1. A SECRETARY FOR A SECRETARY

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1 1. A SECRETARY FOR A SECRETARY Being an administrator, I was not entirely sure what I was going to do with Blackboard or how I could utilize it. After some deliberating I got the idea to use it as a virtual office so that it could be an assistant to me when I am away sick, or on leave, or even when I am in the office, hence the title A Secretary for a Secretary. 2. CONTEXT The future is likely to be the age of virtual businesses, writes Anita Campbell (2006), founder of Small Business Trends. Forget three guys in a garage that was your father s startup. Today it s three people spread out across the country or even across continents, each in their home offices or back porches with laptops, mobile phones,andwifi. Virtual businesses and virtual offices are becoming the trend in the USA. Technology has become so inexpensive and easy to use that a lot of entrepreneurs are choosing to have virtual offices as you do not need a large amount of money to start a business up this way. Also, Generation X is very attracted to virtual companies as they are used to it, as Skype and IM is normal to them. The internet is becoming the fastest communication tool ever, linking individuals and organizations at the click of a button. In light of this, a virtual office would seem to be the way to go as virtual businesses and offices become more of not only a trend, but a reality, in the future. 3. CHALLENGES The main challenge in my office is that when I am away from the office, the academics I am secretary to do not have access to items such as, class registers and Durban University of Technology (DUT) forms. By having a virtual office I am able to upload all the class registers as well as the DUT forms into the virtual office and the academics are able to access the office at any stage and from anywhere. I have also loaded into the virtual office all Minutes of Meetings so that at any stage if 1

2 anyone needs to refer back to the minutes they are easily accessible, and there is no need for anyone to have to fumble through files or filing cabinets to find them, which is also saving time. The opportunity that presents itself in terms of having set up this virtual office is that it will free me of some of the continual interruptions I have during the working day. 4. THEORY The educational theory most relevant to my investigation to my mind is blended learning. Blended learning is an integrated method of learning. The combinations or types of blended learning is not prescribed but should meet the needs of the learner or the course or the specific purpose. I liken my virtual office to blended learning as I am mixing the virtual with the conventional. Although I am using the virtual office for many of the aspects of my job there are parts of my job I am not able to put into the virtual office and will therefore still have the human interaction as well. Online facilitation is also relevant to my investigation as facilitation comes from a word which means to make easy and a facilitator s job is to make it easier for a group of people to do their work. A facilitator s role is one of assistance and guidance, not control. I see myself as a facilitator as I am here to assist and guide the academics I service, and to make their lives easier. My virtual office will make the academics lives, as well as my life, much easier. My virtual office is also a form of social networking which is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organisations) that are tied by one of more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, ideas, financial exchange, friendship, sexual relationships, kinship, dislike, conflict or trade. In its simplest form, a social network is a map of all of the relevant ties between the nodes being studied. My virtual office will tie together myself and the academics in my department. 2

3 5. METHODOLOGY Action research is research in progress/action or learning by doing. It addresses realworld problems people may have, and in trying to resolve them, furthers insights into the field being researched. The first cycle of my action research was to upload class registers into the virtual office. This turned out to be quite a challenge with ITS not being linked to blackboard as I then had to save the class registers into MS Word and adjust them accordingly. This was a very time consuming task and will be made much easier if ITS can be linked to blackboard. The pilot activity and the feedback I got from it will help me in the next cycle of my action research as I have now received wonderful ideas and suggestions as to how I can improve my virtual office in the future. 6. DESIGN 6.1 The Vision My vision for the future is that my virtual office will make life easier for myself and the academics in my department. My ultimate dream is to reduce the amount of paper changing hands in my department and in this way prevent the possibility of documents getting lost and also that my academics would rely on me less for everyday wants which would in turn free up more of my time so I can put more time into other tasks, such as filing and keeping our three computer labs running efficiently. I want my virtual office to be a safe place where myself, and my academics can meet and have a cup of coffee to discuss issues or problems in the department or just air our views. We all lead such busy, stress-filled lives that we very rarely get together as a department and often don t see each other for a day or two. I am hoping with this virtual office that we will communicate more since we all spend a lot of time sitting at our computers, which will make communication easier and staff won t have to leave their offices. 3

