Friday, March 30, 2007

Preferred First Name- Reminder

Hi Everyone-

Carol has only heard from 16 of you regarding your preferred first name. I would have sworn we had more people using nicknames than that. If you would like us to enter a name other than the one on your social security card into Banner please send an email to Carol Verver at Carol.Verver@cccs.edu. This is the name that will appear in Vista for teaching purposes. Your official name is still what will appear on your pay advice and in other official communications.

Thanks-
Lisa

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Questions About Phonecasting

Hi All,

Some questions have come in since yesterday's post about using Gabcast. "What's phone casting?" someone asked. It's creating a podcast using a telephone. I mentioned Gabcast. Gabcast is one of the services that allows the creation of sound files using a phone.

You can get a free account at gabcast.com. I paid for an account because it allows me to upload files I've created on my machine or link to external files. It is also possible to create files and not publish them or hide them from being placed on the web. I wanted this option because I don't intend student work to be published to the web unless the person would want it placed there.

My Gabcast podcast is at http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&id=6604.

There are other services, no doubt. This is the one I currently find very usable.

Cheers,

Alice

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Phone and Pen (Cursor) ?

How do we articulate what we have learned—by our developed thinking, writing, and speaking skills. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about finding the balance between assessments requiring only writing.

The thinking also relates to a GT (Guaranteed Transfer Course) competency that is out there…“Communicate orally and in writing about the content.”

With the evolution of phone casting, there are now some opportunities to allow student to demonstrate some of the learning via the phone.

So today, I posted the option to a class to submit a case study in written or spoken format using my paid gabcast account ($6/month). Students could also submit sound files by recording them on their desktops using software like Audacity or Garage Band.

BTW, though the students will submit them via phone, they won’t be published on the web. Stay tuned…I’ll report back.

Cheers, Alice

Monday, March 26, 2007

Removing_the_Calendr_Channel_From_Your_CCCOnline_Login_Page

Hi Everyone-

The calendar tool remains problematic for some Vista users. It's not causing problems for everyone, so we don't want to turn it off at a high level. However, some of you may want to turn it off for yourselves both within the course and on your MyCCCOnline page.

Directions for the latter are now on the Vista FAQ in the Faculty wiki at http://www.facultywiki.ccconline.org/~www66/index.php?title=Removing_the_Calendar_Channel_From_Your_CCCOnline_Login_Page
(That is a very long link, so you may have to cut and paste or go directly to the wiki at www.facultywiki.ccconline.org, click on WebCT Vista in the upper section of the page, then on Calendar tool. IT's the last link under Calendar.

The fixes to the calendar tool are currently targetted for an update to Vista in the future, so nothing soon. We are as yet unsure why there are problems for some and not for others, so are also still working on that.

best,
Lisa

Using Creative Commons licensing

Dear Faculty,

I just read an interesting article on "Seven Things You Should Know About Creative Commons Licensing."

http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7023.pdf

As we move into using and creating more open content, this offers a way for you to share your ideas with the education community, while protecting your rights to attribution and how the content is used. The article also mentions several repositories where you can find open resources licensed under Creative Commons.

Rhonda

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Rubric Workshop Opportunity: April 6 - 20

Need an easy way to grade your assignments?

Want to make sure your students understand exactly what is required in an assignment?

How about developing a Grading Rubric [rĂ¼-brik]? A grading rubric is a set of criteria for evaluating assignments/assessments and for giving feedback.

A rubric is useful for the students so that they understand exactly what is required of an assignment and how it will be graded before turning it in. A rubric will help you, the instructor by providing an easy guide for grading the assignments.

And……..Vista even provides a Grading Forms tool which will let you input your grading rubrics and then use them to grade your assignments through the Assignment tool.

What you will get from this training session:

  • A virtual trip to France!

  • An understanding of rubrics and their uses

  • What comprises a good rubric- several examples of rubrics

  • How to write a rubric

  • How to use the rubric within your Vista course

What: Creating Grading Rubrics -- CCCOnline training workshop

Where: All Online

When: April 6-20

How: Register at http://cccs-lms.ccconline.org/RegistrationForm/

For more information: Training@ccconline.org


Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Preferred First Name


To All of You Who Don't Use Your Legal First Name on a Daily Basis:

We finally have the ability to change from your legal first name to your preferred first name. Banner will still use your legal first name, payroll will also still use your legal first name, but your students will see your preferred first name in Vista.


