I have had a wonderful semester working with Jennifer and Nate in the Education Division of RRCHNM. One of Dr. Brennan’s questions asked if I had enjoyed something in particular, and being guided by Jennifer and Nate is that something.  They have taught me so much, and they have been very optimistic, patient, helpful, and available.  My module has profited from all of their feedback, and they have been very clear about how I should proceed though each step of the project.  Nate wrote extremely lengthy and detailed instructions about uploading to the site, and I am most grateful to him for those instructions. In addition, I have learned more about the projects of the Education Division of RRCHNM, which was one of my goals.

Other questions from Dr. Brennan were: Did you deal with something that challenged you?  How did you deal with that challenge?  Over the past week, I have been uploading my module to the HIdden in Plain Sight course site, using Drupal.  As I mentioned above, Nate’s instructions were fabulous.  I worked through each step of the process, but I was a bit stymied by my inability to get two images to show on a page of the site.  When we spoke on Monday, Nate said that we could work that out later.  However, I was determined to figure out how to make the images post correctly.  I haven’t coded in a long time, but I do have experience in that area.  Through trial and error, I was able to solve the problem.  Now, for the two parts of the module which have two images, both images appear on the pages.  It was a very minor part of the whole uploading process, but it is a success that I am excited to have achieved.

While I still have some minor Chicago format edits to make in the Sources section of my module and some Additional Resources to add at the end of the module, the module itself is just about ready to be used by teachers and other graduate students.  I’m so glad that I have learned more about the roles that Stereoscopes, Stereograph cards, and the Underwood & Underwood firm played in American culture and that I have been able to share this knowledge with others.  Jennifer and Nate told me that I will be able to see the comments that future users make about the module, and I look forward to that feedback.

I had known that the Education Division was very involved with setting up our cohort course sites, but I had not been aware that the Hidden in Plain Sight course was a model until Dr. Brian Platt mentioned it to me.  When I spoke with Jennifer and Nate, they explained how our course sites were created using Drupal.  I feel fortunate to have this insider knowledge about the construction of the courses that I have taken.  Having worked on this project all semester, I’m also quite aware of all of the work that my professors and the members of the Education Division have put into creating the courses.  As a professor myself, I’ve created syllabi and I have taught online and hybrid courses using a variety of tools.  However, our cohort class syllabi have been quite complex, and now I can see how they were created.  I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved with creating and teaching the courses.  I’d also like to express my gratitude to Dr. Brennan and Dr. Platt for arranging this internship for me and, of course, to Jennifer and Nate for working with me this semester.