Happy Holidays!

 One last quick message as everyone heads out for holidays . . . .

Semesters are often challenging because we are very busy in EET, but I think this past one was especially challenging - for a variety of reasons:

• Many of you stepped up to cover other areas because of vacant positions, which added to already busy workloads.
• Some of you also stepped up to help new EET staff learn their roles as quickly as possible.  And our new staff all hit the ground running.
• We had new institutional initiatives that required extra work (required orientation activities, 30-60-120, new policies, etc.)
• Many of you brought forward ideas for new initiatives (tablet project, open door classroom, EET Open House, to name a few) and ran with them.
• We continued to do what we always do - curriculum reviews, course development, AV support, media development, flexible learning support, etc. etc.
•  And overall EET continued to bring a high level of support for instructors and programs.  

It's amazing what can be accomplished when a team truly works as a team.

Your passion and commitment to what you do helps to make EET a great department to work in.   And that said, now it's time to take a well-deserved break and to recharge so we're ready to go again in January.

Best wishes for a very happy holiday with your family and friends. 

PS . . . in lieu of gifts, on behalf of EET, I've donated $200 to the Lethbridge Herald Breakfast Program for Schools.

Free, open textbooks for some post-secondary courses in BC

B.C. to lead Canada in offering students free, open textbooks

VANCOUVER – British Columbia is set to become the first province in Canada to offer students free online, open textbooks for the 40 most popular post-secondary courses.

Up to 200,000 B.C. students each year could benefit from this move under B.C.’s Families First Agenda, saving each student hundreds of dollars a year or more on textbooks – money that can go toward other learning supplies or living expenses. etc etc. . .

http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2009-2013/2012AEIT0010-001581.htm

Last couple of months . . .

My posts to our blog have been very inconsistent over the last couple of months.  It’s been very busy - for all of us - but I’m trying to get back on track with my posts now that the fall semester is well underway.

The last couple of months have been interesting, challenging, and honestly,  sometimes quite overwhelming.  It is always interesting to see view the landscape and experience work from a different position, and I’m continuing to learn a lot.   Here are a few observations as I reflect back on the last three months.

• Many of you have stepped up - in a variety of ways - to help as I’ve tried to juggle responsibilities in both CTLI and EET.  Many of you have also been patient as you’ve had to wait a bit for responses and / or support.    I appreciate both your support and your patience very very much during these busy times.   

• It feels like much of my time over the last couple of months has been spent “managing” as opposed to “leading”.  By this I mean I’ve been busy taking care of staffing (hiring for new positions in EET and across CTLI, getting new people started, filling in for staff on sick leave, and dealing with a variety of other issues related to staffing across the Centre), budgeting (it’s already started for next year), and other operational functions.   As I work on getting back into the “leading” part, we’ll be working on team-based strategic planning, goal setting, and thinking about ways to take EET to the next level.  

 

• Watch for more information in the next week or so as we prep for our two hour EET meeting on October 31.  

Very interesting article / series on education from the Globe and Mail

A good read when you have time . . .

From Academica this week:

News Date: 

Oct 10, 2012

In Saturday's issue, the Globe and Mail kicked off "Re:education," a 2-week series that explores the roadmap for the PSE system that Canada needs to thrive. The series delves into several threads of the country's current university model, from the evolution of the lecture hall to digital learning and the role the private sector plays in overcoming financial strains. The Globe launched the series with a feature article on what is not working on today's campuses (a one-size-fits-all approach) and what needs to improve, touching on credential inflation, massification, advantages to and concerns over differentiation, and accountability. The series is supported by a number of interactive features and digital storytelling online, including a video mosaic of Canadian students and influential experts responding to the question: "What's the one thing you'd change in post-second ry education?"; online polling to ask readers whether today's education system has worked for them; interactive data and charts to explore matters such as tuition, debt, salaries, and employment; and video interviews with some of Canada's top academics and innovators. This is the latest theme the Globe is exploring in its editorial series, Canada: Our Time to Lead.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/

Work Spaces in TE3213 and TE3215 - Time to evaluate

In the summer we transitioned our work spaces from TE3215 to TE3213 and moved some people around.   One of the purposes of this move was to utilize our space more efficiently and provide better overall work spaces, but the other very important purpose was to tap into synergies among staff working on specific and / or similar initiatives.

