Barbara Lehtiniemi is a writer and photographer from Ontario. She’s a graduate of Athabasca University, having completed her Bachelor of General Studies degree in 2018.
A regular contributor to The Voice Magazine for over ten years, Barbara has also contributed to other publications including Chicken Soup for the Soul and Maclean’s. Barbara writes in several genres, including non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. She’s eternally grateful to The Voice Magazine for providing the opportunity to explore an array of topics and writing styles.
Barbara has a fondness for travel, used bookstores, everyday absurdities, and oversized wine glasses. Originally from urban Southwestern Ontario, she now lives on a windswept rural road in Eastern Ontario.
With Athabasca University’s reputation as the premier online university, it’s surprising that they’re just now joining, or possibly re-joining, the MOOC movement. MOOCs, so-called Massive Open Online Courses, seem to be offered by every university and its frater these days. AU will launch its first purpose-designed MOOC, Learning to Learn Online on March 9. MOOCs… Read more »
A friend died this morning. A kind-hearted woman with a positive outlook and the love of her family. Her only flaw was the insidious tumour in her brain that could not and would not be defeated. I’ll miss her joie de vivre and her ready smile. I feel a deep sense of personal loss. I… Read more »
It may seem a contradiction but, while I prefer paper over e-texts, I prefer online over paper exams. When I clicked the “submit” button on my latest exam, I felt satisfied. Not only was another exam out of the way and another course completed, but I didn’t have to pop a painkiller to ease my… Read more »
Interviewing skills are not just for interviews. While we usually associate interviews with job-hunting and journalism, interviewing skills have their place in the everyday. When you’re the interviewer, you generally want to extract some information from the interviewee. There are many areas of life in which someone else possesses information you would like to know…. Read more »
There’s nothing like a debate to add a little spice to a council meeting. And one of the advantages of being a student observer is that I don’t have weigh in with my views (observers at regular AUSU council meetings have no standing and cannot speak to an issue even if they want to.) So,… Read more »
Athabasca University recently announced the launch of an updated and revised online Undergraduate Student Orientation Aimed primarily at new and prospective students, the Student Orientation Handbook contains a wealth of information for current students, too. The handbook’s structure is similar to an AU online study guide. The chapter titles and subsection headings run down the… Read more »
Part of the fun of distance education is those parcels that come in the mail. Finding a box or bulky envelope in my mailbox is like receiving a present. A special mail treat recently was the arrival of the AUSU 2015 Student Planner. My desk is tiny but I always have an AUSU planner nearby…. Read more »
In last week’s article, Keeping it Short, I shared my musings on the lost art of shorthand and my frustrations in trying to find learning materials. I managed to track down a couple of manuals through the public library’s Ontario-wide inter-library loan service. Although I could only borrow the manuals for a short period, I… Read more »
Whatever happened to the art of writing shorthand? Has it gone the way of the adding machine, hand-sewn clothes, and film cameras? When I attended high school a million years ago, shorthand was offered as a full-credit course. (I should also mention that there was a full-credit course in using adding machines?now known as desktop… Read more »
Meetings that achieve a certain flow can be deceivingly hypnotic, like a soothing zephyr. For me, Wednesday’s AUSU council meeting began on the right foot, because I was able to get an agenda for the meeting. Trying to follow a meeting over the phone without an agenda is challenging, especially when I want to write… Read more »