Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from all the Staff at CCCOnline!

Our offices are closed from December 24 and repen on January 3rd. We look forward to a great 2011.

Determining Last Date of Attendence

Dear Faculty;

After discussions with the system financial aid directors and the system office we have determined that you may use the mid-point date of the course when reporting a student’s last date of attendance (LDA). The mid-point dates for our courses are listed below. As a reminder, the LDA must be reported for any student who receives a failing grade in a course. If the student completed any course work or submitted any assignments during the semester, use the mid-point date for the LDA. If the student never submitted any assignments, never logged in or never communicated with you, use the first day of the course instead.

As always, please feel free to contact me (john.schmahlcccs.edu) if you have any questions.

Thanks again for your continued hard work and support!

John

Mid-point date for 15 week courses – 10/24/2010
Mid-point date for 10 week courses – 11/8/2010

Sentence Works changes it's name to Grammarly@edu

Sentenceworks, the free online grammar checker available to CCCOnline students, changed it’s name to Grammarly@edu. Check out the new site and features by using the Grammarly@edu link in the Helpful Links widget inside your Desire2Learn classroom.

At the new site, you’ll find the same familiar features you’ve been using along with some new functionality including:
-Even more accurate grammar checking
-Support for more writing genres
-Printable reports

Your Sentenceworks user name and password will work at the new site (http://www.grammarly.com/edu/students). Easily retrieve your forgotten password for Grammarly by clicking on the “Forgot Your Password” link on the login page. Your password will be emailed to your college email account. Do you need a new account? No problem! Click on “Create Account” and fill out the required information.

Support for Grammarly@edu is available online at http://support.grammarly.com/home.

Enjoy the new grammar services!

Fall Grades due Dec 16!

Dear Faculty;

It's that time of the semester, Fall grades are due no later than Thursday, December 16, 2010.

Please follow the directions below to enter grades for your courses. If you have any questions regarding grades, please contact me (john.schmahl@cccs.edu).

Once you have submitted your grades, we will pull a daily report listing the grades and they will be entered into Banner for the students. Grades will not be viewable by the students until the day after they are entered.

You must report a Last Date of Attendance (LDA) for any student who receives a grade of “F”. The LDA is the date that the student submitted their last graded assessment or assignment. To find this date in D2L, you can follow the directions here http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_D2L_-_Classlist#How_do_I_review_student.27s_access_to_the_course_or_a_tool.3F

If the student never accessed the course, you can enter the first day of the session, August 30 for session 1 courses and October 4 for session 2 courses.

If you have any students needing their grades earlier, or any students not listed on the grade roster, please contact John Schmahl, john.schmahl@cccs.edu or Roxanne Manske, roxanne.manske@cccs.edu.

To submit final grades:

Login through Faculty Portal at https://myportal.cccs.edu/jsp/misc/schoolLoginNew.jsp?school=ccco

(For a tutorial on the new Faculty Portal please go here, https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_CCCOnline_Portal_Overview)

- Select the Faculty Tab

- Under the Faculty Gateway channel, Click on the Online Gradebook

- Select the appropriate section

If you are missing any section(s) or have extra section(s) listed, please contact John Schmahl, john.schmahl@cccs.edu.

Enter the appropriate grade for each student, accepted grades are listed below

Remember, developmental courses (those with course numbers under 100) must use the developmental grades, see below

**All students on the grade roster must be given a grade, even if they have not participated in the course**

Click “Update” and return to the menu to select the next section if needed

Approved grades

Standard courses (course numbers 100 and above, e.g., PSY 101)
A
B
C
D
F (must include last day of attendance)

Developmental courses (course number less than 100, e.g., MAT 060)
S/A
S/B
S/C
U/D
U/F (must include last day of attendance)

Fall student survey is now available

The student survey is now available to students. Note that students will receive a popup message when they log into D2L until they have completed the survey for each of their courses. Please encourage students to complete the survey in order to help us better serve them.

Thanks!
John

D2L 9.1 Upgrade- a Success!

