Good afternoon, @may21-cohort! Tomorrow marks 12 weeks since we started the program and the last of our weekly sessions. Instead of beginning with updates tomorrow, we’ll start by reviewing the Rebus curriculum covered in Weeks 1-11. The recap should take about 15 minutes. We’ll then pause the lesson to complete a Program Evaluation. Then we’ll do our normal updates, which will set us up for thinking about your goals for the months ahead.
This session will be an important check-in. Like me, you’re probably enmeshed in early-semester protocol right now, but try to make sure your team is represented. It will be an important session for us. I’m really excited to see your progress and am looking forward to hearing about what kinds of goals you intend to set for projects.
Joel and All - I have a pre-existing conflict and cannot be there at noon. I am happy to provide anything needed in this discussion or elsewhere. I’m not sure what the program evaluation entails, but happy to complete it. It’s been great getting to know you all this summer, and wish you all the best as we start the fall term. See you next month! - Brandye
Next meeting we can share the progress on our Project Summary worksheets for the 25 projects and how the process of identifying and reconciling SLOs across the faculty within each cohort team has gone. I also hope to bring more questions/challenges to the group for discussion since we will be putting the training into practice.
I know one group had Pressbooks present specifically to their institutions, but is there a way to have a presentation from Pressbooks or H5P during one of the first few meetings?
For people who want to re-use or remix some content- another idea would be to spend some time looking for OERs for our project. Some people in the group might have great resources to check out.
Hi @bdnobiling, we missed you! There are two action items for you to complete soon, when you’re able to:
Complete an Evaluation for the 12-week intensive. In another 9 months we’ll have a final evaluation.
Respond to this thread with goals for our first monthly check-in (Sept 16th). Between now and then, what do you hope to achieve in terms of your OER project?
I have modest goals for our next meeting:
1). submit the project summary and timeline as required for the M.O.S.T. grant
2). finalize writing schedule for the fall semester
3). Continue working on Chapter 2 (goal is to have it about 75% finished)
These sound like highly actionable and measurable goals! Thanks for the update. If you run into anything between now and our September check-in, we’ll be monitoring the threads to help.
Hi @kongmeinj and @Andy. I’m sure you’ve already found examples of language learning with Pressbooks, but I came across this Elementary Arabic Pressbook today that offers some great h5p integration.
He @may21-cohort, you’re receiving this recap almost a week after our Session 12 Wrap-Up. Here’s the chat link. I wanted to thank those who joined for the excellent conversation and contributions. You’ve been incredibly supportive of one another, especially with troubleshooting things like the MOST deadlines. In this recap I want to start by emphasizing two action items:
Complete a Course Evaluation (for Sessions 1-12). We’ll have another evaluation at the very end of the Rebus program, in another 9 months.
If you haven’t yet responded to this topic thread, please do so by the end of this week with 1-2 goals for you and your team to touch base on at the next TSP check-in (Sept 16th). I’d love to hear from at least one member from each of the teams!
We hope that 12 weeks of the TSP have helped you see that the open publishing process is not as mysterious or complex as you may have thought! You may have seen some patterns forming between each of the stages we’ve covered. While we’re not doing an in-depth overview of each stage, we’re hoping that you can keep in mind these general principles to guide you along your way:
Plan ahead and revisit your approach at each stage (think through the process, create supporting documents, and meet with your team before diving into action)
Be public about the work on your project (so everyone on the team is on the same page, and so others know how to chip in or offer support)
Consider your audience and their needs from the very beginning (so your resource is more accessible, usable, and valuable)
Collaborate and provide pathways for people to join (different perspectives can strengthen your resource, and more people can help share the workload)
Nothing is set in stone or unchangeable (your resource can mould to fit changing needs or goals, and can be easily modified even after it is released)
Books and communities go hand in hand (you are creating both an OER and a group or team around this OER who is invested in using it and seeing it live on)
Remember that everyone involved in these projects, yourself included, is human (so be conscious of workloads, take breaks when needed, and focus on keeping the team connections intact)
What to expect at our monthly check-ins
Our first check-in is September 16th. Remember that all our check-ins are already on your calendars, and will be at our usual slot on Thursdays at 12:00 PM EST.
The check-ins are a space to get support from Rebus and your fellow cohort members. You can share updates, ask detailed questions, talk through challenges, and go into as much detail about how principles are applying to your project as you want. You can use monthly check-ins to set goals for progress and hold yourself accountable.
While the structure of these check-ins may change as we go, it’ll only be in service of your projects and to support you better. Keep your eye on our Rebus forum. It is a place to go to ask for help and offer support, share progress (everyone can start a new conversation) in between check-ins. Use the cohort tag @may21-cohort, tag individual members, as needed, and if you are tagged in a discussion, please take a few minutes to respond. I will moderate the discussion, but it will only be fruitful if we are all actively participating.
Finally, you may want to come back to all the documents we have referenced over the past 12 weeks. All these resources are collected in a Curriculum Hub — hopefully this is more easily navigable.
I wanted to remind you that I am not able to attend the meetings because I teach a course on Thursdays that conflicts with the meetings. My course will be over October 19th so I can start attending the meetings again until next semester starts. Tammy and I are meeting to gather what we have created so far.
Thanks for the update, @kfrank926. Can you continue to post SMART goals for your team so we can follow up and provide support, as needed? Here’s our September thread for October goals. Even if you’re not able to join, we’re here to help–asynchronously–as you work towards your bigger May goal.
Thanks for the update! I know it’s been difficult to juggle our sessions with full working schedules. Our next monthly check-in is on Thursday, October 21st from 12-1:30 EST, so we’ll see you there! Glad you can represent the team going forward this year.
Prior to next year, we may poll folks to see if a better time works for everyone - especially since I imagine everyone’s teaching schedule will probably shift.
I will be in the car again for our meeting. I will be able to attend the first 20 minutes of the meeting, but unfortunately I have a specialist appointment that cannot be rescheduled at that time.
An update from me:
I am still a bit overwhelmed this semester. I am teaching more classes and more days of the week than I ever have so I am finding little time to make progress on my project. I am hoping to spend a chunk of time over the winter break. Currently, I have been playing around with the features in Pressbooks and H5P. I am continuing to create my materials in a word format in google docs so I can easily transfer the activities when I am ready.
See you soon!
Jessica Adams
Harford Community College
Hi @jessicaaadams25, it was great to see you in first part of the call–and I should have remembered to ask you to share first. That was my error. In any case it sounds like you have a realistic handle on what’s possible this semester and what needs to wait. I sympathize quite a bit with that right now–this is also a very work-heavy semester for me and it’s been a challenge to fit OER into my workflow. Perhaps we can chat more about this next month, and see what kinds of processes are working for you mid-semester.
When I post the Session 14 wrap-up, perhaps you could briefly propose a SMART goal for the next month, something targeted but also small enough to work.
