The unKNOWN

2 min read

I have, along with my wife and kids, made the rather significant decision to resign from my position as edtech coordinator at TRU, and accept a position as director of TWU Online at Trinity Western University. 

Oy vey!

It's one of those positions that doesn't come along very often at all, represents a meaningful professional challenge, and will allow me to extend and expand on the work I've been involved with at TRU. 

I think it's relevant to note that I wasn't looking to leave TRU. There are some extremely talented and passionate people there who are doing amazing work with shrinking resources. I'm sad to leave.

But...

TWU represents a huge opportunity. They don't really have a coherent online strategy other than a few faculty and departments offering 'online' courses off the side of their desks. If you follow the most obvious links from the main page of the site, you will find a list of courses with links to year-old syllabi repurposed for online by adding required online discussions.

Suffice it to say that the task before me is huge, but I'm excited. The potential is huge. Since TWU doesn't have a history in online learning, they don't have any ties to software systems or vendors. No Blackboard. No Brightspace. Just an old, rickety version of Moodle (1.9).

So, it is my sincere hope that I'll be able to leapfrog the last couple decades of increasingly bloated LMSs and build an open infrastructure, with open tools to allow open pedagogies and an open invitation to participate in a vibrant learning community.

flickr photo shared by CulturalVertigo under a Creative Commons ( BY-SA ) license