The D2L 9.1 upgrade that occurred over the Thanksgiving Holiday was a success. The one major change you may have noticed already is that instead of the save message occurring across the top of the D2L window when you save changes in D2L the message now appears on the bottom right of your screen.

I would also like to highlight our last webinar of the year on Friday December 3 at 1pm, Creating and Facilitating Groups in D2L with Lisa Marie Johnson. If you haven't completed your training requirement this year, you don't want to miss it! To join us go to https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008363&password=M.0EB8DF8CB07BB2627174FA49487CAB

It will also be recorded and you can listen to it and our other archived webinars at https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Professional_Development_-_Webinar_Archive .

Learning Key Chain Webinar this Friday

Do your students sometimes appear not to connect to your subject, its materials, or even to you? Do you sometimes disconnect from teachers or presenters even when the topic is of interest to you? Learning preferences play a great role in how much and how well we learn or want to learn anything. When we decide to learn something, we pick the key that works for us. A flexible "lock" allows for many fits to access content.

Join us for an interactive webinar on Friday November 5th at 1pm with Leecy Wise. Participants will explore how they learn and teach best. The webinar will provide instructors with a broad perspective on how students might prefer to learn. The webinar will open instructors to new ways of presenting content and engaging students with a variety of learning needs and abilities.

No registration required, just join us at https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008363&password=M.7535BE50A6EE6D4A8B14AFA1F589FE

You may also want to visit the faculty wiki for our archived webinars or more information on upcoming webinars at https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Professional_Development_-_Training_Options

If you have questions about this post, please contact Karen Kaemmerling directly at karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu

Congratulations in Order

Congratulations to Frank Vazquez and David Chatham of CCCOnline's Academic Technologies team. David and Frank received national recognition at the annual Desire2Learn conference in Chicago last July for their submission to the Desire2Excel awards program.

To read the entire article as published in the CCCS Connections newsletter, follow this link (http://www.cccs.edu/communications/connections/2010/603/index.html), scroll down to Section D (Technology Update), which will open in Adobe Reader, and then to Section F.

October Training Reminder

Each faculty is expected to earn one training credit per year. You can do this if you haven’t already by attending Friday’s webinar.

Student Research & Writing Toolkit Updates Webinar Reminder
When: Friday, October 22, 2010 (1:00 - 2:30PM Mountain)
Who: Mary Cash & Liz Dzabic
What: Review of the updates to the Student Wiki "Research & Writing Toolkit".
Where: Online via Elluminate. Access up to 15 minutes before the start time from:https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008363&password=M.5B943246C8C210B8165AD731371D95

For more upcoming webinar information and for the recorded archived webinars visit the faculty wiki.

Please send your questions directly to me rather than replying at Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu

Reporting student attendance for session 2

Just a reminder that tomorrow is census for session 2 courses. You should report on student attendance for any students in session 2 courses tat you may be teaching by midnight tomorrow, Thursday, October 14. More information on our attendance policy and how to report on student attendance is listed below. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!
John


CCCOnline's attendance policy helps to identify students who do not intend to actively participate in courses. If necessary, courses will need revised to comply with the Attendance Policy. Contact your Program Chair for guidance with necessary revisions.

To comply with this policy, each CCCOnline course must require students to:

1. Participate in an "Introductions" discussion, which may or may not be graded.

2. Submit a graded, content-related assessment prior to the census date.

- The census date is the last day to drop in a term (see the Academic Calendar).
- The assessment must be content related – it should not be a "syllabus quiz".
- The assessment may be a Dropbox, Quiz, or Discussion

Process for verifying student attendance

Use the following instructions:

1. By Census Date (Oct 14th), login to the Faculty Gateway through the faculty portal at : https://myportal.cccs.edu/jsp/misc/schoolLoginNew.jsp?school=ccco

2. Click the "Online Roster" link.

3. Click the "Attendance Register" link next to the title of the course.

4. Click on the checkbox for “Introductory Discussion” if the student completed an Introductory Discussion post.

5. Click on the checkbox for “First Assignment” if the student has completed the first assignment (Recall that this assignment should be a graded, content-related assignment.).

