Thursday, June 18, 2009

End of an Era

Four years ago I took a class from David Wiley. I liked what he was saying, and we started a conversation. The next thing I knew David offered me a job as Utah State's OpenCourseWare director. When I came to the project we had 8 courses online. There are now over 80. We average as many as 2,000 unique visitors to the site every day from all over the world. We have mirror sites up in Africa, China, and Indonesia (that we know of). Our site has been translated into several languages, and is the third most visited site on the usu.edu domain. Being the OCW director is something I've loved doing the last four years.

It is also coming to a close.

Budget cuts have resulted in the program coming to an end. We've spent the last six months scrambling to find a way to keep the lights on. We've sought after state money, private money, grant money, and my boss stopped me from going after embezzled money. We've found nothing, so as of June 29th, I will be starting a new job.

Emotions bubble to the surface when you go through change. On the one hand I am very sad to be leaving a job I love. I love the openness movement, and hope to be able to return to it someday. But starting a new job has its own excitements; new people, new challenges, new skills. I'm looking foward to working with Shelley again.

When I left my last job I mourned leaving the people I'd grown to care about. I thought there would be no way to find friends like the ones I left. And now I can't imagine finding friends like the ones I've grown fond of here in Logan. Game night, Rock Band, lunch at Great Harvest and Cafe Rio...

Change is rough. Change is exciting. And I feel like I'm about to get spades of it.

8 comments:

Flashlight Girl said...

I'm sorry to that USU couldn't save your job. There's a lot of that going around up there. So, what's next? Will your family be able to stay in Logan or will you be relocating? Good luck in the days ahead.

Callie said...

I'm so happy you have a new job(even though it's way too far away)- and so mad that USU couldn't find a way to keep you. They'll regret that for sure!

Josi said...

It's a shame that passion alone couldn't keep it going--I know I've been impressed with your dedication to the project. At least you're coming from something great, which increased your odds to go into something great. Good luck.

Seth said...

I'm really sorry to see you go. I hope things will turn around for USU OCW. You did a lot for the university and COSL.

TJ said...

It's really sad that the USU administration and the Utah legislature don't understand the value of OCW. You did great work here. We'll miss you.

G. Parker said...

wow...that's got to be hard. So what are ya gonna be doing??

Cami Checketts said...

I hope you love this new job. We're really missing you at critique group and praying all is well with you and your family,
Cami

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