Or, “the dangers of introspection in the workplace”.

At UCF we have a professional development track for faculty members who wish to teach fully online or mixed-mode classes (reduced seat time). These tracks are fairly time-intensive (semester long) and there is a waiting list for the fully-online course training. Those who want an online component but are not giving up seat time, however, have a self-paced online training course that walks them through basic tools and applications in our course management system. A dedicated individual can wrap it up in two hours, or spread it out over a weekend if they choose. Once complete, an empty course shell is created that they can start populating with content.

Separate from but in conjunction with the professional development track we have a series of in-depth, tool-specific workshops lasting between 2 and 2.5 hours long. These workshops, collectively, are called Webcourses@UCF Academy (no, I didn’t name them). Faculty members are not required to attend, but are strongly encouraged to do so. The seven workshops are offered on a rotating basis weekly: one face-to-face workshop on the Orlando campus, and one live online training using Adobe Connect (more on that later). These workshops are open to everyone- faculty members, GTAs, TAs, and staff. Participants can register online and attend as many (or as few) sessions as they like, as many times as they like.

I am the trainer for these workshops. All of them.

Now, in theory, my team members are available to assist me in training workshops. In the case of f2f training, they can assist, or in some cases even take over our introductory workshop. In practice, I have four part-time students on a rotating schedule who are handling all our faculty technical support for our course management systems, as well has a large handful of other applications used on campus.

So, I am the trainer for these workshops.

With the migration deadline slowly approaching, I’ve been trying to make adjustments to allow for (what we hope) will be a rush of interest in training for the new system. Since I need my current employees to do what they’re already doing, i started advertising for a training assistant. Preferably someone with an interest or background in training and/or pedagogy, who could stand up to faculty. Luckily, I found someone. Unluckily, it was just in time for a hiring freeze and budget cut.

Gotta love higher ed.

So, in juggling budgets, writing reports, and trying to create a stable basis with limited means for a projected increase in service needs, I found myself seriously evaluating what my team provides and why. And I made a rather interesting discovery:

We provide technical instruction, not instructional technology.

Splitting hairs? Perhaps. But it’s not what I envision for myself, this group, or instructional technology for the future.

So that’s really how this whole little journey got started- I had more work to do, and less funds to do it with, so I had to find some way to complicate things even further. Go, me!

Damn work ethic. *shakes fist*