Monday, March 31, 2008

English Program Chair Needed

Hello Everyone-
Our current English Program Chair, Sean Law, is retiring from his position, not leaving CCCOnline, mind you, just redefining his role again. We would like to replace Sean from within CCCOnline, but we are open to other thoughts. I've added the job description below. If you want to see a more detailed description of the life of a program chair please see the Chair handbook on the wiki at http://www.facultywiki.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Program_Chair_Handbook.

English Program Chair Position

CCCOnline is a consortial program for online courses/program development and management for Colorado Community College System. The Colorado Community Colleges Online (CCCOnline) is comprised of the 13 member colleges in the Colorado Community College System, Dawson Community College, Northwest Missouri State University, and Pickens Technical College.

Through CCCOnline, students can complete accredited Associate of Arts Degrees, Associate of Applied Science Degrees and Certificates in various disciplines. Colorado Community Colleges are accredited by North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

Instructional designers support faculty in the development of new courses and current courses by offering course design assistance, technical assistance, and assisting in the development of media for use in the courses.

Job Summary:

The program chair provides leadership and expertise in the development and maintenance of effective instructional models for CCCOnline. A major portion of this part-time role is email, phone, and web-based communication to provide support and coaching to faculty. The chair hires qualified faculty as needed and assigns faculty to courses each term. The chair oversees the development of new online courses and the redesign of existing online courses. This role includes participation in the ongoing exchange of ideas with CCCOnline faculty and program chairs pertaining to online educational theory and practice.

Duties and responsibilities include the following:

  • Membership in the CCCOnline academic team, attendance at bi-monthly meetings
  • Faculty Support
  • Work with faculty throughout the faculty training and evaluation processes
  • Regularly visit classes and maintain communication with faculty regarding any recommended changes to their classrooms/course shells
  • Continuously support and coach faculty teaching practices
  • Provide a communication path between faculty and administrative staff
  • Ensure faculty stay current with respect to CCCOnline, program issues, and events
  • Recommend training as needed to faculty; ensure faculty are up-to-date regarding professional workshop requirements
  • Advise faculty regarding pay grades and changes in pay grades due to stipend increases, professional development requirements, and quality assurance evaluations
  • Scheduling
  • Schedule courses and sections each term
  • Provide course shell dupe information to CCCOnline staff
  • Maintain master and term calendars
  • Provide faculty information (name and pay rate) to instructional coordinator
  • Hire qualified, enthusiastic faculty
  • Assign faculty section load
  • Assign mentors as appropriate
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Mediate issues which may arise between faculty and students
  • Mediate issues which may arise between faculty and staff
  • Address academic integrity issues
  • Coordination of Program Development/Changes
  • Provide leadership for program initiatives
  • Coordinate and assist faculty and designers in the development of new courses
  • Coordinate and assist faculty and designers in the re-design of current courses
  • Coordinate department/program marketing
  • Maintain active and accurate program home page online
  • Coordination of selection and distribution of textbooks and other course materials including bookstore and faculty copies
  • Develop and teach faculty workshops covering both technology and teaching
  • Other duties as assigned

Minimum Qualifications:

  • MA/MS degree in English or appropriate field
  • Exemplary communication skills
  • Online teaching experience

Start Date: late-April 2008

Salary Range: $20,000 - $24,000 annually; part-time position; no benefits; may teach CCCOnline student courses for additional compensation

Application Process:
Submit a current resume, list of three professional references, copies of your transcripts (unofficial are acceptable as part of the application process – official copies will be required prior to hire) and cover letter addressing the position requirements by Friday, April 11, 2008 to:
E-Mail: monica.falk@cccs.edu
Fax: 303.365.8822

Or mail to:
English Program Chair Position
c/o Monica Falk, Associate Academic Dean
Colorado Community Colleges Online
9026 E. Severn Place
Denver, CO 80230

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Google Docs for Collaboration and More! (free training videos until May)

Google what? If you have only heard of Google Docs, but not had a chance to experiment, now is a great time to be you! Free training is available in the form of video tutorials from atomiclearning.com through May.

