Reflections after Editorial Board meeting 13 July 2017

I will wait for the minutes for the detail of the meeting, but wanted to say thank you to everyone who joined today. You can find the agenda here, and though we did not go through it in exactly that order we did cover most of what we needed.

The best part was working with people. The meeting was called for 1200. I was there in Gibbs 5.37 (sweet old style teaching room). Liz was there. Dominic was there.  Simon was in Adobe Connect.

Then between 1200 and about 1220 was arrival and faffing with the technology (which was almost OK on the day, but not entirely! Sweet old style teaching room strikes back. Note to self. Get a HDMI to VGA dongle).  Mary, Anne, Richard, Didi and Agi came in. Mary went out to get her phone which had been left at the last meeting. Dominic had to go at 1.00 p.m.

So we focussed first on those who arrived first. Dominic was concerned with copy editing and we elaborated a process. Liz has stepped up. We discussed many processes, and in sequence copyediting does come later in the cycle. Throughout the meeting I hopped up and down between computers trying to demo the actual website and almost getting away with it from time to time. The publishing system will allow some ease of use. At the moment the editors, George, Mary, Didi and Peter are beginning to learn how to work with a customised WordPress based publishing platform to get the work-flow from end to end as smooth as we can. We have issue dates and meeting dates going a year forward into even 18-19.

But as I said the best part was working with people. We were gracious but also open to being teased good naturedly in back channels and face-to-face. Richard learned what a “Wonk” is.

I am chagrined that we do not yet have 1.1 out. Our intention is to go with what we have: 2 reviews, 2 articles (maybe 3) and a editorial yet to be written! By the end of this month. Deadline for the next (1.2, edited by Didi?) about 31 October for publishing in early Feb ’18. Deadline for next (editor Mary), March ’18 for May/June ’18.

Lots more to report in time, but it started to feel like a crew, a band, an enterprise, definitely an undertaking and a group coalescing to do it. That was fun!

Let’s do it again soon.

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George Roberts

George Roberts is Principal Lecturer Student Experience in Educational Development. He has been at Oxford Brookes since 2000 and joined OCSLD in June 2006 as an Educational Developer (e-Learning). In his previous role he advised the Head of e-Learning and the Senior Management Team of the University on policy for off-campus e-learning and e-learning partnerships. He leads the MA Education (Higher Education) and teaches on the Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education (PCTHE) as well as conducting other educational development activities: workshops and consultancies. He completed a doctorate (July 2011) at the University of Southampton on biographical narratives of adult users of a community IT centre on a large estate. He also undertakes research into the pedagogical, social and technical dimensions of e-learning nationally and internationally and is interested in the interactions between personal identity and the values and beliefs that are embedded in the artefacts of Learning Technology. George is editor of the Higher Education Journal of Learning and Teaching (HEJLT). Previously, George taught on the Open University MA course, “Language and Literacy in a Changing World”. He was on the Executive Committee of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) and head of the organising committee of the ALT-C conference from 2005-2007. For 10 years before joining Brookes he was an instructional designer in the international energy industry. If you want to know more about his professional activities online: https://plus.google.com/107024825185905450353/about http://rworld2.brookesblogs.net/