Programme outcomes & curriculum mappping

I had a 4 hour session today from 9.30am-12.30pm at the FSTE Conference Room assisting the FSTE team in reviewing the programme outcomes and carrying out the curriculum mapping of the new major in Geospatial Science. Although it may not be everyone's cup of tea given that it can be a mentally straining exercise, I actually found it to be an interesting challenge and given that I am still building up my experience in this process, it was just what I needed to enhance it even further - hoping to do more of this in the future. I also hope that in the future, this becomes part and parcel of instructional design work at USP as I see this as vital to ensure that alignment is in place from the institutional, programme, course and unit levels unlike the current practice where ID work is in effect when only a course is offered through DFL mode.

Killing two birds with one stone

I have just received notification to provide a progress report on everything that I have done so far this year with regard to the STAR project specifically for the Trainers group that is tasked with operationalising the graduate attributes of the USP and infusing this into the curriculum mapping of USP's academic programmes.

Given that I need to also provide a monthly report to my supervisor regarding my day to day workings, I decided to put my report here, thus killing two birds with one stone.

A sucker for anything "free"

By Free, I mean Free to use and stumbled upon some work worthy resources today: 

• Strategies for Managing Online Workload which is a collation of 50 something videos on this very subject. This compilation was the work of Penn State World Campus way back in 2008 and can be accessed through itunes.
• Faculty Development in Distance Education: Issues, Trends and Tips features 12 articles on online faculty development and was generously sent to me by Dr Clayton R Wright.
• Podcast: 2 Minute Teaching which I just stumbled upon from Virginia Tech. One I thought that was quite interesting was that of the links between facebook use and academic performance.

MOOCS Galore!

Yes, the greatest craze at the moment in as far as revolutionising education is concerned is to do with MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). It is such a life saver for many who have to continuously upgrade themselves to be able to carry  out their work well.
In my role as Professional Development Activities coordinator in my department, I frequently circulate MOOCs that are on offer and I am estimating that there are releasing at least one MOOC per month.
Here are some that I stumbled upon so far, at least since May...

• First Steps into Learning and Teaching - offered by Oxford Brookes University under its HEA/JISC funded OpenLine Project and the offer period ended in June but you are still able to access the course.
• Power Searching with Google - offered by Google (duh!) and the course ended on July 17th.
• Current/Future State of Higher Education - which is due to be offered in October and supported by a group of universities and relevant HE stakeholders.
• Curriculum Design with OERs - to be offered by Open University, UK from 10th Jan-13th March, 2013
• Entrepreneurship in Education [Ed Startup 101] - offered by well respected industry global  experts and is due to start on 27th August, ending on December 14th.
• BlendKit Course 2012 - This is a offering by University Centr.al Florida (UCF) and is due to be offered from September 24, 2012  to October 29, 2012
• IPR for Educational Environments - Not particularly sure if this is a facilitated course but everything is up and ready on the site and can also be repurposed to suit one's own context.
• MOOC MOOC - A MOOC about MOOCs offered by Hybrid Pedagogy which commenced on 12th August and ending on the 18th. 
• A Gentle Introduction to Python by Mechanical MOOC which will commence on October 15th. 
• Coursera offerings of 119 courses and counting....

• University of Edinburgh's MOOC offerings via Coursera which are due to start in 2013. 
• EdX offerings which is a collaboration between MIT, Harvard and UC, Berkeley to be released this fall. 
• Openness in Education by Drs. Rory McGreal and George Siemens which is a 12 week course starting September 10th, 2012.
• Open content licensing for Educators by OER Foundation to be conducted from  3-14 December, 2012. 
• Open2Study by Open Universities Australia
•  UNEOpen by University of New England, Australia

There might be others that I am not aware of so, if you do notice one that is not on the list above, please do share this.

And Happy MOOCKING to you!!

What I hate about teamwork!!

I started composing this blog article two months ago but left it in draft format and now getting back to it two months later :) Here goes...
Over the past weeks, I have begun to ponder over the not so good points of teamwork. Don't get me wrong! I love team work and its a great way to get things done in the workplace and of course in any circumstances be it at home (family), school, church or in the rugby field but one thing that has always bugged me over the course of 10 years of team based work here in CFDL is when a team member is not pulling their weight - how does one confront such an issue when you are leading the team and you have deadlines to meet? 
Do you:

• Confront the person (in a non-confronting way of course :)) to find out the reasons?
• Ignore the situation and hope for the best :) ?
• Report the situation to your supervisor for a solution?

