I started the week with back to back to back sessions. I attended part of day one of the course re-design sprint and then headed into a session on content in Blackboards Learn followed by a session on blueJeans participation. In the afternoon we did a BlueJeans moderator session and I was able to catch up on a few emails I’d been wanting to respond to as well as create my first account for someone in BlueJeans through a help desk ticket.
We got the news that we can use time sheets if we go over our allotted hours in a week. That, in itself is a relief. It takes some pressure off of which thing you have to prioritize when everything is important. Even if I don’t have to use it, I know it’s there and that feels like just getting a bit of white space to work with. Some breathing room.
I attended the sprint again on Tuesday morning and had a little time to work on our Blackboard 0 session, AKA Blackboard Basics. We have an agenda roughed out on the topics we will cover. I know we have instructors who have been using Blackboard at their particular comfort level but are still not sure about how some of the tools work and some who have never used it at all.
I was also able to get a handout together for creating breakout rooms via scheduling rather than using the function in the app. Large groups appear to be causing problems for the BlueJeans breakout rooms.
Margaret and I got two more BlueJeans sessions in on Wednesdays. The moderator session was well attended. The participant session was small but we enjoyed it. It was a bit personalized but also covered all the material. Mike and I did another Blackboard session on assessments. Good crowd and there were people there who realized they need to learn more about Blackboard than they can get out of one session.
As always while these things are going on, there are instructors who need support by email or through helpdesk.
Thursday I was able to attend the whole sprint about engaging learners. The attendees explored some different tools for engagement and reported back. I got kicked out of the session and lost my BlueJeans desktop app. This has happened before; even after re-installing it wouldn’t synch with my BCNeT page. Managed to get it worked out. Got together with the team for some updates on BlueJeans and all the other myriad things going on right now.
Margaret and I are going to chip in on some documentation for supporting students in the upcoming terms and I’ve started writing some of that content. I now have a conceptual framework for where this content will go and what it will look like and that helps. We’ll work with the student tech support team to pull everything together.
I attended part of the last sprint day today but had to leave early for another session with Mike on using Gradebook. We had at least 14 people and I think it went well. I am so happy to see so many people participating in these sessions. It’s obvious that everyone is trying and when I hear things like “my teaching is going to be so much better after this” it validates all the effort that goes in to making it happen.
There was more of one on one support with faculty through email, bluejeans and helpdesk, as above. I received a lot of ‘thank you’ emails this week and that was nice. Not just to me, of course but to everyone who is leading and supporting sessions. I may have said this before but it’s worth saying again. Seeing the college community come together like this is fantastic. I can’t remember a time when welding instructors and English teachers and scientists were in a shared space learning together like this.
Next week just got a little busier with some new sessions added specifically for our trades faculty, many of whom have been showing up for regular sessions. Many hands on instructors are brand new to what’s available to them online. I’m looking forward to it.
I probably left some things out but this is getting long. I didn’t end up working full time this week but without the time sheet option, let’s just say my work would have been slap-dash, and I would have been snacking on antacids. That white space I mentioned is important – everything feels so much less rushed.
I really enjoy the online training sessions and the colleagues I get to do them with. Feeling fortunate not just to be working but to be working with awesome people.
p.s. If I did a word cloud of this post the word SESSION would probably be the biggest one.