Future of the OPME program/Everything you ever wanted to know about OPME

[fhg1893]

Thanks for the heads up.  Done.  Must be a summer thing for the RMC route; usually these are filled quickly but I am only 3/20.

Yeah, that's the way of most academic institutions.  Fall-Winter are the busy semesters.  Summer is always relatively quiet.  Not in OPME mind you, just everywhere else at RMC. 

 

[jwtg]

So what I gather is that OPMEs will no longer award credits to those who complete them.  What about if you're a student at RMC and you take the relevant academic course- will there be an option to PLAR or somehow have your course which is already for credit count as an OPME?

 

[fhg1893]

So what I gather is that OPMEs will no longer award credits to those who complete them.  What about if you're a student at RMC and you take the relevant academic course- will there be an option to PLAR or somehow have your course which is already for credit count as an OPME?

At the moment, this is so.  In the future, we don't know.  My educated guess is probably.  It largely depends on what CDA's QS and TP will eventually look like.  Assuming that the OPME program doesn't change much when it ceases being an academic program,  I would guess that some RMC courses will continue to be applicable to the future OPME's, and will be transferable.  RMC cadets as of something like two years ago have all of their OPME's PLAR'ed except DCE002, and I suspect that this will continue given how expensive these things can be.  Again, it does depend on how much CDA decides to change things. 

Also, like they did with OPDP, and OPDP-2, while I can't be sure, I think it's a safe bet that they'll put into place some kind of grand-fathering scheme, where if you have some OPME credits now, a portion of your future OPME program requirements will be waived.  Again, that depends on what the QS and TP look like, how closely the courses match up. 

 

[Spring_bok]

How do HIE 275 and POE 206 look this summer for NCMs that registered on Feb 1st?

 

[fhg1893]

How do HIE 275 and POE 206 look this summer for NCMs that registered on Feb 1st?

The officers currently waiting for those courses are undoubtedly going to be absolutely LIVID when I send their rejection notices.

^ This I'm afraid.  Where officers who registered during the registration period are in all likelihood going to get rejection notices, your chances as an NCM are approximately zero, even if you did register on 1 Feb. 

Sorry.  This is determined by the number of sections for any given course.  POE206 and HIE275 were a little lighter than usual this time around.  There's nothing I can do. 

There is still a chance, if the database admin made a mistake and hasn't created sections which should exist.  But as it stands now, based on the best information available, the answer is, zero NCMs will be course-loaded.

 

[fhg1893]

Please note:  When my system refuses to work properly for two days, your confirmations get delayed.  With every e-mail I have to answer, that's a few minutes that I'm NOT course-loading you, thus also not providing you a confirmation.  With ever phone-call I have to answer, that's always several minutes that I'm not course-loading you, thus also not providing you with a confirmation. 

Please note:  It always takes at least a week or more to send out e-mail confirmations and finalize class-lists.  This semester, for one person, I've managed to pare down the notices to be sent from Friday last at about 6,000 to just over 500 by close of business today, which factors in two days of no system functionality.

Finally, please note:  Once you get a DNDLearn login ID, KEEP IT!  That's not strong enough: When you get a DNDLearn login ID, KEEP IT!  KEEP IT!  KEEP IT!  Your DNDLearn login ID is supposed to follow you for your entire career!  WE DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT resend your DNDLearn login ID every time you register  You get ONE, and ONLY ONE DNDLearn provisioning e-mail.  It is imperative that you keep track of this login ID!  If you're reading this, and your buddy is complaining that he didn't get his DNDLearn login ID, and he's worried about his course starting May 7th, there are two possibilities:  one, his DNDLearn login ID will show up in his e-mail on May 6th, or twoHE ALREADY HAS ONE!!![/size][/size]  This applies to you also!

If you want your confirmations FASTER, I have a hint for you:  Tell your friends about this!  Nobody seems to understand that we send DNDLearn login information ONCE.  It would be a big help to us if you told EVERYONE in your unit, that you got it straight from the horse's mouth that DNDLearn information is sent ONCE.

Sorry about the allcaps, thanks for reading...