To set this up we need to collect preferred first name from all of you who prefer something differnt from what is listed on your social security card. Please send your preferred first name, your full legal name and your S# to Carol Verver at Carol.Verver@cccs.edu.


For those of you who also have a preferred last name that is not your legal last name -- still working on it, but doesn't look like we will correct this soon. (I fall into both of these categories FWIW).

best,

Lisa

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

ADA for blind folks

Hi Everyone -

Kathy Miles sent the following email to me regarding tips for meeting the needs of our blind students. I thought you would all be interested in it also as you make changes to your courses:

All:

As reported by several chairs at our January A-Team meeting, we do now have blind students taking our online courses. This has ADA implications for how we list Web links in our course pages, which we need to begin addressing as we migrate courses into Vista and as we revise current courses or develop new courses. To meet ADA guidelines, please do your best when migrating, revising, and developing courses to create Web links with meaningful descriptions. Here's why, and what we need to be aware of:

Software readers for the blind "read" URL links (and other content) to a student when these links are encountered within the content on a Web page. These readers also are designed to place all URL links on that Web page in a list which may be "read" as the student scrolls through it for quick access to those links. This means that the links need to be meaningful to the student in terms of providing information about what the link will go to.

For example, what if a course page intends to tell the student that "to see research resources, go to this link"?
In our courses that link is generally specified in one of three ways within the content on a page: by telling the student to "click here" to see the site, by listing the complete URL for the Web site, or by specifying the name or purpose of the site itself as the link. So the list drawn up from a content page by the software reader might contain three links like these:

1. click here
2. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/index.html#writing
3. how to conduct research and document sources

I think you can see that #1, when "read" in a list without any referencing context, is totally meaningless in terms of what it will go to. Likewise, #2 - while potentially less meaningless - nevertheless requires the student to remember and decipher a lengthy reading of letters, words, and symbols to make sense of the URL ("h-t-t-p-colon-forward slash-forward slash-owl-period-english-period-edu-forward slash-handouts-..." etc.). Only #3 provides a meaningful description of what resource the link goes to, when listed without its surrounding content.

In order to comply with ADA guidelines, therefore, I'm requesting that whenever possible as you migrate courses and/or work with faculty in revising and developing courses, please ensure that Web links on content pages are written in the format exemplified by #3 above (or re-written if they currently exist in a form like #1 or #2 above) - i.e., please use a Web link format which specifies the name and/or purpose of the site. In some cases this will require re-phrasing the context surrounding the Web link for that link sentence to make sense.

Along with content pages, the Resources page in particular often contains a list of URLs as links rather than descriptive links, and time constraints might limit your ability to change all of these in courses migrating for summer - plus we haven't done this in most of the courses we've migrated so far since I don't think any of us thought much about this issue before. So you may need to create a list indicating which of your courses have had all the Web links redone and which have not, for future reference. However, re-doing Web links for summer courses now whenever possible - and certainly in a course's content pages - will be a good start.

Please let me know if you have any questions or think of something I've missed. Thanks!

Kathy

Best,
Lisa

Monday, March 19, 2007

Get Some Style--Teaching Style Workshop April 2 - 13

Teaching With Style

Style……….everyone has their own and we’re not talking What Not To Wear!

Learning Styles are how we take in and process information to effectively learn. You may like to read step-by-step instructions whereas your best friend may like to actually plunge in and do the task a number of times in order to understand it. Or perhaps you remember what you hear but your friend remembers best what she sees in a picture or a chart.. Because of such differences we most likely learn in very different ways.

Additionally, did you realize that for the first time ever, there are four possible generations of learners in our classroom: Veterans, Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y (The Millennials). All four generations come from a different mind-set based on personal and cultural experiences, and thus they each learn much differently.

