Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Grab bag of information


Hi All-

...And I'm not sure the verdict on this semester is in yet.

I have a grab-bag of information for you today.


First a great suggestion from Stan Kuchel, CIS faculty, on student retention:
I have found the "Chat while online" in my classes a good help to get students going. I can answer their question right then and if they have more questions they can reply. I have used this several times already and have found it to be a good encouraging help to confused students. They seem to appreciate the real time help, as well.
Next a few Vista notes from David Chatham:
1. WHO'S ONLINE -- In discussions with BB Support, they believe the issue of it not always working has to do with the limit on users set at 1,000. That works out to less then 100 users per college. That seems like a possible reason, but to determine whether or not the limit is the issue, I proposed a test. I asked all of the college's to review their use of this tool. If you are not using the tool, would you turn it off at the highest level and lock it down? We turned ours' off this morning after the Academic chairs confirmed that it was not being used for instruction. If you do have a few courses or a department using the tool, you could turn it off at a high level, not lock it, and then turn it on at the Group, Course or Section level to accommodate that course. If you would let me know what your college is going to do on this, I could map out our next step. From prior discussions and talks with FRCC about this, they seem to be the likely larger user. Still, if FRCC or other college users could identify and isolate the use to where it can be adequately estimated how much use is occuring, it would help to troubleshoot the issue.

As mentioned in our Friday meeting, we can change the settings for the simultaneous users upward from 1,000 but there would also be a corresponding hit on performance. How much, we don't know. We'd like to see if the limit is the issue or something else. Please let me know what your college wants to do, and if the tool will be open for some sections, what the estimated maximum use would be. Rather, if the tool is open for two sections with enrollments of 50 students, the that'd be the maximum use.

2. MAIL FORWARDING TOOL -- I have confirmed that the Mail Forwarding tool is not working in Vista. It is not going to be fixed until there is a new release or patch, thus we won't see this restored for Spring, as there is no plan to patch at this time. I turned CCCOnline's off at the Institution level. My concern is that students or faculty could think it is working because you can set it up, and then the situation becomes one of potentially a miscommunication between faculty and students over mail not received through the forwarding tool, which sometimes works but not consistently or in all courses.

3. ANNOUCEMENT -- It has been suggested that I put up a notice on the Domain about the weekly reboots of our system on Friday night / Saturday morning. Someone apparently was taking a test at that time. I will put this up for two weeks, unless there is another suggestion about it.
And from John Schmahl, Student Services:
A large percentage of students who are dropping our session 1 courses appear to be enrolling either in session 2 or in a f2f course at their home college. Session 2 enrollment at CCCOnline is significantly up right now when compared to this day last year.
(That is especially nice as we are down in session 1.)

Last, a question from me: I receive posts with job opportunities from several organizations I belong to. I don't really want to email those out to everyone, but would it be helpful if I posted them on the faculty wiki?

Thanks,
Lisa

Monday, January 29, 2007

What We Can Do to Support Retention

Active Retention Practices in the First Two Weeks of the Course

We are now one week into Spring I, and many students have started the class, while some may be slow to enter and get going. Your part in reaching out and getting learners started successfully is an influential one.

We know that learners have been motivated by instructors who where enthusiastic about the learning experience, empathetic to the multiple roles adults juggle, and had the ability to clearly communicate content and process (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1998).

Both literature and experienced faculty have shared strategies that express good will and realistic strategies for the learning success in a course:

-Consider phone calls to get people into the course.
-Let them know that their presences matters—you’re happy they are here and look forward to their participation because student success matters.
-Be clear and welcoming about ways to ask questions (i.e., anonymous discussions, how to set a call w/ you).
-Provide a guide for managing the course-load (Read first, work in discussions, do the written assignments over the weekend; create a schedule for expected hours per week).
-Give low-stake tasks so they can try out the tools they’ll have to use (like submitting files).
-Provide early feedback on assignments w/ specific remarks on how to improve if that is needed.
-Use email coaching for the first few weeks to tell the learner what he or she needs to do to get the points or correctly document sources.
-Let learners know what tutoring through Smarthinking is available for writing, math, or other content challenges. Tutoring assistance can be especially important in courses perceived as difficult.

The importance of such efforts is what attrition or failure means for both students and our institutions. Attrition or failure means that the student has spent COF dollars, his or her own dollars or financial aid, and but will NOT move forward with his or her educational goal(s). Granted, student efforts are also part of the equation, but helping students stay and succeed has implications for their return.

We appreciate all you do and find out that as we learn from each other, we add to the practices that can make a difference. Thanks for sharing your comments or questions related to this important subject.

