What follows are notes and to-do lists for the Travel and Tourism course developments here at Otago Polytechnic.

The course has 3 aspects to its development

  1. Content in the form of activities and lesson plans on Wikieducator
  2. Course blogs for the presentation of the activities and the communication around them
  3. Staff blogs for the establishment of online communication skills and industry expertise

Progress on Wiki

The structural design for the wiki is near complete, with usability and visual design commencing this week. Usability and visual design will include:

  • Course pages will simplify navigation to resources and activities.
  • Wording will be made personalised
  • Graphics to enhance attractiveness and offer visual ques for quick reference

To do

  • LB: Learning Objective, Resource and Activity subpages need to be created for a number of new course pages.
  • HJ: Start writing activity pages for all of the learning objectives. Include aim, activity, resources.
  • SC: Conceptualise visual style and graphics for the wiki
  • HJ, SC and LB: Wiki pages for courses starting in February must be completed by mid January ready for use in staff training

Links

Progress on course blogs

All course blogs have been set up on edublogs.org using the courses listed on the Travel and Tourism main wiki page. Graphics and banners are currently being developed for each. Course blogs must be ready to use before start of Febuary.

To do

  • LB: Give Hillary admin access to all blogs
  • LB and SC: When course pages on wiki are finished (check with HJ) copy content onto course blog about pages
  • HJ: Focus on finishing the course pages in wiki
  • SC: To develop a number of banners for each blog for consideration by staff

Links

Progress on staff blogs

4 staff have set up blogs on wordpress and are currently exploring the features and learning how to use them effectively. Some of the staff have set up RSS readers and are starting to check each others blogs and comment in. When blogs start to reach a competent standard, active networking will begin.

To do

  • LB: Check in on blogs and offer support
  • HJ: Provide incentives to staff blogging
  • SE: Continue to support learning
  • HJ: Coordinate intensive learning sessions throughouut January and February

Links