Last week our team was able to wrangle the university’s new chancellor and two faculty to sit down together and talk for an hour about a hybrid course and an online course. One of the courses was developed and taught by faculty Deborah Hathaway and the other by faculty emeritus, Alan Wood.
This idea was brought to our attention by the wonderful Yavapai College TeLS Director of Inspiration, Thatcher Bohrman. Thanks Thatcher!
If you are in the world of faculty development you know how rare this might be, but you can also likely see how helpful it could be. Not just to building the relationships for faculty with administrators, but for getting more upper-level people to hear and know about what the digital courses may look like. And to hear the stories of success and failure in building them.
After I noted at parting that what she saw was just the beginning to a much longer story, the chancellor was excited to do it again with another couple of faculty in a month or two. I am working one that. I know the faculty and the topics, but I don’t have an actual day set up as of yet.
Anyway, I don’t need to explain this too much here beyond all three were very pleased with meeting one another, being able to share the work they do and their hopes for the future. Yay!
A couple reflective quotes from the faculty.
When I started my personal journey reimagining what my course might look like on Canvas, I did not realize how much it would change my perspective on what learning in college could be as a whole. I was very grateful to sit with others to be curious, imagine new possibilities and relish in our shared love of creating meaningful learning experiences for students! – Deborah
As we talked about, the ability of this new technology to tell stories, to combine hearing, seeing, and talking, and then to be able to review material several times, is really amazing. I think the fact that students have to commit so much of their thoughts to writing is also very helpful to their ability to express themselves in clear and accessible language. I take note of your comment that we are only beginning to use all the resources available, and that there is plenty of room for improvement. You have probably already planned ahead, but I was thinking how much fun it would be next time to focus on all the things we didn’t do, but could do in the future to make the courses even better. – Alan