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[rattusdomesticus]

I've just sat through yet another b.s. meeting that is supposed to "professionally develop" me. What really happened is that I got to watch a faculty head wrestle with an administrator and nearly come to an actual shouting match while five new instructors looked on. The newbies had varying degrees of shock on their faces while mine remained impassive. After all, I've seen this kind of cr@p before.

This said, I have been to a few things that actually made me a better instructor. Unfortunately, none of it's been at my new t/t job. And yes, now that you ask me, that does depress me.

I'll be under my desk crying if you need me.

[finallyfullprof]

I feel your pain. My cc district just had its "employee development" seminar a few weeks ago. It was the biggest waste of time I have ever encountered. At least yours sounds as if faculty were the only ones being tortured.  Ours was mandatory for everyone except essential security personnel.  I tried to put up a good front and get something out of it, but merciless mocking was about the only thing I managed to accomplish. The amount of money spent on this travesty would have paid the salaries of two tt faculty members for a year.

May I join you under the desk? I have Puffs Ultra in the economy size box!

[dr_stones]

I've just sat through yet another b.s. meeting that is supposed to "professionally develop" me. What really happened is that I got to watch a faculty head wrestle with an administrator and nearly come to an actual shouting match while five new instructors looked on. The newbies had varying degrees of shock on their faces while mine remained impassive. After all, I've seen this kind of cr@p before.

There is more to professional development than improving your teaching.

You demonstrated one degree of such development, in that you recognized idiotic behavior, indicated you do not wish to engage in idiotic behavior, and managed to maintain a stoicism and professional veneer in the face of idiotic behavior.  While you had seen such behavior before, the newbies had not; but, now you know that your prvious observations are neither isolated nor unique.

You have come far, my padawan learner. And a powerful Jedi you will make, yes.

[zharkov]

The rest of you don't know how good you have it.  We have to take online courses for professional development.  Not a course in Blackboard, but a canned course where you read about assessment, say, and then answer quiz questions, which are then automatically scored.

It is not that the content is bad, but that these courses are too long, and too boring.....  Boring because they focus on factual knowledge, not deeper knowledge that only comes through discussion and give and take.

Complaints to the dean, have, so far, gone unheard.

But, at the same time, proposals to have some training in Blackboard -- what the faculty are really asking for -- have been ignored by the same dean.

Go figure.

[qrypt]

In my new job, I've managed twice now to make myself obnoxious enough in these seminar thingies that the people leading them have eagerly agreed that it's okay for me to leave early (while certifying my attendance). 

They did manage to get me onto a hiring panel for a new flunky in their department.  But I doubt that will happen again, after I told them exactly what I thought of their offerings during the post-interviews discussion. 

[science_expat]

The rest of you don't know how good you have it.  We have to take online courses for professional development.  Not a course in Blackboard, but a canned course where you read about assessment, say, and then answer quiz questions, which are then automatically scored.

Can you jump straight to the quiz? That's how I got through my mandatory fire safety training.

[oldfullprof]

Can you jump straight to the quiz?

And that's how some of us got though IRB training.

[aandsdean]

Can you jump straight to the quiz?

And that's how some of us got though IRB training.

This is apparently a firing offense if you work at a public university in Illinois (vide flap about the "ethics test" last year.)

[concordancia]

1) My IRB quiz expected direct quotes from the book. As in "There is no deadline" is different from "It can be turned in at any time"

2) We have newbie professional development at my new institution. Once a month we are expected to sit through some aspect of teaching. The very first one, I happened to sit with a table full of education profs. To their credit, they were very professional about the whole thing even if I could see the tears in their eyes from up close.

[phamiltonian]

This is apparently a firing offense if you work at a public university in Illinois (vide flap about the "ethics test" last year.)

And this process has gotten even more pointless.  Last year, the online ethics training was capped with a quiz over the material.  The quiz questions were like this:

1.  If a shady character approaches you in the parking lot & offers to buy your university-provided computer for $50, you should . . .

A.  Say, "right on! but I only accept cash."
B.  Say, "no way!  but make it $100, and you've got a deal."
C.  Immediately inform your campus ethics officer of this outrage.
D.  All of the above.

People got in trouble for skipping too quickly through the "training" screens & going straight to the quiz.  Number of correct answers didn't matter, only time spent on the "training."  (Though I'm proud of my 100% score, needless to say.)

THIS YEAR, they've dropped the quiz in favor of testimonial-type affirmation that you get it, you take it seriously, etc.  But the worst part is that now they ask you questions at random points in the "training" even if they've not yet given you the information needed (they do tell you upfront that this is the procedure).  So now you have to answer questions like, "what is the policy of agency X on the ethics of tornado warnings?"  And then after you've made a wild guess (this is Illinois, after all, and how do tornados & ethics interact?) they give the information relevant to the question. 

OMG!

Phamiltonian

[rattusdomesticus]

Man, what a great bunch of responses. I can almost feel the blood coming back into my extremities!

Although good for computers and scanners (and one incredibly funny and smart staff person), the teaching and learning center at my college is a black hole of swirling crap that will threaten to bring me down if I'm not careful.

And zharkov, we too have bad canned courses to do on Blackboard.

phamiltonian, I did one on sexual harassment and scored a 100% in about six minutes... yeah, I'm sure all that knowledge is really deeply imbedded in my psyche. Good luck on those "keep you awake" pop questions! Remember the all-around answer, "Well, Bob, what do YOU think will be our course of action in the case of a tornado..." or "I'll pass on that Bob," or the very popular filibuster-type response, "You know, Bob, I'm glad you asked. In the 1930's here in Illinois..."

Last, I do have to ask--is anyone else here sucked into the void called Six Sigma yet? Oh, don't worry... it's coming your way...

finallyfullprof--thanks for the offer of Puffs Ultra. My colleague, not surprisingly, has a box in between our desks (and to think I wondered WHY during my first week here...)

[au_fait]

The rest of you don't know how good you have it.  We have to take online courses for professional development.  Not a course in Blackboard, but a canned course where you read about assessment, say, and then answer quiz questions, which are then automatically scored.

It is not that the content is bad, but that these courses are too long, and too boring.....  Boring because they focus on factual knowledge, not deeper knowledge that only comes through discussion and give and take.

Complaints to the dean, have, so far, gone unheard.

But, at the same time, proposals to have some training in Blackboard -- what the faculty are really asking for -- have been ignored by the same dean.

Go figure.

We're at similar universities.

[dept_geek]

Last, I do have to ask--is anyone else here sucked into the void called Six Sigma yet? Oh, don't worry... it's coming your way...

LOL!! Its *here*!! Wanna know how to get uninvited to these meetings? Ask where your college champion is.  The champion needs to be at the meetings so they can act on the recommendations.

[science_expat]

What is "six sigma"?

[notaprof]

What is "six sigma"?

Oh good, I was waiting for someone to ask this question because although it sounds like something we don't want to know about, I am very curious.  Some other bandwagon that schools are jumping on, perhaps?