At that time we also said we would re-evaluate these moves in October, so watch for more information coming out on this.   We may do a quick survey and / or facilitate a discussion on this among people impacted by these moves.

A few of the great things going on in EET . . .

Project planning started on development of Digital Learning Objects for Trades (Welding and Electrician)

Tablet Project (Ed Tech Innovation Committee): 14 instructors have iPads or Android tablets in their hands.  

Orientation activities for new instructors - significant amount of work done for August / Sept;  currently debriefing.  We’re also talking to HR and to the Registrar’s Office about collaborating on an online resource (one-stop-shop) for primarily new instructors.

College-wide outcomes - Implementation:  We’ll be broadening the team involved with this project to include instructional designers and other College resources.

30-60-120:  This is the conversion from credits to units of learning that Karen O’Dwyer explained in a email about a week ago.   This impacts EET in a number of ways:  Potential curriculum redesigns, which could impact online course development projects, instructional practices, BYOD etc. etc.

Completion of Classroom Technology Upgrades - 57 Smartboards and teaching stations installed over the summer!

DL Strategy Implementation:  Complete the final documentation of the third and last year of the DL Strategy implementation.  This includes sending out surveys to both students and instructors, documenting Angel logins, charting trends of enrolment in online courses, etc.   The biggest challenge will be to really understand the level to which instructors are incorporating blended learning into their teaching.

Fitness Challenge and Poker:  Thanks to Jackie for getting this fitness challenge going.   Who knew we would be playing poker once a month in EET as part of a fitness challenge?   I had to leave the game early but somehow still won the pot (I think thanks to Christie and her amazing poker face :).   The pot this month will be donated to food for one of our functions.  I’d encourage everyone to get involved in this challenge through the fall and into the winter.

Refresh Conference Committee - starting to plan for May 2013 Conference

Flexible Learning - launch of new website that allows students to search for specific instructional methods and locations.  For example, only online courses . . .

and we’ll keep adding to this list!

Ted Talk - What we are learning from online education

If you have time, interesting talk by Daphne Koller on What We Are Learning from Online Education.

Amazing potluck . . .

Wow - what a feast we had last week at our potluck.   Thanks to everyone who brought food, to everyone who helped to organize, and to everyone who came to eat.  Great lunch and get-to-gether.

Candace is published!

Congratulations Candace on getting another article published.   This one is in an anthology that is a tribute to the curriculum philosophy studies of curriculum scholar Dr.
Ted Aoki. It's titled Contemplating Curriculum: Genealogies/Times/Places. Dr. Aoki turned 90 in 2011 and the works are dedicated to him and his philosophies and teachings.

Candace also presented this article it at the National Curriculum Studies Conference at the U of A last fall, and was encouraged to submit it for publication in the Canadian Association
for Curriculum Studies.

Just a reminder about how important it is to take your holidays and flex days - even when it's busy around here.   And this means getting away from work in all ways - including digitally - when you can.   We need a healthy team with fresh perspectives!

Here's a photo of Karly (my youngest daughter) and I on top of Table Mountain a couple weeks ago.  Removed - mentally and digitally!

Goal Setting from your units . . .

In follow up to our EET meeting in June, I'm compiling the notes from your groups.  In addition to reading through the successes (there were many) and challenges (yes, there were a few),  I’ll be focusing on the goals each of the units within EET has set (or is setting) for 12/13 along with overall goals for EET.    

So far these overriding EET goals are on increasing the focus on Applied Research and on more integration between units.  You'll be asked for input on this as it comes together.

I'm missing information from AV and from Curriculum, so it would be helpful if you could follow up by the end of August (taking holidays into account) with the following from 11/12.   Point form would be great!

• Successes
• Challenges
• Goals for your unit

Thank you!

 

  

 

30-60-120 Project - What is this?