How do these learning-style and generational differences translate into our teaching and its effect on our students’ learning? What implications are there for course design? You will engage in a variety of exploratory activities as you work individually and with each other in this fast-paced workshop examining the world of Learning Styles.

What you will get:
· Information on common Learning Styles and methods for measuring them.
· Information on Intergenerational Learning Styles and preferences.
· Information on your own learning style.
· Information on implications for designing course activities in alternative learning style.
· Practice in designing course activities to engage and support different styles.

What: Teaching With Style -- CCCOnline training workshop

Where: All Online

When: April 2-13

How: Register at
http://cccs-lms.ccconline.org/RegistrationForm/

Friday, March 16, 2007

Teaching-Blog Carnival #22 is Up!

Hi All,

About a month ago, I put up an interview with Liz Kleinfeld, who was about to host a teaching-blog carnival. So Liz's went up, and now mine has. I tried to replicate the actual carnival post here, but this blog keeps refusing to post the entry.

http://mocozone.blogspot.com

So step right up and visit the carnival! It was great to tour blogs created by our teaching colleagues. Who knows, you might even like the idea enough to want to host one (heh, heh).

Cheers,

Alice

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Maintenance Window for Vista

Hi All-

From David:
I just got a call from our Vista TSM and there is a maintenance window scheduled for tonight at 1 AM MDT until 3 AM MDT. A message about this was supposed to be sent out earlier in the week for proper notification but that didn't happen. They are a little red-faced but they say they need to do this. They are doing some necessary maintenance for the entire data center, where we are hosted.
I hope you are all fast asleep in bed during those hours and were not planning on working in your classes then. Sorry for the late notice.

best,
Lisa

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Student Opportunity

Dear Faculty:

I need your assistance finding a female student who fits into the category of Stuck in a Rut - just getting by with her job but needs some help moving forward.

Andrea Beaumont, a producer for Good Morning America has contacted CCCOnline for piece they are doing on March 30 in three different cities. You can see Andrea’s exact request below. She’s getting the most response in Denver on the “Stuck in a Rut” category and that’s where we fit. Here are our tasks:

I need to put Andrea in contact with our student to Andrea ASAP! They want to interview and profile the woman THIS WEEK. They have a career counselor who will meet with her and give her some free advice, etc. The piece will demonstrate how online learning is a great option to help you get OUT of a rut.

On March 30, starting at 5 a.m., GMA wants to host a gathering of about 200 women for this segment that will air live from Denver. Our student profile will air that day and she will be a guest. Andrea asked if there might be a location where WE could host the 200 women and live broadcast. She had that idea on the spot. We are still working on this piece, but it is completely separate from my request for faculty.

Please get your answers to me as soon as you can so we don’t miss this opportunity! My email address is Jennifer.Frank@cccs.edu. Please don't email Lisa or Rhonda, just me.

Jennifer Elizabeth Frank

CCCOnline

Marketing Manager

Financial Aid Advisor

9026 E. Severn Place

Denver, CO 80230

720-858-2738 Work

720-323-8345 Cell

Monday, March 12, 2007

Respondus Workshop March 19 - 23

Got Questions????????????????????

We’ve got Respondus!

The Colorado Community College System has purchased a system-wide license for all system faculty to use Respondus, a tool which can be used to create and manage tests.

With Respondus you can

• Create hard copy exams or upload directly to an online course.
• Retrieve test banks from an online course and move them to another Learning Management System.
• Create up to 15 question types, including calculated and algorithmic formats.
• Add tables, bulleted lists, font changes, and other formatting similar to a word processor.
• Insert mathematical and scientific symbols.
• Embed graphics, audio, and video.
• And much more!

Online Respondus Training

When: March 19-23
How: CCCOnline Training
Registration: http://cccs-lms.ccconline.org/RegistrationForm/
Questions: CCCOTraining@aol.com
Join us online!

