I’m back after Thanksgiving Break. To be honest, I don’t feel like I had a break. Because of potential bad weather, we left for Hershey on Tuesday night. It took us about two hours to get there. The next day, the weather started. I made my way to get the racing packets and signed up my nephew. My wife also went to visit someone at the hospital, so I had no chance of doing work. I was able to check email and send out a few, but Wednesday was a vacation day. I threw football with the boys in the snow. But I spent most of my time checking out articles about the Eagles-Cowboys Thanksgiving day game. My father-in-law had the idea of watching an old Penn State game which was fun. The next day, I went in early for the Sticks and Biscuits 5K. Before the run, I did pocket yoga which helped a bit. But the run itself was slower than my slower Honey Run. It is a bit demoralizing to work so hard and do worse. I’m thinking that I need to mix things up with my preparation. I’m going to rotate running routes and do sprints. Hopefully, this will get me back on track for my next run. The kids did the fun run. Simeon came in first place overall. The meal was about the senior center in Hershey. I enjoyed the food, but I’m a bit troubled by a small conversation that I had with someone from Dee’s family. He was showing me his fantasy football group and one of the members in the league who changes his name each week called his team, “Thank you Officer Wilson.” I don’t claim to know that much about the story in St. Louis, but this is not the first time that I have seen this type of behavior out of this part of her family. There have been other times when they have made borderline, racist remarks. I know from my upbringing that this type of philosophy is taught. It’s a disgrace that this type of thing goes on. But when it happens in my family… Another thing that happened had to do with boundaries or lack of them. It is really tiring to be in an environment where I have to guard myself constantly. The original plan was to leave in the morning. We didn’t leave until after 2 PM. Luckily, I was able to rest the past couple of days, but I’m still psychologically wiped out. I’m glad that these types of events happen very rarely.
We had out December lunch outing today, Monday, December 1. It was my choice, so I chose the Alehouse. What a great venu! I love the asparagus sandwich! It’s always good to sit down and break bread with my colleagues.
I spent quite a bit of time working through the course that I’ll be teaching in Spring ’15. I’m hoping that the new online textbook that I’ll be piloting engages students.
It’s Tuesday, and we are having some icy weather. Luckily, I was able to get into the office and home before anything hit. This is supposed to be a tough winter. It’s not winter yet, and we are having some signs of it.
I worked a bit more on prepping for the Canvas pilot. I’m excited to see how things are coming together.
For this semester, I’m having good interaction with my students. But I can’t help but think of how this new approach with the interactive content is only going to make things better.
Our unit is doing a push toward more consistency. I’m hoping that the faculty will be open to these changes since it will help us to be able to mange things more effectively.
I was recently asked about time required of faculty to put together a course. I did some research and was able to find a few thoughts: http://elearningindustry.com/e-learning-secrets-managing-subject-matter-expert-time-part-one, http://elearningindustry.com/e-learning-secrets-managing-subject-matter-expert-time-part-two. Ultimately, it depends on the course, but it seems like sme’s should spend on average of 1-2 hours per day for the work week. In a full semester, this would amount to 75-150 hours for a 15 week semester. We use a two semester model, so this would equate to 150-300 hours. That is a large range, but depending on the needs of the course, it’s best to use the 300 #. I’m guessing that most will not go anywhere near this number with all of the other obligations. But the more interaction and investment, the better the course results.
It’s Friday, and I’ve been spending time at Canvas training. This is a great tool, and I’m looking forward to using it in Spring ’15.
