I started the Maximizing IS/IT Team Efficiency course last week at Villanova University. Live sessions are held online every week, but they are held in my sleep so I’m unable to attend.
I listened to the transcript from this week’s first chat as it is recorded. It was a shame I couldn’t stay awake to participate in the chat. It sounded fascinating. After everyone had figured out how their microphones worked, the combination text chat, phone, and slides worked well. The group discussed the qualities of a great leader, and why. The group discussed the characteristics of great leadership, including humility as well as selflessness. The suggested candidate was President Obama.
Joan Knutson, course facilitator, said that it is rare for people to nominate leaders. It is easier to look back on a person’s life and see their contributions and their responses. We can’t wait to see people’s success as project leaders. We hope that the course will help us improve our leadership skills.
Logging in to my class website I noticed that it displayed all the course information for Week 2 automatically. Confession: I hadn’t listened to the lectures from the previous week (although the train ride made it easier for me to read the readings). So I had to go back and finish them before I began this week’s lessons.
Many of these were related to personal effectiveness. These included prioritizing tasks and being disciplined when responding to emails. Joan was talking with me and I thought I was an excellent time manager.
Week 2 is over, which means there is a test. I failed the test last time. I used the reference books to help me score 90%. It was a tremendous achievement.
Reading time: A few minutes. Lecture time: 1.5 hours. (And there are still four lectures that I haven’t played). Class chat time: 20 minutes listening to the first half of the recording. Exercises: Erm, no time!
Disclosure: Villanova granted me access to the course in exchange for writing about it.