Teamwork makes things easier!

This semester I have the support of an excellent team of 7 eTutors and that makes my role as course coordinator much easier. In addition, the materials presented during the first offering of the course were also transferred to the new course page, for that reason I consider myself a happy camper. Still, there's always room for improvement, therefore, I modified the course guides (for tutors and students), amended the rubrics, overhauled the course banner, recorded a new welcome message, improved on the virtual invitation and tried using group project wikis.

So what's next on my list of action items ... I've started working on an ice breaker for a course that's scheduled to start January 2017. I'm excited about it, when I think about the possibilities. I intend to use a modified icebreaker to try to learn more about my students' learning styles. The results from the icebreaker should help me to better tailor the course material and activities to each student.

In an effort to make the course material more inclusive and fun, the characters for the icebreaker will be as follows:

1. Observer - female adult fox character wearing glasses

2. Listener - male adult bunny (looks familiar)

3. Hands-on / active - male adult lemur character

4. Reader - female owl adult character in wheelchair

5. Versatile - small degu with handy-man tools

Meanwhile, I'm pleased to share a copy of my first draft of the Read character with you on this blog (note the images on the paper in the character's hand). Additionally, I tried to incorporate the school's colour scheme in the design and used the letter 'P' to refer to the mascot. I will also try to give each character complimentary uniforms.

At the moment, I'm working on the visual character's smile and giving her a nonthreatening stance. Please e-mail me (nicolewelsh.edu@gmail.com) your comments and suggestions or use the contact me tab. I will share the remaining 4 character designs with you very soon and make changes to the designs up to December 2016, given that the course goes live from January 2017.

Update as at: November 27, 2016

As you may have noticed my characters changed from human to animal designs. In addition, I've also tried to include familiar faces that learners should be able to identify and hopefully relate to. However, I headed back to the drawing board for my third character i.e. Reader. I've used the first draft option for Observer and intended to use an owl in a wheelchair (thinking inclusiveness and diversity) for Read. However, it's a bit difficult to find a 'cool-looking' female owl in a wheel chair. Therefore, I've settled on using a combination of two female lead dogs from a Walt Disney film and the body and wheelchair of a character from DC comics.

Update as at November 28, 2016

I enjoy character design so much that I started to design the Read character. Mind you, it's still a work in progress...as mentioned earlier, please feel free to comment.

November 30, 2016: Draft complete