The 30 Years

I've been working at the University of Alberta for over 30 years. (If you count working as a research assistant and teaching assistant, it's actually over 37 years!) Every year, the University celebrates those employees who have put in at least 25 years of service in 5-year increments. At this year's ceremony, there was one person who has been working here for 50 years. Unbelievable!

If you look back at my blog, though, you won't see me describing my 25-year work anniversary 5 years ago. Because, um, they forgot. I've moved through so many roles over time, there's no way for the computer system to track me. So at least I was celebrated for 30 years--and I got two gifts to recognize and reward my many years of service! One of the gifts is a...water bottle. (I guess they figure we get thirsty after so many years of work.)

Different Roles

I worked as a professional computer programmer starting in 1987, helping a then-graduate student who needed computers to run experiments for her research. She paid me out of pocket, so I guess that does not count as working for the University. A short time later, though, I was hired as an actual RA to continue in that role. This led me into doing research of my own as an undergraduate, and then starting in 1990, as a grad student myself. I worked as a TA and as occasional RA here and there.

When I graduated with my PhD in 1995, I was immediately thrust into the role of non-academic staff, taking over for the Department of Psychology undergraduate program advisor who went on holidays and never came back. I juggled that role, in addition to teaching at the U of A, Grant MacEwan Community College (now MacEwan University), and Augustana University College (now U of A Augustana Campus). I became a Faculty Lecturer at the U of A in 2000, and am now a Full Teaching Professor. I also worked as a consultant for over 20 years for Nelson Education Ltd. and Cengage Canada.

I've taught courses in the majority of buildings on campus--even some that no longer exist. (RIP, Dentistry-Pharmacy, V-Wing, and Physics Buildings.) I've taught 3-hour courses that ran only on Saturday, or only on Sunday. I've taught evening classes, and one (only one) course that started at 7:00am. (It was supposed to be for people who had jobs that started at 8:30, but it was actually just made up of students who couldn't get into other sections offered at more reasonable hours.) Teaching at Augustana in winter term was particularly brutal. My class was at 8:00am, so I had to be on the road by 6:30 to make it in time--6:00 if the weather was bad, which it often was. One memorable day there was freezing rain; I remember passing by a semi that was literally upside-down in a field.

Tallies

• 3: number of different institutions taught at
• 11: number of different courses taught or co-taught
  
• 240: number of course sections taught
• 1,350 (approximate): number of term papers marked
  
• 25,000-30,000 (approximate): number of students taught (this may double- or even sextuple-count those poor souls who have taken several of my courses)

Awards

• William Hardy Alexander Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 2020
• Instructor of the month, Faculty of Science, March, 2017
• Kathleen W. Klawe Prize for Excellence in Teaching of Large Classes, 2014
• Instructors of Distinction Honour Roll, Faculty of Science, 2013, 2014
• Interdepartmental Science Students’ Society Instructor Appreciation award 2013, 2015, 2016
• “Celebrated” for teaching by AASUA, 2007
• Teacher Excellence Award from Delta Chi fraternity, 2003
• Department of Psychology Teaching Award, 2002
• Department of Psychology Teaching Honour Roll (20 times)
  
• Teaching Honour Roll with Distinction (144 times; sadly, the Honour Roll has been on pause since 2018)

I've sat on more committees than I can count, and worked alongside some really great colleagues. I don't have any memories of people who were jerks or selfish or anything. (Maybe those kinds of people are not the types to volunteer to sit on committees. Apparently, these people do exist.)

Okay, I've got to get back to marking term papers now...

Why aren't you studying?

What I Did on my Summer Vacation (2024 edition)

I've been doing these "summer vacation" posts for a long time. (Since 2009, it looks like.) I realize that a lot of them are very similar. That is, I do the same things. Go to Lacombe and get amazing cannoli from Sweet Capone's. Visit Gull/Sylvan lake. Check out what's new at the Calgary Zoo. Do teaching prep work. This time, though, the theme is: doing something different.

True confession time: I had never been to Quebec before. (Ok, technically, I have been to Quebec. But just to the Canadian Museum of History in Hull in 1990.) Canada is a huge, amazing, diverse country. It's about time that I explored it more. Another confession: going to Quebec was my wife's idea. (I'm legally obligated to say that all of her ideas are good ideas.) Montreal & Quebec City, here we come!

(Such a warm welcome. Thanks, random wall at the YUL airport!)

Now, I was a bit worried. How much English do people speak in Quebec? How good is my French? (It's passable: 5 years of studying Francais in school four decades ago, and a lifetime of reading French on cereal boxes. Flocons de maïs!) How confusing will the metro system be? But we didn't have any major problems. Many people are bilingual and will greet you with "BonjourHi." (Yes, just like the SNL sketch.) That's actually code for "Which language do you speak?" Only a couple of times did I have no choice but to fumble with my awful French-language ability, including ordering at Subway. It was stressful but it all worked out fine. And the metro was super-easy, convenient, and fun, too!

Now, touristy photos of the Notre-Dame Basilica and La Grande Roue in Montreal:

(Tourists everywhere.)

(I'm not scared of heights, you're scared of heights.)

Did you know there's a Museum of Illusions in Montreal? It's a global chain of museums, like a franchise. I didn't realize there were any in Canada. It was pretty cool, but I had to explain all of the illusions to my family, so it felt like giving a lecture. *sigh*

("This one is called the Rubin vase, from 1915. Are you paying attention? There will be a test!")

Not content with checking out Montreal, we then took a train to Quebec City. I've never been on a Via Rail train--and my kids have never taken a train ever. (See, the theme is really coming together! Doing different things!)

(Kinda blurry because I only had one hand free. Wait for me!)

Not only did we see the Château Frontenac from the outside, I discovered a guided tour through the inside that takes you to otherwise off-limits areas--well worth the price.

(Nice to look at, but out of my price range to stay at.)

(rue du Cul-de-Sac in the Quartier Petit Champlain)

The food everywhere was amazing: Montreal smoked meat sandwiches, poutine (of course), and crêpes. Yum!

(Cafe et Crêpe in Montreal--so good, we went back for more.)

 Montreal has an actual Krispy Kreme location. So of course I had to stuff my face.

(Sorry, can't talk with my mouth full.)