6. Click on the checkbox for “Extenuating Circumstances” if the student did not post to the Introductory Discussion or the content-related assessment, but you have additional information that leads you to believe that the student may be active at a later date. The “Extenuating Circumstances” designation might be selected, for example, if:

- The student communicated with you or class peers elsewhere in the course.
- The student notified you s/he will start the term late.
- The student has given you other reasons to expect s/he may become active.

7. After selecting the designation for each student, click the “Submit” button to save your selections.

Session 5 - 2010 Second Life Series – The Virtual Podium

* When: October 14, 2010 (3:00PM - 5:00PM - Mountain)
* Who: Cheryl Comstock, CCCOnline Director of Online Programs
* Prior sessions: see the the Webinar Archive page
* What: In this session, the participants will learn about pre-developed curriculum and its uses with educational tools discussed during the prior 4 sessions in this series. Additionally, participants will go on a virtual field trip to experience the virtual podiums in SL, we will also visit the Information & Communications Technology Library (ICT ) located in Second Life.
* Where: In Second Life. Cheryl will send you more information after you register - You may go to the following site to register for the session at, http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Professional_Development_-_Upcoming_Webinars.

Please note: There has been an update for the Viewer 2, which will prompt you at your next login. All information for the update is available on the login page of SL. It is helpful to update your viewer a day or two before our virtual meeting time.

About the Second Life Series

* Questions about this series should be directed to Cheryl Comstock: Cheryl.Comstock@cccs.edu
* REGISTRATION FOR ALL SESSIONS IS REQUIRED - click here to register.
* For an overview of Second Life as a tool, see the Faculty Wiki Second Life Tech Tool page found at, http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_Other_Tools_-_Second_Life

New Student Authentication Process

Starting this Monday, October 11, your students may receive a series of authentication questions designed to help us authenticate and verify student identities. This process is managed by a third-party called Acxiom. This is part of our on-going efforts at improving student identification, attendance and retention (see the previous post from Lisa on Sept 13, "Attendance Policy for Students/Formerly No-show).

The following e-mail has been sent to all students regarding the start of our use of Acxiom on Monday. PerceptIS has also been informed of this change.

Thanks!
John


CCCOnline Course Authentication and Participation Policy (CAPP)

To improve our overall program integrity, ensure that each student is doing his/her own work and comply with our home colleges’ accreditation agencies, CCCOnline is implementing the following steps:

• During the semester, students may be presented with random pop-up security questions when logging into their online course(s).

• All students will be required to complete at least two assignments within the first two weeks of the semester.

Students who do not meet the CAPP requirements may be reported by their instructor to the CCCOnline Student Services Department.

The random security question authentication process is managed by Acxiom, a third-party company. CCCOnline does not have access to this database. This data is secured by Acxiom, which complies with student privacy and FERPA regulations. Acxiom’s privacy policies are available at www.acxiom.com/privacy.

After the student enters his/her S# and password on the D2L login page or accesses D2L via the portal, a screen appears to “Verify Your Identity.”

Students should type their current address into the Identification Verification box.

• After the address is submitted, up to four questions will appear on screen asking Identity Verification questions. There may be a short delay before these questions display on the screen.

• Students should answer the questions honestly, and keep in mind that “none of the above” may be a valid answer for some questions.

• After students answer and submit their answers to the Identity Verification questions, there is a delay before the student is logged into their online course. This delay can last up to two minutes. Please be patient and do not click the submit button multiple times.

Check out the Cultivating Excellence Blog

Each week we share pedagogy, best practices, professional development, and quality assurance ideas and concepts on the Cultivating Excellence Blog. Visit the blog directly or through the CCCOnline Portal Faculty Tab. Also, we invite you to comment and converse with colleagues in our Cultivating Excellence Blog Discussion in the CCCOnline Community.

Email, Email, and More Email!

Please do not reply to this message. If you have questions, please email amy.sorensen@cccs.edu.

TRUE OR FALSE- username@cccs.desire2learn.com email address is a valid email address which can be used outside of D2L?

