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[Spring Workshop 2013] Summary Feedback

workshop-feedback-It’s been a busy 2 weeks since we gathered at SFU Burnaby campus on June 6th and 7th for the ETUG Spring Workshop 2013  to “Tell it on the Mountain”.   The SFU Diamond Alumni Centre (DAC) and Halpern Centre provided a wonderful setting to explore as educational practitioners and technology enthusiasts, “teaching, engaging, learning and leading”. Thanks again to our inspiring keynote Nancy White for helping us to set the scene for two “blissful” days of discovery and learning. Also many thanks to the SFU Teaching & Learning Centre, SFU Conference Services, DAC staff, all our amazing workshop facilitators, energetic volunteers and the dedicated  SCETUG team for their contributions.

We asked for feedback on what worked well and where we could improve for future workshops and are sharing a summary of  the 38 responses we’ve received to date. A link to the full responses is also included. If you did not get a chance to provide feedback, or have additional comments or ideas for ETUG, you can still complete the survey or send a note to [see etug.ca for contact info]/  Also for your interest is a collection of email comments we’ve received on the workshop included below the survey Summary.

Summary – See Complete Responses

How many years have you attended ETUG Workshops?

 

This is my first year 12 32%
2 years 7 18%
3 years 4 11%
4 years 5 13%
5+ years 10 26%
I have attended ALL of them! 0 0%

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What did you think of the theme for this workshop? “Tell it on the Mountain: Teaching, Engaging, Learning & Leading”

The theme didn’t interest me. 0 0%
It was alright. 7 18%
It was great! 30 79%
Other 1 3%

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On average, were the sessions too short, too long or the right length?

Too long 1 3%
Too short 1 3%
Just right 36 95%

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What did you think of the food at the workshop?

The food could have used some help. 1 3%
It was alright. 7 18%
Loved it! 30 79%

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Please provide a comment or two on the workshop sessions. What stood out for you? What could be improved?

