New Policies . . .

A few policies have been updated recently and these updates will be relevant to some of the work that you do.   All updated policies have been published to the Lethbridge College Policies website and should be accessed from there:

• Records Management Policy and Procedures (updated Information and Records Policy)
•  Admissions Policy – New Effective Feb. 1, 2014
• Procurement Policy – Replaces Purchasing Policy
• Physical Resources Policy – Replaces Use of College Facilities

EET Newsletter November 25, 2013

Here's the link to our bi-weekly EET newsletter, along with one of the visuals from this edition:

ONe article includes a question from the instructor survey completed in May.   Most of the instructors who responded to the survey (120 responses) prefer to teach in learning environments with groupings of tables and chairs.   The least preferred environment was lecture theatres:

We're on TV!

Last week Erin and Trudi were filmed for a segment that Alisha Rasmussen did on education.   And more of you provided the background shots for a strong message about education and the support we provide.   Thanks for your role in making this happen!

EET Staff Goals - Sharing

Here's a link to our EET staff goals.   We made a copy of the original document and removed many of the personal goals that you had set.  

The purpose of sharing these goals is to help you become more aware of the goals of people around you.  

• Do synergies exist between you and others?   
• For EET Leaders, who in EET has goals that align to specific projects?

Printing . . . please think twice . . .

Please think twice before you print.  Some printing is necessary for all of us, but ask yourself if it is really necessary before you hit that "print" button.

This is awareness around "green" practices within EET.   Are there other things we could be doing?

EET Newsletter November 12, 2013

We sent out the next edition of the EET newsletter this morning.   We've been able to stay on schedule with a bi-weekly publication (except for the week the websites were down), thanks mostly to Darcie and Rebecca and to the EET staff who are getting their articles finished on time.   

If you have ideas for articles, please talk to Rebecca and Darcie who have a list of possibilities ongoing.

Key messages related to Academic Transformation

Paula has identified some key messages related to Academic Transformation.  You'll be able to learn more about what's going on at the Town Hall on October 29 from 12 to 1 so plan to attend.

   * We have begun to develop the implementation plan for the strategic plan through an action learning approach.  "Action learning is an educational process whereby people work and learn together by tackling real issues and reflecting on their actions.' (from Wikipedia)

   * We recognize that Academic Transformation is big – unlike anything we have done as a college before.

   * Change is necessary to create a sustainable system, to enhance access for all learners, to meet the needs of the labour market and to help diversify the economy in Alberta.

   * We have begun conversations that will help us define academic transformation by saying “what if”.

   * Our leadership way is the way we lead and engagement is a priority.

   * We will develop processes to engage all employees in the dialogue as well as the perspective of our external stakeholders.

   * The output of May 22 is being considered in the definition of the future state and is also being reviewed by internal process leads and management forum members to determine what needs to be done now and in the short term.

Another Staffing Update

If you haven't met Cailee Bashum already, take a minute to stop by and say hi.  Cailee started last Monday, October 7, in a formatter position.  We now have a formatting team of two!   Welcome Cailee!

And Gavin Brinsmead will be starting to transition to the AV team tomorrow.  He'll be working half time with us, and half time in his third floor tech position as well.  Gavin, it's great to have you on the team too.

 

Lethbridge College Academic Transformation Strategy

Academic Transformation Strategy
We will collaboratively create innovative and creative learning experiences that meet the diverse and integrated needs of learners, the economy and society.

• Strategic Enrollment Management: The right students in the right learning experiences for the right purpose as the integrated needs of learners, the economy, and society shift and change.
• Applied Research: Industry-driven research to address real-world issues
• Teaching and Learning: Innovative teaching processes and practices for innovative learning experiences.
• Product Development: Responsiveness, flexibility and speed of products and services to market.
• Service Excellence for Students: Student-focused service to meet needs.

Collaborative Partnerships Strategy
We will be model collaborators focused on achieving unprecedented levels of collaboration in education.

• Collaborative Relationship Management: Understanding, anticipating and acting on emerging synergies for collective success
• Service Excellence for Those We Serve Internally and Externally: Client-focused service to meet needs.

Resource Innovation Strategy
We will create entrepreneurial business models and expand revenue sources.

Entrepreneurial Business Model: Transforming new ways of business into reality.

People Development Strategy
We will develop our people to realize their highest potential.

Very interesting article in Ken Steele's Eduvation blog yesterday.   He discusses six converging demographic, economic, technological and political trends affecting post-secondary institutions.   This includes the need for flexible learning (as student choose not to be physically on campus) and the move to grant credit for students completing MOOC's.

Here's an excerpt . . .

