This week: Since I’m focused on planning I thought the NIC cookie from Widening Our Doorways was fitting. By the time I got mine it had seen better days 🙂
I met with Liesel to do some planning and now I have some planning to do. I’ve been going over the ‘Important Things’ document and will work out some timelines – where I can – for some deliverables.
I found the NICFA Professional Development Plan template that I didn’t know existed and started filling in some bullet points that I will expand on and then tie to the most recent version of the institutional plan. It is a good exercise as it makes you really think of where you want to put your learning beyond the next conference. Up until now I’ve just discussed PD with whomever I was reporting to so it’s not like there was never a plan before this, just a different procedure.
I’ve been looking at Bright Space – watching some videos and recorded webinars. It will be clearer when I can get my hands on it and see which options/widgets etc. will be available. I think that will also help define the type of training/resources we’re going to need too.
I started working through the Bright Space course for instructors and it occurred to me that one reason so many institutions re-invent the wheel and create their own training is that not all features are turned on for every install. Just something that popped into my mind while watching the videos. Some of what I’ve seen is a little more geared to K-12.
I am about halfway through the tutorial course and I have to say I do not enjoy being tutored by a cartoon moose. The course is okay – they’ve plugged in some activities so you can try things yourself. The sections don’t take long to work through.
Further to LMS training, it seems to be standard to break things out into ‘communication’, ‘assessment’ and ‘content’ (or, whatever terms apply) and I’ve done that myself because it makes sense. As I think ahead I will be watching to see if there are other ways that work – I don’t want to be in a ‘we’ve always done it that way’ rut but also, don’t want to unnecessarily complicate things . I’ll be looking at other institutions and their approaches as well.
Camosun has some on there site under D2L Tutorials
I signed up for the Open Education Global Conference
I was looking for UDL conferences and all I could find for the Pan-Canadian version is the one I attended at RRU. Seems like ages ago. I did find this UDL-IRN International Summit for next spring however.
I put this link here early in the week and I think it’s because there are case studies on how institutions implemented accessibility strategies and I was probably thinking about it in relation to introducing Open practices (pedagogy, resources):
From the BCcampus newsletter: BC Campus’ Accessibility Journey
So while it feels like I don’t have much that is tangible to show for the week, I’ve been immersed in thinking about, and setting up plans for, the next few months. Next week we start the D2L training sessions and hopefully will have access to a course to practice in.