 

And then also: I did a lot of work. A lot. I changed literally every slide of every course that I teach, improving legibility and readability. Not only that, but realized that I had been using the same textbooks for a long time--decades, in one case. In reflecting on my teaching, I realized that this needed a change. So, for the first time in years, I've switched textbooks--not just for one course, but for two of them (Cognitive Psychology and Perception). It was a huge amount of work, and it took me two solid months. Most of this time is spent tailoring my lecture notes to complement the content in the new books. I think the ones I've chosen are a good fit; I look forward to getting feedback on them this term.

Now, let me continue the theme of "something different" by wrapping this up:

Why aren't you studying?

The Remote Delivery - Reviews

I'm going through (cleaning out?) some of the stuff I have left over from our abrupt switch to remote teaching and learning due to the Covid pandemic. I was online almost two full years, from March 2020 to the end of February 2022. (I previously wrote about that experience.)

(← crappy AI-generated image, thanks to Microsoft Bing Image Creator)

I never went through my evaluations and feedback comments (partly because the Department of Psychology has stopped giving out in-house teaching awards--which is another topic entirely). So here they are. Sorry, I've lost track of which courses these are from, and exactly which term. It all just blends together now.

“I really enjoyed the approach he took for the remote learning. Many profs seemed they had no clue how to go about it; some profs didn't even give anything like videos or notes. He was really fast acting in such a stressful and unique situation. I hope he knows that his hardwork and dedication to his students and his classes don't go unnoticed."

“Thank you for staying so consistent and working so hard. As a student watching and seeing that, it is truly inspiring.”

“The speed of which the instructor moved his material online. Some of my other instructors took a while to do so (which is understandable since it all caught us off guard) but it is really nice that Karsten Loepelmann had a lecture online the day the in-class lectures closed. He always updated on time as well which helped to keep me on schedule rather than waiting around for the next lectures to come.”

“The notes with blanks allowed me to listen more in class which helped me with my understanding of the material and concepts. I appreciated the ability to follow along with the PowerPoints while he voiced over the lectures. As well, the introduction and conclusion videos really helped and was something some other professors did not do.”

“I personally found that I was more motivated to engage with lectures during the set class time when they were initially conducted live, and I think some others may feel the same way. However, in the youtube format, I felt I was able to better absorb and understand the material as I could replay parts that didn't immediately register so falling a bit behind was traded off for clarity which isn't so bad in my opinion.”

“This course was very well suited to my style of learning and was one of the best classes I have taken in 4 years. The transition to remote learning was very smooth. Thank you for all the effort and enthusiasm you brought to this course, especially when everything went haywire.”

“The remote delivered lectures were of excellent quality; definitely appreciated the humour in them as well. Whether it's knowing the course material inside out, preparing well-thought out test questions, or editing his Youtube videos, you can tell this guy goes the extra mile and more.”

“Karsten was an awesome lecturer, he made the online classes probably as entertaining as they could be and he was really easy to stay engaged with. My only complaint is that there was absolutely no way to review our midterm exams and the final is cumulative so it’s impossible to know which areas we need to work on for the final.”

“Lecturer displayed content in an interesting way. Great quality lectures with great sound. Was pleasing to the ear to listen for more than 3hrs a session. Enjoyed this course overall.”

(More than 3 hours? You poor soul! Take a break, for heaven’s sake! Gah!)

“If you are going to do more asynchronous videos in future semesters, break them into smaller, better focused videos so that each one feels more self-contained and to better space out the watching to execute the spacing effect of learning.”

(Excellent application of course content. Sorry about the length. What happens is I get carried away and lose track of time. And I hate chopping a video when I'm in the middle of explaining something.)

“I was very impressed by Dr. Loepelmann's delivery of this course given the circumstances. The effort put in was noticed and appreciated!”

“I feel like there is so much content to be covered, and the online videos make are longer than class time would be. It is a lot of information to try to teach myself and remember.”

(I didn’t work out if they were longer or not. If there were longer, it’s not because I added more content to the course. I probably talked more slowly than I would in face-to-face classes, because I’m not getting feedback on whether you’re understanding everything so I just go slow.)

“Absolutely outstanding professor. He did very well at making online courses fun and interactive. Very engaging and well spoken.”

(Aw, thanks!)

Why aren't you studying?

The New LMS

LMSs are boring. Or rather, they should be boring--the less excitement, the better. First: What the heck is an LMS? A Learning Management System is used by institutions to deliver courses. They can deliver a course fully online, or be used to supplement an in-person course by hosting the syllabus, allowing assignments to be submitted, and deliver marks. So eClass is the UAlberta LMS. At least, that's our name for it. Our LMS is an instance of the open-source LMS Moodle. I'm not completely sure why "eClass" was chosen, but it's likely because no one knows what a "Moodle" is. It sounds like a cross between a muddle and a noodle, which makes no sense. So it was probably coined to make it clearer that it's the system for Electronic Class.

Previously, we used other LMSs: WebCT and a later version, called Vista (Microsoft Windows Vista was released around the same time, and boy did that lead to some confusion). At the time, the provincial government bought a license for WebCT for every post-secondary institution in the province. (I know: hard to believe. This was at a time when the government actually gave a shit about post-secondary education.) After everyone had gotten used to WebCT, the company was taken over by Blackboard, who wanted to phase it out. At that point, about 10 years ago, the University of Alberta faced a decision: force everyone to go with a new, unfamiliar Blackboard LMS or force everyone to go with a different, unfamiliar LMS. That's when we Moodled! (Ugh, sorry.)

In 2000, I taught a hybrid course (part online/part in-person), when we didn't have any LMS. I had to use a lot of hand-coded HTML. There were no lecture videos back then, just online notes and discussion forums. I wasn't interested in continuing that, and had no use for LMSs. I grudgingly learned how to use Moodle, but still relied mostly on my own hand-coded website. Again, this was before assignments were submitted online: students still handed in labs and term papers on, well, actual paper.

Grudgingly, I learned how to use eClass, gradually putting more assignments online. Some people used eClass to make MOOCs (massive open online courses) like Dino 101. But there was just no need for me to learn more. I mean, it would take something like a global pandemic to make me--and everyone else--re-examine boring old LMSs.

Oh, right. Pandemic. That's why we need an LMS.

