[Su] ID2ID Journal Entries — Part II

From last November to present, Jackie and I have continued our bi-weekly meetings and have been sharing our current updates at work.

Good News. I was happy to learn about Jackie’s recent professional development experiences, especially about her recent interviews. It was such a valuable experience, and I am grateful that Jackie shared it with me. We both learned from this process. Moreover, Jackie and I have been sharing a wide range of resources throughout the program, from online learning conferences to networks, from Toastmasters Club for speaking skills to Quality Matters Certification as peer reviewers. Jackie and I agreed to maintain our professional connection beyond this program, and we hope to collaborate on some project(s) one day.

AHA Moments. Through our Zoom meetings, we realized more about the similarities between our institutions. We got to share our experiences on a series of same tools we use in daily work like Canvas LMS, Microsoft Office 365, Google G Suite, Zoom, etc.

Concerns. As I mentioned in my last reflection, time management remains the biggest challenge during our ID2ID communications. Due to the holiday break at the end of the year and other life obligations, we had to reschedule several times. However, we did manage to keep our meetings going on a fairly regular basis, and I feel pretty proud of us for this.

Opportunities. One of the latest, biggest takeaway from Jackie is a new networking channel named LOOP by EdSurge. After hearing about Jackie’s positive experience with LOOP, I have decided to give it a try. I have signed up and participated their orientation session. I am looking forward to the next steps and to meeting and connecting with new professional ID in the field.

All in all, ID2ID Program 2017 served as an excellent platform both for me and my buddy to achieve strong professional growth, to keep in touch with the current trends and issues in Instructional Design, and to stay connected with the other participants. I truly appreciate this wonderful opportunity. I believe this learning experience will have a profound effect on the future development of my professional skills.

Final Reflection

Good News

Well, despite many changes that have impacted both of our schedules, Su and I have made it through to the final reflection.  Once I realized that we were going to need to be flexible in terms of when we met and what we talked about, I felt I was able to use my ID2ID time in an effective and helpful manner.  Many of our bi-weekly meetings started as chats  – how are you? What’s new at work?  And as we would talk, we would dig a bit deeper capitalizing on our individual resources and contacts to address the topics we ended up focusing on. Su was amazing by always keeping our shared notes updated to include our talking points and any resources that we had shared.

Opportunities

As in all of my previous ID2ID, I think I will have an on-going connection with Su.  I don’t anticipate meeting on any regular schedule moving forward, but I know I would never hesitate to reach out to her if I have something to share that she might find useful or if I’m looking for input on something that I know she focuses on.

In addition, we had several conversation about Quality Matters.  While I’m not ready to take on something new right now, I might consider future QM professional development opportunities.

Concerns

My only concern is that in order to make one’s involvement in a program like ID2ID as beneficial as possible for all is that there needs to be commitment of time and energy. And there needs to be patience in recognizing that life and work happen despite best intentions of commitment. This is not a concern directed at my experience as I believe we both were able to work around time challenges.

I recently began participating in EdSurge Loop weekly calls. I am very much enjoying the experience but it is quite different than ID2ID.  There is less structure thus less pressure to feel deadlines are the priority and not the actual interactions. And the scheduling is completely up to my availability.  The downside is that my weekly interactions are short and always with a different person so any attempt for longer or more meaningful connections would be above and beyond the program.  That said, each program brings something different and value.  I hope to continue my ID2ID work but I think I  might complement that with EdSurge moving forward.  

AHA Moments

I found it interesting to see where each of our institutions are going through change in one way or another.  At PSU, we have recently migrated completely to Canvas, have a relatively new student information system, and a new HR system.  In addition, we now have access to a great mix of programs through Adobe Creative Cloud and Office 365.  In some of these cases, Su was able to share experience based on UTK being further along with adoption of different platforms. This made me realize that all institutions are dealing with changes – new programs, upgrades, applications.  And it really doesn’t matter what the change is  only that as IDs we need to learn about and adapt to them quickly so as best to not only use in our roles but to be able to support others.

