prelude: crunch time

Since I'll be out next week on vacation, I've moved up the review schedule and due dates. Of course, very few instructors are 100% ready at this point. We'll do as many reviews as we can through tomorrow, then deal with the rest when I'm back.
If I actually read through every course, it takes about 4-6 hours per course. Not realistic :-) So I'll only fully proof-read courses I haven't seen previously.

A matter of time

The oft asked question goes something like this: "How many hours does it take to develop a course"? SLN says something on the order of up to 100 hours of faculty time. Notice how that statement doesn't factor any MID time.

In the case of the course I'll be meeting on this am, let's provide the following breakdowns:
-some initial meeting time by my predecessor (probably 1-2 hours)
-reading/editing time (4 hours)
-first meeting/review session with me (1 hour)
-proof reading of course info section, adding needed materials (1 hour)
-reading/editing time for final review (4-5 hours)
-final meeting/review session with me (1.5 hours)
-final sanity check before go-live date (1 hour)
Total estimated time: 13-15 hours of MID time

Of course, this doesn't factor any email exchanges, phone calls, etc. into the total time spent. In this case, this is a very strong course, with great writing, and a clear cut sense of the instructional objectives to be accomplished. I wish everyone grasped these concepts as nicely as Lorrie has- my life would be sooooo easy!

On the bad side - I have an instructor who's gone AWOL. Found out from the help desk. Checked in with her via phone on Wed; she assured us she'd be in the course "that night". Think so? Nope. Now it's Friday AM, and I'll have to deal with it this PM. Not looking forward to playing the enforcer...

Work log, Tuesday 7/19

I'm posting this a day late - we'll see how badly I lag on journaling daily activity.
8:45am - got a VM from Mike A; he had issues with replication -getting a "server not found" message. We spent some time on the phone trying to find the right area within Notes that allows you to force replication to a particular server. I couldn't find the fix right away, so I let Mike go off to a meeting and did the ol' hunt and peck until I determined you need to select the course database via it's icon, then File>Replicate>Replicate reveals the "replicate with options" option (how redundantly redundant is this phrase?).

So, why force replication, and how did I determine the root cause? Simple -Patrick had previously mentioned that they were replacing servers in Buffalo with newer IBM machines. "Aha", sez I, no doubt stupid Notes caches the DNS on the client somehow, and the client isn't smart enough to perform a lookup when the resolver fails. Or something like that :-)

Lessons Learned:

• we have ongoing issues with the hub server, particularly when pouring new courses. I wonder if forcing replication from my end would fix the stuck courses?
• we need better top down communication from the Help Desk to alert all member campuses of planned and emergency maintenance, and these alerts need to think through the possible consequences or side effects of PM. Like flubbing up DNS resolution, for instance.

Why yet another blog?

After reading more than a view blogs, some by people I know, I asked myself if there was any real purpose in contributing yet more detritus to the blogosphere. I also knew that I'm waaaay too old to be composing "Dear Diary" sophomorific rambles on any regular basis. But it seemed to be that I could use this space in several ways:

• as a test bed to investigate new technologies that could be integrated into learning systems
• to document my workflow (hey, it might be easier than keeping a paper based journal - or not
• to teach an old dog new tricks

Whether any of this will really pan out remains to be seen; stay tuned...