Putting Educational Innovations into Practice.

Welcome to the June 2009 GRAPE Camp

We can use this discussion forum to ask and answer questions that can be shared with the group. We have two sessions going on, with more than 60 people involved. This is the largest GRAPE Camp ever! If you have a question, please ask away. I also encourage people who are already involved in MERLOT to answer your questions.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Diana Brooks on June 10, 2009 at 9:49am

Cathy, I'm spending some time trying to become more fluent within MERLOT and it has a lot of awesome features I've been exploring. That being said, there's a little bit of duplication. Maybe I'm a little slow this morning (late night at airport because of bad weather yesterday) I just figured out that my Voices profile and the other profile I worked on, don't connect in any way. So I have two new profiles to keep up with, a little daunting.

Nowadays people like us have so much technology to keep updating - employer pages, facebook, yada yada and it seems like many folks will just give up whenever there are extra steps and having to input info twice. (scholarly reference: just finished reading "Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability", by Steve Krug)
Then MERLOT may end up stuck with a lot of dead stubs on it's server space that aren't really being used. A waste of resources on both ends - user and organization.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 10, 2009 at 10:11am

Hi, Diana: I know it is a little frustrating to have to create two different profiles. The one on the MERLOT site is the important one, not the one here. We don't have the ability just yet to incorporate discussion forums into MERLOT, although we are looking into it. We recognize the importance of social networking today and the need for people to express their voices (pun intended!). So, we decided to use Ning to get something started. Again, your profile on this page is not the important one.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 11, 2009 at 7:36pm

Thanks, Kip. Glad to have you in the group. Technology is fascinating sometimes, seeing someone who is so far away. Ask any questions that you need to!

Permalink Reply by J. Patrick Malone on June 11, 2009 at 7:06pm

Hello Cathy!

I'm "Johnny-come-lately" today - I've been up to my ears in work for the last several days and I'm so thankful we can do this online ... but of course, today the site is under maintenance and I cannot log in (I'm sure that it won't be too long).

I first began using Merlot while finishing my M.Ed and hope to adopt/adapt or develop similar materials I have seen for use in some of my research (chomping at the bit to get to the dissertation).

I cannot wait for tomorrow ... cheers!

J. Patrick Malone

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 11, 2009 at 7:35pm

Hi, Patrick. The maintenance is only supposed to last for a few hours. I'm glad to hear you discovered MERLOT early on. Hopefully you'll find out a lot more about it during the next few weeks. See you in the morning!

Permalink Reply by Chase Masters on June 12, 2009 at 6:35am

Just a heads up: the Peer Review Tutorials are in a Windows-only format. People on Macs cannot open them. Perhaps consider posting them in a different format?

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 12, 2009 at 7:28am

I've heard that comment from a number of people. I wasn't even aware of it until this time. I am currently looking into using Jing to update them so they are useable for both PC and Mac. I can send you the PowerPoints I used to develop the movies. Just send me an email and I'll send them to anyone who asks. cswift@calstate.edu or cathy@merlot.org

Permalink Reply by Ronald Mayne on June 12, 2009 at 6:44am

Hi! I guess Patrick isn't so late after all. I teach Anatomy at Life University in Marietta, GA I was introduced to Merlot a couple of years ago at a faculty development session. I have found a lot of nice sites here and I like to pass them on to my students.

I noticed that an earlier poster teaches at Bellevue. I'm originally from Omaha, NE and I wanted to give a shout out and say that I'll be bringing my daughter up to experience the College World Series next week. It will be her first time, I think everyone needs to go at least once!

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 12, 2009 at 9:56am

Not everyone recognizes the World Series. However, when I was teaching at Georgia Southern, I was talking to my cousin and told her that I was not teaching there. First thing she said to me was, "Oh, is that the same Georgia Southern that won the College World Series?" So I guess it does bring recognition. i've never been, but since you say everyone should go once, perhaps I'll plan on it sometime in the future.

As far as Anatomy, I know our Editor of Biology will appreciate having you do reviews!

Permalink Reply by Diana Brooks on June 12, 2009 at 7:11am

To be honest I wasn't thrilled by the music either. It did not seem to add anything and I'm all about functionality.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 12, 2009 at 9:58am

Thanks to you, too, Diana. See my comment to Kip.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on June 12, 2009 at 9:58am

Hi, Kip: Thanks for the feedback. When I redo the tutorials, I'll not use the music. (It was a hassle to figure out how to do it anyway!) I really hadn't thought of different learning styles when doing it, so I learned something from your comment. Thank you!