Category Archives: Revisions

Reflection for 6/8/15 to 6/12/15

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It’s Monday afternoon, and I am getting to some reflection early in the week. It was nice to have a conversation with an instructor who teaches in residence and is interested in teaching online. Not everyone is interested, so it is nice to find someone who is interested to begin the process.

I’m moving ahead with Canvas preparations for Fall ’15. It looks like I will finish ahead of schedule which is nice.

I also had a chance to talk to Amy Stever about courses for Fall ’15. We are involved right now in talk about process. Hopefully, we can have something in place soon.

Email was down most of the day. I can’t say that it upset me. It’s nice to be able to work on things without interruption.

It’s Tuesday, and I spent time working at home in the AM. Luckily, email is back for me although many of my colleagues are not having the same experience.

I’m feeling like we need to be making more progress on developments and revisions. Hopefully, things will come through quickly now that we are moving ahead.

I’m still struggling with personal direction, but at least I can see the options more clearly. Decisions will be made within the year about where we will be.

Wednesday was the last day of school for my two older kids. They are off to the summer now. I’m excited that they get to start swimming tomorrow AM.

I had a few meetings with instructors regarding developments. It looks like we are good for 402 SMO. EA 576 looks like I’ll be working with ppt to captivate conversion. Also, there will be Canvas transition stuff to work through.

Speaking of Canvas, it looks like we will be doing a shell building to improve consistency. I’ll be heading to Salt Lake next week to immerse myself in Canvas at InstructureCon2015. It should be an informative and fun time.

Reflection for 6/1/15 to 6/5/15

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It’s Tuesday, and I’m getting to this for the first time. Yesterday was very busy. I had two meetings with faculty about revisions/developments. It’s good to get those underway. I also received another note showing another development is moving forward. It is always nice to know when progress is being made.

I did forget a meeting in the evening that I said that I would attend. I hate when things like this happen. Obviously, there is a hole in my calendaring system that needs to be fixed.

Twenty-nine emails from the time I left the office Monday until I got into the office on Tuesday. Many are not that important, but it still takes time to filter them. Then I file which I don’t have to do, but it is becoming more and more of an issue.

I got more done with the course that I’m teaching in Fall ’15. There is much to consider concerning all of the revisions/developments and growth. I was glad to sit down with Kent today to talk about his process and am excited to learn/read more to help myself and the group.

Thursday and Friday were busy days and didn’t allow for much reflection. I’m excited to continue forward motion on the developing a process for our group with my colleagues. Hopefully, this allows us to make our job more efficient and effective.

 

 

 

Reflection for 5/25/15 to 5/29/15

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It’s Wednesday, and I’m finally getting to this. Monday was Memorial Day, so it takes a bit to get caught up with emails and chart a course once 20% of the normal week has passed.

The weekend was traveling to Black Moshannon twice. I enjoyed the time and did better in the 5K race that I ran.

We tackled a bunch of projects around the house on Monday. I was glad to get the deck power washing started and finished it on Tuesday evening. We also put up 2 ceiling fans. It is nice to make progress. Hopefully, we can continue on that pace.

It was nice to not have to run around to activities. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday resumed the running around.

We are getting closer to a decision about the future. But we are doing it within the context of taking one step at a time.

Revisions and developments are moving forward. I contacted faculty for 242 and EA 576 today. Hopefully, we can get those on track.

I reviewed two proposals for COIL. It is interesting to see what interesting things are going on around the university.

It’s Thursday, and I’m back here before the end of the day. I had a chance to work with some revision stuff and spent time doing some more reviews for COIL grants. It has been a fast, yet productive day. I’m hoping to finish out the went strongly tomorrow.

Friday’s been a good day in that I was able to finish up COIL reviews and catch up on work in preparation for teaching in Fall ’15.

It was also an opportunity to share in a celebration for the time of a colleague who has worked with Penn State for 35 years. It is quite an accomplishment and we will miss her.

It looks like next week has promise to be tied up with COIL items. I’m hoping to learn a lot through the experience. I’m also hoping to keep up with my projects relating to design and development.

Reflection for 5/18/15 to 5/22/15

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It’s Monday of the first week of Summer ’15 courses. The week has started out well, and I’m hoping that we had a great start and wonderful semester.

I received a note on Friday about materials for the supervision series that I’m attending. I’ve enjoyed the sessions so far. I printed off materials as instructed. That was too much paper.

I attended a session for COIL RIG. I’m looking forward to my first review process. I’m planning to do a bit at a time to meet the deadline.

