The last couple of weeks have been busy ones (am I going to begin every post that way, I wonder?).
At the end of July, we completed our Ten Goals and Priorities for 2009-2010. If you’re interested enough to take a look, you’ll note, I hope, that the first five goals are largely informed by the new McDaniel Strategic plan.
In the past couple of weeks, we’ve been spending a good bit of time working with Mel Albin on setting up a series of webinars that promote the new Leadership in Global Enterprise Certificate program to McDaniel Alumni. Last week, we practiced delivering the webinars using Wimba.
By the way, Wimba Classroom is an extraordinary new platform we have for synchronous video and audio connection/conversation/delivery. Like Skype on steroids. I’ll certainly be writing more about this in the weeks to come.
At the beginning of last week, we completed the first draft of our Academic Continuity Plan (Word doc). The idea is that if the H1N1 pandemic actually occurs with such a severity that F2F classes are canceled, then we have a plan to use Blackboard and Wimba Classroom to keep instruction going. Like… immediately! Within an hour’s notice.
If anyone reading this post actually clicks the link to read the plan, please know it is a draft! Nothing on that document is officially approved or sanctioned by anyone here at McDaniel.
Yet.
At this point, it is merely InTech’s proposal of how we think we should be prepared.
Much of the rest of the week was spent constructing the Blackboard class outlined in the plan–selecting the instructions, reformatting them, uploading slides that will be the basis of real time instruction, etc. This will likely be the project we work on (off and on) for the next several weeks, hoping, of course, we never have to use the class. The good thing about it, though, is that with a couple changes on the css and page headers, we can convert the Continuation of Instruction class into a terrific support class where we can deliver synchronous training sessions over the Web to adjuncts who find it difficult to come to campus for F2F training.
So in the lucky event that the Academic Continuity Plan is never used, the materials and set up will DEFINITELY be used for Online InTech Workshops. In good times or bad..
The meanings are our own–
It is a text that we shall be needing,
To be the footing of noon,
The Pillar of midnight…
I understand the continuity idea….but let’s say one’s class is not CONTENT driven by the professor in lecture mode, but rather dependent on student interaction and face to face collaborative activities in the classroom? Granted those of us who are committed to such a few, but what do we do? I can’t hold a Reacting class on Blackboard. And that is the entirety of my FYS. Just something to think about. I guess you *could* do it on Blackboard, but it surely would not be the same thing. At all. I would not be a happy camper. But I also would not want Swine Flu.
By: gretchenmckay on August 17, 2009
at 4:09 pm