Institutional Issues and more.....

I completed my paper on Institutional Issues today. I worked for the university I described in my paper for two years before resigning in May. I resigned so I can put more of my efforts toward school. I sometimes wonder about the wisdom of my actions. I am now working adjunct as a clinical instructor for them and interviewing for an online instructor for another college. I am going to end up working more, if I don’t be careful, than I did when I was fulltime. I thought about the process of adding quality online courses to the curriculum and the effort that would take. The university seems to be so strapped for money I can’t imagine how they would approach the issue. If I were Dean, I would start a pilot project and ask one of the more adaptable teachers to initiate the course. I would visit another School of Nursing that has been able to successfully launch an online program and discover how they were able to do so. I would start small and then attempt to get some type of funding to assist with the program. One by one I would have my teachers educated on power point, Blackboard, Adobe, and Camtasia. I would communicate through email and put faculty meetings on Wimba to force them to become familiar with different aspects of computer technology. It makes me laugh to think about some of the teachers that still use transparencies, trying to use Wimba. One in particular was so rude to me when I first started teaching, she told me she would do all the lectures, and grade all the tests by hand and I should just watch and learn. I watched her use overhead projectors and transparencies, and heaven forbid should we try the scantron, we had to grade by hand and if you couldn’t decipher what was written, then just mark it wrong. Ohhh I am so glad to be away from her. (Sorry, I got carried away!!)