Reading this case study, I immediately had questions.
What type of queries were Trinh’s emails asking?
Was there something about her course design that made the need for so many emails inevitable?
Were her students globally less experienced using the Blackboard Learn LMS?
Had Trinh indicated how students should communicate with her?
Were there boundaries in place? Perhaps, by making herself available in so many ways to her students she had opened a ‘floodgate’ of 24/7 access to her?
I am not blaming Trinh for bringing the problem on herself. However, there may have been something she had done inadvertently to create/ allow the masses of emails to happen. Likewise, I would not want her students to see her make a ‘retreat’ from being available to them. However, there has to be an effective communication system or else, Trinh will eventually burn out from teaching the course.
Here are some solutions:

• Create a F.A.Q.’s page
• Allow students to help answer some queries through a specified discussion thread
• Create guidelines for when a personal email is most appropriate – of course, sensitive emails, assignment extension requests, etc. would have to go directly to Trinh. These guidelines would also include whether or not it would be appropriate to ask questions of Trinh in her blog or via Twitter.
• Within some grouping system, have peers check in with their group when situations/ problems arise that may be handled by the group
• Initiate ‘virtual’ office hours for a chance to get immediate responses to queries, these could be set a few times a week to guarantee that all time zones have an equal opportunity.

The first two ideas that I thought of while reading the case study were that Lenora may be able to create videos to share her professional development ideas with other Aboriginal educators and that Lenora may be more interested in developing a resource like a wiki which would allow other educators to contribute to over time.

I was not immediately dismissing her using a website. I would think a website is a better overall look than creating a series of videos or starting a wiki, but with the dial-up connection, (Do those still exist? Perhaps having lived in two major Asian cities in the past nine years, I had mistakenly believed that the rest of the world was now also connected by broadband.) her website would be visually sparse without the (efficient) ability to upload images and other content quickly. However, even in an image poor online environment, she could hyperlink to content hosted elsewhere. Her lack of experience creating a website does not lead me to shy away from offering it as a solution to her. Multiple websites are available that support new website creators in building what they seek. I looked at Richard Byrne’s blog Free Tech for Teachers to find out if he had compiled a list of such sites. In a 2012 blog post he had given eleven free tools for creating websites (“Free Technology for Teachers,” n.d.). Websites such as Wix, Weebly or Google Sites have a user-friendly interface and are easier than WordPress or Blogger for people creating a website for the first time.

Turning back to the two ideas that I had while reading the case study, a series of videos could be put on Youtube, and the link shared via email. But this seems insufficient for her needs. Not to mention the issue with uploading, though Lenora could take her video on an external hard drive and upload to Youtube from school. Since a wiki would take some time to learn and won’t have the visual appeal that many websites now offer, I am less fond of this suggestion after all.

I hope that Lenora would look into the available, easy website creators that are available for her to create her professional development website and collaborative community.

References

Free Technology for Teachers: 11 Free Tools for Creating Websites and Simple Webpages. (n.d.). Retrieved January 28, 2016, from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/04/11-free-tools-for-creating-websites-and.html

How might Benoît go about deciding whether to go with Moodle or Blackboard Learn? What questions might he ask himself? Come up with one specific question; be sure to explain why this is an important question.

Without (reasonable) access to the Help Desk, do I have the confidence and intuition to take on learning Blackboard Learn?

If I was in Benoît’s position, I think one of the first questions I would ask myself is to judge my ability to take on such a task. Often when I am introduced to a new type of technology, I like to google it and watch related videos on Youtube to see what others have to say about it. There are numerous tutorials available. I don’t know if this would be the case with Blackboard Learn but this is a starting point that I often use.

How much development time (in weeks) would you estimate Benoît would need to develop Business Writing, the online version? Be sure to explain how you came up with this number.

If Benoît teaches a 13 week course, I assume that compiling each week of the course would take 2-4 hours. The range takes into account the length of time it takes him when he first begins developing versus once he has put together a few weeks, I assume that with time he would become more comfortable and perhaps quicker. The range could also comes into play if some weeks of the course, such as the first week, require less building or have less (or more) content.

Total time to development (average) 39 hours, but considering the range development time could be as little as 26 hours and as much as 52 hours.