FALSE--the email address you see in D2L, for example asorensen@cccs.desire2learn.com, is NOT a valid email address outside of D2L.

This semester we have had multiple student inquiries about emails they have sent to their instructor but the instructor is not responding. With a little research from the techies at D2L we have discovered that students are trying to email their instructor using an outside account, such as gmail or yahoo, and these messages are not getting delivered to the internal D2L email.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE:

Do NOT list your cccs.desire2learn.com address on your instructor widget or Instructor Information page!! Students will try to use this address outside of D2L and then be disgruntled when the message is not delivered to you. :O)

If a student complains that you are not responding to their emails. Let me them know that they only way they can email you is using the Email tool within D2L or with the alternate address you have provided such as your cccs.edu email account.

If you have not setup your CCCS email account or have questions, please email profhelp@cccs.edu.

If you are a new faculty ProfHelp will be contacting you with your new CCCS email information and login credentials as soon as these accounts are ready to go!

Getting to D2L

Hi Everyone-

The portal is still unstable this evening.  The best way to get to D2L is via the direct URL:  online.ccconline.org.  D2L is up and functioning well.

Lisa

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu

Up Time

Hi Everyone-

The upgrade IT was working in this morning ran into difficulties and had to be aborted.  They expect to be up again with access to all of our tools (including D2L) in about an hour.

Lisa

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu

Fall Session 2 Rosters Now Available

You can now view your Fall session 2 class roster.

To access your course rosters please go to the Faculty Portal here,

https://myportal.cccs.edu/jsp/misc/schoolLoginNew.jsp?school=ccco

Enter your S# and Password.

On the Faculty Tab, go to the CCCOnline Faculty Gateway Access Channel

Select Course Online Rosters.

For a tutorial on the new Faculty Portal please go here, https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_CCCOnline_Portal_Overview

Thanks!
John

Library Resources

Hi Everyone, 

We wanted to let you know that the Student Wiki has been updated. It has a new look and has been reorganized a bit.  Be sure to visit the Student Wiki and check it out.  You’ll see the latest version of the Student Handbook and the revised and expanded Research and Writing Toolkit, along with helpful information for students on CCCOnline in general as well as technical help for D2L.

You can reach the Online Library Resources and the Research and Writing Toolkit from the Helpful Links widget found on both on the MyHome page and each course’s homepage.  However, it’s important to note that if you have links in your classes to the Online Library, the article database information, the Research and Writing Toolkit or Tutoring information on the wiki, you probably will need to update them.  Here are the URLs:

• CCCOnline Student Wiki Main Page: http://at.ccconline.org/students/wiki/Main_Page
• CCCOnline Library Resources: http://at.ccconline.org/students/wiki/Academic_Resources_-_CCCOnline_Library_Resources
• Research and Writing Toolkit: http://at.ccconline.org/students/wiki/Academic_Resources_-_Research_and_Writing_Toolkit
• CCCOnline Tutoring Options: http://at.ccconline.org/students/wiki/Academic_Resources_-_Tutoring_Options

Mary

Mary L. Cash
Instructional Designer/CCCOnline Librarian
Colorado Community Colleges Online
Work: 303-595-1661
Mary.Cash@cccs.edu
http://www.ccconline.org

TurnItIn Webinar Tomorrow and other fall training opportunities

TurnItIn’s Markup and Plagiarism Detection Tools: The Mechanics and Beyond
When: Friday, October 1, 2010 (1:00PM - 3:00PM Mountain)
Who: Jan Gilboy, Renee Bangerter, Liz Dzabic, and Karen Kaemmerling
What: We heard great feedback about TurnItIn’s presentation at the CCCOnline Conference last week, but if you missed it, please note that Renee Bangerter and Jan Gilboy of TurnItIn graciously have agreed to present for us again. This Webinar, titled “TurnItIn’s Markup and Plagiarism Detection Tools: The Mechanics and Beyond,” will address basic how-tos and answer your technical questions. We also will discuss how to use these tools constructively in your courses (i.e., interpret plagiarism results, use plagiarism detection as a learning teaching tool, and use GradeMark effectively).
Where: Online via Elluminate. Access up to 15 minutes before the start time from: https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008363&password=M.78F51EE1033CD5B7EE11BC3249C7D9