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Please note:  When my system refuses to work properly for two days, your confirmations get delayed.  With every e-mail I have to answer, that's a few minutes that I'm NOT course-loading you, thus also not providing you a confirmation.  With ever phone-call I have to answer, that's always several minutes that I'm not course-loading you, thus also not providing you with a confirmation. 

Please note:  It always takes at least a week or more to send out e-mail confirmations and finalize class-lists.  This semester, for one person, I've managed to pare down the notices to be sent from Friday last at about 6,000 to just over 500 by close of business today, which factors in two days of no system functionality.

Finally, please note:  Once you get a DNDLearn login ID, KEEP IT!  That's not strong enough: When you get a DNDLearn login ID, KEEP IT!  KEEP IT!  KEEP IT!  Your DNDLearn login ID is supposed to follow you for your entire career!  WE DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT resend your DNDLearn login ID every time you register  You get ONE, and ONLY ONE DNDLearn provisioning e-mail.  It is imperative that you keep track of this login ID!  If you're reading this, and your buddy is complaining that he didn't get his DNDLearn login ID, and he's worried about his course starting May 7th, there are two possibilities:  one, his DNDLearn login ID will show up in his e-mail on May 6th, or twoHE ALREADY HAS ONE!!![/size][/size]  This applies to you also!

If you want your confirmations FASTER, I have a hint for you:  Tell your friends about this!  Nobody seems to understand that we send DNDLearn login information ONCE.  It would be a big help to us if you told EVERYONE in your unit, that you got it straight from the horse's mouth that DNDLearn information is sent ONCE.

Sorry about the allcaps, thanks for reading...

Settle down and quit being a drama queen.

I also took out all your childish, billboard sized screaming.

Milnet.ca Staff

 

[armyvern]

....

Finally, please note:  Once you get a DNDLearn login ID, KEEP IT!  That's not strong enough: When you get a DNDLearn login ID, KEEP IT!  KEEP IT!  KEEP IT!  Your DNDLearn login ID is supposed to follow you for your entire career!  WE DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT resend your DNDLearn login ID every time you register  You get ONE, and ONLY ONE DNDLearn provisioning e-mail.  It is imperative that you keep track of this login ID!  If you're reading this, and your buddy is complaining that he didn't get his DNDLearn login ID, and he's worried about his course starting May 7th, there are two possibilities:  one, his DNDLearn login ID will show up in his e-mail on May 6th, or twoHE ALREADY HAS ONE!!![/size][/size]  This applies to you also!

....

Have to laugh; I think we've been communicating over the past 2 days. I'm actually certain of it.

Please forgive me --- it's been 3.5 years of ATL course followed by 6 months of WU Trg and then a 10 month deployment and 4 months off ...

I had other things on my mind to keep in there as a priority. ;D

 

[fhg1893]

Have to laugh; I think we've been communicating over the past 2 days. I'm actually certain of it.

Please forgive me --- it's been 3.5 years of ATL course followed by 6 months of WU Trg and then a 10 month deployment and 4 months off ...

I had other things on my mind to keep in there as a priority. ;D

I know how tough it is to be always on the go, and I try REALLY hard to cut the members some slack as much as I can.  That being said, in any given semester, there are ~6,000 of you, and 1 of me.  Probably closer to ~7,000 if we count Bloggins-come-lately.

As a former RCR Sgt. Major established for me about a year ago, it takes at least TWO Canadians to make a French company drop their guns and run.  Even if each and every single one of you WERE French, well, I still don't like those odds.  And last I checked, there was a big difference between francophone, and France....

 

[Journeyman]

As a former RCR Sgt. Major established for me about a year ago, it takes at least TWO Canadians to make a French company drop their guns and run.  Even if each and every single one of you WERE French, well, I still don't like those odds.  And last I checked, there was a big difference between francophone, and France....

  WTF?!  ???

 

[fhg1893]

  WTF?!  ???

Yeah, I had a pretty rough day yesterday, and definitely wasn't making uch sense by the end of the day.  Sorry about that.

My point is, there's one person trying to deal with 6000+ registrations.  It takes time to get it done right.  Nobody seems to appreciate just how much volume is involved - especially when people forget to include things like, sevice numbers, DNDlearn account information, correct e-mail addresses, and correct student numbers.