Daylight Savings Time


Hi Everyone-

Donna Welschmeyer wrote up this explanation of how the DST patches may have changed due dates in your exam and assignment settings in Vista:

A weekend Blackboard patch to the Vista CMS has created some confusion about due dates/times in Vista courses. Any assignment or exam with an end time of midnight for dates BETWEEN our early change to DST (March 11) and the normal change to DST (April 1) will have converted to 1:00 a.m. on the day following your original due date. For example, an assignment with a due date of midnight on March 15 will now have a due date/time of 1:00 a.m. on March 16. While this is only an hour difference, it may cause confusion for students because the date itself changes.

It appears that due dates/times for assignments that occur AFTER April 1 remained the same as originally set in your class.

If you think this may cause your students to think they have an extra day to turn in assignments or complete exams, please be sure to either change the dates/times back OR post an announcement or send an email explaining the situation.

Sorry for any confusion,
Lisa

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Census Day

Congratulations Everyone! Our average drop rate between day 1 of spring session 2 classes and Thursday (day after census day) was 17.5%. That is pretty darn good. Everyone please give yourselves a hand!

Lisa
CCCOnline will offer another real-time Plagiarism session for Students in Elluminate on Wednesday, March 14th at noon. I’ve included the announcement that will appear on the Student News blog.

If this topic is especially important for learners in your cours(s), here’s an opportunity to offer “extra-credit” carrots to them :).

Best, Alice

For the Student Blog:

Avoiding Plagiarism Potholes: The Ethical and Correct Use of Sources

Every college student knows plagiarism is against the rules. It’s also very easy to do – even unintentionally! CCCOnline will show you how to recognize and stay away from plagiarism during a live, interactive, online student workshop:

Wednesday, March 14 th, from noon to 12:45 p.m.
Additional sessions will be offered if there is sufficient demand

Avoiding Plagiarism Potholes is a 45-minute online seminar during which students can discuss three key issues with moderator Alice.Bedard-Voorhees:
What is plagiarism?
What are the consequences of plagiarism?
What are some basic practices to avoid plagiarism in using sources created by others? (Best Practices include resources).

There are up to 50 "seats" available for each session and these are available on a first-come, first-served basis. CCCOnline will offer additional seminars if there is sufficient demand.

There are two steps to joining the meeting.

Download the Elluminate software and pre-configure your system by going to the support page at:

http://elm1.elluminate.com/support.html.

The process may take anywhere from two to 20 minutes, depending on your Internet connection speed. You won’t be able to participate if you have a dial-up connection! In addition to the software, you’ll need speakers to hear the session and a microphone if you want to ask questions or participate in the discussion.

Before the seminar start time, participants can join by using the following link:

http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/join_meeting.html?meetingId=1170366918332.

You DO NOT need a password to join!
--

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Last Day to drop reminder to students

The following email was sent to all session 2 students and posted on the student blog.

Thanks!
John

This note is a final reminder that you have until tomorrow, Wednesday March 7, 2007, to drop your CCCOnline delivered Spring session 2 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 2 courses are those courses with a section ID starting C2* (example ENG 121C21)

Please note that due to the large size of CCCOnline courses, we split courses into multiple sections (C22, C23, etc.), therefore, your online section may not be C21, however, if you want to drop the course, you will need to drop the C21 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.

For any technical questions or problems with your course, please visit http://ccconline.org/support/

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/

Financial Aid and Textbooks

Hi Everyone-

Phyllis D. had a question about textbooks and financial aid yesterday and thought the rest of you might like the information also.

We process textbook orders for students using financial aid to purchase their textbooks through the CCCOnline offices. That adds about a day to the time it takes for a student to receive their books and it requires them to use the official bookstore - MBS.

When a student receives financial aid the college sets up an account for them at the college. The college uses the funds in that account to pay for tuition, fees, and books, then eventually disburses any remaining funds to the student. When CCCOnline orders books for the students we pay for the books, then send a statement to the colleges. The colleges reimburse CCCOnline out of the financial aid account they have for the student.

That means we have to be careful not to order books for the students after the financial aid funds have already been disbursed to the student. To ensure that we stop ordering books for students the week before classes begin. If a student registers late for session 1 classes and does not immediately order their textbooks they will have to cover the cost of the textbooks from their personal funds until they receive their financial aid check. Session 2 students are in a slightly better position. They generally receive their financial aid funds the fourth week of the semester and can use that money to purchase books for session 2 classes.

