Another week where, by the time Friday comes, Monday seems like some distant land lost in the week’s downpour. The smaller bits and pieces of the week included:

  • uploading the BCNET App to my iPhone and iPad to see how MediaSpace works on those devices. Oddly on my iPad, the screen won’t reset to whichever way around I have the screen, which means I can’t use the keypad at the same time as reading the screen (unless I get good at reading sideways)
  • creating a tentative schedule of sessions to attend at the ITLC LILLY online conference next week; there’s lots of good stuff to choose from
  • signing up for the BC FLO Bootcamp week of December 14th. I’ll use that experience to practice with Ultra and moving my culture and communication course online (addressing many birds with one stone)
  • meeting with OGE to discuss the CiCan project budget and how OGE can support me with this. I’m very appreciative of their support and looking forward, not only to beginning the project, but learning more about the intersections between the project I’ll be working on and the other two projects for which the college received funding. I’m grateful of this opportunity and all the support I’ve been given to be able to do this

The bigger tasks have included curriculum committee work and the program review website.

The process of reviewing materials before the Curriculum Committee meets, seems to be working, but as was explored at today’s meeting, only up to a point. There’s only so much that can be done by adding comments and hoping proponents will reach out for a discussion (some do and some don’t). Fostering/maintaining a trusting working relationship where constructive feedback can be offered and explored, takes time and there’s so much more that needs to be done to address many of the concerns that have been raised at Curriculum Committee over the past few years. My observation over the last couple of months is that there appears to be no half-way house in understanding how to formulate effective learning outcomes: some are succinctly and clearly articulated and others are pages long, demonstrating a lack of understand of the differences between learning outcomes, course objectives, content and assessment. For example, this week I came across one learning outcome that included writing a research paper as part of it, for a course that was not about learning different modes of discourse or learning academic writing. I’ve not heard back yet from the instructor whether this was confusion between assessment and outcome or an intentional outcome for the course (my instinct says it’s the former).  I took lots of notes from the discussion today to ensure the concerns noted are addressed when developing the module. I know creating a module will not be the universal panacea, however it’s a good start.

Most of my time this week has been spent on the Program Review website. As I start adding content I’m beginning to see some redundancies in the headings I’ve created and have started to question some of the repetition that originally I thought useful. I’ve also noticed some omissions (e.g., an explanation of roles within the program review process). I wrote a ‘first run’ of frequently asked questions and know this is a section that I’ll need to keep updating as I learn more about the process. I reached out to VIU, Camosun and BCIT to talk to someone about program review – I’ve found the handbooks they have on the process very useful. I have a meeting with someone at Camosun this coming Monday and had a fabulous conversation with a member of CIEL at VIU this morning. Many interesting points and observations came up in the course of the conversation. If I had to distill them into a couple of words I would say: communication and diplomacy. Building trust and relationships are key to moving through the process successfully and a huge aspect is helping departments come onboard with interest and optimism rather then suspicion and reluctance. There is much to the process that is the hidden work that makes the tangible moving parts work more successfully.

I’m on schedule to finish this first iteration of the website in time for it to go live in January. There’s much more content and resources to add, however I’m also mindful of striking the balance between creating a site that provides the value added beyond what is available in the handbooks and not adding so much detail that it becomes overwhelming for users. There are many potential rabbit holes. We’ll see where this goes. I’m definitely enjoying the process; in all senses of the word.

 A final musing. It’s six years ago this end of November that I came to NIC for an interview for the position of Global Learning Facilitator. I drove into Courtenay in a deluge, navigating flooded roads, and wondering if I would see an Ark along the way.  Almost six years on and it’s another rainy November, but the educational landscape has changed amidst a pandemic.  I’m very much hoping next November doesn’t bring fire, but if it does, let’s hope it’s raining again.