{"id":444,"date":"2023-03-07T13:08:50","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T18:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/gri1\/?post_type=front-matter&p=444"},"modified":"2023-03-08T12:22:16","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T17:22:16","slug":"forward-by-vicki-l-nygaard","status":"publish","type":"front-matter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/gri1\/front-matter\/forward-by-vicki-l-nygaard\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction by Vicki L. Nygaard","rendered":"Introduction by Vicki L. Nygaard"},"content":{"raw":"By the Fall semester of 2022, I\u2019d been teaching sociology at British Columbia universities for just over 30 years. I was feeling pretty burnt out from a punishing teaching schedule, a disappointing setback at work the previous summer, and significant family losses. As usual, I was working on my course outlines close to class start-up. I desperately needed inspiration. Despite having taught gender classes approximately one million times1<\/sup> over my career, even chairing a women\u2019s and gender studies department in recent years, I was surfing the Internet for something new and exciting. I became intrigued when I came across a syllabus developed by Professor Dawne Moon at Marquette University in Wisconsin who had assigned an online class book project in 2020.\r\n\r\nThe main question I needed clarity on so I could get my course outlines uploaded in time for the first class was \u201ccan we do this?\u201d A colleague suggested talking to the rockstars at Vancouver Island University\u2019s Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning (CIEL) to see if they had insight. As I had leaned on CIEL so often in those first months of the pandemic, trying to learn how to do my job in completely different ways, I had made some solid connections. I reached out to Anwen Burk, one of the Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning Specialists. She immediately said the only word I needed to hear to get my course outline uploaded \u2013 YES!\r\n\r\nWith only that yes and my heart pounding in my chest, I walked into my third year Sociology of Gender Relations class and announced that this semester we were going to write and publish a book. They looked stunned, and terrified. I felt stunned, and terrified. I told them I didn\u2019t yet know how we were going to do it but, if they were willing, we would figure it out together, with Anwen\u2019s help.\r\n\r\nThe fact that not a single student dropped the class and that this book exists here for you to read is a testament to the student\u2019s faith in that initial vision, their perseverance despite the confusion and missteps along the way, their dedication to putting in the many long hours required to refine and rework their pieces against ridiculously tight timelines, and their deep commitment to \u201ctrusting in the process\u201d even when they felt pretty sure that wasn\u2019t such a good idea. Apparently, it was. And they have a dynamic and interesting publication to be proud of to prove it.\r\n\r\nYou would not be reading this at all if it weren\u2019t for the expertise and dedication of my colleague Anwen Burk, to whom an enormous debt of gratitude is owed. She makes the seemingly impossible not only possible, but also fun.\r\n\r\nI also want to acknowledge the amazing support of the Dean of VIU Social Sciences, Elizabeth Brimacombe. Her encouragement, from the first minute she heard about our project through to the book launch itself, was key to making this book a reality.\r\n\r\nThis book is dedicated to those students of Sociology 322 who reignited my passion for education and for the reminder that anything really worth achieving involves both risk and hard work. Working together, we really can make miracles happen. Thanks for hanging in there with me, people. Look what we did!!\r\n\r\n1.<\/sup> One million may be a slight exaggeration (wink).","rendered":"

By the Fall semester of 2022, I\u2019d been teaching sociology at British Columbia universities for just over 30 years. I was feeling pretty burnt out from a punishing teaching schedule, a disappointing setback at work the previous summer, and significant family losses. As usual, I was working on my course outlines close to class start-up. I desperately needed inspiration. Despite having taught gender classes approximately one million times1<\/sup> over my career, even chairing a women\u2019s and gender studies department in recent years, I was surfing the Internet for something new and exciting. I became intrigued when I came across a syllabus developed by Professor Dawne Moon at Marquette University in Wisconsin who had assigned an online class book project in 2020.<\/p>\n

The main question I needed clarity on so I could get my course outlines uploaded in time for the first class was \u201ccan we do this?\u201d A colleague suggested talking to the rockstars at Vancouver Island University\u2019s Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning (CIEL) to see if they had insight. As I had leaned on CIEL so often in those first months of the pandemic, trying to learn how to do my job in completely different ways, I had made some solid connections. I reached out to Anwen Burk, one of the Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning Specialists. She immediately said the only word I needed to hear to get my course outline uploaded \u2013 YES!<\/p>\n

With only that yes and my heart pounding in my chest, I walked into my third year Sociology of Gender Relations class and announced that this semester we were going to write and publish a book. They looked stunned, and terrified. I felt stunned, and terrified. I told them I didn\u2019t yet know how we were going to do it but, if they were willing, we would figure it out together, with Anwen\u2019s help.<\/p>\n

The fact that not a single student dropped the class and that this book exists here for you to read is a testament to the student\u2019s faith in that initial vision, their perseverance despite the confusion and missteps along the way, their dedication to putting in the many long hours required to refine and rework their pieces against ridiculously tight timelines, and their deep commitment to \u201ctrusting in the process\u201d even when they felt pretty sure that wasn\u2019t such a good idea. Apparently, it was. And they have a dynamic and interesting publication to be proud of to prove it.<\/p>\n

You would not be reading this at all if it weren\u2019t for the expertise and dedication of my colleague Anwen Burk, to whom an enormous debt of gratitude is owed. She makes the seemingly impossible not only possible, but also fun.<\/p>\n

I also want to acknowledge the amazing support of the Dean of VIU Social Sciences, Elizabeth Brimacombe. Her encouragement, from the first minute she heard about our project through to the book launch itself, was key to making this book a reality.<\/p>\n

This book is dedicated to those students of Sociology 322 who reignited my passion for education and for the reminder that anything really worth achieving involves both risk and hard work. Working together, we really can make miracles happen. Thanks for hanging in there with me, people. Look what we did!!<\/p>\n

1.<\/sup> One million may be a slight exaggeration (wink).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1134,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"front-matter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-444","front-matter","type-front-matter","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/gri1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/gri1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/gri1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/front-matter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/gri1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1134"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/gri1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":448,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/gri1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/444\/revisions\/448"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/gri1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/444\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/gri1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"front-matter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/gri1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter-type?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/gri1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/gri1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}