I’m continuing to work on my Fall ’15 230 course. It is nice to get a chance to update things. I’m updating a few problems and putting together a few videos since I used live sessions the last time. I’m definitely more in favor of making videos over live sessions because of the time requirement and the need of students to watch these according to their schedule.

I’m attending a meeting for Amy G at the OB and hope to interact a bit more with those around the university. It was a good meeting that highlighted the reasons for going through the formal process that involves risk and legal for using 3rd party tools in courses.

On Friday, I attended the LMS Transition Steering Committee. This was the first meeting. It should be interesting to see how the work of this group unfolds.

It’s been a busy week. I went to a ton of meetings and felt a bit out of sorts. We have vacation on Monday and will be back at it next Tuesday.

 

Reflection for 5/4/15 to 5/8/15

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I’m starting this early so that I can keep it going next week. Looking ahead, I can see that this will be a busy week, so I’m hoping that I can keep up.

Monday – I spent quite a bit of time grading this weekend which means I’m a bit spent. My students put in alot of effort and did well. I’m proud of their efforts. I really like using the interactive textbook and plan to do so moving forward.

Most of the courses moving forward are set. I had a meeting about IST 140 and will have a follow up on Thursday. I’m hoping that by then we will be much closer to having things set for the opening next week. I’m reminded that trust is something that develops over time.

In my personal life, I’m hoping to continue to grow and learn more about next steps. If it means staying put, then I’m open. If it means making a change, then I’m open. The one thing that I know is that I’m excited about my employment. Whatever the future brings will have more to do with where I live.

We had our end-of-semester lunch at Chili’s. It was a good time, and I appreciated talking with the students about their view of Happy Valley turning into Silicon Valley. In the conversation, I realized that culture has more to do with success than location. I also realize that this geographical area is not currently ready for change. But it may not have a choice. I’m excited about the potential for change. I wish all of the seniors the best as they pursue the opportunities in their near future.

It’s Monday at 3, and I’m finally going to publish. Friday was a busy and fruitful day. I can see that WAH continues to be a good way to get work done.

Reflection for 4/27/15 to 5/1/15

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This is the last week of Spring ’15. I’m excited to be finishing up another great semester. But I’m also looking forward to completing last steps toward starting Summer ’15.

Monday has been productive in getting EA/UG IST ready. I’m really glad to have the help and support of an IPS in getting this to the opening. I had a chance to take a final pass through the sections that I’m responsible for and send final notes to instructors to make their final updates.

It’s now Friday, and I’m finally getting back to this. In the interim, I’ve been busy getting things ready for Summer ’15. There is only one course, IST 140, that is not done. I’m hoping that the meeting that I have for Monday will be one to tie up loose ends.

I found out about several new developments and revisions for EA. I’m hoping to get more clarity and have a plan to make these successful endeavors.

Today is the last day of Spring ’15 semester. I’m glad for a good semester and am looking forward to a good summer.

The personal items in my life are still up in the air. I’m not sure what I should do to remedy the situation, but I’m counting on things coming clearer before I make any decisions.

Reflection for 3/30/15 to 4/3/15

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It’s Wednesday and things are flying.

I had a bunch of work on you@psu on Monday. Tuesday was a team building day for the unit. Today was a catch up with things day.

I got most of 423 done by today. I’m hoping to finish up my big part tomorrow.

I got a chance to talk to Steve as I ran into him today at a brown bag lunch on EA. He’s still a bit behind.

The brownbag lunch was useful in giving me back ground on EA.

It’s Friday, and I have finished up most of my part for 423. I also sent my comments to my supervisor for you@psu.

There are several projects moving forward, but I’m feeling like they are all going to work themselves out. It’s becoming evident to me that I need a better project management tool to keep everything straight. This is one of the issues with fast growth.

I’m hoping that next week I can report more progress.

 

Reflection for 3/23/15 to 3/27/15

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I just quickly published an entry from last week. Really busy time. I’m hoping to get to reflecting a bit more this week than last.

I had a good day on Tuesday. While it was busy, I was able to get 423 to a good point to send back to faculty for next steps.

I also had a meeting for DMT at the outreach building. It looks like we are reaching a huge transition in terms of the LMS. I hope that this transition goes smoothly.

I felt like today was a day that I heard a voice within that was telling me the answers to some of the questions that I’ve been having on a personal level. It’s an awesome feeling when this happens. I’m always glad to be reassured of the right decision for a circumstance. Lately, I’ve been more emotional about things. But I’m finding that I need to get past the emotions so that I can get to the reasoning stage. I can’t just ignore the emotions; they have their place. But when I get to the other side, the answers are more clear.