I had started to read the book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni and maybe I'll get some answers at then end but anyway, life is not always a bed of roses and its these kinds of complex situations that either "make you" or "break you" as a person. I strive for the former!

OER Awareness Session

We had our latest OER Awareness Session for the USP community today from 2-4.30pm at the Communications Conference Room (CCR). There were about 80 that registered and about almost 50 participants turned up. We also had participants from outside USP specifically from the the Ministry of Education, Fiji and Fiji National University (FNU)

Our guest speaker was Abel Caine, Programme Specialist, Information Society Division, UNESCO who gave a very interesting presentation and was well received by the attendees. The OER VAKA Working group also put up an OER display at the last minute and splendidly did an excellent job! Access the video here.  Below are some pics from the session:

 

Getting our exhibition up and ready!

Theresa and Shikha, lining up the sticky tape for our USP Display at the UNESCO HQ, World OER Congress Open Exhibition Space from the 20th-22nd June, 2012

Marika and Dhiraj carrying over the display panes

The displays are going up

Marika, taking a necessary photo capture for reporting purposes

Moodle Man session reflection

The Moodle Man, Julian Ridden is with us for a week and I was fortunate to attend one of his sessions. Here are some key points from his session:

• Pedagogy of offline  and online courses remain the same - only the delivery method has changed
• Moodle has been used as a "repository" in most academic institutions -  content is created with assessment around i - Dump and Run courses
• Breaching standards vs reducing retention

Some learning design approaches for Moodle

• Linear Flow vs Adaptive Flow
• Game based learning = offer Carrots
• Narrative based learning = storytelling
• Trick is finding the "balance"
• Build two courses; one for low bandwidth and the other for high bandwidth
• Engagement is not bells and whistles
• Is there a way of building flexibility into our course design?

Facebook Statistics for Oceania region

Just stumbled upon this in the Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society (PICISOC) email discussion list, reference to facebook statistics for the Oceania region - I was really quite excited to see some stats for Oceania but it probably requires a bit of caution in taking this to heart - a lot of questions remain..

SOE Talanga Series seminar on OERs

Shikha Raturi, Assistant Lecturer at the School of Education (SOE) and fellow OER VAKA working group colleague gave an excellent presentation on OERS today at the FALE Conference Room. Her presentation covered mostly what she learnt from the OER Forum that was held in Bangkok, Thailand in April. She gave some interesting case studies in the Asian region and I was happy to discover a new OER advocate in Dr Ittay Weiss from the Faculty of Science and Technology (FSTE). He should be an excellent addition to the OER VAKA group.
[Add Shikha's presentation link and audio recording here]

Essay Writing with Readings Module repurposing - 2nd meeting

We just concluded our 2nd meeting to work on repurposing the Essay Writing with Readings module that was done for the EDULINK-SideCAP project. The repurposing has a central goal in mind and that is to make it UU114 compliant, incorporating the 15 steps of essay writing that is covered in this course. In attendance were Niseta and Siniva, Student Learning Specialists for FALE and OER VAKA members, Viola Lesi, Education Technologist and OER VAKA member and Bhavna Vithal, UU114 Content Specialist. The content input has been completed and now Viola and I will work on the design aspect of this module. We are meeting next on Wednesday 4th July from 2-4pm in the CFDL meeting room.
[Photos to be inserted]

Getting on with OPEN working group stuff

I am coordinating the working group that is looking to establish an association for E-learning practitioners in the Oceania region known as Oceania Practitioners E-Learning Network (OPEN). Today, I send out a circular to the members to meet next Wednesday, 13th June to meet from 2.30-4.30pm in the Satellite Room to finalise the constitution of this association. We are repurposing the Middle East E-Learning Association (MEEA) constitution which we have sought prior approval for to create the constitution. I am raring to see this project come to fruition and achieve the mission and goals that it will set out for itself for the benefit of the Oceania region.

Learning is Sharing!