All Best,

Alice



Friday, January 26, 2007

Drop Date Reminder

The following note was sent to all Session 1 students.

Thanks!
John

This note is a reminder that you have until Tuesday, February 6, 2007, to drop your CCCOnline delivered Spring session 1 course(s) with a refund.

If you do not plan to drop your course(s) or have already dropped your course(s) please disregard this reminder.

Session 1 courses are those courses with a section ID starting (example ENG 121C11)
Please note that due to the large size of CCCOnline courses, we split courses into multiple sections (C12, C13, etc.), therefore, your online section may not be C11, however, if you want to drop the course, you will need to drop the C11 section at your college.

**Contacting your instructor(s) will NOT result in your being dropped or withdrawn from your course(s)**

To DROP your course(s):

- go to http://ccconline.org/start/college_table.htm or your home college web site
- click on the Self-Service Banner link for your home college
- select Login and enter your Student ID and 6-digit student PIN
- click Enter
- select the Student Menu and then the Registration Menu
- select Add or Drop Courses and follow the steps to get to your Current Schedule of
courses
- on your Current Schedule, use the Drop Down box under Action and select Drop
Web
- Click Submit Changes at the bottom of the page
- check your Current Schedule to make sure the course(s) has been dropped

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us or your home college.

Thank you for your time and we hope you continue to have a great and successful semester!
CCCOnlineStudent Services1.800.801.5040
http://ccconline.org/support/

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Student Services Update


Hi Everyone-

Following is an update from John Schmahl of Student Services:

This is a just a quick update on how the first couple of days of the term is going from the Support Center’s standpoint. Overall, things are much, much quieter than they were for fall.

In the first 24 hours we received approximately 300 phone calls and e-mails from students (this includes possible duplicates). This is out of nearly 8,000 enrollments. During a “good” term, we are contacted by about 8% of our total enrollments via calls and e-mails. For this past Fall, we received over 300 calls alone in the first 2 hours. So, this is a definite improvement.

All calls and e-mails go through our Support Center. Debra Michel has been working very hard to get through these with the wonderful support and assistance of Roxanne, Frank, Rick, Jonathan and last, but certainly not least, David. Please give a big thanks to all of these folks for all of their efforts!!

If any of your students encounter problems, please have them contact the Support center (http://ccconline.org/support/). This is critical as it allows us to track the issues and ensure they are resolved quickly. It also allows us to catch common issues that may be impacting multiple students or courses.

The major issues we have seen so far include:

Not knowing ID/PIN – this is the most common issue; however, we have received far fewer of these calls this term, possibly due to our using a common ID/PIN across systems (Banner & Blackboard)

Missing courses – this appears to be caused by problems in uploads from Banner; however, there are far fewer of these as well this term and it is being handled. Also some of these students are taking courses through the colleges, not CCCOnline, or they are in Session 2 courses

Duplicate courses – this was caused by a combination of errors on our part and problems with the Banner uploads. All affected students (a total of about 700) have been e-mailed with the correct section to login to and Frank is working on a fix we hope to have in place within the next day

As you can see, we still have some issues, but in comparison to Fall, this has been much improved term start. Thank you once again for all of your hard work and great effort. I’m sure we have many challenges ahead, but you can’t beat the team we have at CCCOnline!

John H Schmahl
Director, Student Services
CCCOnline
Please pay special attention to the comment re duplicate sections. We have 780 enrollments (so fewer students) who may have two sections listed on their MyCCCOnline hme page. John is emailing these students with the correct section for them to participate in and Frank is working to delete them from the inaccurate section. We expect this to be corrected by early tomorrow.

I will also post regarding retention techniques later this week, but remember that if we can hold on to 88% of those students currently enrolled we will reach census day with a few more students than we had last year. Those initial welcome emails and discussion posts you send out every term really help with retention; we appreciate the time you spend on those!

Overall, we are having a much better start to the term than the fall!

Thanks!

Lisa

CCCOnline Support Center Update

This is a just a quick update on how the first couple of days of the term is going from the Support Center’s standpoint. Overall, things are much, much quieter than they were for fall.

In the first 24 hours we received approximately 300 phone calls and e-mails from students (this includes possible duplicates). This is out of nearly 8,000 enrollments. During a “good” term, we are contacted by about 8% of our total enrollments via calls and e-mails. For this past Fall, we received over 300 calls alone in the first 2 hours. So, this is a definite improvement.

