Research Grants

Just a reminder that small research grants are now available.  The deadline for applications is February 15, 2013.

If you want to talk about ideas and possible topics, please let me know.  Research or literature reviews related to classroom teaching, pedagogy, curriculum, testing, etc. are all possibilities.

Partners: Norquest College Visit

Over the course of the last four years, our department has made connections with the upgrading area from our neighbours to the north, our sister college, Norquest College.  Our online programs have co-hosted two upgrading online conferences, with community college speakers and important keynotes, and our planning to hold our third annual in March 2013.  Our respective curriculum teams have worked together on funded course development projects, like the Microsoft Office and new Mathematics 10 courses.  For these projects, we built exams and instructional videos which we now share.  From all of this work, we participated together in an on-site, once in a lifetime,  presentation skills conference with RexiMedia experts.

This last Friday, November 30, 2012, the Norquest crew came down to Bow Valley College for our annual visit.  We spent the morning sharing work done in the areas of exam development, media development, course development, and professional development related to the above. Norquest eagerly showed us their online Chemistry and English Language Arts courses.  Their designs are clear and concise, being so easy to navigate and "get learning done."  Norquest has developed extensively their Real Time Online program with much success and are looking to further develop their Anytime Online program. We were shown their exceptional work on instructional videos as well as their engaging online program promo.  We were shown flash interactives for trigonometry and a flash scheduler students could use to build their own calendar to match their learning pace.  They shared our concern over the need for ongoing professional development for our instructors who are also our developers.  They have their "stars" who care about the work that they do, and it shows.  
Next up, we shared some of our new format exams, unit assignments and labs, showing where we are heading.  We talked about optimal mark recognition (OMR) as next steps lending towards item analysis and an exam bank.  We showed them an exam review document with classification and approval fields as we start a collaborative exam review process.  We outlined our media development projects and we brought up our YouTube channel matching theirs.  We showed them videos that they produced hosted on our channel.  We discussed our use of mybvc.ca and Google Apps for Education for the Anytime Online program and curriculum development.  We certainly have our own stars who care as much about what we are trying to accomplish.

Throughout the day, we shared laughs.  We had lunch and breakfast together.  We swapped stories.  We expressed many of the same concerns.  We clearly have the same students and challenges.    We shared our feelings about restructuring. We identified possible points of collaboration.  We will try to start a common online exam bank.  We will host another upgrading online conference.  We will collaborate on English Language Arts re-development.  We will find opportunities to work on presentations and instructional videos where possible.   We will examine the possibility of developing exam and media development certificates, with the workshops and activities included, together.  We mentioned reciprocated course offering recommends according to our institution's strengths.  One item was certain: none of this is possible without doing it together.  Having a partner is not nice.  It is essential.  Our time, funds, energy and expertise are constrained as colleges.  As partners, we can advance access to quality learning for adults throughout the province.

mybvc.ca showcase

mybvc showcase team

Thanks to everyone who was able to come to the mybvc.ca showcase.  Faculty and staff from the department and the college came by to discover what can be done with the portal and the associated Google Apps for Education to promote distributed learning.  Many questions were asked of our "experts".  Many practices were shared.  Excitement was generated. 

If you attended, take a minute to fill out our online evaluation form. If you would like your own mybvc.ca account, send a request to the ITS Help Desk.  To be part of the ongoing discussion, read about best practices and share your own ideas at our discussion group.

Special thanks to the mybvc showcase team who worked hard to make the event successful.  I am amazed how much each of them knows, not just about the apps, but about their craft and their students.  I am of course always amazed at the hardwork.