I strongly believe in this OER Commons Slogan, " Learning is Sharing" so when one of my collegues came by to ask me about questions that I was asked when I was interviewed for this Instructional Designer position way back in 2007, I just couldn't resist the the urge of doing a google search and this is what I found at:

http://myportfolio2009.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/instructional-design-interview-questions/

OLPC Project Meeting

Today at 10am, I attended the OLPC Meeting at the invitation of the School of Education (SOE) which was held at the newly established E-Learning Resources Centre for teacher students. The meeting was chaired by the Acting Head of School of Education (SOE), Dr Salanieta Bakalevu and was attending by some of the lecturers in the BEd Primary Programme namely; Lice Taufaga, Dr Govinda Lingam, Dr Mesaka Dakuidreketi, Rosiana Lagi, Shikha Raturi to name a few. I gave a brief presentation on the Khan Academy as a potential resource to use together with the OLPC together with Acting Senior Instructional Designer, Rokosiga Morrison. The Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) also attended to express her support to the project and the importance of ensuring its success. The first training session for the use of OLPC XO computers is scheduled next week, Tuesday 12th June and will be conducted  by Ian Thomson, the OLPC Consultant for USP.

Yesterday, was our Course Design and Development (CDD) Operations Meeting at the ICT Centre Conference Room from 10am-12pm. The following agenda items that I had to report on were as follows:

• STAR Working Groups - specifically on the presentation Anare and I had to do for the School of Geography, Earth Science and the Environment (SGESE) from the Faculty of Science and Technology (FSTE)
• VAKA OER@USP Working Group
• Oceania Practitioners E-Learning Network (OPEN)
• Workshops and Training updates/Professional Development Activities

[insert image]

VPS PTFA Committee Meeting

This might be considered an out of place blog entry, after all this is a work diary. However, in line with the Staff Review requirements of Community Engagement activities carried out, I thought that it was indeed appropriate to include this. And also, it aligns appropriately with the USP 2010-2012 Strategic Plan, Priority Area 4 - Regional and Community Engagement and Internationalisation. Since the beginning of the year, I have been involved in the Vatuwaqa Primary School Parents, Teachers and Friends Association (VPS PTFA) Interim committee as a secretary. My two girls attend this school which is just a 3 minute walk away from USP, up the road. This school has existed since the 1920s and have been the first school of choice for many USP students from the USP region outside of Fiji given its proximity to Laucala Campus. It has a very colourful student population profile with students coming from the 12 members countries of USP in addition to PNG. As I have mentioned, the committee is in interim form for the reason that the PTA have been quite inactive for the past two years and volunteers were sought from the parents and guardians to sit on the committee until an AGM is held. Getting the PTA to the AGM has been quite difficult given the complexity of getting all the financial records in order. One of the key considerations here for this complexity is the staff turnover specifically with regard to the Head Teacher's position which has created a level of instability in the running of the school. A meeting was held today from 5.30-8pm to discuss further the matters of the school and the next meeting is to commence next Tuesday 12th June to look specifically at the school corporate plan and draft school policies that are currently being worked on by the teachers. My work here has not only benefited me as a parent but also in my work with the School of Education.

Moodle 2 manual - work lingers on....

Came into the office today to finalise a few things with the Moodle 2 manual and also sent out a circular to the Moodle 2 Manual development team on a few important pointers regarding this. Our absolute deadline as per indicated in the email is Monday 4th June.
Attach email here

OER Literature Scavenger Hunt

Well, wouldn't really call it a scavenger hunt because facebook has made it entirely possible and way much easier for me to get the latest scoop on the latest OER news. If you are wondering why I linked scoop, it is one of the popular content curation tools out there and if you want to know what the hell I am talking about, just google it! This hot off the press OER scoop particularly caught my eye - Practice, teaching and open educational practices and gives a frank, just what I need for upcoming awareness sessions resource about the next inevitable phase after OERs which is OEPs. Okay! now I need to do a scavenger hunt and look for that journal article that talked about this OERs and moving to OEPs thingy - ok, here it is from the Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning, DEANZ, New Zealand. Just pondering over the work so far that has been carried out with regard to OERs at USP and I know there is so much more to be done and of course reading up the literature which, thank goodness is free and open for use can greatly assist in making this process a little bit smoother. Now I am wondering about the smoothest way to get this information to the OER VAKA group :)

Empowering Online Learning - FSTE Workshop stuff

I was tasked my Theresa to provide resources for types of online learning activities that will be part of the FSTE Course Writing Workshop that is scheduled for 2nd June and my first reference point of course is the book by Professor Curt Bonk and Dr Zhang titled Empowering Online learning: 100+ Activities for reading, reflecting, displaying & doing. Its chocka-block full of activities based on the R2D2 model that they have come up with. I have provided Theresa with a short ppt. presentation on this, links and attachments to the book itself.
[to insert ppt after workshop is conducted]

Pre World OER Congress Preps!!