Lecture capture, hybrid delivery, online courses, smart textbooks, virtual libraries, game-based learning, and more: students and faculty may resist some of these new technologies for a while, but escalating public demands for efficiency and access make the overall trend inescapable. Over the next decade or two, these emerging technologies will transform undergraduate education for many students, and the campus will become steadily more virtualized.

Worth a read:  http://eduvation.ca/2013/09/peak-campus/

Tentative Agenda for EET Meeting on Friday, September 20

Hi Everyone

Here's a tentative agenda for our meeting on Friday from 9 to 10:30 in CE1305.   We'll supply beverages, so bring your "go" cups and a snack to share (if you'd like to :)

1.   Introductions / Purpose of Meeting

2.  Things to Celebrate

3.  Information Sharing

• Staffing Updates
• CTLI Centre meeting on Sept 27 - Purpose
• LC Strategic Planning 
• Academic Transformation Strategy
• Professional Growth Plans
• Can we make these available for EET staff?
• Thank you for the work you put into these! 
• Follow through . . .
• EET Newsletter

4.  EET Goals
Your EET leaders have developed a spreadsheet that includes EET goals, along with more specific department goals.  We'll be discussing this information first in small groups, and then as a department.   Have we captured everything?   Anything missing?   Anything to add?

5.  EET Work Spaces

• Configuration
• Reflection of "EET"? 
• Kitchen

6.  EET Staff Photo

21st Century Teaching and Learning - Visual

Here's the visual we've been using at the Centre presentations this week.   It provides a framework for us as we hit the 13-14 academic year at a sprint pace.   We'll discuss this more at our next EET meeting, and in the meantime, we'll work on getting a podcast done that provides more detail on the visual. 

  Thanks, Darcie, for your work on this.

EET Newsletter - 1st edition

On Monday we sent the first edition of the EET newsletter to the instructor list serv and to all the Management Forum members.   As of this morning, we've had 329 views already.   Amazing!

Thanks to the EET leaders group for their leadership on this initiative and to Rebecca and Darcie for their incredible media support.    We'll be prioritizing future content for this newsletter at our EET leader's meetings, so pass your ideas and updates along.

Staffing Updates

Welcome to our two new Instructional Designers.   Both Kyle and Mark have started work, so stop by TE3218 and say hello:

Kyle Snowdon comes from a small town outside Toronto, Ontario. He has a B.A. (Hons) from Carleton University, a B.Ed from Trent University, and recently completed his M.Ed from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. In his spare time Kyle enjoys traveling, sports, and the outdoors.

Mark Matsalla coming from Invermere, BC is married with three children. He comes from an elementary/middle school/high school teaching background and is interested in experiential learning. He got his BFA and B.Ed from U of L and his Masters from U of C. For his midlife crisis, he decided to start playing hockey. He also speaks fluent Saskatchewan.

And Jessica has left to focus on her Masters degree.   It's possible that Jessica may still do some contract formatting for us, but it will depend on her other commitments, which include Teaching Assistant and Research Assistant responsibilities in addition to her work on her thesis.  Jessica has been a valuable member of our team, and we're already missing her. 

We'll be advertising soon for a replacement formatter (temporary position from now until December).  If you know of someone with the right skill set and who would be a good fit on the team, please pass this info along.

The advertisement for the AV Technologist position is still on the LC site.   We're waiting for the right person.  Again, if you know of someone who would be a good fit for this position and the AV department, let them know about the opportunity

Universal Design for Learning - Relevance to EET

I messed up on the timing around this message about the relevance of the Universal Design workshops that many of us attended last week.  The relevance was clear in my mind, but I didn’t communicate it, so my apologies.

It’s important that all of us in EET have at least a foundational knowledge of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for a couple of reasons:

• We are anticipating that UDL will be part of the Academic Transformation Strategy that will be developed in follow up to the spring college-wide strategic planning we participated in.  Accessibility Services has plans for increasing awareness of UDL across campus, but most specifically with instructors in course design (LMS, website, assignment design, handouts, etc.) and course delivery.
• EET staff provide a lot of front line support for both new and experienced instructors.   We should be modeling UDL in our language when we are talking with instructors, demonstrating it in materials we develop (for the LMS, websites, handouts (digital and print), integrating it into course and program redesigns, and encouraging instructors to follow UDL principles as well.

Please take the time to ensure you have at least a foundational knowledge of UDL because it’s something we’ll need to be current on as we support the development of the Academic Transformation Strategy.

EET Vision, Mission, and Values for 13-14

Your votes are in and now we have finalized the EET Vision, Mission, and Values for the coming year.   Please consider the following as you articulate your personal and professional goals for 13-14 as well.