4 6.2 Active Learning I believe my virtual office will encourage interaction, collaboration, engagement and participation as I hope the academics in my department will use it for discussions. If one of them has a particular problem they are facing and do not know how to solve I will encourage them to perhaps put it onto the discussion tool in the virtual office and ask for the others in the department to offer some suggestions and comments and in this way it will have the whole department communicating with each other and no one need even leave their office. 6.3 Working Smart My virtual office is going to make my life easier in a myriad of ways. The fact that my lecturers will be able to have access to their class registers at any time will be one of my major challenges taken off my shoulders as printing class registers is probably one of the things I am asked most often to do. The fact that they will also be able to print any of the DUT forms off the virtual office will save me having to scratch through my filing cabinet every time someone wants a form, as well as the part-timers being able to have access to the parttime appointment and claim forms. These may seem like minor tasks, but as these are tasks I am interrupted with all day it will help me hugely to get on with other tasks without continual interruptions. The virtual office will also prevent a lot of paper changing hands as I am planning on having the lecturers scan there marks lists onto the virtual office so I can print them and capture them and then immediately put them back into the virtual office. This will prevent any chance of marks being lost as the mark sheets will not have to leave the lecturers offices. 6.4 Blended Learning Blended learning is an integrated method of learning and combines a variety of methods and approaches, in the same way I will be combining my virtual 4

5 office with my conventional office. Although I will still be in the office most of the time to answer queries and print mark sheets, at the last minute, when I am away from the office the lecturers will still be able to access mark sheets and many other DUT documents I have uploaded into my virtual office. 7. IMPLEMENTATION 7.1 Pilot Activity I gave six of my lecturers login names and passwords and asked them to go into my virtual office and give me their general feel of it and if they thought what I had put into it was relevant. I also asked them to give me their ideas about what else I could do with the office and what they would want me to add to the office. The Home Page was the first item I asked them to look at, where I have put the fact that it is the virtual office of the Applied Management department and the Department of Media, Language and Communication, and I asked them to tell me what they thought about the fact that I had put photographs of each of my lecturers there with the name of the department they are in. I asked them to look at the Learning Modules tool and the Welcome folder as I had put the details in the Welcome folder as to where they would find everything. I then asked them to go into the Learning Modules tool and have a look at the class lists I have loaded on, firstly to see if they were able to open them and secondly to see if the format I have put them in is suitable. The next thing I asked them to check on in the Learning Modules tool, was the photographs I have uploaded of all the departmental functions and student awards and also to see if they were able to open them. Also under the Learning Modules tool are Minutes of meetings, which I have separated into Departmental Minutes, Advisory Board Minutes and Service Staff meeting minutes and I asked them to check these as well and ensure they were able to open them and read them clearly. 5

6 They were also asked to go into the Calendar where I have put important dates, such as beginning of term dates and end of term dates as well as other more personal dates such as staff member s birthdays. I asked them to look at the Media Library where I have loaded all the DUT forms such as leave forms, part-time appointment and claim forms, travelling and maintenance forms. I also put a folder called Inspirational Quotes under the Media Library tool into which I put happy little pictures and funny quotes to put a smile on their dial if they are perhaps having a bad day. They were also asked to go into the Weblinks tool where I have uploaded the General Handbook as well as the Departmental Handbook and see if they were able to open all the handbooks. I asked them, once they had gone through everything, to put their thoughts and suggestions into the Discussion tool. 7.2 Relevance I believe that setting up this virtual office as a whole is extremely relevant in solving a number of my challenges as a Departmental Secretary. For example, the fact that the class lists are on the virtual office means the lecturers do not have to ask me to print them and they will still have access to them when I am away from the office, and they can easily access the DUT forms as well, without having to get hold of me to get them. They will be able to access all the relevant information they need through the virtual office, and will only have to ask me for the more involved tasks such as quotes, stationery requests, transport requests and venue requests. 7.3 Feedback As mentioned in point 6.1, I asked six of my colleagues to log onto my virtual office and give me feedback. I received some very useful and constructive feedback as well as some great ideas for my next cycle of action research. On the whole the general feedback I got was that they all thought my virtual office was extremely useful and user friendly. The first colleague suggested that in the Calendar, I put dates for submission of marks as well as the cut-off dates for part-time lecturers to submit their 6

