For the first 10 days (or so) of July we were hosting a workshop for some guests from the KFUPM, Saudi Arabia’s most prestigious-and only English-medium–university. They offer an increasing number of blended/mixed mode/hybrid courses. An engaging, clever and well-spirited group of men.
I delivered 4 workshops over that period:
- Determining goals and objectives
- Learning theory
- Active student learning
- Assessment and evaluation
The active student learning session was partially delivered via Wimba Live Classroom, to get folks to see how synchronous online learning can be delivered via stable, media-rich platform. Overall our team delivered about a dozen such sessions. Our excellent, excellent team.
I enjoy working with colleagues on things like this: I’m a big believer in creating communities of practice. My practice is enriched and I never tire of meeting new interesting people. It was an intense week, in a term where I’m already over-committed. But it all worked out in the end.
I also shipped off a conference paper regarding our development experience with ETEC 565A. It will be peer reviewed and then hopefully accepted here. I’ll hold off on making travel arrangements until then, though the trip’s already approved.
This has been–is–an intense summer: teaching a new course, taking 3 courses (1 is a 1 year print-based distance course though), getting two new courses up to speed…a lot on my plate. I was working this hard last summer, except in that context I got paid a lot less, received no support from leadership, and felt set up for failure.
This is all the oppposite of that, in every respect.
