Following in the footsteps of an increasing number of friends and former colleagues I’ve decided to post my weekly reflections on work here. At half time the weeks seem to fly by and it’s hard to believe that I actually get anything done. I’ve taken to making notes through the work days rather than just consulting my calendar to help me remember what went on. I think having the blog space will help as I can keep a draft post going all week.
Last Friday I held a session for faculty called “Supporting Students in Blackboard: Good Practices for Face-to-Face, Blended and Online Classes”. We talked about sharing files, using the tools in BB Learn for student created content, collaboration, accessibility, reflective practice, etc. We did the session at lunch time using BlueJeans and 7 people showed up. I’ve mostly been a participant in BlueJeans sessions so moderating was a little different but I had a couple of practice sessions early in the week. I’ve had a lot of experience with Collaborate so that helped. I did the usual starter slide with ‘how to find things’ and a quick ice-breaker that had participants check in so I could see that everything was working. No tech glitches to speak of and no wasted time on ‘can you hear me?’. The follow up feedback on takeaways was positive. They like the idea of using a discussion forum to support class activities (especially for sick days and snow days) and the idea of letting students take some control of learning activities.
This week I’ve spent some time preparing for my next session “Extending Learning Beyond Blackboard: Enriching the Student Experience” where I plan to share free resources for faculty and students. Part of this prep was setting up this blog. I felt fairly comfortable with WordPress but starting from scratch took me longer than I expected. I want to share the Open ETC as a resource and my intent is to set up a SPLOT where participants in my session can contribute. I’ve wanted to do this for a while since hearing about the SPLOT tool from Alan Levine and now I have an application for it. I also want to talk about BCcampus and open texts as well as the Indigenization Guides and the Accessibility Toolkit. That’s already a lot but I plan to include things like padlet, doodle polls, and other free things I can think of. I’m working on a handout and getting some more content on this blog so i can use it as an example. So far ten people are signed up. I’ve had such great support from Liesel in promoting the sessions, getting emails and calendar invites out and generally keeping things on track so all I have to worry about is being prepared and running the webinars.
Outside of blog building and session planning, I attended a Plan 20-25 sub-committee meeting. I’m on the ‘mission, vision, and values’ sub-committee. I like being part of the strategic planning process and it’s a place where I can advocate for distance and online learning. I also attended a mercifully short Education Council meeting and our weekly Centre for Teaching and Learning Innovation (CTLI) planning session. It’s exciting to be part of a team again and to be planning events that support teaching and learning. People here are thirsty for it. We have some great plans for a teaching and learnign advisory group.
Of course there was some of the usual supporting faculty in Blackboard via phone calls and email. That’s a part of my job that I really enjoy. One on one isn’t the most efficient method but it’s a way to build trust and some problems are unique – like one I had this week. Soon we’ll have a friendlier (read – not sharepoint) space to share resources and that will help by being able to point people to it for the easy stuff.
For next week: I’ll add a portfolio section to the blog soon so I can start adding things there. I’m starting to create some BlueJeans user resources in anticipation of a site license. I’ll host my session on Friday and most of my non-meeting time next week will probably revolve around handouts and preparation.
Until next Friday…