Welcome to cohort 2013!

Well hello and welcome to the New Year. This year we have a cohort of student from MDIS (Management Development Institute of Singapore), SCU students studying on-campus at Riverside at Tweed Gold Coast, and a scattered group of students studying by distance education. Of course, it's technology that makes all this feasible. Warm welcome to you all.

To get started, you can read our unit information guide, available on our ISY00244 MySCU page, under "Unit Overview".

Here's a photo of myself: as you can see, I'm ready to go! I hope you are too.

"The rain in Spain ...

... falls mainly on the ground". And plenty of it. Due to the wet weather and rising flood-waters both at the Tweed and Wilson rivers, the catch-up class today scheduled for 1.30 will not take place face-to-face, but instead will be run as an Elluminate session using Blackboard Collaborate. All students (internal and external) are invited to attend. Go to MySCU, click on Blackboard Collaborate, and join the session from there. I have already put a short 7 minute "test run" session under "recorded sessions": feel free to explore that one beforehand. The sound doesn't start till around the 1:37 mark as I was setting up the audio.

The first photo above shows the sudden rise in river height at the Wilson river crossing. Where the river is usually about 1.5 metres deep, it has risen to nearly 4 metres deep overnight. Once it washes over the bridge (about 5 metres above the river), I'm marooned physically. But we still have ICT :-D

The second photo is a snapshot of the radar loop showing cloud and rain formation over the Northern Rivers at 10 am this morning. Both sites are provided by the Bureau of Meterology. If you're in the Northern Rivers you can find your river heights here; and the Brisbane radar can be found here. Right now Southport is being subjected to a deluge!!

Welcome cohort 2012

Hello students from Southern Cross University (Australia), Naresuan University Bangkok City Campus (Thailand) and the Management Development Institute of Singapore. Welcome and be part of our transnational team for the unit ISY00244. My name is Dr Mieke Witsel and I'm the unit coordinator for this unit. Today is Friday 13 January 2012 ... and I'm working from home (see photo of my farmhouse, taken in 1885), using technology to communicate with all of you, all over the world ... I still think it's amazing!!

There are four 'cohorts' this trimester: there is a small group studying internally at Tweed Gold Coast campus (with myself as facilitator); a group of external distance-education students (with myself as facilitator); a group at Naresuan University (with Dr Thotsapon Sortrakul as facilitator) and a group at MDIS in Singapore (with Mr Jonathan Lim as facilitator).

Most of the unit resources can be found in two places: all publicly available material can be accessed here on this blog (follow the labels on the right hand side) and non-publicly accessible material can be found under our university blackboard site, known as MySCU. Your SCU student login will gain you access to our ISY00244 MySCU blackboard site. Having said that, MySCU will be down this weekend for upgrades and will be live again on Monday 16 January.

Your first task is to familiarise yourself with the unit resources and the unit information guide. The unit information guide is available on the MySCU site under ISY00244 > Unit Documents.

Software you might need or like for this unit

As a SCU student you are eligible for some software that we have bought educational licenses for. Under our MySCU site I have placed some links to software you might need or like for this unit, including some freeware. Please see our MySCU site under TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEMS FOR HOTELS, CONVENTIONS AND EVENTS (ISY00244-2011-A) > UNIT DOCUMENTS > SOFTWARE ESSENTIALS

Welcome cohort 2011

Hello students from Southern Cross University (Australia), Naresuan University Bangkok City Campus (Thailand) and the Management Development Institute of Singapore. Welcome and be part of our transnational team for the unit ISY00244. My name is Dr Mieke Witsel and I'm the unit coordinator for this unit.

There are four 'cohorts' this trimester: there is a group studying internally at Tweed Gold Coast campus (with myself as facilitator); a group of external distance-education students (with myself as facilitator); a small group at Naresuan University (with Dr Thotsapon Sortrakul as facilitator) and a group at MDIS in Singapore (with Mr Jonathan Lim as facilitator).

The unit resources can be found in two places: all publicly available material can be accessed here on this blog (follow the labels on the right hand side) and non-publicly accessible material can be found under our university blackboard site, known as MySCU. Your SCU student login will gain you access to our ISY00244 MySCU blackboard site.

Your first task is to familiarise yourself with the unit resources and the unit information guide. This document is available on the MySCU site under ISYoo244 > Unit Documents.

Blogging trials

Hello Naresuan class and SCU class! Well done on your blogging efforts so far.

If you like, post a comment here with the url (address) of your trial (or your real assignment) blog site so I can see how you are going. You don't have to make this blog site your final assignment site but you are more than welcome to. You can edit, change, delete or save any post you have made so what you write (post) today is not the final result.

I look forward to seeing your creativity!

Dr Mieke is in Bangkok

Sawasdee ka!

I've arrived in Bangkok and am looking forward to meeting the Nareusan cohort this evening. I've had a lovely healthy Thai green curry for lunch so I am sure I'll be fit and well for classes today.

Here is a photo I took when I was in Bangkok last year, one of the incredible wall paintings at the temple of Wat Pho (Wat Phra Chetuphon) and the Grand Palace. The paintings themselves are not just works of art, they are stories and history and teaching, all rolled together in glorious colours.

Progress report

Hello students ...
I've noticed that some students are getting behind in their work for their assignments. The assignments are all due fairly late in the trimester, but they are not the sort of assignments that you can leave till the last minute! You will need to work on the assignments every week so that when the time comes t complete them you won't be stressed.

So, I would like you to fill in this brief progress report and email it to your lecturer. In this way you and your lecturer can see how well you are on track with which assignments (or not, as the case may be). Please be honest. We only want to help you as best we can!

Cohort 2009

Hello all ISY00244 students out there, wherever you may be living! Wecome to Trimester 2009. I'd like you to respond to this post with some information about yourself. Introduce yourself to your student colleagues, let us know where you are from, what you're studying, what your strengths are in this unit. Let us know a bit about your professional background, too. Please include a note indicating whether you're enrolled with Naresuan, or SCU, and if with SCU whether internal or external.

Room change Tweed campus in week 10

Dear Tweed Master's students
Firstly, thank you for participating in a lovely, lively and rewarding session today! You all did so well.
Just a housekeeping notice: On the 5/6 November 2009 the Deans and Directors of Higher Degree Research will be conducting their Bi Annual Meeting at Tweed Heads Riverside campus. The rooms affected will be Harvard 1 and Harvard 2.
As a result your classes for Thursday 5 November 2009 and Friday 6 November 2009 (Week 10 only) will be moved to R223. There will be no change in the times the classes are run.