Hey @July22-M-1-cohort, we will be reconvening next week at 2:30pm ET. I’ve pulled up the goals from the last time we met - if your goals aren’t accurately captured, please reply and let us know what you’ve been working towards instead! See you all soon then.
Goals for our session next week (May 22 at 2:30pm ET):
Hi @July22-M-1-cohort ! I had a good meeting this week with Ileana and Yvonne, and am scheduled to meet Demetri and Vanessa next week.
The focus of our conversation this Monday was timelines, and what you all need to get your drafts in by June 30. I heard some requests to clarify where some minor modifications to the timeline to give you all a bit more breathing room to write — which is very understandable! Ideas included:
Submitting drafts on a rolling basis starting as soon as right now, or June 30
Moving the draft deadline to July 30
Scaling back the first edition of your books to include fewer chapters (prioritizing what will be taught in the first half of the semester) — so you can focus on creating high-quality drafts, rather than rushing to create sub-standard content
Moving the peer review process to Fall (rather than having this happen in July)
Begin the peer review process sooner, with faculty authors coordinating with reviewers themselves — passing content to reviewers before it goes to the PST
As you can see, there are of different and competing ideas here! I will be discussing these with Marilyn (and Millie) in the coming week to see if any modifications can be made and will of course communicate changes with you all, so you have clarity on the timelines that you are working around.
I also heard a few suggestions to make things easier for future projects embarking on this kind of work: installments for the stipends so these are delivered to teams on an ongoing basis throughout the grant period and clearer communication re: timelines. Both are very relevant points, so thank you for sharing. I will be passing this on to the ROTEL OTCC too.
We also had some time to share updates and set goals for the next time we will meet (June 26):
Yvonne:
Yvonne is working furiously on Chapter 2, and has completed a lot of the groundwork that is the most challenging part of writing these chapters. She is looking for a lot of equity data to strengthen her chapter.
A big change for Yvonne has been to spend 1-2 hours per day writing the book, so is mindful of the book as more than a side project.
Importantly - she loves the book and is motivated to finish it!
Goals:
Yvonne will be working chronologically through the book, so will turn to chapter 3 once chapter 2 is done.
Given the timelines, she will likely be scaling back from a first draft of 10 chapters to a first draft of 7 chapters.
She has submitted peer reviewer names to Marilyn.
Ileana and Max
Ileana and Max met last week, but due to other competing responsibilities and some unexpected personal issues, they have not made much progress since our last meeting.
Goals:
Ileana plans to schedule a meeting with the PST, to get their feedback on a chapter and to also get some input on how to scale back the content to fit within this summer production timeline.
IIeana will get peer reviewer names to Marilyn by the end of this week!
Continue to work on the book drafts
Find time to rest, so that the project work is happening from a less rushed space.
Once I meet with Demetri and Vanessa, I’ll write back with their goals too!
I also had the pleasure of attending the ROTEL book launch on Wednesday — kudos to Vanessa, Demetri, and Yvonne on your presentations!! And of course, congratulations to the ROTEL community more broadly for the work on Round 1 projects and this milestone. It’s been our pleasure on the Rebus side to support your work and watch you develop closer networks in the state in support of equity and student success.
Here are my notes from meeting Demetri and Vanessa this week:
They have 5-6 hodge-podge chapters now (drafts in the truest sense).
2 chapters have been submitted to the PST, as Pressbooks links, but they are awaiting feedback - Demetri will send updated links to editable files that are easier to read.
Goals:
At this point, they will work towards getting what they can in by June 30 - this will likely be 6 chapters out of 12 originally planned.
The remaining chapters will be included as is from the OER they are adapting, and Apurva suggested that they ask the grad student (Gina) who is collaborating with them to spend some time making sure these chapters follow the same structure as the first 6.
Time permitting in the June/July, Vanessa may add some quick reading checks in the chapters 7-12 to match what they have drafted for chapters 1-6.
Demetri and Vanessa also have a lot of material for an instructor’s manual.
Vanessa is excited about this and thinks it could be worthwhile and manageable to put this together with any extra time in the summer (rather than focusing on fully adpating chapters 7-12).
They wanted some clarity on the work in July and August and whether edits and updates would take place in PB - Apurva has confirmed that this will not be the case. Edits will likely take place in Google Docs, and will be clarified by the PST during a 1:1 meeting in the summer (see my final note!)
Overall, Demetri noted that things are going well and that they know what they want to do. It’s only that they don’t have enough time to get it done, despite having more time now than they have had all year.