LC programs are currently structured in multiple ways, which causes problems with articulation both within the College and with other institutions.   The goal of this project is this:

• “The value of a LC credential, course, and credit will be standardized measures of learning which are understood by post-secondary institutions worldwide.”   The result will benefit students as it will increase opportunities for exchanges and in accessing increased learning pathways.  

It's called the 30-60-120 project because they are working towards having 30 credits / semester; 60 credits / year; and 120 credits / diploma. 

So think about the meaning of "credit".   Here credit is "defined as the amount of learning effort in a course, including the class / tutorial / lab / homework / group work time / and the amount of independent learning that a student must do to succeed in that course.  

This project involves the VPA/CLO, HR, EMLS, Finance, IPR, and CTLI (how’s that for acronyms :) and has broad implications for curriculum, tuition, workload, etc.

• Phase 1 is complete.  The RO has put the existing courses through a conversion process so they equal a standard course credit value of 1.5, 3 or 6 credits.  

• Phase 2 will involve determining levels of programming development and redesign required, etc.  

I have more details on this so just ask if you are interested.   This project has broad implications so it’s important all of us are aware that it’s happening.

EET Staff Go Above and Beyond . . . .

• Elio, Darwin, Tim, and Ryan have been working hard to ensure that the classroom technology upgrades are ready for instructors in September.  Did you know that almost every teaching space on campus will have a Smartboard and teaching station by the end of the summer?   We received additional unexpected funding for additional equipment in June, and this caused a change in AV plans for the summer.   Our AV staff, along with Facilities staff and contractors, have all stepped up to make this happen for instructors for September.   

  

• Jackie, Andy, and Christie really stepped up this week to design and facilitate two workshops for new instructors:  Course Design and Intro to Teaching.    

• Donna really put a lot into coordinating the move from TE3215 to TE3215.   The move happened quickly and Donna took care of many of the details very efficiently.

Orientation Activities for New Instructors

One of the new initiatives in EET this year is an escalated “required” orientation for new instructors.   This gap was identified through feedback from chairs and from focus groups we facilitated with instructors last spring. 

• Additional Instructional Skills Workshops (ISWs).   We offered one last week for six new instructors, and so far we’ve scheduled two more in August.   We’re also having to adapt the traditional model to accommodate increased numbers of instructors who need and / or want to participate in this workshop
• Course Design Workshop:  This provides instructors with initial support for designing their courses.
•  Intro to Teaching Workshop:  This is a condensed version of the ISW and is a requirement for casual / hourly instructors.
• Resources:  We’re also compiling resource information for new instructors, including a “manual” and digital information.

Technology needs for this teaching space?

Anybody thought about classroom technology needs for this teaching space?

Staffing Updates - July 25, 2012

• Instructional Design

o   Christie is moving from a term Instructional Designer position into a full-time continuing role effective August 1, 2012.  Congratulations Christie!   It’s great to have you become a more permanent part of our team.

o   Welcome to Angela Viola, our new instructional designer.  Angela has worked for a few days this past week, and is now away on holidays.   She’ll be back full-time in a couple weeks and will be working in a one-year term position. 

o   We’re planning to hire one more instructional designer as soon as possible.   This is a replacement – term - position for Diana as she transitions out of EET to focus on her consulting business.   When we hire for this position it will complete our ID team for the upcoming year.

o   Stacey is also back with EET working on a contract primarily with Practical Nursing courses.  We’re very fortunate to be able to contract experienced and competent people like Stacey to work on specific projects.

• Curriculum and PD:   
• We’re interviewing on Thursday morning for three additional positions:  Curriculum Consultant, PD Consultant, and one additional term Instructional Designer.  We’re trying to fill these positions as soon as possible.

•  Flexible Learning Coordinator position:  Erin (more details when she starts) is starting within EET on Monday, July 30.   I’ll post separately on this one, as it’s a new position. 

• Staffing in other units within EET right now is both consistent and strong. 

Transition Plan

Thanks for your patience this week as I've been planning to transition into the Interim Dean position.   I have at least an initial plan in place that will take us through the summer and into September, but I'll be evaluating as we go along and may make some adjustments.