Thanks everyone for your input into this decision.   Our plan is to use these statements to guide us for 13-14 and then we'll revisit all three next spring.

EET Vision	Purposefully transforming teaching and learning for the 21st century
EET Mission	Educational Enhancement Team creates meaningful learning opportunities and supports excellence and innovation in teaching and learning.
EET Values	Collaboration and  Empowerment

Update on Work Spaces

Thanks to those of you who have added your ideas to the google doc on EET Work Spaces.   Based on your comments, we've decided to wait until the Professional Growth Plans are submitted in the next couple of weeks. We'll revisit this in early August.

And if you need some inspiration as you think about work spaces, watch the video that we played at the EET meeting. 

Link to working doc on Work Spaces

Second Vote - EET Mission and Values

Thanks to everyone who participated in the first vote on the EET Vision and Mission.  It's likely that we will not achieve 100% consensus.  Remember that we can try "living" our vision and mission through this coming year and then, if necessary, we will revisit it.  The smaller group working on this met Monday and made a few decisions based on the results from the first survey:  

EET Vision: Decision made to use the proposed statement.   Most of the feedback was around the use of the word "purposeful" in the statement.  A strong majority (86%) voted in favor of including it, so it stays.
- Works for me: 86%
- Does not work for me: 14%

EET Mission:  You have another chance to vote on one of three options included in this survey.  We felt that 79% wasn't quite strong enough.
- Works for me: 79%
- Does not work for me: 21%

EET Values:  Based on feedback from the first survey, we've decided to focus on two values for 13-14.  In this survey, you are asked to rank your top values.
- Works for me: 79%
- Does not work for me: 21%

So please vote one more time on the mission and values - and remember that if you don't like the proposed mission you need to provide a suggestion for something different.

Link to Survey

Time to Vote - EET Vision and Mission

The group working on the EET vision and mission statements met again this morning, and we think it's time to vote on both statements.  In the end, after we discussed many alternatives and all your suggestions, we came back to the original vision and mission statement we had developed last week, and we've included the justification below.

The vision and mission statement need to work for all of us, so please take a few minutes to respond to the survey - by Tuesday July 9 at the end of the day.    If they work, we'll start using them.   And if not, we'll keep working on them.

Here's the link:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LH7M836

Additional background:

LC Vision:	Leading and transforming education in Alberta
LC Mission	Lethbridge College inspires and facilitates learning and innovation to meet economic and social needs.
EET Vision	Purposefully transforming teaching and learning for the 21st century
EET Mission	Educational Enhancement Team creates relevant learning opportunities and supports excellence and innovation in teaching and learning.
EET Values	Collaboration, responsiveness, empowerment, communication, relevance, learning, and currency

Vision - future focused 

Rationale

• Include “purposefully” in vision:  the idea behind having purposefully in the vision is that we don’t change or transform for the sake of transforming, we assess and  evaluate what needs transforming or change and then pool resources in a strategic way in which to get a more favourable result, hence purposeful. (Tyler)

• Purposefully also makes it more measurable 
• Transforming is a powerful word - shows future focus and change in response to teaching and learning needs
• 21st century aligns with future focus 
• Aligns well with college vision

Mission - articulates purpose and direction; states what EET does 

Rationale

• EET is known for the four key words in the statement:  creates, supports, excellence and innovation 
• Mission is the road map for our vision.   We transform teaching and learning by creating relevant learning opportunities and supporting excellence and innovation in teaching and learning.
• Learning is included three times between vision and mission so it’s emphasized.  We are learning too and modeling behavior
• Opportunities - means that students and instructors have choices 
• It states what EET does.

Thanks to Tyler, Darcie, Angela and Trudi for your additional work.

Professional Growth Plans

We are ready to try the new processes for the Professional Growth Plans and related conversations with your supervisors.   This is a pilot for this new approach that will replace the traditional annual performance review.  Couple reminders:

• This is your professional growth plan - so make it meaningful for you,
• You are encouraged to work through the process collaboratively with a colleague or two.

Remember that you are encouraged to work collaboratively through this process.

The expectation is that you will complete your own PGP and meet with your supervisor to complete this phase of the process by the end of July.

Here are links to two docs:

1.  The PGP Overview - This doc explains the process, so please read through it first.

2.  The PGP Template - You'll need to make a copy of the template so you can fill in your own information. 

If you find things don't work, or if you have questions, please just send them my way.  Let's see what happens!

Karen

Hi Everyone

Couple updates this morning:

1.   Staffing Update: The two instructional design positions (temporary / 1-year) we had requested have been approved, and the positions are currently being advertised.   If you know of anyone who is qualified and would be a good fit for our team, please refer them to the LC HR website.

