Week of February 8th . . .

• I'm in Calgary on Monday to meet with the team from Norquest who is working on the English as a Second Language / Nursing bridging course. We will be developing 4 courses (approximately 5 credit) and Norquest will be developing 2 smaller courses. Collaborations like this are always interesting, especially at the start up phase. Our goal with this project is to offer the entire program through eCampus by the end of 2011. Stacey Goldstein is the instructional designer on this project, and she and I will be attending the meeting in Calgary along with Phillip Harttrup, the Director of the English Language Centre.
• The DL Strategy should be rolling out this week with the initial communications from Peter Leclaire's. I'm anxious to get this initiative moving. As I mentioned at the EET meeting, the institution will be moving more towards blended delivery. This has implications for everyone in EET because it involves course / program design and development, curriculum reviews, audio visual production and support, and professional development. The next steps are the implementation and communication plans.
• I'm working on the final documentation for both eCampus course development projects and the Hubbard / Inukshuk project. The Hubbard documentation has to be in to Inukshuk by the end of February.
• Lorne and the media specialists have taken the lead on marketing initiatives. They are planning a blitz for the last week in February, and this will be followed by an open house in EET . . . more on this in the next couple of weeks as we get more people involved.
• We're also in inital conversations with Business Training and Development to start developing customer service materials for staff in the Badlands area of southern Alberta. I'll tell you more as this unfolds.
• eCampus update: We were successful with one of three proposals we submitted for eCampus funding this round - for the FASD program. eCampus received requests for 1.9 million dollars, and they only had $500,000 to allocate. We're happy we received a piece of the pie! We may be supporting Therapeutic Recreation - Gerontology and the Blended Electrician program with internal funds to help them move forward.
• A few people are traveling during reading week. Connie is in Costa Rica for a wedding, Sue is going to Guatemala, and Debbie is planning to go to Vegas.
• Thanks to Heather (and everyone else who helped) for organizing the celebration for Jackie and Isla last week. The waffles were wonderful!
• And Chris and Anne had a beautiful baby girl last week too. Special welcome to Masie Jane Goble. We'll be having another celebration in March for Masie!