7 claim forms. She also suggested I give the part-time lecturers access to the virtual office since they are off campus and this would be helpful to them as they would not have to travel to campus to get these forms. She thought the mark sheets, registers and DUT forms where great ideas. She suggested that I could add how to notes eg. If the photocopier says X do Y or explain how to change the date on the date stamp! Two of my other colleagues also gave me very positive feedback and said they thought the virtual office was very helpful and was easy to access and to use. Only one of them was not able to open the class lists, which I should imagine is because I use MS Word 2007 and she has MS Word The other colleague I asked found it easy to navigate and thought the links and information was very useful. She also mentioned that, the fact that the class lists were uploaded would make my job easier as they themselves can access them and print them. She found the Media Library very informative and thought the pictures I have uploaded make my virtual office very lively and colourful and fun and thought it was a good balance between them. The feedback I got from one of my other colleagues was that she simply thought it was great. The last colleague that gave me feedback thought it was user friendly and found it easy to find the various sights. He particularly liked the Home Page. He suggested that somewhere I have information as to where to find the class lists and forms. The other suggestions he made were that perhaps I make the Welcome Page more eye-catching and that I should maybe put a few words under each of the photographs. Overall he thinks my virtual office is excellent! 8. REFLECTION 8.1 Assumptions The biggest assumption I made was that I would be able to simply save the class lists from the ITS system and load them straight into the virtual office, unfortunately this is not possible, as to do this ITS and blackboard would have to be linked. As they are not, I have to save the class lists from ITS and then open them in MS Word, adjust them, as they go all out of sync when opened 7

8 in another program, and then only can I upload them into the virtual office. This is a very time consuming activity. The other assumption I made was that everyone knows how to use Blackboard. This is not so. Thankfully, only one lecturer in my department has not done blackboard, which could pose a problem, but not a serious one, as I am sure with a mini lesson he will grasp it easily. 8.2 Future Adjustments During the next research cycle I will have to put more information on to my Welcome Page to inform the lecturers where to find the class lists, DUT forms, photographs and minutes. One of the suggestions made in the feedback from the pilot activity was that I should make the Welcome page more eye-catching by perhaps adding something else besides the photographs of the academics, so I will look at maybe adding what subjects the lecturers teach next to their photographs. The other suggestion was that I add a few words under the photographs of the student awards and departmental functions. I will add more information onto the calendar, for eg. deadline dates for submission of marks. I would also like to add in the Media Library all the finance codes for our department as well as contact numbers of certain departments on the Durban campus, as these are other things I am constantly asked. The biggest task for the next cycle of my action research will be to load all the class lists onto the virtual office, but as I need them in alphabetical order and numerical order because they are used in alphabetical order for registers and for capturing marks I need them in numerical order, I am going to have to save each class list twice and then save into MS Word and put them into the virtual office. I will have to relook at where I am going to put them, at the moment I have the class lists in the Learning Modules and I think I will leave the alphabetical lists there but to avoid confusion I will look at putting the numerical lists under another tool, perhaps the Media Library. 8

9 8.3 Impact I believe my virtual office is going to make a huge impact, in a good way, on mine and my academics working lives. It will save both them and me a lot of wasted time running around looking for certain items, they will have them at their finger tips, they simply have to log onto the virtual office. The other way it will positively impact my life is that I will now not feel guilty or stressed when I have to be away from the office, be it because I am sick or at a meeting or on a day s leave, because I know that the academics will be able to still have access to documents they may need. Another advantage of the virtual office is that it will be able to be accessed from anywhere, even home, the only problem will be is that not everyone has internet at home. 8.4 Lessons Learnt I believe the most important lesson I have learnt is that blackboard is not only for academics, as I thought it to be. In fact, it seems to have been much more beneficial to me than some of the academics I have done the course with over the last year. 9

10 9. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Trunk, P Virtual Office is what you make it. ake_it/ (Accessed 17 June 2009) 2. Giddings, E, et al, 2008: My Blackboard group project. Unpublished paper elearnspace. Cowley, J, et al Online Facilitation. what (Accessed 17 June 2009) 4. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Social Network. (Accessed 26 May 2009) 5. Giddings, E, et al, 2008: My Blackboard group project. Unpublished paper, O Brien, R Summary of An Overview of the Methodological Approach of Action Research. Available from: (Accessed 15 June 2009) 6. McNamara, C. Facilitation (Face-to-Face and Online) Clear & Weidamin Dynamics of Public Relations and Journalism (2nd edition). Kenwyn: Juta. 10

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