All calls and e-mails go through our Support Center. Debra Michel has been working very hard to get through these with the wonderful support and assistance of Roxanne, Frank, Rick, Jonathan and last, but certainly not least, David. Please give a big thanks to all of these folks for all of their efforts!!

If any of your students encounter problems, please have them contact the Support center (http://ccconline.org/support/). This is critical as it allows us to track the issues and ensure they are resolved quickly. It also allows us to catch common issues that may be impacting multiple students or courses.

The major issues we have seen so far include:

Not knowing ID/PIN – this is the most common issue; however, we have received far fewer of these calls this term, possibly due to our using a common ID/PIN across systems (Banner & Blackboard)

Missing courses – this appears to be caused by problems in uploads from Banner; however, there are far fewer of these as well this term and it is being handled. Also some of these students are taking courses through the colleges, not CCCOnline, or they are in Session 2 courses

Duplicate courses – this was caused by a combination of errors on our part and problems with the Banner uploads. All affected students (a total of about 700) have been e-mailed with the correct section to login to and Frank is working on a fix we hope to have in place within the next day

As you can see, we still have some issues, but in comparison to Fall, this has been much improved term start. Thank you once again for all of your hard work and great effort. I’m sure we have many challenges ahead, but you can’t beat the team we have at CCCOnline!

John H Schmahl
Director, Student Services
CCCOnline

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

January Faculty Feature: Joe Hutchison





Joe Hutchison: Poet, Writer, Editor, Writing and Literature Faculty

(Alice’s Note: Thank you, Joe, for providing the content for this feature and making it such a personable one. I did take the liberty of creating subheads.)

Personal Bio
I was born in Denver, on the westernmost edge of the Great Plains, on June 26, 1950. My father worked in the electric meter department of the local power utility, after serving in the Pacific as a Navy man. My mother was a homemaker, although she¹d been a "Rosie the Riveter" during the war and went back to work when my younger brother was in elementary school.

Neither of my parents read books for pleasure, but we had a lot of books in the house, on the theory that such things were good for kids. They were certainly good for me. I read whatever happened to come down from the shelf early on, but what I remember reading most breathlessly was Poe, and to this day my work displays many Poe-ish qualities.

I wrote throughout high school and my college years at the University of Northern Colorado, from which I graduated in 1972 Summa Cum Laude with a degree in English and Secondary Education. I received an MFA degree from the writing program at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, in 1974 and received my first real recognition as a poet that year, when I won a Macmillan Company of Canada Award for Poetry.I emerged from graduate school in the middle of a teacher glut. So, after a few years as a substitute teacher, I worked in the book business, taught in various Poets in the Schools programs and for various colleges and universities as an adjunct professor. All the while I've continued to write and publish poems, short stories, book reviews, and articles on the arts. In 1980, I stumbled into a job as a bank marketing writer, and I've made my living as a marketing writer and editor ever since.

What Joe Teaches: He’s Scheduled to Teach LIT 201 for Spring II
I also teach graduate level writing and literature courses both F2F and online for the University of Denver's University College, as well as undergraduate courses for CCCOnline, including English Composition, Creative Writing, and Masterpieces of Literature I (which I'm scheduled to teach in the current Spring II Session).

Joe as Published Poet
Along the way I've published four full-length books of poems and six chapbooks, including the 1982 Colorado Governor¹s Award volume, Shadow-Light. I also co-edited, with Gary Schroeder, the anthology A Song for Occupations: Poems About the American Way of Work. My third book, Bed of Coals, was the 1994 Colorado Poetry Award winner, and both it and my fourth full-length collection, The Rain At Midnight, were finalists for the Colorado Book Award. To date my work has appeared in over 100 journals and in several anthologies. A new collection entitled Thread of the Real is, as they say, "looking for a publisher."

Link to Joe’s Poetry Blog (Thanks for sharing the site, Joe, it’s terrific.)
I’ve also recently launched a poetry blog called The Perpetual Bird at jhwriter.blogspot.com. Everyone is welcome to visit and post comments there!

And last, Joe remarks that the CCCOnline Faculty Wiki is a great addition: http://www.facultywiki.ccconline.org/~www66/index.php?title=Main_Page

Monday, January 22, 2007

Spring Semester Begins!

Hi Everyone!

Spring 1 is off to a great start! The student services team has received very few calls and emails this afternoon (less than 75).
Enrollment is down today when compared to this date last year:

Executive Summary
200730 - Spring 2007
1/22/2007 First Day Session 1
Comparison Ses 1 Ses 2 Total
Total enrollments this date last year 9,003 2,050 11,053
Total enrollments this date this year 8,309 2,020 10,329
Percent difference -7.71% -1.46% -6.55%

Total credit hours this date last year
30,243 6,403 36,646
Total credit hours this date this year 28,125 6,260 34,385
Percent difference -7.00% -2.23% -6.17%

That isn't a huge decline and if you can hold drops to 12% we will be up just a little at census day. We also are continuing to enroll for spring 2 and expect to make up some ground there.