To summarize,  I’ll be sharing my time between Centre and EET responsibilities / needs (see the schedule on the google doc) and will have to evolve with the position as things play out.   I’ve made the decision to try to keep EET moving with little change for now because most units are working very well.

My goal will be to ensure you have the support you need to be able to continue to move forward.   To achieve this goal, communication will be critical, so I’ll continue to meet with the leaders group on a regular basis.    That said, some of you will likely need to be more independent in your decision making and / or take on additional responsibilities.  I see this as an opportunity for growth for all of us, and we’ll have to work together to ensure things go well.

Please read on . . .

http://tinyurl.com/EET-transition

Thanks for your support through this.   All of us will need to work together to keep things moving and make things happen.   Exciting times, for sure!   If you have questions or concerns, please visit or email.

Karen

Staff Updates - July 5, 2012

Couple updates for you on staffing:

1.   Kathy is leaving EET to pursue other opportunities.  Her last day will be July 20.   We'll be advertising to fill this position again next week.  Best wishes to Kathy on her future endeavors. 

2.  We're currently interviewing for four other positions and if all goes according to plan, we'll have people in place starting in a couple weeks.   This includes the following positions:

• Curriculum Consultant
• Flexible Learning Coordinator
• Instructional Designer - Both full-time continuing and term positions
• PD Consultant - We've re-posted this position and will be leaving it open until we have qualified applicants.

 

Staffing Update

We have been advertising for several new positions with EET, and here is the status on each one.

• We're interviewing next week for the Curriculum Consultant (full-time continuing), PD Consultant (full-time continuing) and Flexible Learning Coordinator (full-time - one year term) position.   

• Interviews were held last week for an instructional design position (full-time - one year term) position.

If all goes according to plan, we should be able to make decisions by late next week on all four positions.

Changes . . .

I think you've already heard that I've been asked to be the interim CTLI Dean from July 1 until January.  This is a result of the ripple caused by Tracy leaving Lethbridge College effective this week.  Peter Leclaire will move into the President position; Karen O'Dwyer willl move into the VP Academic / Chief Learning Officer position, and I'll move into the interim Dean position starting next week.   This change certainly wasn't in the plan, but I think it will be a good opportunity for many of us see the world from a somewhat different perspective.

So what does this mean for EET?    I'll have more details early next week after I meet with Karen O.   Both of us are currently working on transition plans, and I'll need to be responsive to Karen's plan, so I'll have more information then.

I do want you to know one very important thing in the meantime, though.  My goal through this transition time will be to ensure that EET continues to thrive. I'm very glad that we have so many compentent people working within EET! 

If you have questions in the meantime, please come talk to me.

Red Deer College is visiting on Monday!

Two staff members from Red Deer College are visiting us on Monday for the morning and into the afternoon.   They are interested in finding out more about how we have implemented our DL Strategy and about the the processes we have in place for supporting online learning (including development, delivery, PD, etc.)   They are also interested in our organizational structure in EET.

So we'll be touring around and introducing everyone.

And so . .  this is a good opportunity for some spring cleaning in all work spaces.  Please take a few minutes before the end of the day on Friday to make sure your work spaces are tidy.   

EET Meeting next Wednesday, June 6

It's been a while since we've had an EET meeting, so we're planning one for next Wednesday, June 6 from 9 to 11 in AN 1744.    Here are a couple things we'll be doing (and I'll send a more specific agenda next week).

• Spend some time planning for our annual performance reviews;  these need to be completed by the end of June (or early in July), so we'll talk about plans for making this happen in June.   This is mostly around reflecting on what our personal successes and challenges have been over the past year, and then using them to inform our goal setting for next year.   We'll look at the some examples of specific goals.

• We're going to spend at least an hour working on your "unit" plans (past, present, and future).   You'll be working in your specific teams (i.e AV, media, curriculum, ID, etc.) to discuss and document highlights from the past year, challenges / issues, and then set department goals for 12/13.    I'll compile this information to share with all of your and with Karen O'Dwyer.

