So in a twist of fate and good fortune, I have managed to find myself in a new position outside of the ESL industry. Last month I accepted a position with Carleton University as an Educational Technology Consultant. Now, I know with my education, this sounds like a perfect fit, but I've never really viewed myself as a pure techie, but then I realized, hey, I know this stuff. Sure there are some things that are somewhat over my head, but so far, I've been able to find solutions to everything that I've been working on.

Some of the bigger problems I face revolve around the Moodle grade book. There are certain problems with the way that it is scored that cause issues. Perhaps it's just the system that the profs here use, but often the letter grades in the system don't match up with the scale that has been in use. I would suggest not using that scale, but it's very important to some people, so I need to find a way around it. Thus far, I've come up with simply adjusting the University's official percentage breakdowns in individual courses, but this won't be a long term solution for so many classes.

One of my colleagues who is much more of a techie than me and mathematically inclined has been working on a more accurate formula that can simply be plugged in, but we'll see how well it works over time.

Other than the gradebook, I've been working on developing Moodle (cuLearn) training, as well as taking the lead on software integration, such as project management software (activeCollab) and community feedback software (useResponse). Developing training and other methods to integrate software isn't completely new to me, but it is a new approach to training that I'm not really used to. Also, I'll be training some staff who are quite comfortable with technology, so I'm hoping that will make the transition easier.

Finally, one of my more 'big picture' projects involves trying to develop new ways to evaluate the effectiveness of our department. For this I've been looking more on the theoretical side of things, such as Kirkpatrick's 4 skills and Diffusion of Innovation theory.

At any rate, wish me luck as I embark on this adventure and new career path.