Today’s post
will likely be on the brief side. I’ve had a progressively worsening cold this week and am not at full brain capacity. Hence the lemons. I will go and get some vitamin C.
Last Friday’s presentation went well. I think I already shared that. I like it when participants are also contributors. I sent out a follow up email including the slides I used because there were a lot of links on them. No one, so far has answered my feedback question. Last time there were immediate responses. I think I will come up with a new question for next time.
I attended a meeting about Open textbooks and we are planning sessions to recruit interested faculty. I contacted BCcampus to see if they can share some existing resources and lend us some print copies of Open textbooks. They will send us some printed books and have shared their slides (a lot of slides!) here. I will have a look through to see if I can find some stats on students saving money. I can find the stats but if someone has already created a great slide I will use it. It’s another way to demonstrate Open. I think it will be important for us to share as well (when we have some content).
We had our weekly Teaching and Learning Centre meeting to plan for our future as a centre and our roles within it.
Liesel and I are working with some Early Childhood Education faculty around using BlueJeans to support students in remote areas. We met and had a chat with them about their needs and what, or if, BlueJeans will be the right tool for the job. I’ll be digging in next week and creating accounts and having them try it out.
i was invited to a meeting with like minded video conferencers from OK college, Yukon College and Coast Mountain to talk about Video conferencing at our respective institutions. We’ll get together monthly as a “Video Conferencing Professional Learning Community”. It’s great to hear what’s happening at these institutions and what they’re trying out to support distance learners.
I came in for the Planning and Standards meeting this morning because I know a number of people couldn’t attend. We made it through three policies. I put a couple of planned vacations in the calendar for next year and had a quick meeting with an instructor this morning – again for grade centre questions. It’s a good thing we’ll be talking about assessments in the final webinar of my inagural series.
Priorities for next week are:
Plan for next Friday’s session. I’m going to be talking about organization in BB Learn. We’re going to spark some joy through the art of tidying up. I want to share what the content collection is, and does, as well as how to use folders to keep things organized. I try to walk people through the student experience in finding things but it’s also important in the back end that things are easier for instructors. It’s not the sexiest topic but it’s SOOOOO important.
BlueJeans admin. I need a quick walk through of the admin area to get instructors signed up with accounts and to get comfortable with the settings for my own BlueJeans account.
Laurie, Margaret and I are going to get together to go over our PD plans. Since we work different days we don’t get to see each other much despite being in the same office space. I find it easier to understand what their plans are like when they can explain it to me. Mine needs some work and some more firm dates.
I’m not feeling very reflective today but I am looking forward to things happening around Open resources and BlueJeans, as well as seeing what happens at my next BB session.