When Covid hit, many of us instructors were in the same situation: I need to know how to do everything online, and I need to know it now. Lecture videos. Assignments. Exams. Grades. This was one of the most difficult aspects of the abrupt shift to remote teaching and learning. Many of us were constantly pinging eClass support, and when they became overwhelmed, we turned to each other for help.

By no means do I consider myself an eClass expert, but I was able to help a graduate student who was teaching their first class online. They even bought me a very nice bottle of wine as a thank-you present! So now that I'm fluent in eClass, now what? This is what: the email that sent a cold shiver of fear down my spine in September: "Transitioning to a New Learning Management System." Wha--?

That's right, starting in Fall, 2024 (and rolling out to everyone by Fall, 2025) is a new LMS. Moodle will be no more.

There are a few good reasons to ditch Moodle. There were several high-profile outages of eClass during the worst possible time: during online final exams. This even hit me in December of 2020, when eClass crashed right before my PSYCH 367 final exam. (Students were given the option to write the final at another time, or allow their term marks to serve as their final grade: 14 out of 123 students chose to write the final.) Also, even though Moodle is free open-source software, the university has to pay for servers to host it, and for developers to maintain it (fixing bugs, adding new features). All of these costs start to get pretty expensive, so going with a hosted option looks like a better option.

A company hosts the LMS, running and maintaining the servers. They may add features (maybe). And they will covert existing eClass sections to their new format so we don't have to create new ones from scratch. This last one is a verrrrrrry sore spot for a lot of instructors. We spent so much time over the last 4 years learning the ins and outs of Moodle, and now we have to learn something completely different!? There are some existing custom plug-ins that may not work in a new system. (Departments like math & stats and physics use custom software to manage their grading workflow, for example.) Most other universities in Canada that are similar to the University of Alberta have already moved to other, hosted LMSs. Even UCalgary uses D2L. I mean, c'mon. Even Calgary.

So, it's going to happen, no matter what. What's the new system going to be? I don't know; it hasn't been decided yet. But the timeline is pretty short--we should all know by the end of the month. And then the new learning curve begins. A note to students: please, please have patience with us. We're all going to be trying our best to learn this new system, and there are going to be glitches.

(One final thing. The University of Alberta provides tech support to MacEwan University, who are also using Moodle. If we ditch Moodle, it kind of puts MacEwan in a difficult spot. Maybe they'll end up hiring the eClass support staff who will inevitably be let go.)

Why aren't you studying?

Update 2/26/2024:
After much delay, it's finally been announced: we're moving to Canvas. Yay?

The Office (Good News and Bad News)

You never want to hear the words "There's asbestos in your office." That was the first bad news. It actually followed the good news of "We're cleaning the floor of your office." It's nice to look forward to a spring cleaning after a long winter of tracking snow, dirt, and muck into my office. But it's not really nice to open the door to my office and see that Bee Clean ripped up the flooring. I complained about this and a guy came and put down black tape. That's it--no fixing or replacing. At this point, I didn't even know that there was asbestos under the flooring; they only told me about that years later.

Does this look carcinogenic to you?

"No problem," he thought optimistically. "If it's a hazard, they would do something about it." But then the UCP took office and cut half a billion dollars and counting from higher education. There was no money for anything--not even asbestos abatement. And then Covid hit, and I taught remotely for almost two years. I guess that's good news? The fact that I wasn't in my office, being exposed to carcinogens. Okay, yes. That's good news.

Remote teaching eventually came to an end and I went back to my office. My asbestos-ridden, cancer-causing office. This spring, though, there was a glimmer of hope. Scarce money was being allocated to asbestos remediation. Yup, offices on the third floor would be completely redone. That's some good news, all right! The bad news is that my office is on the second floor, and there wasn't enough money for those offices. I looked jealously on as my colleagues packed up their offices. They would soon be asbestos-free, with spiffy new university-standard offices. This is the standard offices that new faculty get when they're hired: fresh paint, choice of flooring, new ceiling tiles, new window blinds. But not me: I'm old, not new.

But then--from out of nowhere--an email. Good news! More money had been allocated to redoing offices on the second floor! Except, as I peered through the documents, it wasn't so good. I'd be getting new ceiling tiles, and having the walls of my office painted. Wait, what? That's it? That can't be right. Every other office on my floor has either been completely redone (for new faculty), or was now on the list to be redone--except my office. That's, well, Bad News.

(Digression: What's the deal with ceiling tiles? The next time you're in the Biological Sciences Building, look up at all the gross, stained ceiling tiles. This building has leaks. It leaks a lot. When it leaks, it stains the ceiling tiles. Better not to look up. It's gross.)

 

I firmly outlined my case and eventually received (you see where this is going?): Good News. They would redo my office after all. It's just that, well, the renovations would start in the summer and run pretty close to the start of fall term. But there were a couple of weeks of buffer time in between, so that shouldn't be a problem. Right? Deep breath, and relax...

Packing up the office.

It took me four full days to pack up my office. Over 25 years worth of textbooks, papers, and knick-knacks. And an opportunity to pare it all down. (Marie Kondo, eat your heart out.) I went through every single thing in my office, recycling a few hundred kilos worth of old textbooks and papers, and boxing up the rest. Here's what it looked like:

 

Boxes, boxes, boxes!

(There was another bad news item that happened. The movers got tired (I guess?) and went for a break, leaving my office door wide open and all my stuff just sitting there unattended. Anyone could have just walked in and taken whatever they wanted. As if we don't have enough problems with theft as it is. Grr!)

And then I was done packing. I put it all out of my mind. There won't be any more bad news! Family vacation time in Victoria! Workers would be ripping up floored, remediating asbestos, and generally beavering away getting everything ready well before the first day of class. Except... Except not. Bad news: "delays" in getting the carpet. Which meant delays in getting everything else done, and getting all my stuff moved back. My greatest fear came true: move-in day was scheduled for September 8, with classes starting on September 5. So I'd be without an office for the first week? The busiest week of the year? Time to complain again.

Kudos to my department's executive assistant, who found me a spare office to use. I'll count that as good news, I guess.

A temporary office is better than no office?

And then, at last, finally, it was done.

 
Hmm, stripier than I thought.

