For many months I have read both Tannis Morgan’s and Clint Lalonde’s week in review posts with a certain amount of envy. I enjoy getting insight into their weeks as well as the ritual they have established of posting their week in reviews, as both a reflective piece and a closure to the week. When chatting with Tannis this morning about her practice she said “Why don’t we set you up with a SPLOT and you can do the same thing?” So here we are, and now you- lucky reader- get to read about my week and I allow myself the reflective time to record the world as I saw it for this week. (My plan is to provide both a professional and personal reflection of the week.)

Professional

This week started off with the BC Open Education Advisory Board meeting. We held it virtually as the last time we met it was face to face in Vancouver. The intention of these meetings is to provide an update on the projects the Open Education team is working on and to ask for advice, input, questions from the board to ensure we are on the right track for the system. Fortunately, they all agree that things seem to be moving along quite well and they were all impressed by the amount of work that the team has accomplished since we last met face to face.

In other meeting news, this was a busy week of one to one update meetings with team members. I meet with each team member every other week. This provides an opportunity for us to have one to one time- for me to better understand their successes and barriers, and how I might best be able to help. This week the meetings with Melanie Meyers (Project Manager for Business and STEM), Krista Lambert (Project Manager for ABE and Health) as well as with Tim Carson (Trades Representative for Open Education) centered around strategy. We discussed upcoming call for proposals, collaborative leadership models, inter- institutional collaboration, sprint developments, and spring plans for visits as well as summits.

Clint Lalonde (Project Manager for Open Homework Systems) and I met to discuss a couple of events he is working on with respect to Webworks and H5P. In addition, thanks to great intel from both Laurie Aesoph and Tannis Morgan who both just returned from OE Global- Clint and Melanie met with the organization Grasple to inquire about their work in relation to ancillary resource (questions and test banks) development.

In meetings with the Regional Representatives in both the North and Interior, Carolee Clyne and Ross McKlerich it is more and more evident that relationship building with various stakeholders in institutions is key to building awareness of OER.

Our Open Education Team met as well this week (again we meet every two weeks). This week we spent a lot of time discussing how best to offer sample print copies of a few of our open textbooks to institutions. There is an ask and we want to be responsive, and at the same time ensure we are providing the best resources based on the programs at the specific institution and their needs. We also brainstormed our quilt piece that we will be sending to OER20 to be contributed to the FemedTech Quilt. I am very excited to see the result of this!

I met with Angela DeBarger at the Hewlett Foundation to discuss the ways in which we are encouraging and working with Institutions to prioritize the sustainability of their OER programs through the launch of our OER Sustainability Grants. In addition we touched based on what does system wide adoption look like, how do we know that students are benefiting in their learning through the use OER, and of course spoke about our plans for the holidays.

This afternoon I am meeting with Deakin University in Australia to discuss the work they are doing in developing case studies of both the economic benefits of adoption and the socio-cultural inclusion benefits of adapting the content. Really looking forward to this conversation.

BCcampus has created a strong coaching culture thanks to both Mary Burgess and Robyne Divine. This week, a few of us met as a coaching circle where we come with a problem/question to pose to the group and the group responds with questions that might help us form a solution. This meeting was incredibly inspiring and helpful in many ways. I am also involved with my own Executive Coaching and have had the opportunity to have a few sessions with Executive Coach, Sherry LeBlanc. We do our sessions over the phone and I have found each session to be humbling, reflective and transformative. (Hope my team finds the results as impressive as I have found the learning). This week she posed some questions to me to give thought to as I head into 2020.

1. How I am going to show up in 2020?
2. What am I going to do differently?
3. How will I celebrate growth?

I am also currently reading the following articles on Meditation for Leadership, Organizational Design, How to Break Bad Habits, and also managed to finally watch Kate Bowles’ OER19 keynote, the Quilt of Stars. (highly recommend!) I have also been preparing for a Manager’s Community of Practice meeting, next week, where we examine our individual values and how they are in relation or not in relation to Indigenous Values (as they are articulated in the following Indigenization Guide for Leaders).

Personal

On a personal note for this week I have felt happier and more content then I have for months. I have been abstaining from alcohol since November 12 and I think it has made a significant impact on my overall health and general anxiety.

Currently Doing: I finished knitting my first cowl using circular needles and am currently working on a second one. My next project will be a hat for my son, so stay tuned for how that goes. Knitting in the evenings has been such a great relaxer for me.

Currently Reading: Drinking: A Love Story and A Woman is No Man

Currently Watching: Breaking Bad (late to the party) and the Crown