To prep for this time, it would be good if all of you would think about this past year on both a personal professional level and a unit and department level. These questions may provide some guidance . . .

• Where do we see EET in one year, two years, five years?

• How can your unit contribute to reaching this vision? 

• How can you and your unit contribute to the broader team?

We've been guided by the DL Strategy implementation for the last two years, and we have one more year left in this implementation.  So it's timely that we start looking a little further into the future again.    Lots to think about for sure . . .

Staffing Update for May 15

Lots going on these days, for sure. Couple more weeks and then hopefully we'll have some time to breathe and catch up. In the meantime, here are a couple staffing updates for you:

1. Jamie has accepted a media position with Alberta Health Services, so his last day is this Friday, May 18. Jamie has contributed a lot to the media team, to EET, and to a variety of instructors and projects over the time he has been here. Most recently it was working with the Refresh Video team to produce another outstanding video. Everyone - watch for more info about a send off for Jamie on Thursday afternoon! FYI, we will not be filling this position at this time.

2. Diana will also be transitioning out of EET over the summer. Stacey has come back to help out with the Practical Nursing courses, so they will be working together to ensure this is a smooth transition. Diana will be finishing off the CJ and COR courses through the summer so she'll be around for a while and then she will continue to grow her very own consulting business. Diana has also contributed a lot in the time she's been with us. Recently she's been very busy juggling projects for the School of Justice Studies with work on Practical Nursing.

3. Debbie in in the process of transitioning back to teaching full-time in the Centre for Health, Justice, and Human Services, so we'll plan a send-off for Debbie as well a little later this spring. It will be a challenge to find someone to replace Debbie because of her broad knowledge of College programs and processes along with her experience doing curriculum reviews and PD related initiatives.

4. We've been piloting an "Innovative Media Project Lead" position since January within the media specialist team. Tyler will continue in this position into 12/13, and we are currently making the final changes to the position description. I'll be sending it off to HR this week, and when it's final Ill send it out to all of you. This position will be working closely with Andy, our Ed Tech manager to ensure we are keeping up with innovations in teaching and learning.

5. We'll be posting within the next week or two for several replacement / new positions within EET. This includes a curriculum consultant, a PD consultant, a Flexible Learning Coordinator, and one additional instructional designer ( to fill in for Diana as she transitions out). I'll send more info on these positions as they become available.

6. And Andy's official start date in June 25. It was great to have Andy on campus for a few days in May, and it will be even better to have him here full time :)

That's all for now. I'll let you know when the positions are posted. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Lightbulb goes to Donna . . . .

Lorne has passed the light bulb award to Donna for all the stuff she has done recently.  This includes plenty of behind the scenes work for the Refresh conference and many little things which add up to a lot. 

For Lorne recently, she has booked rooms, set up schedules, hunted down serial numbers, purchased gift certificates (last minute), purchased hard drives, loaned ruler, got me new business cards, helped me find things, answered many questions, and probably a few things I don't even remember.

Take a minute to think about the impact your work has

It would be good for all of you in EET to take a few minutes to think about the impact that the work you do has on the instructors at the College. I was thinking about this today when I realized that again this year everyone in EET had contributed to the Refresh conference in some way. It's a great thing to contribute to this day, but think about the broader impact. I'll see if I can explain:

• The video was amazing again. Think a little broader about the impact that producing the video has on the people who "starred" in it. You are reaching out to the College community and acknowledging their skills (including acting skills :) along with showcasing the work the instructors do. They also learn a lot about the amazing staff we have and the work we do.
  

• Every presentation was on a topic relevant to teaching and learning at LC. You shared your passion and your expertise in a variety of ways with many instructors. I wonder how many ideas will be incorporated into classes in the spring or fall semester.

• Many of you supported the presentations in a variety of ways: helping build the presentations, filming the keynote, organizing food and prizes . . .
  

• The organizing committee made it happen - and did it very well. This conference brings people together into a learning community that enables discussing and sharing. This impact is very difficult to measure. That said, however, I think we all overheard instructors sharing practices and ideas. Maybe you planted a seed . . .