***********************
We seem to have an odd problem in some of the announcements in Vista -- instead of a pretty announcement some of you are seeing html coding pop-up for students. We haven't figured out what is causing that yet, more news when we do. For now, if you want to correct it you have to delete that announcement at re-do it.

***********************

Have a great semester!

Lisa

What time is noon anyway?


Hey Everyone-

We had a little confusion about whether noon is 12:00 am or 12:00 pm over the weekend. (You military folks are absolutely right - using a 24 hour clock would avoid this.) David says he is pretty sure the AT guys all know which is which, but .......

The result is that students in Vista have been able to access their courses since midnight. The students in CE are locked out until noon. So, some of your students may be in class already.

Sorry for the confusion!
Lisa

Friday, January 19, 2007

Class Rosters/1st Day Check


Hi Everyone-

As you may know you can't see your student's external email addresses in Vista and it can be challenging to see who is and is not enrolled in the course. To solve those issues Frank Vazquez has developed an external website for you to use to collect that information. The URL is https://www.cccodevelopment.cccs.edu/roster/.

You should be able to login there using your S# and standard password beginning at 4:00 this afternoon. (Before that we won't have students or faculty loaded). The roster view is very similar to the Banner roster view you see if you happen to be teaching for one of the colleges also.

There is also a button to allow you to easily download all student email addresses.

If you have any problems using this tool please email Rick Hadley at Rick.Hadley@cccs.edu.

*******

I've gotten a few questions about the first day check for schedule dates and syllabus updates (instructor contact information). We do understand that some of you received your classes fairly late. Please don't worry that we will penalize you for being a little behind on schedule dates when we got you the course shell late. While we do still expect you to have updated everything before classes begin Monday, that is all we expect. :^)

******

Classes begin Monday at noon. John Schmahl just sent login directions out to students, so they should be ready to go. Good luck with the new semester!

Thanks!

Lisa

5 Things -- Contest

For all of you who have been avidly waiting for the latest 5 Things posts I have a contest. The first two faculty who correctly match the picture of the pet to the CCCOnline staff person will receive a limited edition CCCOnline baseball cap!

These are the ultra-cool caps that you may have admired in this year's staff Christmas picture. You won't find them at your local Wal-mart; they are available only through Rhonda and me.

So here are the pictures:












And here are your choices: John, Roxanne, Deb, and Randy. (One pet-free person).

First 2 faculty to email me with correct matches win! Remember you can go to the actual blog to review the posts if you need to.

Good-luck!

Lisa

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Let us know if you want to propose to Telecoop

Hi All,

Telecoop proposals are due Monday, Jan. 22nd. Last year CCCOnline funded a few faculty whose proposals were accepted for Telecoop sessions.

If you are sending a proposal and would like to be considered for conference funding, please email alice.bedard-voorhees@cccs.edu, with a copy of your proposal when you submit it.

The form is short, so don't let the thought of all "another thing to do" discourage you!
http://www.telecoop.org/conference/presentsubmit.htm

Best,

Alice

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

5 Things - Deb


So did you think I forgot Deb? It's just that it has been an .... interesting.... few days. Apparently Vista and Banner are holding a contest for causing the most challenges for the Academic Technology crew (who wants to delete old users?), student services (did we tell you Banner decided not to let Roxanne create sections for awhile?), the design team (why bother to copy courses anyway? And who needs a build tab?) and pretty much everyone else......

I think everything is finally under control again for the new term (other than Louis and Aaron rebuilding MAT 121 for the 4th or 5th time). We are going to start on time with all classes ready to go and all students ready to learn with textbook in hand. :^)

So Deb ---

Deb Michel is the student support desk. She just spent the past few weeks working very closely with Jonathan Fuller (webmaster) developing a new student services website in wiki format (http://www.studentwiki.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Main_Page). She spends most of her time working with students, researching their problems, walking them through our processes and the technical challenges we offer them. It's a very tough job, particularly the first week of each term!

Here's Deb:

1. I was born in Inglewood, CA, transplanted to Kalispell, Montana at age 14 and escaped from there at age 21.

2. I graduated at the top of my class from Trend Business College (WA) - emphasis on Business.

3. I have two grown daughters and six grandchildren (yes, I’m a very young grandma).

4. I currently have no pets other than my husband’s cockatiel (the bird and I are NOT friends - some sort of weird jealousy issues on the bird’s part).

