Category: Uncategorised (Page 2 of 4)

Things are busy, but calm for now. Next week we set sail.

Monday was a half day for me. This is the last week of the randomized work weeks.

Most of the morning was taken up with instructor meetings. One was a course walk through and checking up on settings the rest was general Blackboard help.  I also dis the prep for Tuesday’s BB Learn session., getting people in the studio course, creating folders, clean up etc. I still couldn’t get the new in line grading tool to work properly. I have to minimize the window and then maximize for the tools to show up. I want to do a quick video but I’d like to know it’s stable – something to talk with Mike about. Instructors want to know more about grade center and marking but I’m  not sure how much of that will stick trying to learn it right now with no practical application for it until the first assignments start coming in.

Tuesday Margaret and I did a BB Learn hands on studio. It was well attended. Some instructors aren’t new to Blackboard and they have their own ways of doing things that didn’t follow the studio practices. Interesting how some are keen to try a new/different way and some, not so much.  After our staff meeting, I booked time for some help desk tickets back to back in BlueJeans meetings.  One instructor had the wrong day so I spent my waiting time doing prep for the two Kaltura sessions coming on Wednesday. Some of hte features still aren’t working properly but shouldn’t affect the studios.

Albert and I did two Kaltura sessions on Wednesday followed by a couple more instructor meetings. These were the youtube and express capture sessions. If the studios carry on I want to look at the two different Kaltura sessions and maybe juggle the content between them a bit. I had a couple of instructor meetings again in the afternoon. I remember feeling really tired after the first one but the second one was actually quite energizing. I think I am picking up on the energy of the people I’m working with. Some of the fear and trepidation is coming through and it can be wearing. But then sometimes I can sense the excitement about new opportunities and exploring new ways of teaching and that is invigorating.

I think some of the instructors that are requesting time are really just looking for some supportive assurance that they’re going to be okay. And they will be.  I think they’re a bit punchy right now with all the changes and just need a calm presence to tell them they’ve got this.

Ready! Le’ts go! Got right back into workshops on Tuesday morning. That was a good way to start. I spent some time on Monday getting ready and catching up on last week’s email. Monday wasn’t an official work day but I needed to make up some time and I wanted to feel ready to go on Tuesday.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were all Blackboard studio sessions in the mornings. It was almost like we had a cohort going through them which was nice. most of the same people came for all three days. Some had to leave early because they were also enrolled in course re-design sprint but they told me they came back to the studio course to practice so that was good to know.

I had been meaning to ask Mike about an upgrade to our Blackboard assignment feedback tool (Blackboard Annotate).  We’ve both been on varying stages of vacation and haven’t connected as much as usual.  We were expecting to have Annotate back in June. Well, it’s here now. I discovered it during a studio session on assignments.  It looks much more robust than the older version and I will spend some time exploring it and will probably create a screen cast for it as part of my Kaltura practice. I’ll also see if there is a hand out that needs updating.

It turns out that there is a pretty good hand out from Blackboard showing the tools and features, and a short video. I had some time Thursday afternoon to look over the features while I was waiting for an instructor to show up in BlueJeans. I made one screen cast of Blackboard Annotate – it’s not great, but the point was to practice and it was good for that. I lost my Kaltura controls – that’s never happened to me before – and I couldn’t end it.  I’ll keep experimenting until it’s smooth.

We have a Kalutra upgrade coming Monday so next week will be getting familiar with that before the studios on Wednesday. I’m going to get familiar with it by creating as many screen casts and videos as I can (between other things) until it starts to feel easy.

Welcome back, but again, not quite a full week. I had two work days and half a vacation day so my work week technically ended on Tuesday.

I spent most of my time working through a couple of help desk tickets and catching up on all the new resources for faculty and students that are available.  I’ll be looking for places where there are hand outs or screencasts that I could create for support. I also started preparing for getting back into workshop mode next week. I need to clean up some of the course shells I used for studio sessions and make sure they’re ready for some new users.

I have some priorities that I’ll work on next week, in particular getting familiar with what’s coming for the Kaltura upgrade and doing some practicing with screen cast/video production.

Outside of NIC I was invited to facilitate a Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) bootcamp session for BCcampus this week.  I really enjoyed it. We worked with instructors from across the province on course re-design. It was interesting  to get a peek at what’s happening at other institutions. They covered a lot of material in four days. In fact I used to facilitate a similar course that ran for five weeks…

Back to three days a week for the rest of the month. Lots of emails to follow up with on Monday.

This bell is in the garden of the Villa Ganz in Guadalajara. Just ring if you need me. Feels for this week.

The best laid plans… it was a strange week for productivity. There were comings and goings, dog sitting, people we needed to be there for. Fortunately I didn’t have a lot of meetings and could be a little flexible with my time. Part of the strangeness, I think, is that a lot of people are on vacation, there are no workshops and the energy is kind of low. Even working remotely there is a lot of interaction when we’re busy. I do appreciate the time to actually get to work on some of the other things there hasn’t been much time for.