• Who knew we would become such good tweeters? I wonder how many instructors may use Twitter in their classes, or will engage in the Twitter conversations at the next conference they go to.

I hope you get where I'm going with this. You should all feel very proud of the work you put into today - and the ongoing work you do to support instructors. It's making a difference in ways that you quite likely will never know. So take a minute . . . . .

And Darcie receives a scholarship!

Congratulation Darcie. Darcie recently received a $1000 scholarship from Athabasca University for highest GPA for a student also working full-time. Amazing work.

LMS / Angel - Decision

We met with the Academic Leadership Team (ALT) last Tuesday to finalize a decision about our LMS transition. Here's what was decided:

Decision made to stay with Angel until at least September 2014 (one additional year), provided that we

• Transition to Angel 8.0 in August, which improves mobile app functionality and enables use of Safari and Chrome web browsers

• Continue to work with Embanet, our hosting service for Angel, to ensure Angel stability

• Continue to monitor changes to the LMS landscape, evaluate alternate LMSs, and research alternative hosting services

Form a Community of Practice that will meet once monthly to stay current with changes in the LMS landscape, including specific options for alternate LMSs and hosting. The Ed Tech Manager will lead this group that will consist of key stockholders from across campus, including instructors, IT, and EET. We envision this group will become the champions related to LMS options and future transition plans. The LMS Community of Practice will start in late August when instructors are back, and we're looking for volunteers from each Centre.

Additional Background Information:

We have been planning to transition to a new learning management system (LMS) for full implementation in the fall 2013 semester. This move was necessitated when Blackboard purchased Angel in May 2009 and soon announced that support for Angel would be discontinued effective September 2014. EET started preliminary evaluations of several LMSs, including Moodle, Desire2Learn, Blackboard, and Canvas, in the fall 2011 with the intention of escalating the evaluation process with stakeholder groups (instructors, students, other LC departments) in May 2012.

Then on April 2, 2012 we received an “Open Letter to the Education Community” from Blackboard that, among other things, stated that they have extended their support for Angel “indefinitely”. Here is the message that Ray Henderson, Blackboard CEO, wrote in the letter:

As we expand the range of platforms we support, we have decided that we will continue to support ANGEL, a platform chosen by over 400 institutions. We previously announced that we would support the ANGEL platform until 2014. Today we've clarified that at the behest of ANGEL clients that continue to find this product the best fit for their needs, we will extend our maintenance and support indefinitely. We will evaluate this decision on an ongoing basis and provide sufficient notice of any future change to plans for support. We will also continue to build ANGEL features into future releases of Blackboard Learn 9.1 and into the Moodlerooms joule product. Both represent positive future destinations for ANGEL clients who wish to upgrade to a newer product line.
Quoted from “An Open Letter to the Education Community” on April 2, 2012: http://www.blackboard.com/About-Bb/News-Center/Press-Releases/Strategy-Update/Open-Letter.aspx

On Tuesday, April 10, EET staff attended a webinar with Blackboard to learn more about this extension. We learned that Blackboard is now putting human resources back into Angel for both support and development, and they are now extending contract renewals for up to five years. Their planned Angel enhancement themes include such things as improvements to mobile learning capabilities and Collaborate (Elluminate webinar) integration.

In addition to the extension to Angel support, Blackboard also moved into the open source support services and acquired two open source service providers: Moodlerooms and NetSpot. This acquisition will cause shifts / ripples in the LMS landscape in the near future.
Additional Resources:

Blackboard Buys Angel (2009): http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/05/07/bb

An Open Letter to the Education Community (March 26, 2012): http://www.blackboard.com/About-Bb/News-Center/Press-Releases/Strategy-Update/Open-Letter.aspx

Blackboard Speaks Out on Open Source Move (March 27, 2012): http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2012/03/27/Blackboard-Speaks-Out-on-Open-Source-Move.aspx?=CTNU&Page=1

Who is Using What LMS (in Canada and US): http://www.contactnorth.ca/resources/learning-management-systems-ontario-%E2%80%93-who-s-using-what

eCampus Course Reviews - Amazing!

