust Officer's Association (currently in development) and one more coming our way
- ESL / Nursing Pathways - series of 4 courses
- eCampusAlberta Student Stupport Site - with Learning Cafe
- First Nations Metis Inuit (FNMI) - 3 courses / instructor resource materials

Existing Projects
- China - currently completing semester 4 of 4. Tight timelines!
- Angel Implementation - Celebration on December 18 - all production staff invited
- Angel Support - 1 on 1 sessions last week - 37 instructors
- eCampus

• OCDF - 4 / 2009 - almost complete
• OCDF - 5 / 2010 - submissions due Friday, December 11 (FASD, Electrician, and TRG)

- Internally funded course development projects
- Learning COnnections website - almost ready to go public
- Hubbard Virtual Wilflife - will be finished by December 24
- Police Recruit Training

Other
- MM Practicum student interviews this week
- Video Conferencing and Desktop / web conferencing
- Marketing initiatives
- MFD Committee - changing . . .
- DL Stragegy
- Third Floor Tech needs
- Leave a Legacy
- Copyright website
- EET website
- Instructional Design Community of Practice

Staffing Updates
- Project Position - working hard on this one
- New Instructional Designers

• Diana Quirk - Jackie's Mat Leave replacement
• Stacey Goldstein - to help with ESL / Nursing Pathways and FNMI projects

- DL Academic Support Position

• Ian Hepher: half time starting in January

An EET Mission Statement

Hi everyone

Let's spend some time at our EET meeting on December 7 working on a mission statement, or better yet, let's think of it as a mantra. Guy Kawasaki was one of the keynotes at the ADETA conference last spring, and he gave a similar presentation to this one on mission statements and mantras: