Category Archives: Odd Bits

I have a confession to make: I’ve never balanced a chequebook. I belong Generation Y, so I’m among those who own a chequebook (unlike my younger brother, a Millennial), but I rarely use it. I’ve always paid my bills online. Money management is just one of the things that technology has revolutionized. A century ago, students sat in desks and teachers stood before them. Today, students can ask questions via Twitter and a teacher can answer from the other side of the world – but the majority of learning still looks very much like it always has. So you might … Continue reading →

I belong to a certain writers’ group on LinkedIn, which recently offered a valuable lesson for anyone with an internet connection. I get daily emails from LinkedIn that summarize the popular conversations, and since there are over 5,000 members in my group, I rarely click through. But over a period of a few days, I noticed a few sneeringly sarcastic comments popping up on one particular thread. I’m sorry to admit I was intrigued. (Is there a term for online rubbernecking?) Here’s what happened: a member asked for advice on a personnel issue. A potential contractor had submitted an idea … Continue reading →

TRU-OL is now on Pinterest, and to those who have already followed us, thanks for joining! We’re always looking for followers and new people to follow, so if you pin, check us out at pinterest.com/TRUOpenLearning. While pinning, I’ve noticed a common error on many typography-related images that I think is worth raising here. It seems many people still make the mistake of using “your” when they should be using “you’re.” If this never happens to you, please go on with your day. Otherwise, read the following: “Your” is a possessive adjective, and modifies the noun or noun phrase in the … Continue reading →

LIVE PRESENTATION As TRU-OL’s contribution to Open Education Week, please join us online for a live presentation of “Designing and Assessing Engaging Learning Activities” on Tuesday, March 6 from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. Stay for the discussion period afterward with presenters Michelle Harrison and Melissa Jakubec, from the TRU-OL Instructional Design team. Access the presentation at http://livestream.com/liveTRU. ABOUT OPEN EDUCATION WEEK Irwin Devries, Director of Instructional Design here at TRU-OL, writes regularly about open and distance education at IrwinDevries.com. He kindly agreed to be a guest blogger here and contributed the following post about Open Education … Continue reading →

Last week I was at the Welcome Back BBQ and Student Orientation session on the TRU campus where I happened to meet a very dedicated student. She was enrolled in a full-time TRU program and was taking two additional courses through Open Learning. The amount of work she had cheerfully signed up for was chilling, and while she’s a old pro at this and knows what she’s getting into, it got me thinking about what can happen in the beginning of the school year that gets people into trouble later. In September, the course material all seems new and interesting … Continue reading →

You probably don’t have it marked on your calendar, but this month, the book Gone with the Wind turned 75. Calendar or no, it’s been hard to avoid; I’ve come across several blogs and magazines that have taken the opportunity to talk about about how awful the book is, in both its style and content. At one point people’s unhappiness with Scarlett and Rhett would have surprised me, because I first read Gone with the Wind when I was 12. I had never read a story where the heroine was not only unkind and selfish but altogether quite unlikeable, and … Continue reading →

I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t want Adam Savage’s job. He works for the TV show Mythbusters and spends his days blowing things up, driving fast cars and re-enacting Hollywood stunts (can 007 really jump out of that plane and live? Really?) His job is Awesome. When Mythbusters comes up – and if you ever experience an awkward lag in conversation among strangers, it’s a good topic to try – you can actually watch the flush of wistful longing cross people’s faces. But I am skeptical of such dream jobs, because one summer, I actually had one. I was hired … Continue reading →

I love my e-reader, mainly because it allows me to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in public without being publicly shamed. (And you really shouldn’t judge: it’s a funny book, in an absurd sort of way.) I also love that I can buy a book at 2 a.m., read a PDF in the sunshine and download my library books. But while higher ed seems eager to experiment with other technologies in the classroom – tablets; BlackBerries; even twitter and texting – the e-reader doesn’t seem to come up very often. So I thought I would ask Brenda Smith, TRU’s distance and document delivery librarian and all-around book guru, about why we don’t hear more about e-books in higher ed, and what you should consider if you’re shopping for an e-reader. Here’s what she said. Continue reading →

With a wave of new and returning students wishing to register for summer courses, it has come to my attention that some people don’t find TRU-OL’s new registration process as fun as a day at the beach. Because OL students are so different – some taking whole programs, others a single course; some taking paced courses with specific start dates; and others taking courses they can start whenever they like (Christmas Day, anyone?) – the process can seem littered with details that don’t immediately make sense. We’re working on this, but in the meantime, maybe this will help. Here’s a … Continue reading →

My first serious case of procrastinatus occurred when the frog showed up in my mailbox. I was taking a biology course through distance ed when, along with a heavy textbook and a CD, I received a plastic jar the size of a basketball. It was filled with a murky solution of formaldehyde, and to see what was inside, you had to tilt the jar to the light, revealing a bit of clam shell, a flash of anemic sea worm, a spindly webbed foot. I was struck by the strangeness of this. Whose job it was to pack dead things into jars … Continue reading →