Move-in day followed soon after. I've spent every spare moment over the past few weeks unpacking boxes, organizing stuff, and reconnecting computer equipment. After hours and hours of work, here's what it looks like now:

That's more like it!

All done! Good news! But...but wait. I noticed something. I stepped closer. I peered at my blinds. My old, unchanged, not updated blinds. Oh, they'll be replaced "at some point." So, some bad news after all.

Overall though, I am pleased with the reno. The office looks pretty nice. I finally have carpet like my colleagues have. And the reno gave me the opportunity to get rid of a lot of stuff I don't need. Thing are more organized, and there's a lot more room for my stuff:

Now that's good news!

Why aren't you studying?

What I Did on my Summer Vacation (2023 edition)

How was my summer? Busy--even busier than usual. So much going on.

As usual, I spend the majority of my time prepping for the next academic year. Sigh. Technical stuff: Manually converted all of my web pages to HTML5, and tried my hand at Inkscape to create vector images of the logos and graphics on my web pages. Hopefully, everything looks better on mobile devices now. Content stuff: Developed a new lecture topic on information design, which I should have done long ago. I got three books to get me up to speed (of course!).

🚙 In the spring, I got a new car: a Hyundai Tucson hybrid. I really wanted the plug-in hybrid but didn't want to wait 2 years (!) to get one. It often takes a while get comfortable with a new car, but not with this one. It's smooth and easy to drive, and it gets even better gas mileage than my old hybrid.

🔥 Then the wildfires hit--and kept on coming. So much destruction and chaos. My heart goes out to those disrupted and displaced by the terrible fires this year. Yeah, we had a lot of smoke to deal with in the city, but at least we were all safe. I hope the rebuilding goes swiftly.

🏖 Took the family to Aspen Beach on Gull Lake, as we do every summer. Chased butterflies and ate ice cream.

It's melting!

 

🦋 Then we headed to the Calgary Zoo for more butterflies. (Clearly, my wife and daughters are big fans of butterflies.)

So. Many. Butterflies.

🐱‍🐉 Next up: Drumheller. It's been five years since we were last at the Royal Tyrrell Museum; it's always worth the trip. And then: hoodoos.

Hoodoo?

 

🎬 There were a lot of blockbusters this summer. I didn't get around to doing the Barbenheimer thing. My mission, which I chose to accept, was seeing Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning (Part One). There's a lot of punctuation in that title.

Mission: Completed!

🎠 I got to spend time with my youngest daughter at K-Days. Thankfully, she's not into rides (me neither). It was all about the snacks and the petting zoo.

🌷🌸🌹🌺🌼 The highlight for us though was our first real holiday in five years, and the first real summer vacation we've taken as a family, going to Victoria. The Butchart Gardens! (Flowers, flowers, FLOWERS!) Victoria Butterfly Gardens! (Butterflies, amirite?) Craigdarroch and Hatley castles! Frickin' Delights Donuts! (Owned and run by ex-Edmontonians--given them a try!) Trans-Canada Highway Mile 0 and the Terry Fox memorial statue! (Got choked up a little bit.)

(This is a pretty good photo. 😎)

(You think these look good? You should try them. Frickin'!)

RIP, Terry. GOAT!

Whew! Lots of fun, and way better than last year when I broke my toe. Way better. Un/fortunately, I also had some good news and then some bad news. But that's another post.

Why aren't you studying?

What I Did on my Summer Vacation (2022 Edition)

With COVID-19 on the decline, I was looking forward to my summer vacation this year! So my family and I...well, um. We did a bunch of things that we do every year. Home repairs. Calgary Zoo. (We were in Calgary during the Stampede--and we did not go to the Stampede. Kinda tells you a lot about us...) Cannoli from Sweet Capone's. Lake. Here's a photo from Gull Lake:

I mean, look at it. Wow, what beautiful...mud? And this photo has most of the beach/shoreline cropped out. Gull Lake is shallow to begin with, but I don't think I've ever seen it this low. Anyway, I'm not much of a beach person. I'm a sitting-in-the-shade-and-reading person. So that's what I did. No photos of that.

At least Bow Falls is same-old-same-old gorgeous:

But honestly, this photo could have been from any day over the past 20 years or so. Sigh.

Look, I'm trying to give you insight into my life and the things I do over the summer. At final exams in April, some students say "Have a great summer!" on their way out. That's nice, but first I have to teach a spring class. And then I end up spending almost every day of my actual summer catching up on improvements to my courses that I haven't been able to do for the past three years. (I think I made more changes/updates/improvement this summer than I've ever made before.) But do you want to hear about that? Probably not.

Okay, but! There is something new. My eldest daughter graduated high school, got three scholarships and is now a student at the University of Alberta!

Yeah, that's most definitely something new! (If you see her on campus, be sure to...not say anything to her. If you do, she'll complain that I put her picture on my blog without telling her. Shhh!)

Anyway, who has time to read (or write) a blog post when the new term has started?

Why aren't you studying?

The Comments: Winter, 2022

Wow, it has been a long time since I last posted responses from teaching evaluations. Partly that's because the Department of Psychology paused the Teaching Honour Roll about 4 years ago and hasn't started them up again. (Why? The criteria for being put on the Honour Roll require that a certain percentage of the class must respond to the end-of-term evaluations. Since moving USRIs online in Fall, 2014, response rates have plummeted from 80% to just over 50%. And that's where everything has been stuck since 2018.)

During the first term interrupted by Covid, there were no formal USRIs. (I still sent out a Google Form to my class because that feedback is important to me--especially during the difficult shift to remote teaching.)

Anyway, here are written comments provided by students this past Winter term from my PSYCO 282 course. Enjoy--but remember that my responses (in parentheses and in bold) to these comments may have an extra dash or snark and a pinch of sarcasm!

- Probably best prof I've had so far

- It's clear that Dr. Loepelmann cares about teaching and his students. He makes every lecture enjoyable on top of being well organized, well spoken, and overall a great professor.

- Psyco 282 with Professor Loepelmann was one of the most enjoyable and well-organized courses I took this semester. Whether it was online classes at the beginning of the term, or in-person classes later on, Professor Loepelmann made the lectures clear, interesting, and easy to understand. The self-management project was engaging and applicable to our daily lives. I have already recommended this course and instructor to multiple other students and will continue to do so.

