A Day in the Life of a Launch Staffer

What’s it like to run a virtual school? We joined Launch Quality Assurance Specialist Dr. Meghan Roe for a day of editing in online education.

7:41 a.m.: Dr. Meghan Roe glances at a spreadsheet on her laptop before she makes an announcement. “Today I’m working on French,” she says, updating her fellow Launch team members at their daily morning huddle. As Launch’s quality assurance specialist, Dr. Roe’s main responsibility is looking at Launch’s online courses during the development process to both review the content for errors and make suggestions for improvement.
7:55 a.m.: After returning to her desk, Dr. Roe starts her thorough review of French. “I put my student hat on for this process,” she says, opening documents up on her computer. “We want our courses to be easy to navigate and easy to understand for our learners.” In addition to reviewing the nitty gritty details, Dr. Roe also gives a big-picture review in which she checks for a consistent instructional voice and a logical flow. “We are purposeful in the way our assignments are presented,” Dr. Roe says.
10:20 a.m.: Once she is five pages deep into French review notes, Dr. Roe takes a break to answer a phone call. “Yes, we just revised that,” Dr. Roe says. Another part of Dr. Roe’s job is suggesting curriculum adjustments in live courses, and she had just worked with Launch’s Algebra I instructor to remove a few questions from a final exam.
12:03 p.m.: “Sure, I’ll take a walk!” Dr. Roe takes a break from her desk and joins co-workers for sunshine and steps outside of the office. “I try to take a walk at least once a day,” Dr. Roe says. “It helps me think–it’s something I started when I was writing my dissertation.” Dr. Roe completed her undergraduate degree at Missouri State University and earned her master’s degree and a PhD in rhetoric and composition at Texas Christian University.
1:30 p.m.: “Ding!” A microwave in the Launch cafe beeps, and Dr. Roe opens it up and pulls out a steaming Tupperware container of spaghetti. “Leftovers are my favorite thing in the world,” Dr. Roe says.
2:28 p.m.: Dr. Roe clicks through a few of the dozen open tabs on her laptop to open her email. “This is an email about our Personal Finance course,” Dr. Roe says. “We are re-writing the course so it is up to date with the current version of Missouri Learning Standards.”
4 p.m.: “Okay guys, I’m leaving,” Dr. Roe says. She’s off to pick up her daughter, 18-month-old Riley, and then head home to her husband, Brian, and 6-year-old son, Bennett. “I’ll see you all tomorrow!”