First Reflection

Good News

Given I’ve been involved in the ID2ID program in a variety of roles and formats, I’m very comfortable and familiar with the program.  I think that helps me to focus more on the relationship I have with my buddy rather than stressing about logistics and timeframes. I feel we are both doing what we need to in order to get as much out of the program as possible. I’m not sure how buddy pairing takes place, but I’ve been lucky to always be partnered with someone who I would consider a perfect match.  Su is definitely in that category. She’s organized, intelligent, and motivated.

Opportunities

Despite crazy schedules, moves and other life circumstances, I think we are doing a good job of meeting some of our goals, in particular, learning more about our roles and institutions, sharing resources and demonstrating projects in Canvas. While we have different projects, we’ve already been able to share resources that would help with projects at our own institutions. I think it’s the nature of the program, i.e. flexible, and our approach to our bi-weekly meetings that helps to foster this level of support and collaboration.

Concerns

One of our goals was to identify a common interest area and read an article about it.  I’m not sure we will get to this as our bi-weekly meetings are already packed with conversations and sharing.  However, the professional development sessions provide a similar context for discussion. As an example, after the recent professional development session on Humanizing Online Learning, we were able to discuss points from the session from our individual perspectives.

AHA Moments

We only just realized that we both attended the ELI Annual Meeting in Houston in February of this year!  That realization made us think it would be nice to get together at a future conference or possibly even have a presentation together.

[Su] ID2ID Journal Entries — Part I

Four months ago (July 5th), I received an acceptance letter from the ID2ID Program Advisory Committee, marking the beginning of my participation in the 2017-2018 ID2ID Cross-Institutional Peer Mentoring Program for Instructional Designers (ID2ID, a partnership between the Pennsylvania State University (PSU) and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative). Being a buddy in this program, I (jsu1@utk.edu) was paired up with Jackie Sabol (jmc14@psu.edu), an Instructional Designer (ID) with the Penn State University’s Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) unit. During the past few months, Jackie and I have been meeting regularly via Zoom to share thoughts and ideas about instructional design theory and practice.

Good News. One of the best things in my buddy experience so far is the opportunity for us to share career growth and development with each other. When I joined this program, I was working as an Instructional Designer at the Office of Academic Effectiveness and Educational Technologies at the Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. Shortly after the beginning of the buddy program (exactly three months ago today!), I received an important opportunity to interview for my dream job. Two months later, I became an Instructional Design Specialist at the Office of Information Technology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT). I am very grateful for all the encouragement and support from my buddy Jackie all along my new job search. It was such a special moment to be able to share the good news of my job change with Jackie when I finally received the offer. Career development discussions has remained one of the hot topics in our communications, which has been greatly beneficial to both of us.

AHA Moments. Through our regular meetings, Jackie and I have been discussing each other’s roles, giving tours of each other’s work environment, facilities and services (e.g., the Penn State One-Button Studio, the UT Faculty First Program), comparing facts between Penn State and UT, and most importantly, sharing resources related to our individual job tasks; for example, the OER resources for the preparation of  my OER workshop in Spring 2018. This information exchange process is particularly helpful to me, since I am a relatively new instructional designer. These discussions not only enlarged my limited horizon to a great extent in the Instructional Design (ID) field, but also provided helpful guides to my projects in progress.

Concerns. The biggest concern for both of us so far is how to manage our time more effectively. From time to time, it becomes especially difficult to maintain our regular meeting schedule, alongside all the ongoing projects and tasks in our daily work. Jackie and I have been exploring and sharing different techniques and strategies of time management (e.g., the Bullet Journal system). Our goal is to work smarter through learning from each other.

Opportunities. I was very excited with all the potentials when I joined this program, and so far, it has met (if not yet gone beyond) my expectations very well. All the discussions and posts in our Google+ Communities as well as the webinar series (Synthesizing TPACK and SAMR Frameworks and Humanizing Your Online Course) and other ID2ID Zoom sessions have been bringing me inspirations on various topics in ID, from assessment to accessibility, from collaboration opportunities to job postings.

I look forward to the next stage of this great ID peer mentoring program.