Observations on Week 1 - Prep for the semester

Couple observations from last week as everyone was trying to both get their heads back into work and get a lot of work done in prep for classes starting yesterday. It looks like we had 19 courses to get ready, and an additional 5 were delayed to May. I'll post new registration stats the end of the add / drop period, so we'll see if numbers continue to increase.

What do you suppose is the most important aspect of the team based approach to the course development projects?

From what I saw last week, I think it is often / usually communication that will make or break a project. Not surprising, for sure. When things work well within a project, the communication among all stakeholders has been sufficient, relevant, inclusive, and timely. When things go off the rails, how much of it can be attributed to a lack of communication?

So I'll leave you with a couple questions to think about:

• How well did you communicate with your team on the projects you worked on? Could your communication have been more timely? Clearer?
  
• Were the necessary team members included in the communication (either digitally or f2f) at the appropriate times?
• Was the right mode of communication used (digital, f2f, Skype, phone . . .)
  
• Did you meet f2f often enough - but not too much?
• Did you have the information you needed?
  
• Perhaps most important of all, in what ways can you improve your communication as you continue to work on team -based projects?
• In what ways can you be proactive to ensure clear communication happens on your projects?

Overall, I saw teams working very well together - with a real sense of urgency to get quality materials ready for students. There were a few stressful moments leading up to the break, and they rose to the surface again last week, but for the most part things went quite smoothly.

Thanks to all of you for making this happen. It makes a significant difference to students and to instructors.