Thursday, July 2, 2015

IS Brag Rag


 The Brag Rag

Issue 9
August 21, 2015

Kudos to One of Suzy's Student Artists
The faculty member for our CHIN 441 course, Li-Hui (Allison) Kuo, recently raved about the art work one of Suzy's students, Younhee, completed for the course. Dr. Kuo wrote, "It was amazing!!! Where did you find the illustrator? Did they work for Disney? I couldn't believe my eyes...all the graphic designs look perfect, especially adopting the ancient Chinese style. All the layouts look perfectly neat! How wonderful! I can't stop viewing it! :)" Could there be greater praise .... well, yes there could be...because a picture is worth a thousand words....check it out!  



Makes ya proud...top that Disney.

Another One Bites the Dust 
Every seven (7) years all of the university’s service and academic units are required to do a mini self-study to inform and form the basis of the university’s next accreditation self-study. The university uses its Unit Self-Study approach not only as the basis for the development of its overall study, but as evidence to its accreditors that the university is constantly reviewing its programs and services. Some of the Independent Study department staff are more than aware that our Continuing Education Division’s lucky “7” came up this year and that by mid-October it has to submit its division-wide self-study to the university’s administration. Informing the Continuing Education Division’s self-study are its various departments’ self-studies.

During the last six months Independent Study, along with other division departments and services, have been tackling the assignment to prepare our Unit Self-Study. That work was complete at the end of July when the study was submitted to Jon Spackman in the Dean’s Office. Jon has the responsibility to mesh together the studies of the division's various unit into a cohesive student to be submitted in time to meet the university's deadline.
The culmination of the work completed by your IS colleagues can be found on the N drive by following:  N - drive - IS - Unit Self Study. The Unit Self Study file contains a copy of the most recent past DCE study submitted in 2008, a planning document time line for this year’s effort, and then this year’s study. This year’s study is comprised of two parts. The text addressing various general sections such as mission, facilities and resources, assessment, etc., and then an Appendix which includes supporting evidence from which conclusions in the text are outlined. Of particular interest should be the executive summary which contains specific recommendations which IS will attempt to address during these next few years.
While this effort has "bit the dust" IS will shortly begin preparing its report for AdvancED to share the actions taken and the data gathered to meet the requirements and recommendations imposed by the 2014 visiting team. Whether it is to consider future initiatives, or to get a good night sleep you are welcomed and invited to become familiar with what your colleagues have prepare and provided to the Division.

By the way... the use of the word "dust" in this post by no means is to suggest that the reading of the unit self-study will be "dry"....

Presentation Invitation
Our own Jay Young, along with BYU Professors Dr. Francesca Lawson and Dr. Adam Lloyd, will be presenting at the Western Conference of the Association of Asian Studies (WCAAS) on October 9th. Their presentation topic is "Crossing the Online Border: Designing an Asian Humanities Course for Different Learning Modalities." They will be discussing what the trio is doing with the IHUM 240 course. Over the last few years we have seen a wonderful trend in the rise of our full-time employees teaming with campus counter-parts to make presentations at national and association conferences.

ACT Camp Triples Enrollment
WOW...did Joseph and help hit it out of the park with the ACT Camp idea. Year two and yes, twice as good, no make that...three times as good. Joseph Roberson, the quiet force behind making this program a reality helped the program triple its participation numbers. Preliminary information indicates students had a great experience, but more importantly for their futures, they also saw their scores raise. Evaluation info is being tabulated and Joseph will provide a future presentation at a department meeting. One of the really great things he is trying to accomplish is getting ACT to approve the actual offering of their test as a summation to the camp, as opposed to providing just a practice test. Wouldn't that be outstanding? 
   
World Class...Really, Really World Class
Some in the department are aware that Greg Baird and his wife, Marsh just returned from some serious competition in France (don't worry...they didn't let Greg embarrass himself and we don't have to deny that we know him). Marsha competed in the "WORLD MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS" (an age-based competition). She didn't just compete in one event on the world stage, but she competed in three events and one of those was the Heptathlon (comprised of seven grueling events). She didn't just show up, she dominated - three golds, a world record, and two near misses. Here is a play-by-play (or a step-by-step) should you prefer:   

Event 1: Heptathlon
After six events, Marsha needed to run the 800m in 2:27 to beat the world record in the heptathlon for women over 40. She ultimately ran 2:30 and just missed the record. To give you an idea how close she was, 4 extra inches in the long jump, 0.23 seconds in the hurdles, or 1.5 inches in the high jump would have given her enough points to beat the record. She won gold with a score of 5805.
 Event 2: Long Jump
Marsha won a second gold in the long jump with a jump of 5.78 meters. The world record is in the 6.5m.
 Event 3:
Marsha bumped down an age category (you can go down, but not up) to the 35-39 age 4x100 relay. The other three members of the team are three of the seven fastest women in the world over 35 and they set a world record with a time of 47.65 seconds. 