5. My paternal grandfather was from Greece and my paternal grandmother was from Russia. My maternal grandmother was a 6th cousin to Sir Anthony Eden (at one time Prime Minister of England) and the Duke of Orange was an ancestor (we don’t talk about him though) and my maternal grandfather’s family was German and Scottish. Guess that makes me a “Heinz 57.”

And that's it for the student support team!

Best,
Lisa

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Getting Ready for Spring I 07S

Greetings, Everyone!

Are you getting ready for the new term? Hope this information can serve you in planning your class or for inclusion in your course or syllabus.

· Getting Started Links for both CE and Vista Faculty: http://www.ccconline.org/FacultySC/TeachingResources/Beginning.htm

· Wondering how to change dates in your Vista courses? (Thank you, Phyllis!) Directions for the Date Rollover can be found at this wiki link: URL=http://www.facultywiki.ccconline.org/~www66/index.php?title=Data_Rollover.

Phyllis says, “It's a cool tool because you can have Vista change the dates in the Assignments and Assessments tool automatically or from the instructor can manually change the dates.”

· QA syllabus review begins Thursday. If you get a last minute section, ask your Chair to communicate the Course and Section to Linda Shaw. Remember to include a phone number in the syllabus and instructions for leaving messages. Ask you Chair about the phone number if you have questions.

Services and Resources for Students


· Google Docs and Spreadsheets can be created at this site at no cost and saved to the desktop and then submitted. Google Docs and Spreadsheets (I prepared this post on Google Docs.)—The user does have to set up a Google account to use it: https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=writely&passive=true&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2F<mpl=WR_tmp_2_lfty&amp;amp;nui=1&utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-google&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=google%20docs

· Smarthinking Tutoring Services: Writing (a person can request a tutor with ESL experience also, Math, the Sciences, Economics: http://www.ccconline.org/students/resources_tutoring.htm

· CCCOnline Library Services: CCCOnine library services include access to online article databases. Students need to sign up to get a logon to use the database: http://www.ccconline.org/students/library/ http://www.ccconline.org/students/library/articledatabases.htm

· Student Support Desk: This is the student helpdesk and information center. Students with non-course questions should communicate directly w/ the help desk—it helps solve the problem most quickly: http://www.ccconline.org/support/

· Student Blog: Student Services provide tips and timely info for learners. Their tips often support good learning practices, which can help you. You could benefit from referring learners to it! Students should be able to see it on their logon page, and you can view it from the faculty blog: http://ccconlinestudentnews.blogspot.com/

· Elluminate (real time) Basic-Citation Ethics Workshops: CCCOnline will be offering “Avoiding Plagiarism Potholes,” Feb. 14th, and March 15th. It is a basic-level, 45 minute workshop and covers what it is, the resulting damage, how to avoid it through in-text and biographical citations, and a few resources. Each session will be open on a first-come, first-serve basis to 50 participants. Watch for more information on these two student workshops.

Faculty Resources and Services

· Google Docs and Spreadsheets can be created at this site at no cost and saved to the desktop and then submitted. Google Docs and Spreadsheets (I prepared this post on Google Docs)—The user does have to set up a Google account to use it: https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=writely&passive=true&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2F<mpl=WR_tmp_2_lfty&amp;amp;nui=1&utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-google&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=google%20docs

· Profhelp for Faculty: ProfHelp@cccs.edu is the email address for Dinah Kennedy and there was a recent faculty blog posting about Dinah and Prof Help services: http://ccconlinefacultynews.blogspot.com/2007/01/welcome-back-to-profhelp.html

· CCCOnline Faculty Wiki (VISTA help docs are great.): http://www.facultywiki.ccconline.org

· Online Library Services: For now, faculty use the student link and enter S ID and birthdate also: http://www.ccconline.org/students/library/ http://www.ccconline.org/students/library/articledatabases.htm

· Faculty Development: Workshops schedules and descriptions can be found in the faculty wiki: http://www.facultywiki.ccconline.org/~www66/index.php?title=Portal:Training
Here we go, everyone! Best wishes to each of you for a great term.
Cheers,
Alice

Monday, January 15, 2007

MLK Holiday: Video of "I Have a Dream" Speech

I continue to appreciate just what is available to us through technology:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

Best,

Alice

Monday, January 08, 2007

Welcome Back to Profhelp!