If you haven't met your training requirement for the year 2010, other training opportunities for fall are coming that you may want to register for through the portal or gateway:
Managing Discussions Workshop with Daniel Metz Begins Oct 18
Virtual Teams Workshop with Jennifer Harr Begins Oct 18
Learning Key Chair Webinar with Leecy Wise on November 5 at 1pm.
Rubrics Workshop with Leecy Wise Begins Nov 8

More webinars are coming but I would love to hear from you which conference presentations you think would make a good webinar and you would either like to see again or recommend to your peers. Please send your questions or suggestions to me at karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu

CCCOnline Division Chair Positions

Hi Everyone-

As Rhonda and I mentioned at the conference CCCOnline is in the process of restructuring slightly.  As a part of that process we are hiring several full-time Division Chairs.  Those positions are now posted on the CCCS jobs site - http://www.cccs.edu/HR/ccjobs.html.  Look down the center column under CCCOnline.  (And note we also have an instructional design position posted.  We are expanding that department as well.)  

Please pass this information around to anyone who might be interested.

Thank you,

Lisa

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu

Drop Box Update

Hi Everyone-

D2L believes they have permanently corrected the Dropbox problems at this time.

Thanks-

Lisa

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu

Drop Box Update

Hi Everyone-

Dropbox appears to be working for most faculty this morning, but at this point D2L has applied only a temporary fix.  They have not yet located the underlying problem.  That means you may see continuing issues with the dropbox as the day progresses.  We are keeping an eye on it and will ask D2L to apply the temporary fix again if it looks like the drop box is stalling.

Thanks for your patience.

Lisa

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu

Dropbox Errors

Hi Everyone-

We are seeing errors in the dropbox this afternoon.  The issue has been escalated to D2L.  I will let you know as soon as I hear anything.  Meanwhile there is a high likelihood that your students will not be able to post assignments to the dropbox.

Sorry,

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu

CCCOnline Faculty Conference this Friday!

We are very excited about our CCCOnline Faculty Conference
Constructing Quality: Expand your Toolbox!

Here is some helpful information to help you arrive on Friday September 17th at Arapahoe Community College.

-If you missed registration and still want to attend, please stop by the non-registered table that morning at M1900 to ensure you receive training credit for attending.
-Please visit this website for directions to ACC and maps of the campus http://www.arapahoe.edu/about-acc/locations/campus-maps
-Parking lots are open and free for our attendees. There are no permit restrictions in any parking lots.
-The dress is casual. In fact, to go with our Construction theme, we encourage you to wear jeans. -Your first stop will be registration which starts at 8am in M 1900, the main cafeteria area at ACC.
-We are providing breakfast and lunch items, however, the budget for this free conference is very limited. If you have special dietary requirements, please be prepared to at least supplement or bring your own food.

Thank you to our session presenters for preparing and presenting at this year's conference. Their time makes the conferences a valuable experience for us all each year. And thank you to our sponsors, D2L, Turnitin, NetTutor, and Techsmith.

For more details about the conference sessions and the overall event, please visit http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Teaching_Resources_-_Presentations_-_2010_CCCOnline_Faculty_Conference

See you Friday! Please contact me with your questions at Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu

No-Shows

Hi Everyone-

I thought you might be interested in the no-show data from John Schmahl this semester. These are students who have not logged in at all this semester.  About half of the colleges drop students who are reported as no-shows.

Jon Sherrill just pulled the no-shows and Roxanne has sent them on to the colleges. It looks like we had a total of 442 individual students (unduplicated headcount) who have not logged in. We currently have 9,546 unduplicated headcount for session 1. I’ll pull the attendance information this afternoon on which faculty have reported their attendance information.

Thanks!
John

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu 

Attendance Policy for Students/Formerly No-Show

Hi Everyone-

My apologies for the long email.  The attendance procedure is towards the end. Census date is Tuesday, September 14th.