- It was a pleasure being in Karsten Loepelmann's class this semester. He was engaging, knowledgable, and funny in a cheesy way. His lectures were often thought-provoking and made me think critically about why people behave the way they do. Overall, I enjoyed his class which made me more knowledgeable in the field of psychology.

- Instructor was equally enthusiastic in both online and in person lectures.

- I love u leopelmann <3

(C'mon, tell me how you really feel! 😊)

- this professors conduct was completely unacceptable. Regardless of ones views on class matters, I don't believe that for a PSYCH course a professor should be so vocal about their political and social views. This professor even went to the extent of trying to enforce his own mandates in a public university. Now I don't disagree for or against policy as I understand this is a difficult time, the way he went about sending multiple emails and constantly giving his opinion made this feel like a political science course rather than being about behaviour change. At the start of the semester he was an average prof doing his best but towards the end he constantly made people feel uncomfortable and even made scenes during class regarding mask debates. I know many people that didn't attend class including myself for his antics. For a tenured and self proclaimed "great" professor, he should understand how to conduct himself in a professional manner and focus on course content.

(Just to be clear: I am not tenured, and I do NOT--and never have--declared myself to be "great." In certain circumstances, the real world invades into the classroom. I did not give my political views; I commented on how the UCP government overreached itself by secretly demanding that post-secondary institutions follow its policies to remove mask mandates. (Yes, it was the government. No, I won't tell you how I know--but I do know.) The governments of other provinces did not meddle like this; most other universities across Canada kept their mask mandates in place--some of them until June 30, 2022. My classroom is my workplace. I resent anyone telling me what to do or how to do it. The fact that the extremely well-paid people who work in central admin did not step up and support front-line workers is appalling. Like it or not, my political and social views seep into everything I do (and they, clearly do the same to you, judging by your comments). It's too bad that my "completely unacceptable" conduct upset you. It's important to me to keep myself safe and healthy, and students in my class, too. I will never apologize for doing that.)

- instructor was slow at times when back in person.

(Slow? Like, speaking slowly? Or, like, in the pejorative sense?)

- No feedback on the student’s performance on the course. Need to learn from our mistakes on the midterms. When TA asked for clarification during the midterm viewing, he did not offer any assistance. Not familiar with the material? Told to refer to Prof.

(Wha-? No feedback? You mean the ExamVis for midterm 1 and the in-person exam viewing for midterm 2 were not feedback? How about the feedback you got on the quiz questions after every lecture? How about the feedback on each assignment? As for the TAs, I wish they could have been more prepared, but I did answer any questions that were referred to me.)

- Lack of enthusiasm from the instructor, especially when we went back in person

- Class lectures were basically a regurgitation of the textbook - we all know how to read - please make it come alive.

- I also really enjoyed his obvious enthusiasm many of the topics and I thought the supplementary videos he provided were both interesting and informative. Cheers!

- Personally, I really like how Professor Loepelmann actively engage in this class. I can easily understand his teaching and he is accessible outside the class even when we're online. I will definitely recommend his class to anyone who is interested in this subject.

(*Sigh* Just, *sigh*)

- I found in his feedback he was overly condescending and as a result I had no desire to seek extra help.

- I wish I saw more compassion from him. It did not seem like he was ever happy to answer questions from students. This is why when I was unsure of something, I would resort to a classmate or even Google because I would get too anxious to ask him anything, afraid that he would be snappy with his answer (as he often was when answering questions on the discussion board). Wish he was more approachable in this way.

(I'm sorry if that's how I came across to you. It was probably the most difficult term I've ever had in over 25 years of teaching. Posting videos online while also teaching in person was immensely draining, to say nothing about the existential threat of Covid and the war in Ukraine. If you're referring to my responses in the discussion forum, I tried to answer questions as quickly and concisely as possible. It can be frustrating if someone is asking--yet again--a question that I've answered before, or is answered in the syllabus. I would never be "snappy" with any student in person. Here are some other perspectives:)

- Dr. Loepelmann is an incredibly passionate professor and made this course extremely engaging and enjoyable. He treats all his students with respect and it is evident that he knows this course inside out. I would recommend both him and this course to everyone.

- His presentations are clear and interesting, he never goes over the class time , and shows a clear respect for his students. I took this course as an option and I am so glad I did. I would 100% recommend this course and Dr. Loepelmann to anyone and everyone

- This class was absolutely phenomenal. The content itself was all extremely interesting and I was never left wondering how it would be applicable in the real world, as research and examples were consistent throughout. Although we did watch many videos and interpreted plenty of graphs, it never felt excessive. The self-management project was the perfect assignment to aid in course knowledge. Each section of the project felt appropriately spaced, and no part of the assignment felt too big to comfortably complete within our busy schedules. It truthfully felt like a learning opportunity rather than a tedious project with no purpose. Finally and perhaps most importantly, Professor Loepelmann was absolutely fantastic. Although we began the semester online (where many professors tend to flounder) Karsten made every effort to make the content enjoyable and accessible. And he exceeded all my expectations. He continued to post online resources even once we moved online because he understood that with COVID people’s situations readily change. Our abundance of resources (ePoll quizzes, and textbook quizzes) that we were able to access at any point throughout the semester were irreplaceable. It is very apparent that he genuinely cares about the quality of learning we receive. This has honestly been the greatest class I have ever taken at the UofA. Give this man another teaching award please!

(Thanks!) 

- I wish we were given some practice midterms and finals to prepare better for the exams. Also, not being to able to get our exam copies back was a horrible experience.

(You got:
 - dozens of poll questions based on lectures
 - five worksheets
 - multiple-choice questions from the textbook posted on eClass
 - dozens of practice tests, quizzes, and application/misapplication exercises from the textbook
But you still want more?
No, you did not get midterm 1 back. Sorry if that was, er, "horrible." But you did get extremely detailed feedback from ExamVis--more feedback than students have ever gotten in person. And there were multiple exam viewings for midterm 2.)

 

- Dr Loepelmann was literally my favourite prof this entire term. He's enthusiastic about this subject and it shows in his lectures and interactions with students. I will forever remember hearing Dr. Loepelmann screech when he got Big Mac sauce on his keyboard during a Q & A for this class. 100% comedy gold.

(That's your takeaway from the course? *sigh*)

Why aren't you studying?