The last seven courses we have sent off to eCampusAlberta for review have met all the quality standards! Kudos to everyone on the teams who have worked on these courses:

• BIO156
• BIO160
• ECE156
• ENG150
• RSP151
• ECE251
• RSP230

And the reviewers said . . .

• Another fabulous course
• Well done
• Another great course from Lethbridge

Nice job!

Two Virtual Conferences in the next month

I've found two very good virtual conferences we could attend in the next month. If we were to register in these conferences, would you attend at least some of the sessions? And do you think others on campus would?

Learning Analytics - Educause Learning Initiative - April 11 and 12
http://www.educause.edu/ELI124

Sloan-C Blended Learning Conference - April 23 and 24
http://sloanconsortium.org/conference/2012/blended/streamed_sessions

Please let me know . . .

Educause membership

Did you know that Lethbridge College has an institutional membership to Educause. If you are researching and / or trying to stay current with trends in higher ed, consider setting up your own account, using our institutional membership. Here's the link:

http://www.educause.edu/

The Sketchbook Project

Seven people submitted their Sketchbook Project sketchbooks to the Brooklyn Art Library on January 31: Amber, Donna, Lorne, Tyler, Tobiah, Darcie, and Jim. Congrats to all of you for taking some risks and completing your sketchbooks. Very very inspiring!

http://www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject2012

A few more of us have this project on hold. My plan is do complete mine over the summer when life is a little slower. Hopefully others will continue work on theirs as well.

the lightbulb is back in action . . .

The light bulb has resurfaced. Mark has passed it on to Tobiah for all the work he did on the ENP project (which is discussed in a different post).

Tobiah, you were instrumental in various aspects of this project, but especially as the team pulled everything together to complete it on time. Very well done!

English for Nursing Project - Kudos

The English for Nursing project is almost complete. We're working on the final documentation (reports and financials) this week. We supported the English Language Centre in this development, in collaboration with NorQuest College.

This has been both an interesting and successful project. We developed four courses (Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking) and then re reworked two courses that NorQuest College developed as part of this project. Intended audience includes English Language Learners who want to enter health professions in Canada.

This is an excellent example of what can happen when a team works together to make something good. Teams worked on these courses throughout the 2+ year project, but the team push at the end was impressive.
Kudos to everyone who was involved with this project. I think it's almost everyone in the department. The end product is excellent and you should be proud of your contribution.

Watch for news on a celebration coming up for this one!

Changes to Reporting Structure in EET

Last week we made another adjustment to the reporting structure in EET:

• The formatters are now reporting to the Instructional Technology Coordinator position. Amber will continue to be the lead formatter, and will report to Jackie. Couple reasons for this change: Jackie, as the ID Coordinator, is much closer than I am to the work the formatters do, including workload, challenges, and time lines.

• We previously changed the reporting structure for the AV department. Rather than Elio, AV Coordinator, reporting to the Manager of Instructional Technology, he will report to me.

Whenever we have people changing positions in EET (leaving or internal changes), I look at it as an opportunity to switch things up - if necessary. Both these changes make good sense, for a variety of reasons.

Feedback on the Student Technology Survey Infographic

Yesterday Karen and I gave an update to the Senior Admin Team (SAT) on the DL Strategy implementation. As part of this, prior to the meeting we sent all of them a pdf of the Student Technology poster to review. Last night Peter sent an email that commented on how effective this type of visual is in sharing information and what good quality it is. The visual above is one part of the poster (which is currently on the table or hanging in TE3213).

Tyler did most of the work on this poster, and Rebecca helped in the design phase. If you look closely at the poster, you'll notice that Christie is the teacher and Lyle is the student :) Kudos to all of you who helped with this initiative in some way.

We'll be doing a similar presentation at the next EET meeting (scheduled for March 19th at 9). Everyone in EET has been involved in the DL Strategy implementation in some way. And almost every other department on campus has also been involved (as you will see in the presentation). We're currently half way through the three year implementation. Completion date is targeted for June 2013.