Publishing a book and on-line courses

It was a long drive: from Perth to Renfrew. About an hour and 40 minutes. We had to go to pick up the remainder of my books. Deal was, my co-publishing company has been bought out by another. Half of the remaining books are legally mine, the other half I had the option of buying them back or having them destroyed.

I'd had 1500 printed. There are 288 remaining. I bought them all back. It saddens me. There are so many chumps out there self-publishing books that the media doesn't have time for people, like myself, who co-publishes. That means that I paid for the books to be printed and the co-publisher provides the editor, book cover designer, and then arranges for them to be printed.

The last of them: 288 copies

It was a laborious, joyful process. I learned a lot about myself, and about the process of writing. I did a lot of research for the book. During the writing I was taking an on-line M.A. course in Counseling. I had access to all of their electronic library resources. My papers for the 8 courses I took (in total there were 10) I based on what I wanted to learn for the writing of the book.

My M.A. online experience

The newspaper article hotlink below refers to the sexual harassment and violence reported in our 

journaling is a therapeutic tool

universities. This is simply the tip of the iceberg. It's not been very long since women had to pretend to be men in order to attend university. The plethora of remote learning has been an interesting one. We remove gender, stereotypes and biases contrived from face-to-face learning. 

Sexual harassment leads to the normalization of behaviours, showing videos, unacceptable comments, attitudes keep on being perpetuated. On campus there are means by which universities must self-regulate and control harassment through policies and procedures. Usually, it is too little, too late. Issues, such as bullying on-line are ignored.

book proof cover

I have 3 degrees: B.A. from uRyerson in ECE, B.Ed. from uOttawa, M.Ed. from uOISE/Toronto.
However, I haven't talked much about my unfinished M.A. in counseling from the on-line degree I was taking from uYorkville. All of our courses were on-line. Most of the professors had several jobs, as well as assistant, and really didn't get much involved in the daily posts by students. We demonstrated our knowledge by participation, posting, leading a weekly session, and submitting papers.

Regarding my experience with this on-line MA from Yorkville University was less than stellar.
There was a male who was abusive and a bully, and, perhaps, a nutbar, and the professors didn't care a whit. I got myself so frustrated doing this course, getting into a verbal battle with this male, that I quit two courses short. One course was the practicum of counseling someone, under the supervision
of a practicing Psychiatrist.

sign it off and
off to printing

There were few controls for participants. I found that some participating had little investment in the course, and demonstrated an inability to write quality papers. This I found out when trying to work within the mandatory groups. Some try to take advantage of group participants, and sucked us into doing the work for them. I refused to buy in. Some, as we sent out group papers back and forth, accidentally would delete the Word document and some of our work.

You see, they don't care who signs up for these on-line courses, even if it is a legitimate university. They had no qualifications for students. They forced us into working in groups, with people like this male, and others who apparently hadn't mastered the strict APA style required by the counseling profession out there. The group counselling course required that we conduct a group course through strictly on-line posting. It was bizarre.

I realised at the time that I still had not worked my way through my depression. I had some manic episodes which haunt me. I was happy to let it go.

Anyone want a copy of my book?!
I've donated them to all the public libraries, my alma mater libraries, hospices, volunteer groups, friends, family. I've traded books with a great number of people who have similarly written autobiographies. I've blogged, done lobbying and was finally interviewed on the CBC Radio show White Coat Black Art, with Dr. Brian Goldman (photos there!). (That national gig sold 6 copies of my book! SIX.)

Disciplining sexual violence on campus needs policies that work

Dalhousie University isn't the only post-secondary institution confronting disturbing allegations revolving around sexual violence. As one university puts partial suspensions in place and talks of restorative justice, another conversation has begun on confronting the problem on campus and whether the quest for Justice could lead to Injustice.