Wednesday, October 27, 2010

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.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

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

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

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.

Monday, October 11, 2010

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

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

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.

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

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!

Sunday, October 03, 2010

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

Friday, October 01, 2010

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:
Mary

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