 

[aesop081]

My point is, there's one person trying to deal with 6000+ registrations.  It takes time to get it done right.  Nobody seems to appreciate just how much volume is involved

Yes, you are over-worked and under appreciated, we get it. We got that several posts ago.

You're not the only one.

I found your posts on the process of registration and updates on the situation very informative. maybe you can continue to provided that, as it was obviously very needed.

The editorializing on the other hand, not so much.

 

[Spring_bok]

Still no rejection notices.  Is there a faint hope or is the system overwhelmed by all the rejection notices pending?

 

[Fishbone Jones]

  WTF?!  ???

Talking incoherently, obviously stressing and losing his mind 8)

 

[Jarnhamar]

I just got this email today (actually 4 duplicates heh)  Does this mean I (and anyone else who got an email like this) have been accepted to the courses I've signed up for or is this just some kind of mass email sent out confirming peoples student numbers?  I ask because I've already had a user name from back in Jan when I applied (which is different than this one, started with a P)

Hello XX,

You have been enrolled in DNDLearn with the following username.

Username: DLXXXXXX

Retrieve Password?
http://www.dndlearn.forces.gc.ca/shared/dev/forgotpassword_bilingual.html

Go to www.dndlearn.forces.gc.ca/ to login

This email is automatically generated. Do Not Reply. Self-Registration courses are available from the "Self-Enrollment / S'inscrire" link on the first page you get to once logged in. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. cda.dndlearnteam@forces.gc.ca for assistance

Please visit www.support.dndlearn.forces.gc.ca/new-nou/index-eng.asp for information and tutorials on DNDLearn

 

[PuckChaser]

DNDLearn is different from the OPME portal. You get a DNDLearn account number if you've been registered for a course. FHG mentioned earlier that there is a finite number of DNDLearn accounts available, so they only create them if you've gotten a course.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Cool thanks man.

 

[fhg1893]

Still no rejection notices.  Is there a faint hope or is the system overwhelmed by all the rejection notices pending?

I don't know what's happening with notices anymore.  I sent a request up the chain to check this out, and I heard back that it was a problem with student e-mail.  ???

I'm not particularly convinced of that explanation because it comes from a certain SOMEBODY who may have created spots in courses this semester which don't actually exist.  See below for a few details on that.

MY part of the process is pretty much finished.  Confirmation/rejection e-mails are pushed out by someone else - not the same SOMEBODY that I mention above - they USED to be pushed out by a Microsoft Exchange server, and then, that broke, so now they're done manually in some fashion or another.  DNDLearn account creation is handled by the DNDLearn team.  I've got my lists pretty well finalized, minus about 100 registrations.  We ARE keeping some people on the list, without notification just in case we get some room - things always shuffle around a little bit just before courses start.  In fact, I had one person ask this morning to drop a course.  Whenever that happens, some lucky, deserving  soul gets put onto the course at the last possible second.

Just FYI, courses don't show up on DNDLearn until the DAY they start, and not ONE SECOND before.  You wouldn't believe how often I answer this question.  I think I'll start forwarding everybody who asks to student services after all, it was their idea...

And, in what is quickly becoming a Monday ritual, the OPME portal, CFMSS was not functional again today.  That's about a day of wasted time for me because I can't really confirm anything if people forgot what courses they requested.  This happens all the time, people will call and ask to be confirmed, and on a day like today, at least for about an hour this morning, I can pull the individual class list and search for that person.  If I find them, I can confirm they're on the course.  If I don't find them, they were probably turned down.  If they've forgotten which class they registered for, well...  Would you waste your time hunting through ~2000 registrations spread out over ~40-50 sections to find one person who didn't have the presence of mind to REMEMBER even the vaguest description of what course they requested?  No?  Didn't think so...

DNDLearn is different from the OPME portal. You get a DNDLearn account number if you've been registered for a course. FHG mentioned earlier that there is a finite number of DNDLearn accounts available, so they only create them if you've gotten a course.

Let me clarify this just a little.  There are a finite number of licenses, which correspond to active accounts.  We can have just about as many inactive accounts as we want.  Or to be precise, we can have up to 1000000 DLXXXXXX accounts in DNDLearn, but only a finite number of those can be active at any given time.  We don't even have to use that format, instructors, and admins such as myself are firstname.lastname format.  The DLXXXXXX format was created to prevent duplication, because multiple DNDLearn accounts are a pain for EVERYBODY.  Trust me on this, kay?