Keynote
  • Nancy White never disappoints–a gifted facilitator!
  • Nancy White’s keynote tied into the theme and other sessions I attended. It was engaging and enlightening.
  • Eye-opening keynote with Nancy White.
  • The keynote speaker was a pass. No introduction. Who is she and why do I care? For me absolutely no relevance to anything. Her activity fell absolutely flat at my table and boy did we try to implement it.
  • I really enjoyed the keynote speaker, and I thought the sessions had been put together very thoughtfully – they were interesting, shared some thought provoking ideas, while allowing space in between for networking
  • Nancy always has something different and inspiring every time I see her. She’s a gem.
  • The Keynote speaker stood out for me.
Sessions Topic
  • I enjoyed the accessibility workshop and the last session about spaces for learning.
  • Open Textbook, Paul Hibbits interested me.
  • The best was the woman who delivered the flipped clasroom. Engaging, interesting and bloody doable! Very good. Less so the corporate ones from UBC. Typical corporate fare, too much material, so let’s get the students to do work outside the classroom. The woman from UVic on Friday am. She spoke about getting PTS instructors together on-line and the difficulties she encountered doing so. The Hibbits fellow from SFU was good. Nice to know technical stuff but I would venture a guess most of us will never, ever have input into what he was talking about (responsive websites) at our own institutions. Maybe on a personal basis, but…..And the cost. He might have mentioned this type of work is rather pricey. But then agian he was also a consultant.
  • The topics were incredibly applicable to me. BBC training, Moodle transitions, badges… these are all things I have worked through or will be working through. As always, ETUG topics hit home and have actionable items for me.
  • The quality of the presentations varied between quite poor and very good. Maybe a bit more quality control?
  • Loved Emily’s faculty development presentation as well as Judy Larsen’s flipped classroom.
  • Generally all of the workshops I attended were good. I particularly enjoyed when presenters used specific examples and shared their own experiences.
  • Great sessions, led by knowledgeable and inspiring speakers I always struggle to make a choice when faced with so many great options
  • I like hands-on so I really enjoyed the Mozilla Popcorn session. Some others were somewhat informative but I didn’t learn as much.
  • Transferring live lecture into online lesson – I found the title a little misleading. I found the session to be more about creating an engaging online course rather than focusing on the live lecture aspect. Though having said that, Maristela a very good presenter and she organized her presentation very well and her added humor was engaging.
  • Paul Hibbitts’ session was excellent. Really enjoyed the concrete ‘how to’ guidelines. The poster session was really great too. Can’t think of anything that could be improved!
  • Liberating Structures sessions were really helpful for me. Standouts also included Open Textbooks, mobile usability.
  • Every presentation I went to seemed to be tied nicely to the theme.
  • Good selection of topics. Like sessions on open textbooks and the one by Brian Lamb and Will: i.e. a brainstorming session on open education. Generally, the calibre of speakers was high.
  • The workshops had a great variety. Some workshops were so interesting and happen at the time slots that it’s often hard to choose which one to attend.
  •  Loved the Mozilla Popcorn session- mainly because there was a direct take-away in the session for future use.
  • Paul Hibbits’ session on designing for touch was very practical.
  • Case study on flipped classroom was fantastic. good The sessions that I attended were highly applicable to my work…good balance of theory and practice.
  • Paul Hibbitts continues to be awesome. Keep inviting him. The Flipped Classroom case study (Judy ???) was wonderful too. Both offered fun, informative, practical sessions that gave me things I could use directly in my department.
  • I think I enjoyed this session the most as it had practical applications in my work as an Instructional Designer. While best practices should be supported by research, I like to attend workshops that have content based on sound theoretical grounding while explicitly linking ideas to practical applications. i also enjoyed the Designing for Touch workshop as it was a subject that I knew little about. However, touch screens and mobile learning are certainly coming or have arrived.
  • The session on electronic portfolios. It just was not very informative and there was nothing presented that I was not already aware of.
Sessions Format
  • Some case-study sessions could have had more hands on engagement.
  • It was quite interesting for me to notice that there were less “tech” sessions and more thinking/discussion sessions this time around, which I really liked.
  • Hands-on sessions are fun, and engaging.
  • I found the 2-way nature of most presentations very engaging. I am an active learner.
  • I like the really practical ones. I was conflicted choosing the first morning session on Friday. It would be great to have a hands-on stream
Sessions Length
  • The session length was just right – many of them, I wish could have gone on longer, but overall, it kept things moving.
  • There was a constant moving from one to the next, and it never felt like the afternoon was dragging on.
  • I thought the sessions were a perfect length.
Venue
  • Really loved the DAC space – tables for sessions/chatting/eating and also theatre-style seats when useful! And of course the view 🙂
  • Would have been useful to have signage on the doors at Halpern, everyone just walked by the sign by the entrance. Better projector in Halpern 1, drapes in Halpern 2
  • SFU was a lovely space to meet at.
  • I liked seeing different parts of the campus so appreciated that the sessions were spread out a bit but not too much.
Other
  • There were a number of new faces – nice to see some students.
  • The activities were fun – enjoyed working for the badges.
  • Needs improvement: I couldn’t find descriptions (Crowdvine or ETUG sites) that told me what each session was about. I knew when/where and who it was, but nothing aside from the title to help me decide if I needed it. Did I miss some obvious info?
  • Finally, I want to thank ETUG for their great job and offering these workshops at such a low cost. Great value for the money. More and more, institutions are hiring sessional staff who have no or little PD funds. I think it is important to try and keep the cost to attend low. Great job.

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What was your favorite thing(s) about the workshop?