To the left you see Dinah Kennedy, otherwise known as "ProfHelp" and her husband Jim. From Dinah:

ProfHelp for Faculty Teaching in VISTA:

The good news is that this spring semester many of you are now teaching in VISTA for the second time and you can once again go to ProfHelp for assistance. (And of course, the few faculty who are still teaching CE classes can still go to ProfHelp too.)

Remember also that many problems can be solved by referring to the "WebCT Vista FAQ's" page of the Faculty Wiki (www.facultywiki.ccconline.org). If you've looked on the Wiki but haven't been able to find the info you need, ProfHelp will guide you to the links there which hold your answers; or ProfHelp will provide infomation and instructions if the Wiki doesn't hold your answers.

For example, if you want to edit/change some quiz questions then ProfHelp will help you find how-to's on the Wiki for changing quiz questions and walk you through the process of changing the questions. In this example, you would go to the "WebCT Vista FAQ's" page (http://www.facultywiki.ccconline.org/~www66/index.php?title=Vista_faq#Assessments_Tool
), click the link to "Assessments Tool", and then click "Changing A Quiz Question In A Database".

Here's how ProfHelp will assist when the help you need is not available on the Wiki:
  1. ProfHelp will iprovide individual instruction on how to solve your problem - particularly those problems which fall under content covered in the VISTA professional training classes faculty have taken. For example: If you want to delete some questions from quizzes, ProfHelp will provide instructions on how to do that - since these instructions are not currently on the Wiki nor in the training classes.
    1. In rare cases, you may need help with minor course design issues such as a table in the Syllabus which contains outdated code that can't be edited or updated in the normal manner. In these cases, ProfHelp will fix the issue for you since you probably won't need to know how to do that a second time.
    2. If you are having major course design issues beyond the scope of ProfHelp assistance, we will refer you to the Design Team for assistance.
  2. ProfHelp will sometimes refer you to another resource person if we cannot assist with your issue. For example: If you are having a technical problem that is an true bug in the system (meaning something more than human error) then ProfHelp will refer you to the Academic Tech (AT) Department for assistance.
  3. If one of your students is having a technical problem outside the realm of what you can address in the course, then ProfHelp will typically advise you to refer them to Deb Michel (Student Support Desk) or Roxanne Manske (Registrar's Office), whichever is appropriate.
Remember, ProfHelp is on the job Monday through Friday. (Also on the first weekend before a semester starts). We respond to requests in 24 hours or less on those days (usually less than 24 hours). So if you send a request for assistance but don't hear back quickly, please resend it, since occasionally requests fail to arrive in our inbox. Enjoy your semester, and contact us at ProfHelp@cccs.edu if you need us.

Dinah Kennedy / ProfHelp


Do You Have a Rubric to Share?

So many of the CCCOnline Faculty have great instructional practices, including the use of rubrics. To that end, this post is a request on behalf of Beck Mangin and Beth Kitts who are devleoping a rubric workshop for CCCOnline faculty development:

“Becky Mangin and Beth Kitts are writing a workshop on the use of scoring and feedback rubrics. If you have an exemplary rubric that you would like to share with other faculty, please send it to Becky Mangin at becmangin@msn.com ASAP as well as a statement for permission of use. Please include one- two paragraphs about why and how you use the rubric. Thank you, Becky Mangin”

Best,

Alice
"Share what you know, it's like throwing stars into the night sky."--Mitch Albom

Smarthinking Seminar

CCCOnline currently offers the Smarthinking tutorial service to registered students at no additional charge. Here's an opportunity for you to learn what Smarthinking offers students. (Note: Contact Phyllis Dobson at dob101@aol.com, not me, for details on how to attend the seminar.)





  • Want to provide your students with an online tutoring service in Math, Accounting, Writing, and Science?
  • Want to help your students produce better writing assignments?
SMARTHINKING provides online tutoring in Mathematics (Basic Skills - Calculus II), Writing, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Introduction to Human Anatomy and Physiology, Accounting, Economics, Introductory Finance, Spanish and Statistics. Online Math tutors are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the school year.

You are invited to attend an online presentation from SmarThinking this Thursday, Jan 11th at 2:00 Mountain time.

Contact Phyllis Dobson at dob101@aol.com for details on attending this informative session!

Note from the Design Team

Hi Everyone-

I have a couple of design team notes for you today. Some of you may have noticed that the type of the home page of your Vista courses is very very small. You can leave that alone. Here's what Cheryl Comstock has to say:

We've reported that issue to BB via the Academic Technology Team. They are working on a fix right now. If BB is unable to correct the issue in a timely manner the Design Team can change the basic style sheet to correct it at least temporarily. We'd prefer to correct it through the style sheet so that we can more easily change again to adapt to any fix BB eventually makes.
So please ignore the tiny type. It will magically fix itself before the term begins.