This year the former No-Show Policy has changed to the Attendance Policy.  There are several reasons for the change.  First,  online classes are a target for groups who are interested in fraudulently applying for financial aid.  Because of this we are attempting to verify class attendance of all students early in the semester.  Initially we ran a no-show report and labeled those who did not login to class at all as no-shows and recommended to the colleges that they drop these students.  The majority of the financial aid scams however have involved "students" who do login to class.  Many of them also participate in the Introductory Discussion, but few participate beyond that.  

Second,  as you know, many of the colleges we serve do not drop students for no-show.  Our preference at CCCOnline is that students are dropped for non-attendance, but before we can request that of all of the colleges we need to collect data showing that most students who either do not attend at all or only login a couple of times are not successful in their courses.  The new policy and procedure will help with that.

Last,  online education in general is at risk whenever we can't verify that our students are who they say they are and that we know who is completing the courses.  We have designed courses in such a way that makes it likely that the student who begins the course also finishes it.  In addition, we are working with Acxiom, a company that collects large amounts of public information about people, to introduce a set of identity questions upon login to D2L sometime during the first couple of weeks of classes.  We may have that project in place for fall 2, but it is not complete at this time.

We expect to report back to you on the data and analysis of this new process in February of next year.

Attendance Policy

CCCOnline's attendance policy helps to identify students who do not intend to actively participate in courses.  If necessary, courses will need revised to comply with the Attendance Policy. Contact your Program Chair for guidance with necessary revisions.

To comply with this policy, each CCCOnline course must require students to:

1. Participate in an "Introductions" discussion, which may or may not be graded.

2. Submit a graded, content-related assessment prior to the census date.

 - The census date is the last day to drop in a term (see the Academic Calendar).
 - The assessment must be content related – it should not be a "syllabus quiz".
 - The assessment may be a Dropbox, Quiz, or Discussion

Process for verifying student attendance

Use the following instructions:

1. On or very shortly after the Census Date (Sept.14th), login to the Faculty Gateway: https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/

2. Click the "Online Roster" link.

3.  Click the "Attendance Register" link next to the title of the course.

4.  Click on the checkbox for “Introductory Discussion” if the student completed an Introductory Discussion post.

5. Click on the checkbox for “First Assignment” if the student has completed the first assignment (Recall that this assignment should be a graded, content-related assignment.).

6. Click on the checkbox for “Extenuating Circumstances” if the student did not post to the Introductory Discussion or the content-related assessment, but you have additional information that leads you to believe that the student may be active at a later date.  The “Extenuating Circumstances” designation might be selected, for example, if:

- The student communicated with you or class peers elsewhere in the course.
- The student notified you s/he will start the term late.
- The student has given you other reasons to expect s/he may become active.

7. After selecting the designation for each student, click the “Submit” button to save your selections.

Lisa 

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Co-Exec. Director for CCCOnline

Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu 

CCCOnline Faculty Conference is One Week Away!

Just a few days left to register for the CCCOnline Faculty Conference, Constructing Quality: Expand your Toolbox. Besides all the great presentations that you don’t want to miss, we will have great door prizes in the sessions like a Free Pen Tab donated by NetTutor. Registration closes Monday morning, so don’t delay!

If you are registered already, please visit the Conference page on the wiki for directions to Arapahoe Community College and other key information that may be of interest to you such as dietary concerns. https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Teaching_Resources_-_Presentations_-_2010_CCCOnline_Faculty_Conference

Additionally, please check out the training registration options for upcoming workshops this fall. You can view a calendar on the Faculty Tab on the CCCOnline Faculty portal for upcoming dates and register for workshops like the Learning Styles Workshop with Leecy Wise which begins Monday September 20th.

Archive Tab on Your D2L Page

If you have questions, please email donna.welschmeyer@cccs.edu

In order to streamline the D2L tab that displays courses (the Instructor tab), our Academic Technologies staff has programmed a new tab called the Archive tab into D2L. Beginning Monday, September 6, your Spring 2010 and Summer 2010 courses will be displayed on this new Archive tab instead of on the Instructor tab. The Fall 2009 pilots, if you have one, will be removed completely out of sight (but not deleted) as we don’t have a method to move them to the new tab.