Networking
  • The opportunity for networking was a benefit for me – as a first time attendee, I was eager to meet other teaching and learning professionals. All of the workshops were great, and wonderful keynote speaker!
  • Engaging with colleagues and former students.
  • The networking and re-connecting with various ETUG participants.
  • etworking with folks – I like the social time we get with one another.
  • The people and the food. Networking and seeing people I only ever see in person at ETUG.
  • Networking and the food!!
  • Networking with colleagues from other institutions, good food, poster session.
  • The people–connecting, seeing everybody again.
  • Learning; food; people. As always, the people! What an amazing, welcoming community. I feel lucky to be part of it!
  • Networking and meeting new people. networking Meeting local (to BC) peers who can provide assistance and support.
  • Like the sense of community.
Workshop Session
  • I think the variety and the opportunity to think and reflect.
  • The topics were great, but it’s the people talking about the topics that really deepens the value. It often feels like an “open space” event as the sessions are often conversational and you have “the right people in the room.
  • I really enjoyed the session on defining learning spaces. This is something that I have been thinking a lot about in my own work, so it helped clarify some of my ideas.
  • the time allotted for informal chat The focus on teaching and learning, not on tech toys. Though miss Bob Clark’s tech toys session.
  • The keynote! Nancy rocks.
  • The presentation software that Maristela Petrovic-Dzerdz used was quite effective.
  • The hands-on sessions were my favorite because they involved a lot of interaction between participants.
  • Choice of interactive sessions vs. sit-and-listen sessions. They don’t ALL have to be interactive.
Other
  • Relevant and practical. We share common issues across the board. The people and the community.
  • The Geocaching activity and badges were great additions as well.
  •  Venue, colleague interactions
  • Badges was kind of fun too.
  • Nice variety of sessions and good venue for the social part.
  • Variety, networking, food.

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What was your favorite session and why?

  • Nancy’s keynote, hands down. I love that her message is so inspirational.
  • Favourite session was “my flipped classroom, a case study’, and the update on ‘BC open textbook project”.
  • The keynote speaker was fabulous! Very engaging and interesting.
  • The thinking session with Esther Thiessen was intriguing, and one of the more interesting sessions I attended. She raised a problem she has encountered in her teaching and asked for responses/solutions/engagement from the attendees. If this type of session is offered again, I suggest more time be allotted, as well as a facilitator to manage the discussion.
  • I loved Brian and Will’s session because it felt like a call to action that definitely energized people.
  • The Flipped Classroom by Judy Larsen — it was well illustrated, and provided real-world examples.
  • Paul Hibbits. Nancy White on Liberating Structures – very new approach to engaging groups.
  • All the sessions I attended were very helpful, but in particular the two sessions on flipped classrooms were the most immediately applicable.
  • Playing with Popcorn Flipped classroom. Engaging and interesting.
  • Paul Hibbitts. Other sessions helped me with current issues I knew I was facing, which is great. But Paul made me think about issues that I didn’t realize were issues. Eye-opening, but also with practical tips to work from (user context stories).
  • Nancy White’s keynote. Refreshing, different ideas.
  • The session on designing for touch screens gave me the most take-aways.Paul Hibbits on responsive design. He is a great speaker who always finds something exciting and topical to discuss in a very approachable manner.
  •  Paul Hibbits’ session was engaging and practical.
  • Nancy’s kickoff session set the tone for collegiality that persisted throughout the sessions and meals.
  • This is such a difficult question…. I would have to say Nancy White’s session on facilitating groups. She is a dynamic and engaging speaker. Also, I really enjoyed Brian and Will’s session on ‘Open’. They too are excellent presenters and allowed time during the session for group work/informal chat which I find so valuable during sessions.
  • Nancy’s keynote and workshop–energizing!
  • The keynote. I love Nancy’s slides, ideas and the flow of presentation and she also engages audience. I learned allot.
  • BC Open Textbook Project: Crowdsourcing Your Input! I found the topic interesting and both Mary and Clint presented well together.
  • Paul Hibbitts session about designing for mobile. I learned stuff that I will *definitely* apply.
  • I loved the keynote speaker!
  • Liberating Structures, because it was exactly what I needed at this point in time at my institution.
  • I liked they keynote because it got us off to a good start by sharing stories. I enjoyed Paul Hibbits design presentation because he’s engaging and gets us thinking about interface and the user experience.
  • Keynote. Nancy was very engaging, but had practical advice too. Will and Brian’s session on Open because it had a very ETUGging, community feel to it.
  • It’s hard to choose, but I really enjoyed the sessions (both keynote & workshop) with Nancy White. She’s a very engaging speaker & facilitator.
  • the Mozilla Popcorn session gave me a new tool to start using right away Nancy’s w/shop..great activities

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What did you think of the venue?