I had intended to be finished with the student training course by end of day Monday.  See above re: productivity… I did finish it (Thursday) at least in the sense that the information I wanted in there is in there. I made a few changes in how content was presented and I like it. It makes me want to tweak more though and at some point you just have to stop.

I also met with an instructor about BlueJeans so she could do some hands on and she now feels more confident about using it.

I sat in on a couple of BCcampus  sessions to get a feel for how the synchronous sessions in the  FLO bootcamp course were run. I’ll be co-facilitating the third iteration in a couple of weeks. It was interesting to hear the perspectives and experiences of instructors from other institutions who have had to make drastic changes to their teaching. Some instructors don’t even know what tools are available to them at their institutions.

I picked up a few links from these sessions (in no curated order).

• Article on remote proctoring – creepy.
• Nice resource that Josie Gray shared on accessibility and complex images. This was something I really struggled with trying to convert Power Point slides to html for a course in agricultural economics.  I think I’m going to get it printed in colour.
• Someone shared this link for making infographics:  piktochart
• The “impromtu gauntlet” technique for student presentations

Mike fixed the self-enroll option for the student training course and we tested it out as students. There is an ugly red error message that shows at the top but the option to enroll is in the course menu. I think I am going to add a little context to the existing Student resources tab about how to enroll.

I am off again for a little while. Using up some more vacation time. I’ll have a couple of days to brush up on studios and see where I can improve sessions and clean up the practice courses I use. I think we’ll be very busy again after the 17th. A little break before will be good.

I have September’s schedule figured out. I am going to try doing mornings four days a week and see how that goes.

Back again in a couple of weeks.

It was another good week of learning. More hands-on studios for Blackboard Learn and Kaltura.  The studio course spaces that I created seem to work well. I can make everyone an instructor and they can create things, then, they can use the student preview to create a student user and experiment with the tools from that perspective.  It’s useful to see how the tools work from both sides – that way we can remember how to create really clear instructions when things aren’t intuitive. The preview user allows them to add to each other’s discussions and submit assignments and they can see how that looks in grade center as an instructor. It’s good practice for me too because I can talk about the tools, how and why to use them but I don’t use them in a class type setting and see the functionality (or lack of) first hand. 

I feel pretty comfortable with the Blackboard studios and depending on who shows up things can take different turns but we always manage to cover all the material. Friday we spent a lot of time talking about discussions and had to rush through a couple of other things but we managed to build forums, create threads, and comment on them, as well as create an assignment and upload something for grading. I wanted to have everyone do an audio/video feedback in their assignment but we ran out of time. They know how, they just didn’t get to practice. I encourage everyone to go back to the course and look through and play with grading etc. anytime. 

The Kaltura sessions went well. In my head, I was expecting a repeat of last week where we did a novice and an intermediate even though, I knew they were going to be novice sessions. So, our second session was one we hadn’t done before and it felt a bit out of sequence – just because I was expecting the first time to be next week. We were ready but I didn’t have as much confidence going in because I haven’t used the quiz very much. Albert was a great help with that. We had fun and everyone was able to get a You Tube video into their folder in the course and then add some quiz questions to it. Some had been to the previous session where we created a video with Kaltura Capture so they had other video to work with. Everyone seems to enjoy it.  

We did a special session with the Department of Accessible Learning (DALS) around assessments and accommodations for students in Blackboard. I’ve built a course for them where we will add some tests and other items so they can see how things look, test out some assistive technologies and just generally get a feel for the platform and what’s possible for their students. 

Most of the helping  this week seemed to be related to checking settings for people. They aren’t sure how tests and assignments work, or will work,if they have a release date on them.  They are a little nervous but it’s not outright panic at this stage. 

I had good energy this week – the studio participants helped with that. The pace is much nicer lately but by Friday, and the last one of the week, I was tired.  Margaret and I figured out a calendar for August and left some room for the inevitable unforeseen things that will come up. We’re starting to get the Health and Safety information on returning to work in the fall. Turn, turn, turn…

We started running the studios this week. It was a lot of fun. Even though most of the week felt like I was a few steps behind. I’ve been preparing hand outs all week and trying to get a few screen casts ready. I think the screen casts will be useful and they take a lot less time than handouts do. 

Monday was the inaugural Blackboard Learn Novice Studio on content. I really enjoyed the format and had a very friendly group of participants. I have created a Blackboard Learn course for Blackboard studios and one for Kaltura studios.  For this Blackboard studio I created folders in the Content Collection and Folders in the Content stream – one with each participant’s name on it. They went to their folders in each place and started to create some structure for content. This went really well as simply showing people how gets a lot of nods, “yes, I get it” but having them actually do it, and see why it’s a good idea, is pretty great. It was nice to have Margaret co-host and also play along as a participant. 

I feel pretty solid with Blackboard Learn but my Kaltura knowledge still felt a bit less-so going in to the sessions. Practicing with screen casts for the Blackboard sessions helped a lot with my confidence. I was able to share mistakes and successes and of course Albert was there to fill in any blanks. Most participants were able to create a short video or screen cast and upload it to their folder in the Kaltura studio course. The novice session was full apart from one person who had another commitment and it went really well. The intermediate session was a little strange with only two people and one who dropped out part way through. It worked out though. I find it disconcerting when there is dead air in a session. For Blackboard they are off doing but we can still have conversations and are able to help out.  When they are recording something it’s different. Talking in Bluejeans is distracting rather than helpful. I think I will send people away next time and have them come back when they are done or if they need help. 