Access the "Google Docs" video tutorials from:
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/google_docs
At its foundation, Google Docs is a free tool collaborative authorship. Think of this tool as a wiki-style technology (group editing, or single-person editing on the fly from anywhere you can access the WWW, tracking of changes) with the coolness of document portability allowing users to save in a variety of formats and edit collaboratively online.... anytime!

A few links to resources about Google Docs in education:

Posting this information was sparked by recent inquiries during the Four Ps: Proactive Preparation Prevents Plagiarism Webinar (held 3/21) about the tool. View this and other webinars from: http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=TPD_Webinars


Lisa Marie
lisamarie.johnson@cccs.edu

Are you ready to start Teaching with Style?

Learning Styles Registration is open! Register today for Learning Styles and other Professional Development sessions from: https://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?402726

  • What: Learning Styles (listed under recommended sessions)
  • Where: Two-week asynchronous online via Bb Vista
  • Who: Kathy Miles
  • When: March 31 - April 11
  • Why: ...... read on!

Style… everyone has his or her own and we’re not talking What To Wear!

“Learning Styles” refers mainly to theories on how people perceive and process information in order to learn. You may like to read step-by-step instructions before tackling a project, whereas your best friend may just glance at a picture and plunge in. Perhaps you remember what you hear better than what you see, but your friend remembers best what she reads or what he sees in a picture. Or when you read or study you need a quiet space, but your friend likes to have the radio or the TV going in the background or to be in the middle of a room with lots of activity.

Such differences reflect the very different ways in which we learn.“Learning Styles” also refers to a group of models for conceptualizing a learner’s style and designing instruction to better meet the needs of diverse learners. How do our own learning-style differences translate into our teaching and what is their effect on our students’ learning? What implications are there for course design?

Typically, the most common method of communication and presentation in an online class is text-based – meaning students mostly read a lot of material displayed on Web pages. What if that is not the most appropriate method through which your students learn? How can you adjust assignments to provide the best context for student learning? This two-week workshop (including one weekend of course activity) takes on these questions, examining learning styles and how to address their diversity in an online environment. Come join us: Explore the world of learning styles, your own as well as others’; then practice designing an instructional activity which supports a variety of learners and their styles.

Register for the Learning Styles workshop today to get ...

  1. Information on common Learning Styles.
  2. Methods for measuring Learning Styles.
  3. Information for understanding your learning style and why that matters.
  4. Information for designing course activities in alternative learning styles.
  5. Practice in designing course activities to engage and support different styles.

Don't delay! Register today!

Thank you Kathy Miles for the redevelopment of this workshop, facilitation, guidance on training and development opportunities and the above summary!

Questions? Just ask!
Lisa Marie
lisamarie.johnson@cccs.edu

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Webinar Recordings

Hi Everyone-

LisaMarie Johnson, our fearless Director of Training, has recordings of all of the webinars available for your viewing pleasure on the Training and Professional Development wiki pages.

You can access them at http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=TPD_Webinars.

Of course they are better in person, but this gives you a fall-back position in case there is a topic you really don't want to miss, but can't make the time-slot it's offered in.

Happy viewing!

Lisa

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Webinar Friday, March 21 - Plagiarism!

CCCOnline Training and Professional Development invites you to attend a webinar on everyone's (least) favorite subject... plagiarism!

What:
The Four Ps: Proactive Preparation Prevents Plagairism
Objectives include.. Recognizing how Plagiarism is defined by CCCOnline and why our policies are only half the consideration; Locating and interpreting the policies for CCCOnline that relate to Plagiarism; Recognizing procedures for reporting infractions and communicating with stakeholders; Participation in an activity for identifying plagiarism and reflect on examples of plagiarism and consequences for students; Identifying and discussing resources to assist learners with good writing and scholarship; Discussing proactive strategies for designing activities to prevent plagiarism; and Discussing proactive methods to use in courses to teach about and prevent plagiarism. A handout will be provided as part of the session.

Who: Monica Falk, Sean Law, Jesse Stommel and Lisa Marie Johnson

When: Friday, March 21, 2008 .... 2:00 - 4:00 PM (MDT)

Where: Online via Elluminate! Participants may enter 30 minutes before the session begins. Use the link below to access the session.
http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/join_meeting.html?meetingId=1204149123966

Why... Why not? :^) ... Participation in this session counts as annual professional development credit for CCCOnline faculty. More importantly, you'll interact with fellow faculty and gain skills, perspectives, and understanding about plagiarism in CCCOnline courses.

