Barry,
Keep taking those deep breaths! ;-) I actually find yoga to be a savior for me on many occasions. We all need to find time for ourselves. I like the saying, "Take care of yourself - otherwise you can't take care of others." Thanks!
In all honesty, because my workload is so hectic during half of the year, I take whatever classes fit within the school schedule... and I never know what wonderful ideas I'll glean... Well, I suppose I may anticipate one or two, but I go in with an open mind, take a deep breath and so in the information.
Most of the time, I'm leading a lecture, doing a demonstration, working on a research project and still trying to make sure student's are where they are supposed to be... BUT at these lectures I hear other instructors in the same situation... and always find some little nugget of success that will allow me to better myself.
Stephen,
We all should continue to grow and look for development opportunities as we become better online instructors. Keep up the good work. Thanks for sharing.
Rafael,
Good advice. I go to some sort of Blackboard (our LMS) class every year to learn some new tip. As they update the LMSs as well, we have to stay up to date too. Thanks!
Speaking solely on personal experience, I have found pro development to be a huge help in my growth as an online instructor. The online environment is a much more isolated and isolating type of workplace. On ground you have so much more camaraderie that just goes with the territory in face-to-face dealings. Online is a much more cool environment with colleagues potentially being spread across the country or worse yet, the entire globe.
Cheers,
Steve
As much as one knows about any LMS, there always seems to be some tip or function that cuts down the time to complete a process. Professional development helps by providing instructors with these tips or functions rather than having the instructor discover them on his or her own. As an example, the course reports system on Blackboard has become one of my favorite administrative tools. Unfortunately, I spent far too much time teaching myself how to use the tool. A professional development course on the reports system would have been quite beneficial to me by saving me lots of time and frustration.
Jocelyn,
Professional development allows us to continuing our lifelong learning progression. I'm in professional development right now as well. It's good for all of us. Take care.
Professional development is just that- a way to develop one's skills and knowledge in your field. As an online instructor of adults it is important to understand the multi-tasking that our students are dealing with. I would argue that not only is professional development useful for the knowledge (it could actually be focused on workload management), but it also keeps the instructor cognizant of the student perspective.
Jocelyn Williamson
James,
We learn through these forums. There are many ways to do the same thing. Sometimes it's good to just try something new. Thanks!
It is always interesting to see how other instructors have tackled issues within the classroom, it seems I always see a number of techniques that I can use to help me save time and focus better on what it is i can do for the students.
Flora,
Anything we can do to develop better workload management strategies, the better. Workload management strategies help instructors and the students as the instructors will have more time to work with students as well. Thanks!
By participating in professional development classes, I can continuously improve on my workload management strategies by learning how others manage their courses and also new techniques that have become available which I can possibly use. These courses are created by course developers and facilitators who know what issues we have when managing these online courses. By sharing their ideas on how to create workload management systems, I can hopefully improve on my own.
Marco,
Professional development is crucial in helping us all stay current in our content and learn from the industry. Good point.
This can be part of ongoing situations that we always have to use in management regardless but at the same time, ensuring that it uses actual learning content. So if I am teaching a hospitlaity course, the Professional development needs to be related to the industry.
Shenita,
Yes, professional development assist with workload management strategies for sure. Keep learning!
Through various professional development courses you may learn better way to implement and execute various tasks that you have to complete. Learning new strategies and techniques can be very beneficial when reviewing your workload management strategy.
Mark,
Absolutely. We have to look within before we can assume something outside will help. Nice job.
I absolutely can however first we must engage in some honest self evaluation to identify what our strengths and weaknesses are. By identify them we can then focus our professional development on our weaknesses first. By making improvements it should follow that our workload management skills will also improve.
Joan,
So many of the new e-books are coming out with highlighting and notetaking capabilities. That has helped me a lot.
Thanks!
I completely agree about the touch of paper. I would really like to contibute to "save our trees". However, when I am taking a class ot teaching a class that uses e-books, I end up printing them so I can write notes and highlight passages