I also have the design team's instructional design note for faculty teaching in Vista. Remember that you are generally welcome to make appropriate changes to course content and assessments as long as the class continues to meet the official outcomes. If you are interested in major changes to your course please talk with your program chair. We do sometimes cover some expenses.

From the Design Team:

The CCCOnline Design Team has worked with the Community Colleges-wide committee on the design and layout of courses offered online in planning the Vista course offerings. The format adopted is reflected in the way this course has been laid out for use by students. It provides a consistent approach for all courses to minimize student confusion about course content access.

We ask that you please observe the following guidelines:
  • Please do not remove the Welcome Message posted on the Homepage. Announcements posted on the Course Homepage create large opening pages with long loadup times for students. Also, we are striving to maintain a similar "opening page" experience across the CCCOnline system to provide a level of comfort in consistency for our students. Instead, use the Announcements Tool to Post course announcements.
  • Vista's Announcements Tool allows you to post your Announcement as a"pop-up" in the student view when the student logs in the next time.
  • Please be judicious about the use of colors and animated graphics in the course--ADA requirements specify what colors can be used by persons with disabilities. Those selected by the Course Design Team meet those requirements.
  • Last, please do not UNSUBSCRIBE the BasicStyles.css and the syllabus-coursepolicies.htm files. CCCOnline may need to adjust these from time to time with official changes. If these files are not subscribed, the changes will not be added to this course.
If you have any concerns about any of the above items, please direct inquiry about them to Cheryl Comstock, cheryl.comstock@cccs.edu or your course designer.

(Photo credit, Aaron Leonard)

Five Things - Roxanne

Today I get to introduce Roxanne Manske to you! Roxanne is our registrar and manager of all things student. She keeps the incomplete forms, watches adds and drops, builds sections in Banner (much more difficult and time-consuming than it sounds) and manages much of the communication between CCCOnline and the colleges.

She also spends a lot (and I do mean a lot) of time talking and emailing with students.








Here are Roxanne's 5 things:

  1. I was born and raised in Mankato, MN.
  2. After completing business school, I took a job with Prudential Insurance, in Mankato. Four years later I transferred to Prudential's Colorado Springs office, then to their Denver office when I accepted the position of Office Manager. Our office of 60 employees had the distinction of being #1 in the nation in sales three times. I thoroughly enjoyed my 28 years at "the Rock". My three brothers and their families still live in the Mankato area, with the exception of one nephew who discovered the secret of life in CO and lives in Arvada.
  3. I have two cats, Callie (a tabby) and Shatze (a calico - "Shatze" is German for sweetheart).
  4. I'm a scrapbook consultant; I held "crops" (gatherings to work on albums) at my home for two years; however, after creating Bob Norden's retirement album, discovered I am most passionate about creating albums for people who have neither the time nor the desire to do the work on their own albums. Are you someone who has a shoebox or two of pictures they'd like made into a beautiful album? :)
  5. Like Charlie Brown's little friend Frieda, I have "naturally curly hair", which makes life easier every morning.
And here are Roxanne's cats, one working hard (or just ensuring Rox takes the occasional break...)



Thanks Roxanne!


Lisa

Five Things - Randy


Hi Everyone-

I had planned to move on to Roxanne today, but I am ready with Randy instead. Randy is CCCOnline's Faculty Coordinator which means he is the one that makes sure you get paid. That has been particularly challenging lately as we gradually move systems from the old HR and finance systems to the new Banner modules. Randy also looks after a lot of the office functions, from keeping track of the Christmas tree to making bringing in gourmet food for some of our meetings. And on the side Randy teaches music classes for us. Randy has been with CCCOnline from day 1; he came over from CCD.


Here are Randy's 5 things:

  1. Still waters run deep – I’m a very complex person. However, my bark is worse than my bite!
  2. “Ich bin ein Musicker” (Gustav Mahler). Although my graduate degree is in Public Administration, music is my first love. I have been on the music staff of First Mennonite Church in Denver for about ten years and regularly perform in other venues as well. I’ve also been a Music Director for a summer stock Vaudeville Dinner Theatre and founded a couple of Broadway Revue groups.
  3. One goal in life is to build a “green” adobe house (anywhere far, far away from the city) when I retire. I would like to be able to provide scholarships to a couple of students from Mexico for the Red Rocks Online Construction program in exchange for help in building my house. Of course once that is complete I would like to tour National Parks/Senior Resorts as part of a two-piano duo.
  4. Woodworking is something that I enjoy even though it’s not a very salubrious pastime for a pianist. I do have two former piano teachers that run all over heaven summoning my guardian angels whenever I get near a table saw or other power tools.
  5. In my life before state government I spent a great deal of time in the restaurant industry. I cooked my way through my undergraduate and first graduate programs. For fifteen years I worked for one of the top caterers in the U.S. - some of the people I worked for were Presidents Reagan and Clinton, Governor Romer, Mayors Pena and Webb, Supreme Court Justices White and O’Conner, Representative Schroeder, Senator Campbell, many well-known personalities as well as most major corporate heads in the Denver area. $100,000+ weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs were the norm.
And of course almost everyone at CCCOnline has a pet or two, here are Randy's dogs:


Friday, January 05, 2007

Five Things

Hi All-

I've watched quite a few bloggers play "Five Things" with each other and their readers. It's been interesting learning things I didn't know about bloggers I read regularly, so I thought you might enjoy reading five things about some of the CCCOnline personnel you interact with now and then. Let's start with the student services staff:

John Schmahl is our Director of Student Services. He oversees the student services department, is our data guru, our Banner expert, and has been with CCCOnline almost since day one.


Here are five things he thought you might like to know:

1. Born in Toul, France in 1965, but raised in Colorado Springs.
2. Undergrad work at Ripon College, Ripon, WI (politics and government), grad work at at George Washington University (MA in Educational and Human Development with an emphasis in Educational Technology Leadership - try fitting that onto a business card.)
3. Spent 8 years with the Army and Army Reserve, inclouding time during operations Just Cause (Panama invasion) and Desert Storm.
4. Loves to read history and politics and spend weekends camping in the mountains (my infantry training hooked me!
5. Have a wonderful cat (Tonka) and a wonderful, if slightly senile, Basenji (Niki).

Here's a picture of Niki. :^)

Next week we will all learn five things about Roxanne Manske!

Happy snow days again!

Lisa

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Out with Two Blogs, In with This One

Happy New Year Everyone!

As we evaluate how we are using blogs for CCCOnline faculty communications, we see that using only one faculty blog would provide easier access to both faculty news and sources. To that end, we will stop using Faculty Source, but leave up what it contains. The link to the old resources is entitled Faculty Source Archive and is located under the Links section at the right side of this blog.

We’ve also added a link to the bookmarking site at De.licio.us (CCCOnlinefaculty Bookmarks) so you can continue to view new resources and add those you would like to share.

If you have links you would like to share, go to http://de.liciou.us and login as ccconlinefaculty with the password ccconline2006.

Cheers,

Alice

Happy New Year from CCCOnline Staff


At long last -- the CCCOnline staff holiday picture! In the back from left to right you see Aaron Leonard, Alice Bedard-Voorhees, Jonathan Fuller, Linda Shaw, John Schmahl, David Chatham, Cheryl Comstock, Roxanne Manske, Mary Cash, Karen Kaemmerling. In front you see Rick Hadley, Judy Patrick (now retired), Kathy Miles, me, Rhonda Epper, Donna Welschmeyer, Carol Verver (just barely visible), and Beth Kitts. We are missing Deb Michel, Randy Macy, and Frank Vazquez, but otherwise all office staff is in the picture.

Here's Frank, because I took a picture of him awhile ago:












And here's Deb on another day also:












Lisa

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Welcome Back! Happy New Year!


So did any of you feel like this about half way into the second snowstorm? :^)

We actually had a lovely Christmas and New Year and were even able to get out of the driveway once between storms and briefly yesterday. Today the county decided to plow the road again, so we're probably stuck now. (Yep, that is one of our dogs... I would have uploaded the picture of my hubby, but it was really scary.)


I thought having to stay home for nearly two weeks would leave me with lots of accomplishments, but it turns out all I do when snowed in is play games with the girls and drink a lot of hot chocolate. I did knit a pair of baby socks for my sister who is having a turning 40 crisis.

I think I forgot to send all of you the link to the student evaluations from last semester, so here is the email from our guru of surveys, Rick Hadley. You use your old login information to access your results (not the new S# and P/W). We'll change that for the spring term. Please email Rick if you can't remember your old login information at Rick.Hadley@cccs.edu.

After a tangle or two...

The survey is up and running and available for viewing at the following URL:


https://www.cccodevelopment.cccs.edu/survey/frameset-survey.html


Rick Hadley
Academic Technology Professional

Happy New Year Everyone!
Lisa