The COVID-versary

Today is March 12. It’s my COVID-versary. Like an anniversary, but with 'rona. (I’ve been lucky and careful, and have so far avoided actually getting COVID-19.) Thursday, March 12, 2020 was the last time I taught classes in person, on campus, in an actual classroom. Nothing special happened. My advanced perception class did not have a quiz (it was a skip week); I lectured on face perception. In my human factors and ergonomics, I lectured on APA style (boring) and groupthink (much more interesting). I picked up my eldest daughter from school, and asked her if she minded of we went to Best Buy on the way home. I had picked out a nice microphone and was getting worried that I’d need it soon--you know, with the way things were going. In fact, I’d need it the very next day.

On Friday, March 13 (ugh, Friday the 13th) at 12:33am, the University of Alberta sent out an email announcing that classes would be “temporarily suspended” that day. After fiddling with the setup of my mic--it did not like one of my USB ports--I recorded and posted a lecture video to YouTube in time for my regularly scheduled behaviour modification class. I was off and running. And it feels like I’ve been running ever since. On the morning of Saturday, March 14, the inevitable happened and classes were moved to emergency remote delivery. And that’s where we are today, a year later.

Looking back, here are some numbers that summarize my past year:

• lecture videos recorded: over 300
• emails handled/received/sent: ~9,600 (Probably over 10,000 if you include automated notifications about meetings, exams, etc. That's more than two dozen emails a day, on average.)
  
• Zoom meetings, seminars, and webinars attended: ??? (A lot. Really, really, a lot. I don’t even want to know how many. Got pretty familiar with all the video meeting software: Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, Webex, Facetime...)
• major awards won: 1 (William Hardy Alexander Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 2020)
• awards that I nominated someone else for: 1 (my colleague Dr Jennifer Passey, who won the 2020 Remote Teaching Award)
• professional haircuts: 0
• haircuts by my wife (who is not a trained barber): like, 10? (I am NOT complaining. I think it’s amazing that in addition to being a physician, wife, and mother, she can also cut my hair so I look like a normal person.)
• things ordered online: around 100 (Not all from Amazon. I ordered most things from local businesses online that I picked up in-store or curbside. I try to buy local first if I can to support local businesses.
  
• online orders gone wrong: at least 5 (Just about everything that could go wrong did, with one exception: to my knowledge, no porch pirates stole any of my packages.)

Although I did pop in to my office a couple of times last spring, that was apparently prohibited (oops) so I have not returned in 11 months. There are no plants in my office, and on my last visit, I took home any perishable food. The last thing I want to see when I eventually return to my office is some infestation, like sentient plants, or sentient chocolate bars--or sentient plants that have survived by eating sentient chocolate bars. (Don’t laugh--I once had a mouse in my office.)

In the Before Times, I had a certain routine. I liked my routine; everything was...predictable. When the pandemic hit, that routine went out the window. Although we never had a true “lockdown” (just various restrictions), life was turned upside down. What to do but make a new routine:

• get up and make coffee (priorities, people!)
• get my kids up for online school
• shave, personal hygiene, etc. (It’s important--it makes you feel like an actual person. In the short term it depletes your willpower, but in the long run it builds it up.)
• get dressed: no sweatpants, no pajamas, no underwear-only days--ever! (Again, doing things like getting dressed signal that things are happening; it gives you some purpose.) On the other hand, I don’t wear ties anymore. (Ok, just on special occasions.)
• get to work: check email first for fires that have to be put out, and disasters that have erupted overnight; send messages that I forgot yesterday (oops); check eClass message forums
• then, it’s lunchtime, signaled by one of my daughters arriving at my desk announcing “Lunchtime!” Yes, lunchtime. That’s how long it takes me to deal with email: basically the entire morning.
• Spend lunch with kids. Difficult times can create opportunities. I don’t want this all to go by and all I have to show for it is...work. We eat and talk and joke. Then, back to work!
• record lecture videos: I try to be ahead by a class or two. Some of my colleagues have recorded lecture videos for an entire course over the summer. I thought I would do that, too. Ha! is all I have to say to that.
• Throughout the day, there are problems. There are always problems. (Like the day the power went out. Hey kids, no school! Luckily, I had already uploaded my lecture video for the day and just had to flip the switch to activate it, using my cell phone.) Over the months, the technical issues have decreased, but there are phone calls to make or answer, appointments to take kids to, snow to shovel/grass to mow.
• My wife will come home in the late afternoon, which is my signal to log off for a while. Mostly, it’s a signal to WHERE IS DINNER!? WHAT are we EATING!? Oh, the drudgery of making dinner. I don’t mind cooking, as long as it doesn’t take hours of standing and washing/peeling/chopping. Most days, I’m a put-the-ribs-in-the-oven-for-3-hours or slow-cooker-meat-and-veggies guy. Or, “It’s only -10 C out, that means firing up the grill outside!” When you’re at home all day, your spouse may come to the incorrect conclusion that all you’re doing is cooking dinner all day. You must disabuse your spouse of this notion. I wish she read this blog. Sigh.
• After dinner is another bit of routine. We go for a walk as a family. After sitting on my butt for literally hours, my back is aching and I need to move around. There is a pack of coyotes living in our neighbourhood, so we try to go for our walk as early as possible. Sunny summer days are great. Dark, cold, snowy winter evenings when the windchill is -20 C are not so great. Any colder than -25 and I’m staying inside with my sore back and a mug of hot something with a splash of adult beverage in it.
• Fridays we order takeout and have it delivered, again to help support local businesses. We don’t want our favourite restaurants to disappear! Cố Đô Huế forever!
• Sometime we have family game night. I don’t think that would have happened had there not been a pandemic. (Silver linings?)

My kids have, by objective measures, been doing pretty well with their online school. Some members of my family have concerns about COVID-19 due to certain health conditions, so we all decided together that the kids would not go in person when the schools reopened. Subjectively, though, it’s been hard. Motivation is tough. Not seeing peers is tough (there’s only so much interaction you get playing Among Us for the millionth time). My eldest daughter has now been doing high school at home for longer than she was at her actual high school. Will that be something she will look fondly back on in 10 years? Doubtful. On top of my IT duties and role as cook, I also have to be the family psychologist. Unfortunately, I’m not a “real” psychologist, so this is one of the most difficult aspects of this WFH situation. I do what I can. Sometimes it’s just sitting and talking. I hope it’s enough.

