I can't remember how it came about that I joined WAOE in November 1998, probably through the WWWDEV listserv that I belong to along with some other WAOE members, but I knew right away that this was something that interested me. I'm always interested in different cultures and meeting people from around the world. I guess it reminds me of my student days when I studied and worked in France and met people from all over the world.

Although relatively new to the distance education field, my interest has always been adult education and how to make it more accessible and more fun. Right now I'm interested in using virtual worlds and avatars for chat sessions, since so many courseware products are text based, I think we need to include more graphics in online learning.

It seems like I'm always taking courses and working full time, so I have a vested interest in finding fun and fast ways to learn! Currently I am taking an online certificate for educators, that is interesting and helpful for work, but very demanding (mainly because we're all so motivated to learn about online learning!). The program consists of 5 courses that look at the pedagogy of online learning, online curriculum development, online collaboration, groupware/courseware/chatware and the many issues that ensue. whew. It's no wonder I'm always busy!

This all fits in nicely with my daytime job at CGI Group Inc. Although you wouldn't know it from first glance. CGI is Canada's largest IT consulting firm and 6th largest in North America. With over 9000 employees worldwide, we tend to be associated with end-to-end technology solutions, Y2K issues and being the first Canadian IT company with ISO9001 standards! However, deep in the recesses of this huge company is a small group in Toronto that does Training and Documentation for the Business Solutions sector. From this group, we spawned a Distance and Electronic Learning practice last spring. There are four of us who work in this group, so we really feel like a grass roots movement!

So far, we have had success doing assessments and evaluations of existing online courses based on a methodology of pedagogy, heuristics and human computer interface. It seems that there are a lot of people dabbling with online learning but everyone wants a seal of approval and with our education and background in training and online learning, we are an appropriate third party opinion.

I also recently went down to a Caribbean university with my director and we consulted on how the university can move towards becoming a virtual university. This was great fun and a wonderful break in the end of February (remember I live in Canada where February is the cruelest month of all) and proved that distance education really does mean we can travel!!

Before coming to CGI, I trained staff and faculty at York University in Toronto and I have also worked at a Canadian professional association where I was in charge of the computer based training program. So, as you can see, the OCREW that I'm working on (Industry and the Academy) is based on some familiar ground: corporate, professional associations and academic institutions.

Having worked in all three areas, I'm curious to now look at each and see what similarities and differences there are for online learning and how the three can work together. I hope that this endeavour will be a collaborative and fruitful project for all of the WAOE members that have expressed interest so far and I look forward to presenting the WAOE members and officers with some noteworthy findings.

Published originally in WAOE WEB newsletter, 1(5), May 10, 1999.