All we already at the 4th Week?!

Hello everyone. I am writing today to share my thoughts on the readings, as well as some thoughts on class. I figured I would start by sharing the three things that I found to be the most striking when reading the article "The People-Product-Process Continuum..."

1. I had absolutely no idea that so many people were involved in preparing a course for elearning. I suppose that it makes sense, but I never thought that so many people were involved. I noticed that often times, all of the resources are not available to have that many people involved, so I began to wonder which positions are more important than others--which ones could someone sort of do double duty for. After thinking about it for awhile, I would think that it really matters what the skill set of the person creating the course consisted of. I mean, I personally think I could work as the copyright coordinator or the content expert--meaning I could do both if necessary. I could not really work, at this point, as any type of designer. But maybe one person could do most of the design work.

2. From a Communication standpoint (and I hate coming across as if I am the expert in communication; I simply refer to it because it is the lens that I bring into this course) I wonder how each of these people interact with one another. I read how it is the responsibility of the production designer and the the project manager to make sure that everyone is communicating with one another, but I am curious as to the process of what those communication processes look like. Is there a mission statement that is followed? How does the goal evolve, or even remain on track when so many people are adding their own perspective. Of course, I understand that it is merely teamwork and dedication, but again, I am curious to see what that looks like.

3. I have stated earlier that I like this class because of how meta it is--we are learning about elearning through elearning. With that in mind, I think it is so cool that we read an article about, see if you can stay with me now, learning about elearning through participating in elearning by reading an article about how elearning is developed! To me, that is some cool stuff, and I enjoy be surrounded by what I am learning from various points of view.

In terms of my own random thoughts, I liked that we had a course survey. It shows a commitment to really try and make this a class that we, as students, are really involved in facilitating. I am feeling a bit more comfortable, or at least feeling a bit more comfortable being uncomfortable, if that makes sense.

My week has been going well, and I wanted to point out that I went on an informational interview a couple of days ago, and spoke with the Executive Director of a government firm, and he shared with me the number one thing that he looks for when hiring new employees--an understanding of elearning technologies and web 2.0. So far so good.