That being said, many of our services are student-facing: ApplyBC.ca, the provincial application service; CoursesBC.ca, an online course directory, MyCreditsBC.ca, a new service that provides unofficial electronic transcripts for students of eight institutions. Not only that but students also use the learning management systems, and get their learning experience from faculty who use educational technologies. It’s worth getting the student take on the landscape of online student services.

We surveyed student applicants through ApplyBC recently – it was a “toe-dip” – a foray into taking the temperature of our secondary audience. I’ve included a synopsis of the results below; you can find the full report and survey results on the BCcampus wiki.

We are also surveying post-secondary stakeholders, and that report will probably be available later in February.

Synopsis:

With this survey BCcampus sought an overview of student’s perceptions and attitudes toward existing online student services. The survey was purposefully short (in order to increase chances for completion) and was meant to complement, rather than replace, detailed user testing of existing tools. The questions were also meant to situate BCcampus services within the landscape of the broader provincial system.

The survey respondents were mostly would-be post-secondary students (not yet accepted into a higher-ed institution). Results indicate:

• minimal awareness of post-secondary online services in the British Columbia system;
• fairly strong approval of ApplyBC, the provincial application service;
• lukewarm support for existing services for post-secondary students in general;
• strong support for additional and enhanced services in the future.

Response rate:

There were 7,190 applicants using ApplyBC during the survey period. Google Analytics for ApplyBC show 12.64% of visits derived from search traffic and 15.48% derived from direct traffic for the same period.

Thus, approximately 2,013 applicants came from direct or search, and therefore would get the popup invitation to take part in the survey (7,190 * (12.64% + 15.48%) = 2,013).

Of the 2,013 potential respondents, 249 emails were sent as a result of applicants choosing to participate in the survey, approximately 12% of eligible users.

Of those 249 emails sent, 63 completed surveys were collected. However, 79 eligible respondents clicked on the link, leaving 16 incomplete responses. Those 16 were not counted in the survey results described here as there was not enough data gathered from them to make a thorough analysis.

Total participation rate in the survey is approximately 3% (63 / 2013 * 100).

Conclusions:

It is possible there is a gap between expectations and the reality of the B.C. post-secondary system that bears further research. It also may indicate the respondents have not thought through what the landscape of post-secondary services for students might look like. This could be a function of the survey design or inexperience, as the overwhelming majority of respondents are not yet post-secondary students.

The survey responses could also indicate that researching and applying to university or college online is such a basic expectation it’s not perceived as a separate “service.” In many ways online services are now perceived the same way electricity or indoor plumbing are perceived: so ubiquitous that their origins and function are unconscious until they break down or disappear.

Today’s post-secondary students expect online services to work without undue delay or complexity. For the most part they do, but the post-secondary system could be providing a better experience overall.

Curves

Convergence

Symmetry

I keep reading about people’s running: someone’s training for Boston, or an ultra, or an Ironman, and I think “I want to do all those things, but here I am signed up for a puny little Half Marathon again this spring.”

I can’t get excited training for it. I haven’t been interested in training since my SI joint injury just after the marathon last May. It still doesn’t feel quite right, and I can’t even get excited about running most of the time. I haven’t adjusted to running life in Vancouver very well.

I miss running in Victoria. I miss having kilometres of beautiful coastline within minutes of my home.

I miss having trails an easy 20 minute drive (or less) away.

I miss having a challenging tree-lined hill workout in my own neighbourhood.

I miss having training buddies who run at my training pace.

I miss daylight. Maybe it will get better in spring. Maybe I should bring running gear to work and run the seawall at lunchtime.

I know I need to exercise every day, and I manage to get a few workouts in per week. Maybe that’s enough for now. After all, I just moved. Chris just moved in with me. I just want to sit in my cosy apartment with my fireplace going and have a glass of wine with my new neghbours and friends.

Maybe I should just give myself a break. Lean into it, and see what happens.

This too shall pass.

Photo by robswatski used under Creative Commons license

It’s been eight days (one week back at work) without the routine of putting on make-up. I’ve enjoyed the convenience, and the time saved, but throughout the past week I’ve found myself inexplicably having unpleasant flashbacks to my elementary/middle school years.

I wasn’t a popular girl. My family was not involved in our small farming community. When I was in grade three my stepfather had divorced his first wife and shortly thereafter brought my mother, me and my two siblings to live on the farm where he had lived all his life. That was very odd behaviour at the time (mid-seventies); and our social isolation, my mother’s alcoholism and morbid obesity didn’t help. We stood apart: not in a good way.

Then, at age 14, I got glasses, further sealing my fate as an outcast. I was too smart, I got straight-As (a social life-killer then as it is now). I preferred reading to riding horses or joining 4-H or figure skating, activities the other kids did regularly.

There were a lot of mean comments about my mom’s weight, which were designed to also imply that I too was a fat ugly cow, or at least destined to be one (I’ve never been overweight, and my mom was in fact quite attractive). I was teased a lot, and excluded from social activities.

Meantime, one of my mom’s main hobbies for a while was trying to sell cosmetics to friends and neighbours. There was a lot of make-up around, and I was schooled in how to apply it from an early age. This was the seventies, I had a lot of blue eyeshadow in those days, and I tried to feather my hair like Farrah Fawcett’s.

All to no avail really. Not that I cold parse it out at the time, but make-up couldn’t make me more popular, couldn’t make the girls stop teasing and make them invite me to their parties. Even if boys found me attractive, it wasn’t in their best interests to make it known, or they could face social ostracization too.