I’m not a teaching robot. (Once I was called a “teaching ninja” by my Department Chair which was pretty cool.) All of this is wearing on me, too. I have to plan, record, and upload videos. I have to answer the never-ending flood of questions. I hear from students who have gone through all kinds of unimaginable difficulties, including death, disease, and abuse. There are days when I can’t even.

And I’m not alone. This recent report done by The Chronicle of Higher Education reveals that most faculty are feeling anxiety, frustration, and stress. More than half are considering changing careers, or even retirement. Me too: one of the seminars I signed up for over the summer was retirement planning. The way the Government of Alberta is funding (or rather, NOT funding) higher education, I may have to retire sooner than I expect.

Now there’s the imminent prospect of vaccination and the hope for a return to normal life. It can’t come soon enough.

Screw you, COVID.

Why aren’t you...oh, nevermind. I’m sure you’re doing your best.

What I Did on my Summer Vacation (2020 COVID Edition)

I write these “what I did during my summer vacation” posts every year, and I know there’s a certain sameness to them. Well, not this year! *heavy sigh*

To a large extent, I was ready for the pandemic. The first mention of an “unusual flu” caught my eye in the news in late December. I had paid close (horrified) attention to the SARS outbreak almost 20 years ago, and lived through the (fairly frightening) H1N1 pandemic (yes, it is classified as a pandemic) in 2009. During the latter, I stood in a line of hundreds of people for hours with my family to get immunized. My youngest daughter was still a baby. It was a sobering experience.

After that, I made sure we had a good supply of hand sanitizer, much of which I still had when it was otherwise impossible to find this spring. I dug into closets and cabinets, surprised to find how many containers remained after 10 years. I even had the foaming dispenser in my university office. So when the situation began spiraling out of control in China, I began to prepare. Let me be clear that I did stockpile important supplies, but I did not hoard anything. (What’s the difference? Stockpiling implies that you are storing things that you will later use; hoarding suggests that you have so much, you will never need or use them.)

Remember the whole toilet-paper shortage thing?

I spent early March getting ready for remote delivery, reading reviews of high-quality mics and webcams. By the time in-person classes were “temporarily suspended” on March 13, I already had a lecture video ready to go for my class on the 13th. How seriously did I take this? Let’s just say that some people treated the movie Contagion as entertainment--I took it as a training film.

Being the designated household IT guy, I had to help my wife set up her Zoom meetings and troubleshoot my kids’ Google Meetings for school. I upgraded our home internet, doubling the speed. Knowing that I’d be spending even more time than usual sitting at my computer, I tried to make my setup as ergonomically correct as possible. (Are you feeling sore after being at your computer for too long? Check out the recording of the Faculty of Rehab Med’s webinar on five tips to create a healthy workspace.)

This is what you get when you leave your phone
lying around and tell your kids not to touch it.

After rounding out the challenging Winter term, I was plunged immediately into Spring term with only a day or two to prepare. I learned a lot, very quickly, from being dropped into the deep end. My colleagues also rallied in an amazing way. I’ve been in more teaching-related meetings via Zoom in the past two months than in the past two years. (Thanks, too, to students in that spring term class who were incredibly patient, understanding, and gave great feedback.)

With spring term over, I could finally relax, right? Do what I heard that other people were doing during the lockdown? Binge-watch The Witcher? Learn how to knit? Sing opera to my neighbourhood? Nope. As usual, I worked. Among other things:

• learned about and prepared for more remote teaching (note that there is are important differences between emergency remote teaching and online learning)
• served as external examiner for an MSc student
• Zoomed (it’s a verb now, right?) with colleagues across the university on an interrupted research project evaluating and redesigning a cognitive aid used in neonatal resuscitation

It has been a difficult time--for me, as for everyone. What do you do when the daily routine you have relied on has been shattered? You mourn the old one. And you create a new one. Having a defined structure to the day helps. You don’t have to decide what to do. You don’t have to burn through your precious, limited motivation and willpower. You just follow your routine. Every day, I get out of bed, shave, get dressed, have a coffee (not in that order). Spend the morning working. Take a break and make lunch for my kids. Eat lunch standing up. Go back to work. After the first wave crested, we were even brave enough to order food delivery (however, we treat the packaging like it’s radioactive).

Although I had a lot of work to do, I didn’t want life to pass me by, either. I won’t have this opportunity together with my kids again, so I wanted to make the most of it. In the evening, after spending too much time at our computers, we’d all go for a walk as a family. (There were so many great supportive chalk messages and pictures on driveways.) Then we’d watch a movie together, like Trolls World Tour, Onward, Hamilton, Batman Begins. Or play board games. Or Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

My memories of this time will include making Dalgona coffee (a.k.a. quarantine coffee or covid coffee). All the baking (pretzels, cupcakes, cheese buns, banana bread, nalysnyky, green onion cakes, and so many cookies).

Nalysnyky: Ukranian cottage cheese-filled crepes. 

And the “vacation” we had: a day trip to Lacombe. My old home town only had only one active case of COVID-19, so it felt very safe--like we were on a pandemic-free planet. (Yes, we all wore masks the whole time.) We did some shopping at the Lacombe Centre Mall, including scoring two dozen cannoli from Sweet Capone's. It turns out that after five months, the whole family was shopping-deprived.

Cannoli: Italian cream-filled pastries.

Now, I can feel the weather turning cooler. There are more leaves on the ground. Yeah, it’s time. Time to go back to work and school. But it’s going to be strange going back without leaving the house.

I know that many people are struggling--emotionally, financially, and not least of all, health-wise. My family has been lucky, and careful. I now have five different face masks, among them an X-Men one and a Ravenclaw one. I don't have these because they look cool. My wife is a front-line health care worker who is concerned for her patients' health, and for her own and her family's. My kids haven't given their auntie a hug in five months. I haven't come closer than 2 metres to my elderly parents; I don't want to give them a virus that could kill them. We've all lost things this year, but maybe we've also gained some perspective...on what's important.

Stay safe, everyone.

Why aren’t you studying?

