It is tough to reflect on this first week, as it was such a whirlwind of activity

as I learned my way around a new office setting and familiarizing my self with new
office policies. My internship began with a staff meeting where I was able to begin
to gain an understanding of all the players in the Centers for Teaching Excellence.
I work closely with Aisha Hayes an instructional designer who assigned my
first task, which was reviewing the Center for Teaching Excellence Instructional
Design Manual. I was surprised to see the number of services the ID team
supports specifically the Distributed Learning Support Services Recording Studio
according to the literature, the recording studio has equipment and instructional
technologies that faculty and designers typically use. I shared this information with
Dr. Hudson with whom I am currently working for part time, and have scheduled an
appointment to use this resource. I intend to explore the facility to check out the
cool toys available and prepare Dr. Hudson for his visit.
In addition to information about the Recording Studio the manual reviewed
other tasks performed by instructional designers at USC. Part of their duties include
meeting with faculty to create and revise curriculm to make dynamic online course
work. One of their current projects is working with the University history
department to create a mandatory module discussing the United States constitution.
I sat in on a planning meeting for that project where key concepts were discussed. I
was interested to learn how much discussion goes into the funding of such a project.
Better than half of the meeting was spent figuring out who was going to pay for
certain parts of the project, and arranging funding.
In order for Aisha and her team to evaluate a courses effectiveness, they
base their course designs on nationally recognized best practices (Quality Matters
Program), sound student-centric frameworks, and feedback from teachers and
students.
To that end, Aisha has asked me to gain a firm understanding of the
QM Rubric. I spent a great deal of time on my second day at the internship
reviewing that rubric. The rubric is revised every few years so I reviewed both the
2011-2013 plan which I am to use to evaluate a course I am currently writing for Dr.
Simon Hudson. Additionally I reviewed the fifth edition of the QM rubric which is
currently being rolled out. Aisha has asked me to prepare a training module based
on the fifth edition. Therefore I find it necessary to understand the older version
and apply needed changes to the fifth edition. I spent several hours reading,
reviewing and studying the rubric and other Quality Matters information.