Once you have a DNDLearn account, it stays with you for your whole career.  You will continue to use it, and you will not be repeatedly notified concerning what it is, unless you ask, which is when I press the button a few times to make DNDLearn resend you your information.  They were SUPPOSED to set up a system whereby your account would be turned back on when you were course loaded, since they routinely deactivate active accounts which haven't been used for a while.  I'm willing to bet that for the same reason above, that won't happen, even though I specifically requested that after reactivating about 200-300 DNDLearn accounts in Winter 2012, and incidentally, I DIDN'T GET THEM ALL, and I won't again in Summer 2012.

It's actually quite vital that people with deactivated accounts reach me within a few days of the course beginning, but unfortunately, due to volume, they stand a very good chance of getting lost in the shuffle.  "Sorry you couldn't start your course for three weeks, but I had to deal with Capt Bloggins-Come-Lately who simply MUST have HIE275 THIS SEMESTER, or else he assures me that the world is going to explode!"  :rage:  It's fairly simple to get an account reactivated, but unfortunately people think that we resend their DNDLearn account information EVERY SEMESTER, and as I tried to explain earlier, with a bit more bile and vitriol than necessary, it just doesn't happen that way. 

It gets sent once automatically.  You're supposed to remember that you have one, but most people who take up my time don't manage to do that.

Anyway, if you have a DNDLearn account, hang onto it. 

CDA is naturally working on a brand-spanking new course-delivery system which will be automatically signed in, or so I'm told, with your DWAN account.  Given the way that the DWAN tends to work, or not work, as the case may be, and given that Borden recently lost a server, or so I'm told, pardon me, I'm not going to hold my breath on this one.  I've heard grandiose promises before.  Mostly about DNDLearn...

How about some updates while I'm at it...

We got an extra section of PSE402 out of nowhere, and NCM's who registered early REALLY lucked out this semester for that course.  One or two sections are like, two officers and the rest NCM, or something to that effect because of the phantom sections. 

I was wrong about POE206, some NCM's who requested it were registered for it.  Of course, that being said, SOMEBODY who may or may not have anything to do with some of the technical problems we've been having has been changing the numbers of permitted registrations in the OPME portal.  This is a signal to me that I can load against these spots, but I'm not sure they actually exist.  I can assure you that these phantom spots WEREN'T THERE three-four weeks ago.  Hopefully, those spots do in fact exist.  If they do not, I can predict a lot of angry NCM's in the future if SOMEBODY indicated to me through the system that there were places in a course which didn't really exist. 

Unfortunately, HIE275 was still the big loser.  No NCM's in HIE275 this semester.    HIE275 is spoiling to dethrone PSE402 as the course that people just can't get onto.

I've been told that we're supposed to be hiring a temp to fill in, but only until June.  ???  That's better than nothing I suppose...  Hopefully I can get caught up on phone calls with someone else to help in the office.

Finally, DCS is proposing to wind down the program starting in 12 months, by ceasing to offer two courses as OPME courses each year.  So, after 12 months, DCS is proposing that the slate of OPME's will be scaled back to 4 of 6, then 2 of 6 after another year.  I can't remember what order the courses are slated to be shut-down, but IIRC, one of the DCE's will no longer be offered after 12 months.  I'm guessing this is just being proposed and discussed at the moment, so it may not happen, but it's in the works.

 

[Spring_bok]

I just got this email today (actually 4 duplicates heh)  Does this mean I (and anyone else who got an email like this) have been accepted to the courses I've signed up for or is this just some kind of mass email sent out confirming peoples student numbers?  I ask because I've already had a user name from back in Jan when I applied (which is different than this one, started with a P)

A DLXXXXXX is a dndlearn account number, a PXXXXX is a student number.

 

[navymich]

My OPME denial email finally arrived at 1600 today.  Glad I had the heads-up on the course being full earlier because otherwise it would have been too late today to still register for other courses for this semester.  I don't think I've ever seen the messages this delayed.

I always find it ironic how the denial letters end "Good luck with your studies".  More like a good luck next time because you're not doing anything this semester.  :