With this new tab, you will be able to access your past courses if necessary, but they won't be in the way of your current courses. Beginning in January 2011, term courses that are 12 months or older will be deleted.  This does NOT affect DEV courses or master courses per se.  For instance, Fall 2009 courses will be over 1 year old in January and will be removed.  At the end of the Spring 2011 term, the Spring 2010 courses will be removed.  This policy is the same as what was followed on Blackboard in previous years

TurnItIn Maintenance

Please do not reply to this automated message. If you have questions, please email me at donna.welschmeyer@cccs.edu. Thanks!

Please note the downtime for scheduled maintenance as noted to us by TurnItIn:

Upcoming System Maintenance: On Saturday, September 4th from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM US Pacific Time (-7 UTC), all Turnitin services may be unavailable while we launch the new Turnitin2 service. If you have assignments due during this window, we recommend that you change the due date and alert your students. Contact tiisupport@turnitin.com for more information.

Student Re-Enrollment

If you have any students who contact you and were dropped from their courses for any reason and want to be re-enrolled, you can send them to the following link and they can complete the Re-Enrollment form, https://at.ccconline.org/students/Re-Enrollment/.

More information about our attendance and re-enrollment policies can be found in the student handbook here, http://at.ccconline.org/students/wiki/Student_Handbook_-_Inside_the_Classroom_-_Attendance_Policies

Thanks!
John

Update from Profhelp

Hi Everyone-

Here are the responses to the two most common questions received by Profhelp this fall...  or anyway two of the questions for which she has to give you the opposite of the answer you may want to hear.  Sorry about that!

1. The program chairs have elected to turn off the “New” notification of discussions, dropboxes, quizzes, etc. from the Course Homepage.  For example, when a student leaps straight to the discussion through the icon, the "last access" date in the classlist does not update. This notification has been turned off for both students and instructors. Sorry for any inconvenience.  The update widget still shows unread emails and discussion posts and the email button shows unread emails.
2. Unfortunately, we can’t move the Fall2010 courses to the top of the list on your Course Homepage. The good news is that soon all of the previous term courses will appear on another tab which will allow the current term courses to be the only courses appearing on the instructor tab.

That first answer is driven by financial aid and by students who are having trouble in their class.  We need to have login data that is as close to accurate as possible to manage the financial aid process, particularly for those students who simply stop attending class rather than officially drop.  We had hoped D2L would have a fix for this in place for the fall term, but they are not quite there.  

Yesterday's slowness was primarily due to problems in a data center.  We believe there are still pockets of slowness for D2L users, but nothing consistent.  Student calls to the help desk have not mentioned slowness so students do not appear to be experiencing significant problems.  David Chatham continues to track the issue and will let you know if there is an update.

best,

Lisa Cheney-Steen
Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu

D2L Problems

Hi Everyone-

We are experiencing problems with D2L this morning.  While it is not necessarily completely down most users are experiencing extreme slowness to the point of un-usability.  D2L is working on the problem and we will let you know as soon as it is resolved.

Thank you for your patience.

Lisa

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu

Photo from Javaturtle, http://www.flickr.com/photos/javaturtle/with/117152990/

Fall Session 1 CLass Rosters Now Available

You can now view your Fall session 1 class roster.

Please note that students from Dawson Community College may show on your class rosters. They can be identified by having a student ID starting with “D”. You don’t need to do anything different for these students, I just wanted to make everyone aware of this change since their student ID’s are slightly different. They will also be on the grade rosters at the end of the semester.

To access your course rosters please go to the Faculty Portal here,

https://myportal.cccs.edu/jsp/misc/schoolLoginNew.jsp?school=ccco

Enter your S# and Password.

On the Faculty Tab, go to the CCCOnline Faculty Gateway Access Channel

Select Course Online Rosters.

