Dear colleagues,

For the last 4 years, the IT team worked very diligently, to improve the way we deliver our courses online to our 400 students across the province of Ontario. It was critical to make some major changes in the way we used technologies to ensure we have:

* a robust infrastructure in place based on open-sources

* our courses accessible from anywhere, from any computers and from any mobiles devices

* some collaboration tools to follow standard processes and procedures for delivery

During this period, we have also developed a strong collaboration between the IT team and the Faculty group to create communication channels, forum, collaboration online to improve our courses online and also to ensure we build trust between our 2 groups.

We think we could improve our collaboration to bridge the gap between the IT specialists group and the faculty group to move beyond the delivery of our courses.

Our next priority should be focus on how we can help students to extend they way they can learn in the class and outside the class and how technologies can help. One example is how social media can support tutors teaching and learners learning; this can also change the role of our learners who can also become teachers by sharing some of their knowledge with others students. Our professors and tutors can also become learners and be exposed to mobile technologies and learn how some of our students are using it.

We are meeting in a couple of weeks and I will be ready to initiate and facilitate these projects with the IT team and the faculty group by offering a series of workshop during the first semester of the 2012-13 year.

We are all professional and we are lucky to work for this program but we can all do more for our students, for our health care system and for Ontario.

So let's do it!

Guillaume Semblat