It’s clean…the move is over, and this is what it looks like now. I finally came to feel like I am leaving here…. Let’s do our best in the new stage! and sad at the same time.

After the move, I appreciated their job. So, we had lunch with the students and Ms. Akutagawa, a technical staff member, at Ito-li-Ito, Italian restaurant in Kyushu University, that serves locally produced vegetables, fish and meats.

I never thought this day would come. I never thought the day would come when I would leave Faculty of Arts and Science. I had thought somewhere in my mind that I would work hard here until the end. I have been a member of the institute since January 2013, belonging to three generations of Dean of Faculty of Arts and Science Dr. Maruno, Dr. Taniguchi, and now Dr. Harada. There are not many faculty members who have been affiliated with the institute for three generations now. However, this is also a good cycle of new air coming in and changes in the organization. After Professor Takuya Kimura moved to the Graduate School of Human Environment studies, I was the oldest permanent hire. I have been with Faculty of Arts and Science for 10 years and 3 months.

I recall many things. There were many mentally difficult jobs, but with the encouragement and support of many teachers such as Dr. Taniguchi, Dr. Nose, Dr. Furuya, and Dr. Harada, I managed to do them well. I believe that I was able to pass on what I have done to my successors. I am also very grateful for the sabbatical.

I was surprised when Dr. Hiroaki Ogata came from the University of Tokushima (now at Kyoto University). He knocked on my door with a smile. When I saw him, I was like, “Oh, you really came!”. Then he smiled and said, “Here I am!”. I had met him often at conferences and international meetings since I was a master’s student, and had many opportunities to talk with him, but I remember I could not believe that he was coming to Kyushu University and to Faculty of Arts and Science. I have very fond memories of our many research projects together, including the launch of Japan’s first Learning Analytics Center, the formulation and adoption of the Master Plan, and the IMS Global. My current position and research were greatly influenced by Dr. Ogata’s visit here. I am very grateful to him. I was able to create the image of “Yamada as Learning Analytics Researcher”. I still see him often and talk with him about his research on learning analytics and the challenges he faces.

It was also a good experience to work with the teachers in the class evaluation survey team on the prototype design of the class evaluation survey system, which was developed as a plug-in for Moodle so that the forms could be downloaded, compared, and items specific to each class could be selected, It has been a very fulfilling experience for me to select questions to be included in the survey. This system is now being deployed not only at Faculty of Arts and Science but also throughout the university.

I also held various classes. Active learning was a hot topic at the time, and Kyushu University, following the University of Tokyo, was one of the first national universities to take actions. There is a class called “Problem-Based Collaborative Learning,” in which three professors with different specialties work together to approach a single theme from various perspectives. I was involved in the trial class with Dr. Furuya and Dr.Kaburaki, who is currently the dean of School of Interdisciplinary Science and Innovation. It was a good opportunity for me to utilize my knowledge of educational technology. I learned many things, such as that it does not work as well as theory and that it must be changed depending on the situation. It was also a good experience for me to combine the jigsaw method with flipped classroom teaching, and to try various lesson designs utilizing ICT to improve the quality of core education. Although many of the classes were difficult to prepare for, I enjoyed them, and after using learning analytics, I think I was able to improve the classes successfully (this is just my personal feeling). It also led to a major research project. I could also feel the back-and-forth between theory and practice.

I really remember a lot of things. Thank you very much for your help.