For a tutorial on the new Faculty Portal please go here, https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_CCCOnline_Portal_Overview

Thanks!
John

Second Language Writers Webinar Now!

href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CKKAEMM%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml">Just a reminder that our Webinar is under way and we still have seats!
Second Language Writers Part 2 - Working with Second Language Writers and Their Writing

• When: Friday, August 27, 2010 (1:00PM - 2:30PM Mountain)
• Who: Ruth Brancard
• What: Using student writing samples, participants will discuss strategies for working with second language writers to improve writing in English. Drawing on research on second language acquisition and second language writing, the presenter will address issues of content, organization, grammar, and voice. Suggestions for the timing and content of feedback to students will be addressed.

Where: Online via Elluminate. Access up to 15 minutes before the start time from:
https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008363&password=M.6BC347BA8C13161F73053DD71FC41E

Gearing Up!

Please do not reply to this message. If you have questions or comments, please email me directly at donna.welschmeyer@cccs.edu. Thanks!

Fall Session I is very quickly approaching, and I know everyone is busy wrapping up summer tasks and trying to get ready for the August 30 start date. Here are just a few notes of interest and reminders for you.

Email

We continue to work on getting CCCS email access straightened out for everyone. This process has been complicated by a variety of factors that are, unfortunately, out of our control, so we appreciate your continued patience as we work out the kinks! 

TurnItIn

As you may remember from Karen's August 4 post, there is now a plagiarism checking tool available in the course dropbox. Liz Dzabic will host a webinar on this tool in September. We did discover yesterday that if TurnItIn is enabled in a course, duplication of that course somehow turns the tool off, so you will need to enable it again in the duped course. The folks at TurnItIn are working to fix this bug.

Course Verification and Ready

Please remember to verify course content of duped courses within 72 hours of duping and to note them as "ready" when you have completed the course readiness checklist items. We will do a thorough check of courses during the course readiness checks that begin on Thursday, and will notify program chairs of any items that need attention.

Authentication Assignment

Remember to set up a graded, content-based assignment (not a syllabus quiz or similar assignment) that is due prior to census date (the last day to drop).

Bloggers

Many thanks to our summer Faculty Voices bloggers. If you haven't check out those blogs lately, please do! I thoroughly enjoyed reading them, and I think you'll find some great information there.

Portal 

While the portal has had a few growing pains in the last few days due to heavy use at the compuses, I'm still very excited about it! I really like having that one location for all my links and logins, though I still occasionally forget to to there to get everywhere else.

Training and Professional Development

Remember that you need at least one professional development activity before the end of the calendar year, so be thinking about upcoming activities, including tomorrow's webinar on "Second Language Writers" and the upcoming fall faculty conference.

Thanks to you all for a successful summer term, and here's to an exciting fall term!

Donna

Important reminders!

As you are ready to celebrate the end of the summer term, here are a few reminders of upcoming training events and more.

• As you prepare your fall courses for Quality Assurance checks which will be done on Thursday August 26^th, review the Course Readiness Checklist.
• Don’t forget as part of the Checklist you must:
• Reset your course homepage
• Run the Grades Wizard
• Remove unused tools from the course navigation bar.
• Next week, we are offering a two part webinar series on Second Language Writers Wednesday August 25th and Friday August 27 at 1pm-2:30 pm with Dr. Ruth Brancard. Dr. Ruth Brancard has worked with learners and faculty for more than 30 years--at an intensive English language program for international students, at CCD in ESL and developmental education, and at UCD in the School of Education and Human Development. In the first workshop, you'll explore a range of student profiles that illustrate the diversity of second language writers and reflect on how knowledge of students' linguistic backgrounds and educational goals can influence instruction. In the second workshop, you'll use student writing samples to discuss guidelines for working with second language writers as they focus on improving their writing in English. The presentation draws on the presenter's own experience and research as well as research in the area of second language writing. Join us online via Elluminate. Access up to 15 minutes before the start time from:
  https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008363&password=M.BA495955350F23D140B6F5C1150C6C
• Sign up for the our faculty conference Constructing Quality: Expand your Toolbox on September 17^th at Arapahoe Community College. Sessions are filling up, so sign up today! Information about the conference and registration

Please send your questions about the information in this post directly to Karen Kaemmerling at Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu