Week One: Welcome to the 2011 class

Sunrise on the mountain by Kiwi Flickr

Welcome everyone to the first week of the course. I am located in Dunedin - hence the picture of snow - and I work at Otago Polytechnic in the Educational Development Centre. I was snowed in so couldnt go to work for two days because I live up near Mt Cargill.  I was one of the original developers of the grad cert programme, and have been teaching this course since it started in 2006, mainly because I really really enjoy teaching the course, and working with each new group of students.

So why a course blog? I like using a blog for posting a weekly announcement, to remind you about the activities which need to be completed over the week. It also means I can have fun selecting pictures. Also, the blog is also a good way to summarise each week's activities. People who contribute during the week always get a mention on the blog.

By now, hopefully, you have found your way around emit, and downloaded the course handbook. Once we get the business of the assessments out of the way, you will be able to relax and get on with starting the course.

• I hope most of you can attend the inaugural online meeting of the class in the emit Wimba classroom - Thursday 4 August - 16:00 - 17:00. I will be emailing out a link soon, asking for the most suitable times for future online meetings.

First steps
First things first - this week is pretty relaxed, and you can take your time familiarising yourself with what is required, looking around emit and the course blog and wiki (where the course activities are outlined), and meeting the others in the class. So far there are eleven people enrolled. Once you all get your introductions posted to your blogs, either in emit or externally (if you wish), we will get a sense of where you are all located, and find out something about you and your work. Hopefully, the instructions on the Announcements page of emit helped you find your way around. Next week is where we really get down to it and start exploring the meaning of evaluation in eLearning.

Valuable bits of paper to look at first
 The course handbook outlines the four assessments, and informs you how to get a merit for the course. The other valuable piece of paper to look at as soon as possible is the course timetable (see Course activities in emit) and you may wish to pin this on your wall.

I am really looking forward to meeting you all, and hope to see you in the Wimba classroom on Thursday.