I have been keeping myself busy for the past two weeks with travel arrangements for the upcoming World OER Congress that is happening in Paris, France from the 20-22 June, 2012.

Here is a checklist of things that I had to ponder over and work on:

• Research on suitable, affordable accommodation - thanks to Dhiraj for discovering a suitable choice 
• Constantly doing currency conversions; FJD, USD, Euros to work out afford-abilities in relation to the per diem given
• Making online hotel bookings
• Constantly liaising with Abel Caine at  UNESCO, Evonne, Theresa, Dhiraj, Shikha, Marika on travel arrangements
• Initial discussions with Theresa on a possible concept for the Open Exhibition for USP - still more to be done...
• Checking and re-checking that I have all the documentation for the French visa application; HR letter, itinerary and e-ticket (my middle again was spelt wrongly on the ticket but thanks to the very efficient and resourceful Evonne - this has been taken care of - I am just so paranoid about being stopped at the airport for not having a correctly spelt name - it has happened before :)), suitable passport photo, $137 visa application fee and I went to submit this today but I am outstanding with a letter from USP to confirm that they are covering for health insurance. Have to take this over tomorrow.

Catching up on ED401 work

Got a call from Akhila today to touch base on ED401 course. He requested to have a drop-box created for the micro-teaching presentations. I had especially requested that we meet early next month to start work on ED402 course.

Does Moodle 2 come with plugins?

Received a phone call from Shikha Raturi this morning enquiring as to whether Moodle 2 will have any plugins which I would term as Third Party tools - there was mention by the Moodle team about including a web conferencing plugin but will need to enquire further.

PD documentation requested

Had a request from DVC Kelly's office through Karyn Gibson for documentation on workshops and training conducted by CFDL so I send through the schedule but before doing so, I had to update it given the amount of requests that are just pouring in, including a sample of one of the workshop programmes made.
Link to schedule and sample programme

FSTE Course Writing Workshop meeting

I had a meeting today at 3.30pm at the CFDL Director's Room to discuss plans for the FSTE Course Writing Workshop that is scheduled to be held on Saturday 2nd June at CCR. Those in attendance were as follows; Theresa (chair), Siga, Deepak, Tevita, Mojito and myself. The workshop will be attended by selected course writers whose courses are earmarked to be developed for full online offer in Semester 2, 2012. I was present in my capacity as Professional Development Coordinator. I will need to provide Theresa with types of online activities.

Moodle 2 manual - picking up where we left off....

to do list written on CFDL meeting room whiteboard

I had to pick up on the development progress of the Moodle 2 print manual with Evan and Maxine who are part of the group undertaking this - we have set a goal to have this completed by Friday 1st June after having been struck by illness and urgent work matters for the past two weeks. We have block booked time slots in the CFDL meeting room as shown below to meet this target.

The bookings for CFDL Meeting room as discussed.

1. Monday 28 May 3-5 pm
2. Tuesday 29 May 3-5 pm
3. Wednesday 30 May 8-11 am
4. Thursday 31 May 2.30-5pm
5. Friday 1 June 2-5pm

OER VAKA meeting today

We had our 3rd OER VAKA meeting today at 2.30pm in the CFDL meeting room since March and in this meeting we welcomed a new member in Shikha Raturi of the School of Education, FALE. In this meeting which I chair, I have indicated to the group that there is high likelihood that the membership structure of the group will change after the OER congress in Paris, France.
Link to meeting minutes

Staff Review Due

Staff Review is

ICT in Education Leadership Forum

I attended an ICT in Education Leadership Forum from 31st April - 2nd May held at the Microsoft Office, North Ryde, Sydney, Australia. Read this USP Web News article for more information. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) in particular the Dean, Dr Akanisi Kedrayate, Acting Head of School of Education, Dr Salanieta Bakalevu for the opportunity to attend this forum.