Not really this panicked but seriously, I have lost complete track of how time is passing. How is April half over? I’ve begun to feel a strange sense of ennui combined with adrenaline. Bring on the weekend.
Tuesday Margaret and I held our inaugural BlueJeans training sessions. One for participants and one for moderators. They went well and we can definitely polish them up. I’m finding the BlueJeans environment makes me re-think some of my previous best practices. For example, the welcome slide. I used to always use one just so there was something there when people entered the room. I find in BlueJeans, everyone enters with their camera on and so far, they are chatting with each other and I kind of don’t wan’t to disturb them. Maybe in the future for less wild learning times, I will disable cameras on entry and have a slide up before things get started.
Wednesday Mike and I did two of our Blackboard Learn sessions – one on organizing and uploading content and one on assessment tools. We had almost no time to prep together but were able to divide the content up. Fortunately we’ve done similar sessions in the past and can work off each other quite well. Again both sessions went well but I know where I’m going to make a couple of changes – first in explaining more about the content area in Blackboard (student view) before talking about the Content collection (instructor view). Brent gave me a helpful analogy to try out.
It’s so great to have partners in these sessions. There were some really good questions in all four sessions and a lot of repeat customers showing up for everything. Their questions are really useful and sometimes they can answer questions for us from their experience with the tools.
Thursday and Friday more training sessions. Margaret and I did a couple of more BlueJeans sessions and Mike and I did a session on the grade center for Blackboard Learn. It’s a complicated thing and I think we got a good balance of the technical – what’s going on behind the scenes – and the practical – how it works – things. We emphasized that even though you can do a lot of calculations it’s not always in your interest. Keep it simple. Also, don’t worry if none of this sticks because you probably won’t be using it right away. It’s a lot to remember and we’re just a helpdesk ticket away. Mike and I have both noticed that some faculty aren’t aware that they can email helpdesk so we’re reminding people at every opportunity.
I have used up all my hours (and if i’m honest, probably a bit more) for the week. One more meeting, post this draft, and then I’m done. Next week should be interesting trying to parcel out the time over 5 days instead of 4. All of the sessions have gone quite well – at least from the feedback and comments we’ve received so far – despite the lack of time to prepare. I think people are just so appreciative that there are opportunities on offer.