Another Monday where I only had one appointment scheduled. Ask me how that went… I thought I would be able to carve a couple of hours out to work on my sample course(s) and then maybe spend some time on planning a few video tutorials. Then the whole day was just eaten up with correspondence, and helping people. I got a document together for adding users to Blackboard Learn so instructors can add other instructors themselves rather than putting in a ticket. I also got my outlook issue sorted out. Ben helped me run a repair on Office and that fixed the errors I was getting. My BlueJeans app also disengaged itself again so I re-installed and its seems to be okay again.
Leisel and Cheryl came up with the same ideas I had over the weekend for the Trades sample course – I wanted to add the trades consultant and I thought I would copy the course and make a generic template out of it as well – great minds etc. Still some work to do but I like the way it’s shaping up. I have a few ideas to make it better.
Tuesday was a rough one. Three sessions in a row in the morning. I was feeling a little screen bleary. I wanted to attend the Kaltura one to see what I could pick up. I’m not sure how much I did… I also like to be there to ask ‘faculty perspective’ kind of questions. For the afternoon MIke and I did another Blackboard assessments session. These are still well attended and we have them down pretty well but while it was happening the email deluge didn’t stop and I was starting to feel overwhelmed. I had a meeting with an instructor who needed some help with a live course. We had to untangle some grade center issues that came with copying the course over and not having a lot of time to clean things up. I was really tired of BlueJeans by then but we were able to trouble shoot and make things work. I got through a few help desk tickets as well. By the end of the day I wanted to give some attention and thought to what’s happening with the trades courses and support but I just didn’t have it in me. I had to step away from the screen and close the office door and make some physical space between work and home. Of course that doesn’t really ever happen around here. Our work and lives are pretty intertwined. It’s been like that for a long time so it’s okay.
I set up a Google doc for Margaret and I to identify where we need to create more handouts and some screencast/video tutorials.
The overwhelmed part comes from feeling woefully under prepared for the things coming up and not having enough time for the things already on my plate. Taking a break from it actually results in better productivity. Not taking a break leads to wheel spinning and frustration.
Wednesday was much calmer for turning things off Tuesday night. It was no less busy but I felt more in control and able to pace myself. My head was clearer and I could focus. I worked with a few instructors from Fine Arts on what they can do in Blackboard (and outside) and which tools will do what they need to do. That was followed by a session with some nursing instructors helping them get content organized and create master courses that instructors can copy.
Margaret and I had another BlueJeans moderator session in the afternoon and after that I had some time to untangle the list of courses for the trades and figure out what was ready and what wasn’t. I scheduled a meeting with Cheryl for Thursday to work through it.
I did a little more faculty support and figured out how to add a ‘tools’ link to menu in Blackboard for an instructor who is going to use journals.
Thursday was another heavy day of web conferencing back to back to back. Also some untangling of the trades courses. What needs a shell, what doesn’t. I don’t remember much else but I was online a lot. Oh, one thing, Margaret and I failed spectacularly with an ice-breaker – only one person followed instructions! It was funny.
Friday I attended Albert and Mike’s Kaltura 2 session and took a little more in. Then Albert and I did a Kaltura session for fine arts. I enjoyed it as I’m still learning and they are already coming up with applications for it. I crammed the EdCo agenda in over a lunch break and stayed in EdCo long enough to get through everything that needed quorum before heading to our staff meeting. The rest of the afternoon spent trying to clean up helpdesk tickets. Or at lest, that was the plan. Helpdesk was down. Fortunately the big important thing I had to do from there was to create a big pile of development shells for trades and I had downloaded the spreadsheet so I could still do the work.
This post is a bit more process than reflection. I am really enjoying getting to know more of our faculty members and really impressed with what they’re learning and sharing. It looks like I’ll be able to step away from a couple of sessions next week. That should leave a bit of time to create and to practice. Time to close the office door again and think of other things, like the garden.