My name is Dr. Michael Paskevicius and I am your instructor for EDCI 565: Research and Practice of Learning Design. I look forward to meeting you soon and working with you all throughout this exceptional term.

I realize that you all are living and working through challenging times as we continue through this pandemic. I want you to know that I am here to support you in any way that I can, and I urge you to feel free to reach out to me and provide feedback on your experience at any time.

I also hope to make this course useful to you as you navigate your professional contexts in this challenging time. I realize that many of you are practicing teachers, and are facing uncertainty around how courses are to be facilitated in the coming months. I am including a survey below that will allow you to provide some feedback on your context and needs, as I am flexible and ideally want to make the assignments in the course as practical as possible.

I have three things I would appreciate you do before we meet, sooner the better. The three tasks together should take less than 10 minutes to complete.

  1. We will be using an instant messaging system to stay connected throughout the term both in class and beyond. It is called Mattermost (similar to the Slack messaging application) and will allow us to connect collectively, in small groups, or one-to-one via text. This service is hosted in BC and specifically available for educational institutions. Please either use your first name & last name (e.g.: michaelpaskevicius) or use your UVic Netlink ID (e.g.: mpaskevi) when you create your Mattermost user name. The invitation link has been emailed to you.
  2. We will be using the Hypothes.is social annotation tool to engage with the readings in our course. With this tool, you can highlight, make comments, pose questions, etc. directly on individual sections within the readings. As well, you can respond and engage in discussion with each other based on the annotations and we will use these artefacts to drive discussion and debate. This service is not hosted in BC, so if you choose to use a pseudonym, that is ok. If you are willing, using the same username for both Mattermost and Hypothes.is will help me identify you. An invite link has been emailed to you.
  3. Once you have done these two tasks, please complete the following survey that will allow me to get to know you and your context a little better. The was emailed to you.

I want you to know that you can always contact me if you have questions or concerns, I will reply as quickly as possible. Mattermost will be the quickest way to get a response.

I look forward to meeting you on Tuesday at 4:30pm. The syllabus will be provided and reviewed during our first meeting.

Photo above by alleksana from Pexels