Marsha is working to return to the Olympics for the 3rd time after a 10 year layoff from track to represent her home country of Trinidad and Tobago...with this showing she is well on her way.


Issue 8
July 23, 2015

  • What's all the BUZZ?  A number of staff members spent at least part of two days, July 15 and 16, in an Agilix sponsored Conference held at the Provo Conference Center. Agilix was "rolling out" its new product Buzz through their Personalized Learning Summit. Buzz is touted as being a more intuitive LMS interface. It has the potential to replace BrainHoney as the LMS of choice for Agilix customers. The conference provided attendees the opportunity to experience Buzz for themselves. Some of the other conference topics included: Project Based Learning, Hands on Buzz training, Using Buzz for Blended Learning.
  • Many kudos to Jay Young and Carolyn Andrews by BYU Online faculty member, Dr. Barbara Lockhart during her Wellness lecture on Wednesday, July 22. Dr. Lockhart praised the work of Jay and Carolyn and the entire IS staff for the work that was done to create the new Science of Exercise course. She was particularly pleased with the course's interactivity and the results the faculty are already seeing in how the course is changing student's lives. She expertly discussed the connection between the body, spirit, mind, etc. and the fact that science is now illustrating the interrelationship among them all and how so much of it reinforces Gospel Principles that we are taught. What is wonderful about the course is it is delivered via BYU Online, BYU Blended, and in our traditional IS format.
  • I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! This week on Wednesday, July 22 the designers' meeting was held at the BYU Creamery outlet. As a bit of a team building exercise the group hiked to and from the creamery together and participated in a a tour of the facility. Unfortunately, there were no free ice cream samples given out so no one put on any pounds! What the group did get were those adorable "cafeteria lady hats" that bring back horrible memories of hot lunches while you were in public school. Thanks for the bad memories....

     


Issue 7
July 9, 2015
  • Here is a nice "pat on the back" for one of Instructional Design Assistants (IDA). Cameron Blake was accepted into the IP&T program at Syracuse University.  He will begin his graduate program next month. His absence is already felt as he was involved in a number of significant projects that required a great deal of skill and thought. Our best wishes go with Cameron.
  • Trailers a hit with the MMBIO folks.  For those interested in science IS has prepared a couple of “trailers” that rival those of Austin Powers’ movie fame. OK...maybe not quite on par with "Austin," himself, but certainly the "groovy baby" line will draw some chuckles and comparisons to Mike Myer's delivery of the same. The trailers have come about from work occurring with the Microbiology and Molecular Biology (those are two different things?) departments to create their brand new GE course (MMBIO 121-M001: General Biology: Health and Disease.  In creating MMBIO 121 video footage, MMBIO 240 footage was used to create a trailer featuring 121's author Dr. Kim O'Neill. The trailers will be used to draw interest and attention to the new MMBIO 121 course which is to be ready this fall. You can see the trailers at: http://bcove.me/e6bgt06x and http://bcove.me/v8yvl22z
Beyond the fun trailers created for marketing purposes, the idea of IS creating a department GE course is unique. This kind of work isn't something that typically would fit IS's mission. However, in that a version of the course was simultaneously being developed to be delivered as a BYU Online course and as a Independent Study course there was leverage to be gained between working on all three course formats at the same time. This made it feasible to test the waters of joint development of a traditionally delivered department course. So “yeah baby” all around for the trailers and the design and development pilot Eleanor is in the middle of doing.

Issue 6
July 2, 2015

  • Happy 4th of July! While you are out celebrating the 4th try to keep it safe, if not safe at least be lucky, which after listening to this you may agree is much more important. http://biggeekdad.com/2014/05/the-most-unluckiest-man/
  • Perhaps it is the vacations, perhaps the holiday, or maybe folks need a little push or reminder, but these last two weeks blog submissions have dried up. Don't forget to brag on accomplishments and successes big or little.

Issue 5
June 19, 2015

  • And only a few were lost….

What an inaugural activity (6/11) put together by our social committee.  Lizzie, Greg, and Suzy enlisted clue master, Ryan Strong, to put on a top notch scavenger hunt. With clues that only Sherlock could follow and Brian Pendleton dressed and looking like Watson (sans pipe and those funny British coming and going hats) the hunt was on. Five teams with four members each began the around the campus jaunt. Highly competitive until the very end when the clue listed the names of some animals and sea foam sent the two leading teams in opposite directions – one to the Bean Museum and the other to the Bookstore‘s candy counter.  