See you there!
Lisa Marie Johnson
lisamarie.johnson@cccs.edu


NOTE: If you are a new user of Elluminate, please go to http://www.elluminate.com/support/ ... and then through the steps for first time users. Once your computer is set-up, view the Participant Training Materials for Elluminate Version 8: http://www.elluminate.com/support/docs/8.0/participant.jsp ... If you are attending the live session, please prepare your computer to attend the session at least 1/2 hour in advance! All sessions begin promptly at 2:00PM MST, but participants can enter the session 30 minutes before to make sure your headsets/voice, speakers, and other features are working properly.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Qwest Maintenance

Hi Everyone-

I have a note from CCCS-IT about some maintenance Qwest is performing this weekend that probably doesn't affect you. This will only affect you if you are doing something on the CCCS Network during the time of the maintenance. So if you are accessing Vista from home, no problem. If you want to access Banner or if you are on a campus than it will affect you. From IT:
We have been informed that Qwest will be performing maintenance on their equipment tomorrow morning, March 15th, between 3:00 AM and 4:00 AM. This maintenance will effect the primary circuits coming into our facilities at Lowry. This will cause an outage for Internet access for the schools, inbound and outbound telephone calls at Lowry, and Wide Area Network connectivity into and out of Lowry for all schools. While the circuits are down access to FRS, Banner, VPN Connectivity, and inbound and outbound e-mail will be unavailable.

Thanks for your understanding

Bryan Crawford
Same effect for students -- if they are on campus at 3:00 am they won't be able to get to your online class. :^)

Lisa

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Adding Audio to Your Courses! - Webinar Friday 3/14



CCCOnline Training and Professional Development invites you to attend tomorrow's webinar!

What: Adding Audio to Your Courses!
Focus is on types of audio you can add to your courses, the process for storing files on the CCCOnline Media Server, accessibility considerations and design for engaging learning and authentic assessment with audio. We'll explore some free programs available for you and students to use in creating audio as well!

When: Friday, March 14, 2008 .... 2:00 - 4:00 PM (MDT)

Where: Online via Elluminate! Use the link below to access the session. Participants may enter 30 minutes before the session begins.
http://elm.elluminate.com:80/FRONTRANGE/join_meeting.html?meetingId=1203215523142


NOTE:
If you are a new user of Elluminate, please go to http://www.elluminate.com/support/ ... and then through the steps for first time users. Once your computer is set-up, view the Participant Training Materials for Elluminate Version 8: http://www.elluminate.com/support/docs/8.0/participant.jsp ... If you are attending the live session, please prepare your computer to attend the session at least 1/2 hour in advance! All sessions begin promptly at 2:00PM MST, but participants can enter the session 30 minutes before to make sure your headsets/voice, speakers, and other features are working properly.

Why...
Why not? :^) ... Participation in this session counts as annual professional development credit for CCCOnline faculty. More importantly, you'll have a chance to interact with fellow faculty and explore ways to incorporate audio components in your course to meet a wider range of learning styles!


See you there!
Lisa Marie Johnson
lisamarie.johnson@cccs.edu

Thursday, March 06, 2008

New Student Enrollment and Drop Records

Well, we have a new record for most enrollments in CCCOnline courses and a new record for the lowest drop rate. With the passing of census for Spring session 2, we hit an all time high in enrollments, 12,035. The previous record was set 2 years ago at 10,702 in Spring 2006.

And part of the reason for that record enrollment was the lowest ever drop rate this Spring session 2. Only 10.55% of session 2 students dropped their online courses. Last year's drop rate for session 2 was 17.4%. For session 1 this year we had a drop rate of 15.4%, one of the lowest ever as well.

The hard work by all of you in building quality courses and keeping students engaged throughout the semester shows clearly in our continued growth. Thanks again to all of you for the hard work you put in every day.

And thanks as well to Debra Michel and Kathy Miles for the hard work they do with the new Student Orientation course. Making sure our students are ready to start class on day 1 and keeping them supported throughout the semester let's you focus more on teaching.

Once again, thanks to everyone for the hard work done every day on behalf of our students!