Fun with Adjectives

Last year’s team goal is historical. That cool thing we did today may be historic. Historic (adj) “famous or important in history” Historical ( adj) “of or concerning history” or “belonging to the past” The textbook is instructional. Failing the assignment may be instructive. Instructive (adj) “something that conveys knowledge, information, a lesson” Instructional (adj)…

Searching for a Singular, Nonbinary-Gendered Reflexive Pronoun

A recent human service (HUMS) course has a lesson about using critical reflection to uncover and deconstruct assumptions. The lesson explores how language is changing to acknowledge nonbinary-gendered people through pronouns. For example, a writer might choose “they” as a singular pronoun instead of “he” or “she”.  Using “they” as both singular and plural pronouns shouldn’t seem that…

Moodle Notes

We had a great info session this week with Carolyn T from Production. Here are a few things I noted: No more course “Home Page” so no more folders. The landing page when opening a course is the Course Guide. Media appears in a player if in the context of an activity or assessment, but…

Altruism Increases Productivity?

Thought I’d share this quote from MIST 2611: Management Information Systems: “Is there anything companies can do to make their employees feel less pressed for time? Yes. Force them to help others. A recent study suggests that having employees complete occasional altruistic tasks throughout the day increases their sense of overall productivity.” Leberecht, T. (2012, June)….

Value Added: Role of a Course Editor

“The editor has traditionally played a key role in the design and development of instructional and educational materials. As both the Web and the technology and processes for delivering instructional materials on it have evolved, so too has the editor’s role in course design and delivery. The typical ‘Web editor’ has a broad and changing range of responsibilities, from editing…

OLFM Guide Revision

The Open Learning Faculty Member Guide will be revised in the near future. The resources specific to Blackboard Learn will be updated to the new LMS, and these guides to facilitation and technical tools may be collected with other resources on a web page or wiki to be maintained by OL Delivery Support.

Creating and Maintaining an In-House Style Guide

The editing team participated in an Editors Canada webinar in January 2017: “Creating and Maintaining In-House Style Guides” presented by Elizabeth Macfie. It was a great webinar, and I’m sure we will discuss her ideas often in 2017 as we improve and revise our OL style guide. Elizabeth covered her process for building and maintaining a style guide, and she offered…