Session 1 students who don't order books promptly may be caught in the donut hole between the closing of the CCCOnline process and the disbursement of their financial aid funds. Unfortunately right now there is not a lot we can do about that. It's another reason we like the digital content project as the cost to the student is included on their tuition bill and access to the content runs with the class.

best,
Lisa

Monday, March 05, 2007

Daylight Savings Time


Hi Everyone-

Sunday morning we all spring forward an hour to daylight savings time. This may be a little problematic in that our computers don't expect to spring forward for another three weeks. Blackboard is updating the Vista server and Vista itself, but it's a complex process, so they do request that users check the time on their various tools after the daylight savings time change this weekend. There are too many variables like when the particular tool function was created, when the time was set in a section tool, when the patch is run on the server. To be safe, faculty should check after the daylight savings time takes effect and make sure the hour time hasn't changed by one hour.

David also sent me information re Java: "JRE 1.5.0 Update 6 has the daylight savings time update. System computers are supposed to have the update. They can check their version on their home computer and get needed updates and information at www.sun.com."

Your learners may or may not update their computers to match the correct time, so please be aware that we may have three weeks of students with assignments that are 1 hour late or at least time stamped one hour late.

You may also need to update your own personal computers. For those of you with windows PC's Microsoft has more information on that available at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst. I also glanced at the apple website and it looks like there is a patch there for apple users.

Some very good news -- John tells me only 5% of our spring learners have dropped so far; census day is Wednesday, so that is very good news. Thanks you so much for all of your retention efforts!

best,
Lisa

Friday, March 02, 2007

Faculty Practice: Mid-Term Student Survey from Linda Rowley

OSH Faculty Linda Rowley recently shared this mid-term practice--she sends this anonymous survey to her students and makes mid-course corrections to improve the course experience rather than waiting till the end of the term. Thanks for sharing this practice, Linda!

SURVEY

Instructions: For simplicity, rate each on a 1-3 scale. 1 – needs improvement 2 – satisfactory 3 – excellent OR respond to open-ended questions with your own remarks.

1. About the course
a. The syllabus was clear and easy to understand.
b. The schedule page is organized and lists the course assignments and due dates.
c. The Start Here page adequately explained how to begin the course.
d. The assessment techniques (discussions, quizzes, assignments) used in this course allow me to demonstrate and build my skills and knowledge.
e. Instructions for course navigation (e.g., turning in assignments, taking exams, participating in discussions) were adequately explained.
f. Other comments?

2. A student self-assessment
a. Are you achieving your learning and educational goals in this class?
b. I am engaged in the weekly discussions.
c. My responses to other learners helps build on information, offer new perspectives, and engage in discussions.
d. I am motivated to read other materials related to the chapters or discussions.
e. How would you rate on a self-assessment?
f. Other comments?

3. About the class
a. Other students help me to learn.
b. Other students provide meaningful discussion postings.
c. Other students post frequently.
d. Students in the class are supportive, and provide a good network for me.
e. Other comments?

4. About the instructor
a. The instructor encourages students to actively participate in the class through email, announcements, and discussion.
b. The instructor challenges students to think/analyze/evaluate.
c. The instructor relates the subject matter to other classes, college programs, life and/or employment.
d. The instructor encourages the students to ask questions and/or express opinions.
e. The instructor is engaged and responsive to students.
f. Other comments?

5. What is working well in this course?

6. What could be better?

7. Other comments?

To all CCCOnline Faculty: Do you have some course feedback and response techniques you use with learners in your courses? Please share yours in the Comments :).

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Last day to drop reminder sent to students

The following reminder was sent to all session 2 students today.

Thanks!
John

This note is a reminder that you have until Wednesday March 7, 2007, to drop your CCCOnline delivered Spring session 2 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 2 courses are those courses with a section ID starting C2* (example ENG 121C21)

Please note that due to the large size of CCCOnline courses, we split courses into multiple sections (C22, C23, etc.), therefore, your online section may not be C21, however, if you want to drop the course, you will need to drop the C21 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/