The Remote Delivery

What a long strange trip it's been. TBH, it hasn't even been that long--just 3 weeks at this point. But it seems like forever ago that UAlberta announced that it was "preparing" to move to online delivery of courses (it was actually March 12). To show how fast things moved, literally the next day it was abruptly announced that classes were suspended, and then the day after that we were told to move to "remote delivery" of courses. (Note that remote teaching is not the same as online learning.)

Although it was announced that in-person classes were suspended on "lucky" Friday the 13th of March and were to resume with remote delivery on Tuesday, March 17th, I was prepared for this. Having kept an eye on the effects of COVID-19 across the world since late December, I already had a webcam for my office computer, and bought a new microphone right before they sold out across the city and online. My mic is a Blue Yeti Nano. (It's not the Wirecutter's top pick, but it's cheaper, smaller, and still pretty good--and way better than a crummy cellphone or laptop mic. Why spend money on an expensive mic instead of an expensive HD webcam? Research has shown that impressions of content are strongly influenced by audio quality.)

The green ring means we're go!

Because I've never recorded my lectures or taught an online, hybrid, or blended course before, I also had to decide on lecture capture software. The plan was to go through some of the different options, evaluate them, and pick the best. But because the landscape was changing so fast, I wasn't able to do that--I just went with the one recommended by my colleague Dr Jenn Passey: Screencast-O-Matic. I bought it the day before Loom (one product on my shortlist) announced they were offering their product for free to educators. The day after that, IST announced that they were making some lecture capture tools available for free: Stream2 (which I had never heard of), and Zoom (which I knew had serious existing privacy and security issues). Again, things were moving fast.
 
If I had waited, I wouldn't have had to spend any money and I could have carefully weighed the pros and cons of all the options--but I couldn't wait. It was important for me to have continuity for my classes. In a time of uncertainty, I wanted students to be able to rely on me. I hope I've been able to make the transition from in-person to remote teaching as smooth as possible.

 Note to my kids: daddy's busy!

UAlberta's The Quad blog recently featured some work-from-home photos of UAlberta employees. It was interesting to see the diversity of setups people have. I'm lucky to have an actual home office. Some people are working at their kitchen table, rec room, or in their windowless basement. Although that might get the job done, the ergonomics of it makes me cringe. (Here's a checklist for your desk setup, courtesy of Edmonton-based ergonomic company EWI Works.)

I miss being in front of a class, experiencing the energy of students. One law professor went viral with the Zoom videos of him teaching to a Pinocchio doll in an empty classroom. I'm comfortable doing my lectures in front of my computer, but like the law prof I'm not alone. Somehow I've managed to accumulate a variety of, um, companions? Apparently my wife has a thing for buying me cute hedgehogs (no, I don't know why). The blue M&M on the right is actually a computer screen cleaner. And then there's Hack & Slash for some '90s nostalgia.

Say hello to my little friends.

Next up, I'm teaching a spring class that's going to be remote delivery. I don't know what's going to happen come September. That seems too far in advance to even consider. Until classes resume in person and life gets back to normal, take care of yourselves!

Why aren't you studying?

What I Did on my Summer Vacation (2019 Edition)

One of the challenges I face when I write this post every year is how to tie together a bunch of very different things with a common theme. I think I've actually got one this year: fixing things.

One of the things I've fixed is: myself. Summer is when I try to schedule all of my medical checkups (complete physical, dental checkup, eye exam, etc.) so they don't get in the way of teaching. This year, I had even more substantial things on my schedule: gastroscopy and gum tissue graft surgery (yup, that's exactly as much fun as it sounds--good thing I like soup and pudding). So hopefully I'm patched up enough to keep going for another year.

My house is also starting to show its age; problems are sprouting up everywhere. Last year, we needed a new roof--class 4 impact resistance, because we kind of get hail every summer. This year, in no particular order, I had our new furniture fixed (after waiting 10 months for parts), replaced the seals and springs on a leaky bathroom faucet, replaced a malfunctioning toilet, got our wonky garage door adjusted, found out our electronic air cleaner was dead, repaired a hole in the siding of the house that was letting in water, replaced the front panel and igniter switch on my grill, installed a dryer vent cover (stupid birds were nesting in the vent--again), reattached a broken closet bar, replaced my ergonomic computer keyboard, fixed a shower head, replaced our dead microwave oven, replaced the sump pump hose that my neighbour ran over with her lawnmower (?), replaced our old vacuum, got the piano tuned, tried (unsuccessfully) to have Rogers fix a problem with my cell phone call display, got my soffits repaired, and replaced the expired CO detectors in the house. Whew!

Yup, it's a toilet. Bonus: it uses much less water than the old one.

Bird nest remains. Stupid birds!

In terms of work, I fixed things by rebuilding my PowerPoint slides from scratch for my behaviour modification course. I had already decided to switch my slides to widescreen format. Unfortunately, it wasn't as simple as clicking Design - Slide Size - Widescreen (16:9). Sigh. That meant I had to do it manually, with hours of copying-and-pasting. As I was going through every single slide, though, I was able to notice some content that needed updating, or could be worded better, or images and videos that should be replaced with higher-resolution ones. I also modified the slide theme (what can I say, design is important to me). I'm happy to say that my slides have never looked better--and I know a lot more about structuring PowerPoint slides for easier changes in the future. (Like what, virtual reality slides? I dunno.)

I also had to prepare for the changeover from iClickers, which are no longer officially supported on campus, to the IST-designed ePoll. I ran a pilot in my spring PSYCO 367: Perception course with no major problems, so I will be rolling out ePoll this fall in my big classes. I'm a little bit nervous about that (fingers crossed!).

There were also a few teaching-related seminars I attended in August, including the CTL Teaching Institute, and the Faculty of Science's Back to Teaching seminars.

Happily, my summer wasn't all work. Sadly, the summer weather was crummy in Edmonton. We tried to escape it by going on family trips, but the cold and rain followed us. I'll skip the boring details here, and leave you with these pics. (If you want the boring details, be sure to ask me in person!)

Mountain trip! Moraine Lake, Lake Louise, the view down Banff Avenue (in Banff, FYI)

Discovery Canyon in Red Deer (too cold & rainy to try it). Wildlife.

Treats! The yummy cannoli at Sweet Capone's (Lacombe),
and the ice cream selection at the snack bar at Aspen Beach (Gull Lake).

Why aren't you studying?