  • Gorgeous. Would love to return.
  • Venue was great. nice view, and great food. Excellent.
  • The main space in the diamond club was not the best for the smaller sessions. Found it distracting when other people not attending the session were in the room.
  • The best yet! The venue and the view was wonderful.
  • I’m still a bit conflicted with having some the sessions in such an open area but I liked how we could intentionally use that space to our advantage.
  • The venue was exceptional!! Fantastic location!
  • Good! Close to where I live! Excellent Awesome!
  • It was ok… the main room we were in was great for socializing but not for sessions.
  • Excellent. Just down the street from my home.
  • Beauty! SFU in June is great… not so much in November. Well chosen.
  • I liked the Alumni Club and the other rooms were good and quiet. I never felt intruded upon like I have at some hotel conferences. Minor complaint: There should have been recharge stations for our devices.
  • Very nice. What a view! The venue couldn’t have been better!
  • The venue was great, except for the “very” hard bed in the dorms.
  • The venue was excellent. I vote to make it the place to hold and annual Spring workshop.
  • Everything was first class! Excellent!
  • fine 2012 Spring ETUG was much more convenient for me since I stayed close to venue and it was downtown so I could go for a walk after and unwind. There was also an organized walking tour. I stayed at SFU Hotel this time but I felt isolated and didn’t feel comfortable walking around alone so I didn’t even get to see the campus and there wasn’t any walking tour organized.
  • Great venue and it was easy to navigate to all three rooms. They all had plenty of space and you could hear the speakers well.
  • It was the best yet! Nice location, convenient & affordable accommodation. Good wifi.
  • I really liked the fact that we met at SFU, and most especially – the DAC and the Halpern centre are lovely spaces. very good.
  • It was really nice. Enough room to move around, nice food, staff was great.
  • Interesting. Navigating around SFU to the Simon Hotel was challenging.
  • Check out was a challenge as registration didn’t open until 8:30am, but I wanted to be at breakfast by 8am. I checked out during a break. There was a mix-up with my check-in, but it was resolved.
  • It was great. Good size but not so big as to feel cavernous.
  • The venues was gorgeous and the food was great.
  • Awesome! Would come here again.
  • The SFU campus as a whole is dank and dreary – but that DAC is really a diamond in the rough – pardon the pun.
  • Wish the campus wasn’t so isolated. great alumni centre excellent! Great location! Fantastic!

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If you attended the ETUG pub on Wednesday and/or the Thursday dinner in the DAC, SFU what did you think of the food, venue and overall experience?

  • I stayed for the Thursday dinner–the food was amazing, as was the venue. Great conversation over dinner, but I did notice that there was a bit of a hiatus. Not too many people stayed for dinner.
  • Food was fantastic. The Thursday dinner was very nice. Great food!
  • The food was wonderful! Always a highlight for the spring workshop!
  • The Pub night was great – the service was meh. But Thursday night, the service and the food was EXCEPTIONAL! Excellent food, loved it.
  • I attended and really enjoyed both. The food for all meals was excellent. Some of the best that I have had at a conference.
  • I did not attend the pub night, the dinner on Thursday was excellent and I was able to connect with new friends fine All great.
  • Great food and great people. GREAT.
  • Fantastic food, good choices (including some healthy choices, not all muffins & pastries & wraps).
  • Venue was great. The staff were outstanding. Overall, it was a great time.
  • Food was great. People were fun.
  • The pub was difficult to find. The pub night was good. The staff in the pub seemed really confused at first and unhappy about our numbers/configuration at tables, but once we got settled they were Ok.
  • The dinner was great. The staff in SFU catering were excellent the entire workshop.
  • Food was fantastic. Venue for sessions and Thursday dinner was pretty
  • Excellent all around. I thought generally the meals for very good. However, the breakfast on Friday was noticeably lower in offering. . I was unable to attend the ETUG pub night.