The brown team consisting of Michelle, Greg, Doug, and Michael brought home the bacon (figuratively) having guessed correctly that sea foam, along with bears, turtles, etc. were all candy. We won’t say who the members of the fooled team were, but they were disqualified as even the lure of BYU sweets weren’t enough to get them to hike back across campus to the candy counter.
The sprint to the finish line between the 2nd and 3rd place teams also held some intrigue as Allison, part of the 2nd place finishers, literally held everything together to help her team finish 2nd while avoiding an early hospital trip for delivery of the daughter she is expecting in August. Brian may still be looking for someone to launder his shirt. 

It was a great way for folks to become more familiar with each other, work in small groups outside our usual teams, and do problem solving. Many thanks to Ryan, and to Lizzie, Suzy, and Greg in pulling this off for our enjoyment and learning.  At least six of the participants were new to department or to their role within the last few months.

  • Creativity or a chance to load your cupcake with more sugar…
As part of a learning activity on Wednesday 6/10, the designers divided into three groups. They were given a batch of cupcakes and ton of decoration and frosting options. Creative Joel and Michael made their own funnels with which to apply frosting. The purpose of the activity was to have the decorated cupcakes tell a story about who the team was as a group and who they are individually. 
Each team spoke about their decorations and how they were represented in the finished cupcakes. The judges liked different aspects of each of the groups work. The team selected as sticking most closely to the assignment and determined to be the winners were Jessica, Eleanor, Ryan Strong, Brandon, and Steve Mott. One of their cupcakes represented their office configuration – the three guys crammed onto ½ of the top of the cupcake and Jessica (the “heart” of the team) alone on the other ½ of the cupcake.  The pioneer theme that Greg and Jay selected pretty well carried throughout all their decorations. The toppings Joel, Michael, and Jennifer used were quite surprising (at least to me) – Fruit Loops, Gold Fish. To see everything folks used for decorations, and the amount of stuff cram on top as decorations was unexpected.





  • Congratulations to Dan
Here’s a chance to brag on one of our own. Dan Mennear, last week, completed his Masters in Public Administration through the Romney Institute, in the Marriott School of Business here at BYU. He completed the program going to class every Wednesday night for 5 hours over the course of the last 5 years. While balancing school work, family time and work he was able to maintain the highest GPA in his graduating class and was awarded the Lennis M. Knighton Award for his efforts. Dan walks in the August Graduation - - a big deal for Dan and his family, and us.


Issue 4
June 10, 2015

  • BOOM! THE Annual High School Teacher’s Conference was a great success…ran smoothly, great work by presenters, lots in attendance, lots of teacher ideas given for our follow-up to make organizational and process improvements. Brian deserves lots of credit for a great job, which he will spread to those that helped him make it a success. Brian announced that there were over 90 in attendance and in fact he had more than 100 register. We just experienced a record setting conference. By the way great food, as usual Wilda, and it is always so fun to see Instructor Support students (and others) there helping to facilitate everything – what a great impression they give.

  • Team and Teacher dedication – even during our annual high school teacher conference we are not immune from needing to provide support and provide rush grading. Instructor Jeri Kelly fortunately had brought her laptop to the conference and took the time to grade a student’s work so they could progress. Talk about a lucky (blessed?) student to have such a dedicated instructor.

  •  As we wait with bated breath for an administrative decision regarding the future status of the BYU Online pilot, kudos should be delivered to Jessica Draper and Joel Hemingway for getting and keeping the courses in shape, and to Carolyn Andrews for riding herd on the myriad of administrative details that have to be addressed in order for the program to run so efficiently. So we keep our fingers crossed…..

Issue 3
June 4, 2015

  • Tomorrow is our Annual Instructor Conference for our High School teachers. Congratulations to Brian Pendleton and others that have helped put the conference together. If all goes according to plan we will have a record teacher attendance, as over 90 teachers have per-registered.
  • To build pro-activity, address training needs, and build relationships among the TAs Alyssa Newbury has divided the TAs into 5 groups: AdobeConnect Group, Team Building Group, TA Training Group, Student Outreach Group, and Knowledge Based Articles & CRM Group. Each group has specific expectations and objectives they will work to accomplish. The TAs will rotate assignments every 3 to 4 months. Have fun with this TAs we are anxious to see what improvements you can help us make.
 