2. EdMedia Conference - World Conference on Educational Media and Technology.   Andy, Trudi, Alison and Jackie are off to this conference in Victoria this week.   We'll find some time for some conversations when they are back so we can tap into what they learned at the conference.  

3. I'm still working on the process and documentation around the Professional Growth Plans.   You can expect something more concrete by mid-week.  

4. Tablets for EET Staff:   We will have a few tablets available for EET staff, and we are asking that proposals for the tablet be integrated with your Professional Growth Plans.   More detail on this will be included with the documentation around the PGP's you'll have by mid-week.  We need to make sure that the people supporting the 21st Century Teaching and Learning projects have the tools they need.

5.  Work Spaces:  Several people have brought forward suggestions related to work spaces within EET.   Watch for a separate message on this one later this week.

5.  We have a smaller group working on a Communication plan.   More updates on this as we get further along.

Finally, I'm off campus today and Thursday but will be checking email / phone both days. 

Leaderful Practice - Article to read . . .

I'd encourage everyone to read this article on leadership.  It discussed the 4 C's of leadership (concurrent, collective, collaborative, and compassionate).   Some important things for all of us to reflect on.

http://www.leaderful.org/pdf/RaelinTD.pdf

Grounded!

It feels great to get my feet back on the ground in EET.  Last week I was starting to feel grounded again, especially with the work we were focused on to get applications for funding for various initiatives submitted.    It was a great experience to view the world from the Dean’s role as I learned a lot about how and why things work at a different level, and hopefully in the future this will enable us to keep EET relevant within an ever changing environment.  Anyway, it feels like I’m back and ready to focus again.
 
You will find a variety of information items in the following blog postings for you to know and think about.   And if you have questions about any of them, please stop by.

Budget

I’d encourage all of you to pay attention to the provincial budget discussions in the news over the next few weeks.   Typically post-secondary institutions receive a 2% increase in funding from the gov’t each year; however, we anticipate we’ll be fortunate to get a 0% increase for 13-14.  This means that decisions will be very focused on doing what’s most important.   Things, such as the price of a barrel of oil, are significantly impacting the current economy in Alberta and consequently will impact the budget that will be announced on March 7. 

 When you have a few minutes, it's worth listening to the following two short newscasts on this impact:

• The impact that the price for a barrel of oil is having on the Alberta economy, and in our context, more specifically on funding for post secondary institutions.   To learn more about this, listen to these news reports (sent by Peter L.):

 

• Doug Horner and Ken Hughes on Alberta oil revenue and provincial debt

• U of A Economist Richard Dixon on the valuing protocol of Alberta Oil

And then pay attention to the budget announcements on March 7 as decisions made at this level will certainly impact our budget here at the college.

Horizon Report 2013

I’d strongly encourage all of you to read the newest edition of the Horizon Report that was released this month.   This is a “decade-long research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in higher education. Six emerging technologies are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years . . . giving campus leaders and practitioners a valuable guide for strategic technology planning.”

• Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less
• Massively Open Online Courses
• Tablet Computing
• Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years
• Big Data and Learning Analytics
• Game-Based Learning
• Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years
• 3D Printing
• Wearable Technology

Very interesting read:  http://www.nmc.org/publications/2013-horizon-report-higher-ed

Requests for Funding (12-13 and 13-14)

Last week we submitted eight requests for funding for a variety of initiatives.   Some funding became available for capital expenditures and for the Innovation Fund that has to be spent prior to June 30, 2013.   We also submitted RFD’s for next year July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014).     All aspects will be very competitive.

• Innovation Fund ($250,000 available):  Tablet Project.   The intent of this project is to increase capacity related to mobile learning, more specifically shift our focus towards tablet integration in the classroom with a strong emphasis on professional development and a broadened focus to include instructors, staff, and students.   This project will also directly inform the College’s mobile learning/BYOD strategy.  Request was for just under $50,000.  (Approved on February 26)

• Capital ($340,000 available):
• Furniture for the Active Learning Lab in AN2739
  (Approved on February 26)
• Frames for posters for classrooms (room layouts, emergency procedures, contact info, etc.) - submitted on behalf of Learning Spaces Team and Facilities
  (Approved on February 26)
• Replacement Scantron machine - for instructors to mark exams

• RFD’s for next year (13-14) - will be discussed at College Leadership Team in March

• Continued funding for EET positions that were funded through DL Strategy allocated funding.
• Funding to cover overlap as we transition to a new LMS to replace Angel (May June 2014)
• 10 extra laptops for the library for student sign-out.   We anticipate that as the transition to BYOD gains momentum, more instructors will “require” their students to have a device with them in the classroom.

• IB Theatre Technology Upgrades