Putting Educational Innovations into Practice.

2015 Winter/Spring GRAPE Camp Forum

Please take the opportunity to introduce yourself here in MERLOT Voices. Some people are attending GRAPE Camp asynchronously or as a self study. This will be the only contact they will have with others who are attending. This is a great opportunity to network with others. After you introduce yourself, tell us about you. You are also able to reply to anyone else's comments.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Denise Gaspard-Ri9chards on December 9, 2014 at 1:25pm

Hello everyone! I am Denise Gaspard-Richards and I am joining GRAPE Camp from Trinidad and Tobago. My schedule is quite packed so I am attending camp as a self study. I am making a great effort to listen to the recordings and complete all assignments each week. My interest in MERLOT is mainly to help with identifying materials that my department can use in development of content and activities in our online programmes. I also want to stay current in my field and I think that engaging in peer review would enhance my ability to do so.

I look forward to chatting and sharing. Have a great week everyone ...we have lots of "homework" to complete!

Denise

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on December 9, 2014 at 3:57pm

Hi, Denise:

We're glad to have you. I've been to a lot of islands, but never Trinidad and Tobago. It must be enjoyable to live there.

I think you are exactly right. I'm sure you'll find many resources that you can use in your department It's fun to explore and see what others have created. And doing peer reviews is a great contribution to your discipline.

If you have any questions from the homework, please let me know

Permalink Reply by Tammy Garren on February 5, 2015 at 11:32am

Hello!

My name is Tammy Garren. I am participating in February 2015 GRAPE Camp asynchronously. My fields are instructional design/ faculty development and American History. I work as an instructional designer at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and as a History instructor at Empire State College. So far, GRAPE Camp has been really interesting - I've been looking at MERLOT for years and I've already learned so much more about how it works through this experience. I look forward to learning about the Peer Review process.

Stay warm!

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on February 5, 2015 at 1:05pm

Welcome, Tammy. We'll probably have the Editors of both Faculty Development and History fighting over you! ;-)

Actually, I know that History probably needs you more, but that is up to you.

Even though you are doing GRAPE Camp asynchronously, you can read comments from the others here. You can also ask any questions that you want here. I'm looking forward to working with you!

Permalink Reply by Minjuan Wang on June 7, 2015 at 9:32pm

We are in the same field, instructional design, training development.-:)

Permalink Reply by Arnie Schoenberg on February 7, 2015 at 9:15am

Hi all,

I'm taking the class asynchronously. I'm an adjunct professor in anthropology at San Diego City College. I've been working on an open textbook for a few years, and I'm finding it next to impossible to get feedback on the project (besides "you're crazy for starting this!"). I figured maybe that reciprocity might be the best strategy, that if I review other people's work, they might help me with mine. In any case, I know that evaluating other work will get me thinking about my own; I hope to use excellent examples of online textbooks as models. Also, I've skimmed the anthropology materials but I'd really like to go through them in more detail and incorporate what I can.

I think free online resources are the future of education, and it seems like Merlot has developed a good system to make that happen, so I'm a happy camper.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on February 7, 2015 at 9:54am

Arnie, I think you are part of the California Community System. I'm working on the Cool4ed project - the goal is to provide free textbooks (or low cost) for students. All of their textbooks are cataloged in MERLOT. I'm sure your project will have great acceptance. Here is a link to the Cool4ed project: http://cool4ed.org/

We don't have an editorial board in Anthropology, but it would be fun to create one!

Permalink Reply by Arnie Schoenberg on December 28, 2015 at 4:06pm

I have some time over the break so I'm going to try to finish up Grape Camp.

I found some new primate videos that I didn't notice last time I was here.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on December 28, 2015 at 6:57pm

Glad to hear that, Arnie. Let me know if you have any questions.

Material is continually being added, so I'm not surprised about your finding new primate videos.

Permalink Reply by Kristen Butela on February 16, 2015 at 5:58pm

Hi everyone!

My name is Kristen Butela, and I am attending the GRAPE camp asynchronously. I've used MERLOT resources in my classes previously, and I hope to be able to eventually contribute my own work to the site. I think becoming a Peer Reviewer will help me to write better assignments and activities. My discipline is Biology with specialties in microbiology and genetics.

I've been working through the assignments and peer review processes-the YouTubes are very helpful!

Best,

Kristen

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on February 16, 2015 at 8:05pm

Hi, Kristen:

I'm glad to have an experienced MERLOT user on board. I know the Biology editorial board will look forward to your "graduating" from GRAPE Camp. Since you're working asynchronously, please let me know if you have any questions.

Permalink Reply by Pat Jarvis on April 15, 2015 at 8:26am

Hello everyone!

My name is Pat Jarvis and I am attending grape camp as a self study. I am currently the instructional designer at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada. I am excited about becoming a peer reviewer for material in Merlot and look forward to future discussions with some of you. My fields are Professional Development, Technical Education, and Computer Technology. Pat