Hi

I hope you are preparing well for our unit. Many have dived into setting up their own blog, interacting on PeerWise, reading the Study Guide, connecting with others, and generally getting started and ready for our unit.

We will be having interactive lectures at Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Gladstone, Bundaberg, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. They will start on Wednesday next week (Week 1) and be on at 9.00am – 10.30am each week. Maria Tyler (in Mackay) and myself (in Rockhampton) will be general ‘ring-masters’-cum-lecturers and Carmen Barton (Gladstone), John McGrath (Bundaberg), Lois Kempnich (Brisbane), Peter Zhang (Sydney) and Mitch Hsu (Melbourne) will be supporting you ‘on the ground’. Also, Maria and I will take a particular interest with those in Townsville.

At our other three locations this term, Cairns (Karen McPherson), Perth (Chris Fernandes) and Geraldton (Nova Maver), you will have your own individual workshops that will not be linked to other locations.

A video of our interactive lectures will be available on Moodle by 12 noon each Wednesday. If you wish, you can view part or all of our interactive lectures at a time that suits you. You can find these videos of our lectures in the Echo 360 section on the left-hand side of Moodle.

For those who might like to experience our interactive lectures remotely while they are taking place, you can dial into the lectures from 9.00am – 10.30am each Wednesday (AEST, i.e. QLD time). You can do this by simply clicking on the Zoom link in Moodle in the top centre section or in the centre box for each week. It will take you straight into the lectures when they are happening.

And for those coming to our interactive lectures at Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Gladstone, Bundaberg, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, you can use Socrative to answer questions in our interactive lecture. We will answer a few questions after discussing them in small groups. So one person in each group can send their group’s answer into Socrative. Also, people dialing into our lectures remotely can participate, if they wish.

Find out more about how this will work: Socrative.

Try this quick quiz:

Q: What is the distance between Townsville and Melbourne?

A: 2,070 km … so our interactive lectures will be between people spread as much as 2,000km apart.

We will be quite a distance apart in our interactive lectures; however, we will see how we can connect and be part of a larger learning group spread across the eastern seaboard of Australia, as we learn with and from each other.

Regards

Martin