Friday, January 30, 2009

Google Earth Thoughts from LisaMarie

From Lisa Cheney-Steen: I know many of you are using interesting new (or old) technologies to help facilitate your courses. I'd like to use this blog to share some of the exciting things many of you are doing. Feel free to send me a post on something you see that is fun and helps learning. Here's some information from Lisa Marie Johnson:

The first distance course I was involved in used multi-way satellite television broadcasts, which allowed students to attend from a distance and everyone on-site and at a distance to interact through video. Today, with multi-user conferencing options, such as Elluminate http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Elluminate, and virtual worlds, such as Second Life http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Second_Life_Information_and_Requirements, options abound for this sort of in-class synchronous interaction.

What stood out most in that early distance course was not the marvelous ability to interact across such great distances, but rather the detail possible with the news-quality camera we used to broadcast the artifacts from the anthropology "bones lab". Students on-site consistently remarked how they preferred to view the materials using the screen rather than with the naked eye. Today, I was reminded of those comments.

Google Earth http://earth.google.com/ is what reminded me. In particular, Google Earth's new project to bring art to the masses http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=56767. Using the zoom function, great works of art can be seen with unprecedented detail. This is but one of the many great uses of Google Earth for personal and class-related learning. Learn more about Google Earth and educational uses from for Geology, Math, Literature, Biology, and more from the Google Earth Educators http://www.google.com/educators/p_earth.html page.

best,
Lisa Cheney-Steen

Monday, January 26, 2009

Spring Training

2009 and the spring semester is underway! It’s time to think about your Professional Development opportunities this year.

The first training opportunity this year was a favorite from our Faculty Conference last fall. On Friday Jan 30th at 1pm (session opens at 12:30) Ralph Newby, our CIS Chair and Instructor will facilitate Mind Mapping. Mind Mapping is an effective way for students to organize course content in a graphical way and for instructors to assist learners in conceptualizing course content. In addition to seeing examples in a CIS course, participants will leave the session able to recognize Mind Maps, identify how they can be used by students and instructors, and locate freely available online software for creating Mind Maps.

Join us via Elluminate from one of the following:
· http://elm.elluminate.com:80/FRONTRANGE/join_meeting.html?meetingId=1231881878145
· From the date 1/30/09 at the Elluminate site: http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/

In February also consider joining us for
· Back to the Basics Webinar with Donna Welschmeyer, Associate Academic Dean for CCCOnline at 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM on Friday, February 13, 2009.

You may also register for the following Facilitated Workshops at https://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?402726

Managing Discussions February 9-February 20
Registration Closes February 2

E-Portfolio TrainingFeb 9-Feb 13
Registration Closes February 2

Learning Styles February 23-March 6
Registration Closes February 16
This session requires group interaction.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

W-2's

Hi Everyone-

I have a note from payroll regarding this year's W-2's. There will be two of them because of the switch to Banner.

Good Afternoon!

This is a reminder that the processing of the W-2 Tax Forms has changed for 2008 and you may receive two W-2 forms. One will be from the State of Colorado Central Payroll if you worked for CCCS from January 08 – June 08. The other will be from Colorado Community College System Payroll if you worked for CCCS from July 08 – December 08. The change is a result of the transition to Banner in July 2008, which caused payroll data to be divided between the two systems.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Payroll Office at 720-858-2711 or the Human Resources Office at 720-858-2737.

Paul Grisdale

Director of Central Payroll

Colorado Community College System

9101 E. Lowry Blvd.

Denver, Co 80230-6011

(720) 858-2711


Best,

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Monday, January 19, 2009

First Day

A new semester kicks off today! We have 10,830 enrollments (36,490 credit hours) in our 15 week term. That is 20% more than we had on the first day of classes last spring.

Students are already accessing classes so, if you have not already done so, please get those welcoming announcements and your own introductions posted. We have quite a lot of data concerning learner involvement and community building activities the first week of class and persistence throughout the course.

We've also had a few learner comments about consistency within the courses this morning, so please check again to ensure that your syllabus, schedule page, and gradebook all match. If you have trouble updating any of those pages please email profhelp@cccs.edu. It is your responsibility though to make sure your learners are getting a consistent message about gradeable items and due dates. We are also seeing some problems with assessments -- descriptions on the assignment pages not matching the descriptions in the learning modules. Be sure you have updated both areas if your assignments are described twice in the course shell.

The Course Readiness Checklist on the wiki has a concise list of items that should be checked before the term begins and is worth looking over in case you missed something last week.

Thanks Everyone! I am sure it is going to be another great semester.

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Friday, January 16, 2009

Spring session 1 rosters now available

Spring Session 1 Rosters available
Your Spring session 1 class rosters are now available.

Please go here, https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/login.php

Login using your SID and Vista Password.

After logging in please click on "Online Roster"

You can find student e-mail addresses on the roster. Please remember that most colleges have moved to the system e-mail address for students, so we are dependent on students remembering to check their system e-mail account or forward that account to another external e-mail address.

Please contact myself or Frank Vazquez, frank.vazquez@cccs.edu, if you have any trouble accessing your roster.

Thanks!
John

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Verifying Duped Course Content - Important!

Happy New Year! The new term is fast approaching, and our dedicated AT staff are busy duping courses. Remember, faculty, that the email you receive when a course is duped contains a link that you need to use WITHIN 72 HOURS to verify that the correct course content was duped for your course. This helps us avoid those terrible surprises when you open your course a couple of days before it opens and discover that the wrong content is there. . .and students have already been loaded into the course.

Then, after you have updated the course with new dates, etc., use that same link to indicate that the course is ready for the first day. All courses must be updated prior to Thursday, January 15.

If you don't have the email that you received when your course was duped, use this link: https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/login.php. Click "Manage Your Vista Courses."