On Wednesday, I made another trip to the Outreach Building. This time it was about a video commenting tool. It was good to touchbase on this topic, but it was also nice to eat lunch with a good friend of mine.

Things continue to move forward regarding course developments and revisions. 423 has turned out to be more of a revision like I originally suspected. I’m looking forward to seeing how the update affects the running of the course in the summer.

It’s Friday, so I’ve been busy. I’m hoping to get back in the flow next week as emails have been stacking up.

I’ve been thinking about multitasking how inefficient it can be. Here’s an article that address the impossibility of multitasking: http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20707868,00.html. It’s a good reminder.

Reflection for 3/2/15 to 3/6/15

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I’m starting this on Friday. I’m looking at my upcoming week. It has less meetings for now. I’m hoping to get to some professional development and get other items completed.

Monday was busy with course revision/development work. Mainly, 402 SMO is being revised and completely gutted. I’m hoping that we can get something done for Fall ’15.

Also, there is work to be done on 140. It is slipping away right now. We have a meeting tomorrow to get things back on track.

Finally, there is 220 course project work to be done. I’m seeing momentum which should continue to propel us forward.

This weekend ended the basketball season. We had another dominant outing which I did my best to make sure was not embarrassing for the other team by pulling my best player. We did well this season because of effort and resilience.

My oldest son had a tryout for 9-year old baseball this weekend. There will be two leagues, one competitive and one developmental. This is the first time this is going to happen. I thought that all 9 year olds were developing…

Tisha and I worked on rubrics for 220 today. We are a project document and part 2 rubric away from being done.

Meeting about 140 that hopefully will get us closer to the goal of being ready for Summer ’15. The meeting was during some bad weather, and it was a bit difficult to get through. The bottom line is that we are freezing on writing content. The push is for Steve to get us zyBook information, problem sets, and quizzes. He will set up the first unit. From there, we will replicate and add the rest of the items.

We received another rubric for 220. Tisha and I will meet to get that rubric completed. From there it will be up to the faculty member to write the problem documents for parts 1 & 2. It looks like the approach that the faculty would like to take is to make 3 different documents for different scenarios. That means that we will need 6 documents for the course.

We received a note about 140. Hopefully, some decisions will be made to keep things moving to the goal of the summer ’15 first run of the course.

I decided this week to deactivate my facebook account like I did during Lent last year. This time, I may just leave it deactivated for the year if not longer. I also decided to bring my juicer into the office since I wasn’t using it at home. I did carrot-apple juice (2 apples/4 carrots, both organic). Prep time is minimal, but it does take some time to clean up. All in all, it seems like the type of thing that I should keep up to improve my overall health.

We had a meeting to discuss Summer ’15 rollout. We had a good meeting. I hope to get things moving forward for the courses that I’m responsible for when I get back in the office next Thursday.

 

Reflection for 2/23/15 to 2/27/15

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This is the last week for February 2015. It feels like things are flying. I’ve gone through so much since the new year.

There are alot of things that have suddenly appeared on my plate. Many items require less time and management while other things are going to require my focus in the near future. Hopefully, I can set up a plan that helps me to stay balanced.

Basketball is going well. We won on Sunday. We are currently 4-2-1. I’m proud to see the kids playing with purpose and finishing games. Winning our remaining game would be a nice way to put an exclamation point on the season.

It’s been a good start to the week. I’ve been working on keeping the revisions and developments going forward. So far it is working. I’m hoping that this momentum will keep up.

It was a relatively quiet day. I’m hoping that I can have a few more days like this to stay on top of things. I went to a DMT Video meeting. It was good that we were continuing to talk about how to make video meaningful in courses. It’s so easy to put information out there, but are we really meeting the needs of our students when we do this? To me, video needs to be interactive.

Thursday was a good day in that we continued progress on 220. I’m looking forward to having a project document that we can share with the rest of the faculty. But the rubrics are getting somewhere.

It was another 2-hr delay for my kids today. It has been a delay-filled year. I’m hoping that things will move toward spring soon.

It was a productive day in which I was able to plan for an instructor revision meeting and set up a merged section for Summer ’15.

I’m glad that we are moving to a new model for course set up starting in Summer ’15. It will be nice to focus more on design and less on the details of setting up for the semester. But I’m glad to provide any necessary insights.

It was a good week. I’m hoping for more of the same for next week.