Make-up nevertheless became a way of pretending I fit in, that I really was attractive. Pretty. Worthy. When I finally escaped the confines of my family of origin and the town where I grew up (to which I’ve never returned, unsurprisingly) the masques of femininity followed, and have carried on well into my adult life. I’m not alone, of course. My story isn’t all that unique. That’s why this poem “Pretty” by Katie Makkai makes me tear up every time:

“This is about the self-mutilating circus we have painted ourselves clowns in. About women who will prowl 30 stores in 6 malls to find the right cocktail dress, but haven’t a clue where to find fulfillment or how wear joy, wandering through life shackled to a shopping bag, beneath those 2 pretty syllables.”

Upon reflection, I’m not surprised that a prolonged period of going without make-up has led to the resurfacing of some uncomfortable memories. At this point in life those deep-seated assumptions are ready to be uprooted. I have a feeling I’ve uncovered more than just a fresh face.

The story (directed by John Madden who did “Shakespeare in Love” among others)  begins in Tel Aviv in 1997 where Rachel (Helen Mirren – I want to be her when I grow up), an ex-Mossad agent, is reliving a pivotal assignment from 1965 because her daughter has written a book about it. She and her partners David and Stephan were sent to East Berlin to kidnap a Nazi war criminal so he could be put on trial.

It’s clear Rachel is uncomfortable with the accolades, and we soon relive the events of 1965 where the issues of justice and morality, evil and revenge, right and wrong are not so cut and dried as they would seem. The plot to spirit evil Dr. Vogel to Israel to face justice goes awry, and the young agents must hole up with their captive until an alternate plan can be worked out. The agents in 1965 are young and idealistic, there is a crisis of leadership tangled in a love triangle. The consequences of their choices during that pivotal time have repercussions for decades to come.

There are such nuances and layers in the characters, the plot and the writing that even though I was bone-tired, I could not fall asleep during this movie. It made me think. I love it when movies do that, and they do it so rarely, that this one comes highly recommended.

By the way I’d like to thank film critics everywhere. I listened to an interview with Roger Ebert on The Q radio show on CBC recently, where he mentioned that he watches so many bad movies he sometimes laments the wasted hours he’ll never get back. I’m here to tell you that I am very, very grateful to you: you watch all the crap movies so we don’t have to. I’d buy you a beer (or in Roger’s case, a non-alcoholic beverage of choice) or make you a home-cooked meal anytime in appreciation. I’m in your debt for all the hours I’ve not wasted on bad movies you’ve warned me about.

Sigh.

Just gotta be patient. Upchuck is better than nothing. I just need to find the deep water, break the dam and let it flow.

I’ll keep working on it, in the meantime, I’ve been “Pushed:” http://youtu.be/JgORGvC1dTg

But then things just kind of went to hell.

I stopped doing my bootcamp class, I went on vacation for a month. I started to get weak. My injuries just don’t heal like they used to. In October, I put in my worst Half Marathon performance ever. Then I moved to Vancouver,

I’ve seen a PT here, but my last “treatment” consisted of showing me exercises that I won’t do every day like I’m supposed to. I can’t pay $70 per session for that.

I’m starting to wonder if my goal of putting in a sub 2-hour half marathon this year is doable. Getting faster means putting in some consistent fast mileage. Consistent fast mileage means injury. Injury means more time and money to PT and massage, neither of which I can afford right now.

So why can’t I be satisfied with a modest 25-30k of running per week at a moderate pace? Why do I have to set an ambitious goal? (Hey – I KNOW I’m slow. For me, 2 hours is an ambitious goal. I’m not you. Deal with it.) Why can’t I sign up for a race without a goal in mind? Why sign up for a race at all?

Well, because the best part about racing is the experience of the day itself: lining up with hundreds, if not thousands, of other runners excited about their performance. Race day is a victory lap, a reward for training, for putting in the miles no one sees. Half the fun is cheering for the other runners on the course, especially team mates you’ve been training with for months.

In racing, my time does not count. I’m just another mid-to-back-of-the-pack runner in a sea of spandex. I’m not even going to place in my age group. Ever.

It’s the journey, not the tape. Hell I won’t even see the tape.

Training hard also takes away from other things I want to do: writing, cooking spending time with my man (who just moved in), maybe even performing slam poetry again.

Someone with ultra-stamina could probably do all that and more. Not me, not any more. I know my energy levels and my priorities.

So, just as I’m reflecting on my priorities for 2012, I’m taking a good hard look at what I really want to accomplish this year, and I’m adjusting accordingly.

Canada Line pedestrian bridge

Fraser River

What the...?

I remember a question from a participant at the start of training for my first marathon in 2009: “Will we still be running if the weather is cold, windy and rainy?” to which the run leader replied with a question of her own:

“Will they cancel the race because of rain or wind?”

“Uh – no.”

“Well then, we won’t be calling off any training runs either.”

There’s a sign outside the Mountain Equipment Co-op store in Vancouver that says something like “There’s no bad weather, only bad gear.”

So I’ll be packing dry socks and an extra sweater to change into after tonight’s run, expecting my windbreaker to be soaked through to my bones after tonight’s run. I’ll also be lit up like a Christmas tree with blinking lights front and back. Dark, cold and rainy indeed.

I don’t mind the wind and the rain once I drag my ass out there. If the rain pelts down and the wind tries to knock me over I persevere by envisioning the crossing the finish line with the clock well under my goal time.

I have also been known to laugh in the face of a storm in my own version of Lieutenant Dan from Forrest Gump, shouting: “Is that all you got? C’mon, gimme more!”

After all, I know a hot shower and a dry warm bed await me tonight. It’s all a matter of perspective, passion and perseverance.

BRING IT!!