Putting Educational Innovations into Practice.

December GRAPE Camps

Hi, Everyone:
This is a great discussion area where you can ask questions or share information. Please introduce yourself here.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Florence Lojacono on March 17, 2010 at 10:13am

Hi Barbara, nice to meet you. I am Florence Lojacono and I teach French and Italian. Italian is an on line course at the Empire State College (NY). I will go in the next weeks in Sicily, so if you need some copyright free pictures for your class, just ask me ! I will take this opportunity to gather as many authentic material as I can for Italian classes.

Permalink Reply by Ellen Gundlach on December 10, 2009 at 9:13am

Hi Cathy,

I'm Ellen Gundlach, and I teach Statistics at Purdue University (main campus, West Lafayette, Indiana). I had to play catch-up on Grape camp last week, but I learned a lot from the homework assignments. I liked being able to participate live today. Thanks for the thorough training!

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on December 10, 2009 at 9:34am

Hi, Ellen:
You forgot to mention that you have been appointed Associate Editor for our Statistics Editorial Board which works in conjunction with CAUSE. I'm glad you could join us today, as it will help you a lot with your new position. Also, it's much more enjoyable when it is live!

Permalink Reply by Beverley Taylor on December 10, 2009 at 9:17am

Hi, I was today's "guest" during session 2 and am enjoying the training. I have a diverse/eclectic background in education, writing, and business - so I was wondering how are area(s) of expertise determined for Merlot peer reviewers? Then, when we become peer reviewers, how are assignments determined?

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on December 10, 2009 at 9:40am

Hi, "Guest" Beverley: :-)
We leave it up to you to determine the area in which you are most comfortable reviewing. It should be what you are currently teaching, to be most effective. You might want to look at some of the materials in each of the disciplines, as that would help you.

When you do the final step of GRAPE Camp, I will ask you your discipline and then will contact the Editor of that discipline. It is up to the Editor to assign you the first peer review as well as provide you the Peer Review Report they use in that discipline. The Editor will also ask you if there is a particular area you want to review in, i.e., if Business, which Courses, i.e. Accounting, do you have a preference, maybe Auditing. Then the Editor/Associate Editor will assign materials to you. The Editor will also ask you (after you have the experience of doing one in your discipline) how many you think you can do each semester or year. The Editor also will mentor you through your first review. We'll talk about all of this in next week's session.

Permalink Reply by Dawn Giannoni on December 20, 2009 at 9:18am

Hi Cathy, and fellow GRAPE camp students! I am very happy to be a part of the peer review camp. I am very impressed with our instructor Cathy Swift; thank you Cathy for your personable delivery and wonderful communications during this process! I am grateful for the delivery of this training; it has been very engaging and thorough. I also, find that the forms for reviewing are quite thorough and at the same time very logically outlined. This will be most helpful when note-taking while conducting the reviews, and also to assure a thorough quality review in each of the areas required.

I teach graduate leadership courses in both business and higher education. I also teach academic strategies to foundation students in undergraduate college. My research interests include each of the areas I teach in, and I am also intrigued with emergent research from the field of neuroscience, which in recent years especially, holds important findings and significance for educators. The more we learn about memory, emotion, and cognition and how these correlate to learning, the more we can improve our practices. Teachers are ‘ever-learners’ and there is so much to learn about learning.

Dawn Giannoni

Permalink Reply by Beverley Taylor on January 5, 2010 at 6:05am

Would it be possible to post the URLs / next steps here for the December Grape Camps?
Thanks,
Bev

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on January 5, 2010 at 6:38am

Sure, Beverley. I assume by "next steps" you mean what happens after you complete your review.
1. Once your review is completed, I will take a look at it and make some comments and email your review with the comments, asking you to email me back with your discipline and address (to send your certificate, which I will try to do this week).

2. When you email back with the discipline, I will cc you on an email to the Editor of your discipline, introducing you.

3. The Editor will then make your first assignment in your discipline and will mentor you during the review. This is a good time to ask the Editor questions that are particular to how your discipline does the reviews and what they look for.

4. From then on, the Editor will work out with you how many you would like to review during each semester (since you will know by then approximately how many you can do). And you are ready to be a full-fledged Peer Reviewer for your discipline.

5. I just started a "Vintage" GRAPE Camp for those who have graduated from GRAPE Camp. Once a semester (probably some time in March this year), we'll have an Elluminate session for those to poo in and ask questions.

Thanks for your interest, Bev.

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