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For 2013-2014, what sort of activities would you like to see from ETUG?

  • More of the same.
  • Discussion on social media, both for teaching and/or for developing our PLNs.
  • Best practices for building online courses. – more hands-on workshops – maybe an open space session on the 2nd day, based on issues raised during day 1.
  • I’d like to see more of the mozilla webmaker stuff happening. I wasn’t able to go but I would’ve loved to!
  • I think it would be great if meetups were implemented! A monthly meetup maybe – cross-promoted on meetup.com – grow the community and allow more networking to occur?
  • More of the same!
  • More sessions!!!
  • no opinion on this.
  • Anybody interested in comparing different systems that serve the same purpose, e.g. different student response systems?
  • More workshops.
  • More faculty-lead sessions to balance technologists.
  • I would really like to see etug run a workshop for beginner online instructors. This would be a great way to engage those who are just starting out in the world of educational technology. Also, I met a number of instructional designers at the conference… perhaps they could run it?
  • How about engaging the library folks? something on BC Privacy Laws and the new Canadian Copyright Law
  • how do we leverage all the wisdom and experience of ETUG members with the Ministry of Advanced Ed?
  • More hands-on how-to activities Hands on activities would be welcome in the afternoon sessions because later in the day you are tired and after just sitting and listening to presenters all day you tend to lose focus.
  • More like this one 😉
  • more of the same
  • More of the same!
  • Similar things with more hands-on workshops. I like sessions where something hands-on occurs. I’d like to see sessions where I can experience the technology in use as well as discuss with others successes and lessons learned from implementation.
  • early icebreaker wrap up with reflections on w/shops and plans for next steps try “stuff” exchange
  • More of the same.
  • I wish I could join edCamp West…maybe next time.
  • Maybe more emphasis on an unconference stream for those interested.
  • We need more (IMHO) practical case studies of hits/misses in: – Using (Open) Badges – Using/Creating OER (e.g. Creative Commons, esp.) – Flipped Classroom and Blended Learning Session on using new technologies.

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What could we have done better to improve your experience of the workshop?

  • Not much food – not enough options in the catered meals or available on the SFU campus
  • more variety in the sessions – it’s called a workshop, but very few of the sessions were truly workshops
  • SFU hosted, but there were no tours of their facilities. One of the perks of visiting another institution is seeing how they do things and meeting the staff.
  • Send out workshop details sooner. Possibly have pre-registration to workshops so organizers can allocate bigger rooms to those workshops that draw the bigger crowds. I saw people sittign on the floor for some workshops, can’t imagine that being comfortable.
  • Specify which industry/sector the workshops were for, i.e. corporate, university, etc.
  • Nothing comes to mind – wonderful job!
  • Separate room for socializing/sessions.
  • Opening speaker needs to be relevant to the workshop.
  • Overlap is hard, I sometimes wonder if just 2 sessions instead of 3, to minimize the “I’m missing out on other great things” feeling. I wish I could have made the Mozilla Popcorn, for example.
  • Posting venue directions on the web site. I probably wouldn’t have gotten lost if I’d had a map at registration.
  • Some power bars/extension cords to recharge my phone and tablet.
  • There was a bit of a competition for space on day one and I was running low from having Google Maps open through the commute.
  • Honestly, I wasn’t that keen about the keynote. I had little idea how it related to the theme of the conference.
  • Nada. It was great!
  • The closing of the conference.. perhaps emerging technologies, or something that will excite participants. more table chat time about specific topics–cracker barrel? Not sure…
  • location to be more convenient for us who are not local.
  • I found the 1.5 hr lunch time too much. I would rather just have lunch, have a bit of a walk around and get into another session.
  • I found that the geocahing activity did not work very well.
  • nothing comes to mind
  • nothing, it was great You did an awesome job as always.It was a well planned workshop.
  • My only comment is that breakfast and lunch on friday were very heavy on breads and cereals…not great for those with blood sugar issues…

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Do you have any suggestions for a great campus destination for a future ETUG workshop? Venue for a Pub night or Meetup?