Issue 2                                                                                                                              
May 29, 2015

  • Out of 1700 submissions to ACTFL Jennifer Quinlan (and her partnering faculty members) had two presentations accepted for presentation at their fall Conference. Jennifer, and a group of three BYU faculty and 4 non-BYU faculty were successful in having their presentations - a Korean Blended Case Study and a German Blended Case Study selected. Jennifer will co-present with Julie Damron (Korean), and Cindy Brewer (German). The ACTFL conference is the largest language conference in the country and will be held in San Diego in late November.
  • Chris Finuf has completed gathering training needs and has finished the preparation of a Training Priorities & Recommendations presentation which he will share with department leadership on Friday, May 29.

Issue 1                                                                                                                               
May 19, 2015

 Editor: Veldon L. Law, Ed.D.

Disclaimer:  The bulleted information shared through this Blog is meant to inform, support, and provide a forum where staff within Independent Study can "brag" on recent accomplishments and successes of staff, students, and programs. Editing will be minimal at best, and selection criteria nominal. As long as the information relates to Independent Study and highlights something completed and accomplished, by a staff member, teacher, student or program the info is "in." Provided there is information to share on a regular basis "The Brag Rag" will be posted on Fridays. Communications can be sent via email to veldon.law@byu.edu.


Introduction: With the debut of "The Brag Rag" we "are left without excuse" in possessing a reasonable awareness of colleague and departmental success. The "Rag" is entirely dependent on voluntary contributions of what department staff have succeed in bringing to a successful close, as they may determine, and then report. It isn't meant to be a "task list" of items individuals have completed. 


Bragging Rights

  • The cover model on our current BYUIS catalog has sent me an update, and she has an amazing story. She grew up with her identical twin in foster care, living in 15 homes and attending more than 20 schools. However, both she and her sister have become successful runway and commercial models, and she recently had a baby boy AND graduated summa cum laude from UVU! She loves BYUIS, credits online education as a major factor in her success, and has sent IS a blurb for inclusion in the 2015-16 catalog. 
  •  Our BYUIS Advertising graphic designer, Crystal Lin, has been accepted into the highly competitive graphic design BFA program (they accepted 7 students winter semester). She has also received two outstanding summer internship offers: 1) at CPB Group, the advertising agency most recently noted for their Kraft Macaroni and Cheese campaigns and also for resurrecting Burger King's mascot a few years back, and 2) Disney Marvel Comics in New York City. She's got a tough choice to make.
  • Two more of the Advertising students are in the film program and will be attending the majors-only BYU TMA Writer's conference next month, as will our advertizing manager, Erin Jackson. The three "ISers" will be meeting and workshopping with, among others, the screenwriters from Despicable Me and the VP of Talent Development from Nickelodeon! 
  • Eleanor Thorne, Course Manager has really made an impact on the elements included as part of the Course Improvement Community documents which are used as part of our every other week assessment review. Added have been: a follow-up report on actions taken to improve the course(s) based on the previous meeting's review, the course financials for the courses under review during this meeting, any information regarding 3rd party contracts, copyrights, and course corrections for the meeting's courses, and iNACOL's National Standards for Quality Online Courses are compared against the courses under review by the department's Instructional Design Assistants. This has meant the completion of an added assignment by: Ellen Anson, Steve Christensen, Michael Brousseau, Ellen Thorne, and IDAs.
  • A number of World Language Training opportunities have been created by Lizzie Robinson and Jennifer Quinlan with Alyssa Newbury helping out with TA and CRM training: 1) TA Adobe Connect & café trainings (tips for engaging multi-level learners, using interactive features in Adobe to engage participants, breakout room functionalities, hyper-hopping, moving students to tech support Adobe room, opening and closing meeting messages, etc.) 2)  TA training on Camtasia Relay (for one-on-one interactions in breakout rooms, where Adobe can’t record) 3) TA training on grading using a rubric, people (“classroom”) management, using course resources more effectively, 4) Teacher Adobe training on navigating to different rooms, recording, and role in cafe, 5) TA training on using the CRM. More trainings opportunities are being developed.
  • Chris Finuf has begun and is making good progress benchmarking/reviewing what BYU-I and University of Central Florida are doing to develop and train their online faculty. 
  • The German Department begins the development of its last language course in order to allow students to complete the German Major sequence online. When GERM 301 is developed and offered the German Department will be the first campus department to have all major courses available online to students. 
  • Considerable language course changes have occurred: all world language courses' students complete speaking appointments, drop in style; ASL teacher-led enrollments exceeds historical high when compared against all former course types; an entire CA school's world language enrollments transfer to into a teacher-led section from a 200 section; Independent Study enjoys a tour of the Conversation Cafe, provides great feedback and gives positive responses with Russ deciding to brush up on his Spanish skills.









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