You can deeply sense the gathering buzz around campus as faculty start to return, staff accelerate their attempts to finalize summer projects, and everyone hears the distant roar of students approaching campus for the start of Fall Quarter. For many grasping at final preparations, this is a moment of heightened anxiety. Anecdotally, I can say that the summer hires are largely excited about what it will feel like to be working and providing services to an active, dynamic campus in full session. It has been, on some days, too free of commotion.

I met many colleagues yesterday as Information Services welcomed new faculty and tried not to overwhelm them with the array of support options we offer for teaching, technology, media, research, and you name it. Paul Sotherland, our Coordinator of Educational Effectiveness, was kind enough to invite me to spend more time with the incoming group at lunch. When you’re new, building relationships is so important so I really valued the opportunity to talk with these educators about their backgrounds and learn what excites them about teaching. In conjunction with support from faculty members like Patrik Hultberg, Jan Solberg, and Charlene Boyer Lewis, I felt like an engaged member of the pedagogical community.

I was going to talk Moodle in this entry, but I’ll save my thoughts about ensuring students watch your online videos for later. There are presentations to finish, tech to research, and introductions to new colleagues to appreciate.