JIBC UBC! Vancouver-ish based venues are great as I think it allows more people to attend. North Island College is a lovely campus, but that is hard for those travelling from outside the Lower Mainland and the island. UVic no-sorry

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Please use this space to give us ANY feedback about the Spring Workshop. We really want to hear from you!

  • Great work, you guys! Awesome event.
  • I would be interested in getting more involved. This was my first experience with etug, and I’m keen to stay in touch with this community.
  • WOW! Very well organized and the staff and venue at SFU were PHENOMENAL.
  • Nancy White was fabulous. Really great conference!
  • Completing all the “badges” could have got us an extra ‘prize’.
  • What a great workshop! Excellent food. Nice variety. Easy to register. Hope to come again.
  • I like the geocache / informal learning outside of session space, great way to build relationships. The longer lunch was also great to networking and reflection.
  • High five! The people who organized all the practical stuff did a great job: they stayed completely in the background, yet everything ran smoothly. Thanks!
  • The geo-caching was a cool idea but my friend and I couldn’t get anyu of the apps to work. Maybe a quick session, voluntary, in a small group would have helped. Or teams?
  • Everything was well organized, the water bottle was a really nice touch, the food was great, the presentations were overall interesting and the structure of the days were perfect for networking, finding ‘space’ and not feeling overwhelmed with information.
  • LOVED the Geocache activity!
  • Loved the openness of the etug group in welcoming new attendees, the poster session was great, good representation from instructional design, learning and teaching, educational technologists, higher ed and k-12 faculty, and BC campus. Charmaine (Kyle knows how to reach me). An amazing experience created by Users for Users. Many thanks to Leva and her team!!!!
  • Thank you Leva for taking care of everything and thanks to all the organizers, presenters and participants.
  • Thanks to all for putting on a great workshop at SFU Loved the ETUG venue this year. The SFU hotel was clean and very restful! I really enjoyed myself and will plan to attend in future and recommend ETUG to others who can benefit. It would be good to get more K-12 educator participation if possible. great job Than you very much for your hard work on our behalf! This was an excellent conference!

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Additional Comments

What a great first day! This was my first time attending an ETUG, and I must say I was amazed by the constructive thinking that took place around teaching and learning! I also felt very welcomed by everyone in the ETUG community. Thank-you for making it an incredible day packed full of rich experiences:-) 
I’m very glad I switched my plans and stayed for dinner. The ETUG group is a great bunch and this has been one of my best pro-d experiences in recent memory. I gained new insight and some great new contacts. I look forward to future events.
Thank you again for your help in our particular workshop. It looked like a very successful conference – lots of good energy, sharing and stretching of ideas.
It was a pleasure to attend my first ETUG. Thank you to you and the event organizers for organizing such a great conference. I will look forward to next year!
 A truly wonderful conference! Is she (Nancy) doing another presentation up here?  Thanks, have some colleagues who might be interested.
Great stuff, conference was awesome as always! 

Kudos for getting us out of our seats! My inner introvert thanks you. 🙂 

Thanks for all of your organization & support at the conference. It was a very enjoyable networking and learning experience.
Just wanted to say thanks, as always, for making this happen.  There is something special about ETUG, and I really appreciate your energies to create the space.
Congratulations on another wonderful ETUG! You are definitely the queen lording over us! 
Thanks for an incredible workshop. Loved the presentations and the networking. I’ll come again in the fall, can’t wait for it!
Thank you for organizing a wonderful conference and your on going support!
I had a great time at ETUG on June 6. Congratulations on such an enriching, successful event.
Thanks again for the efforts you put into organizing the Workshop; I thought it was really fantastic. 
This was the first eTUG I’ve attended, and it’s exceeded my expectations. The sessions were wonderful — good selection, very interesting and practical, and well organized. The presenters did a great job, but most off all I appreciate the willingness of participants and facilitators to share ideas and tips. I am excited to take these ideas back to my workplace. Can’t wait for the next one. 
 I really enjoyed the conference and I look forward to attending upcoming conferences.
 

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