I attended the WordPress studios that Margaret and Mike did. I got a few tips that will help me clean up this site. I like seeing and hearing what others are doing, and planning to do, with WordPress. 

We facilitated two more Blackboard sessions that were well attended and covered tests, assignments, and communication tools. I used the same folder set up and participants created tests, discussions, and assignments and then they posted to each other’s forums, took each other’s tests and submitted assignments. They got to experience the student and instructor perspective.  I first tried changing everyone’s role from instructor to student and then back again. What we found was that when everyone was an instructor, the student list disappeared from the grade center. I worked around it by changing a couple back to student and it was fine. For the second round, I got everyone to save the student preview user account and that worked to keep student data in the grade center. 

There were some good conversations around using the tools and the discussion forum in particular. Margaret’s perspective with her Global Learning  hat on was very helpful.  I really enjoyed the studio format.  The numbers we had were manageable and participants seemed to enjoy being able to make things. 

I still have a lot to prepare for next week but having gone through one set of studios the next ones shouldn’t take as much ‘pre-work’ time.  I hope to focus on screen casting next week. It will be great when we have a repository of them to point people to. 

There was so much great work and creativity from our colleagues this week. I am impressed by their dedication to making great learning experiences for their students and the way they are diving in and playing with the tools. By Thursday the frantic pace of preparation was over and there was time to reflect on all the wisdom, hence the little owl for this post’s picture.  

Happy Friday. 

Monday was a nice catching up and helping kind of day. I met with or called a few instructors and helped with whatever Blackboard design and grading questions they had. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were planning, helping, and meeting days.  Funny that it doesn’t feel that there is much to write about. I guess everyone is settling in. Spring classes are well under way and September might feel like a long way off (it isn’t). There were a couple of frantic requests as instructors who haven’t been to training sessions get their heads around grading in the LMS. I almost lost my patience at one point (not to anyone’s face, just in my head) but reminded myself that trauma is affecting a lot of people, and, they’re trying to teach. 

I’m excited about the planning for the next phase of sessions. I have a lot of responsibility coming up and have most of next week to plan and build and then I have to execute. I’m scouring beginner Kaltura training guides to figure out where to start with studios. 

I attended one of Mike and Albert’s Kaltura sessions and had a few instructor calls and help desk tickets to finish the week. 

A lot more thinking and planning than performing this week. The pace is quite different. This feels like we’re in the trough part of a wave.  Next week will be preparing to ride the next crest. 

Got a little relief from sessions this week as enrollments have slowed down for now. We don’t all need to be there for small groups. Mike and I did our first Blackboard Basics and it was good. We had instructors from trades, business, health care, and student employment services. We covered what the LMS is and what they can do with it.

I met with the trades consultants while we worked out development shells and where to store ‘master’ content. I spent some time cleaning up helpdesk tickets in the afternoon and met with Ashley from trades to  talk about what course shells we needed for forestry. Mike was a life-saver in course creation. If that’s too hyperbolic, he was definitely a time-saver. 

Tuesday Mike and I did our Blackboard Content and Assessment sessions. I’ve been helping a couple of instructors who are co-teaching and had a quick look at their course. We’re going to meet to talk a little about organization because I think I can help them. I set up some time with the trades consultant to do a walk through of the sample course. I finally got to work on that a little and decided to do a screen cast in Kaltura to add to it. That took a few tries just getting used to the settings but I’ll keep practicing. 

Got to learn a lot more about Kaltura on Wednesday. I discovered that my screen cast from Tuesday ended up with no audio so will have to go in and figure out what happened there. I sat in for part of the Bluejeans moderator session with Margaret because it looked like there were quite a few people.  I met with the  instructor mentioned above and we worked through some ways to organize content. 

I found out why there was no audio in my screencast. It does work but for some reason you have to click the speaker button first to make it play. I’ll try some more and see if there is a setting I hit by accident.  I had a little frustration creating and saving the screen casts. I did some editing and tagging and then lost them, couldn’t click some buttons because the window they were in wouldn’t fit my screen, and a couple of things like that. It will get easier with use. 

Lots more Bluejeans/Blackboard sessions on Thursday and a couple of short meetings and help desk tickets in between. 

Friday was a little bit lighter and I was able to help a couple of people to clear up some tickets but couldn’t get into helpdesk again to close them.  Next week is shaping up to be BlueJeans intensive. I’m lookging forward to changing up the workshops to be a little more hands on. People will feel more comfortable, and confident, with the tools once they are able to create something.  Like my Kaltura experience, hands on practice, try, sometimes fail, try again… 

A little post-script. I went into the course where I’d been helping with organization and the instructor has done a fantastic job and I felt so proud of him…. seems a bit silly to me but it really does look good. 

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.