Friday, July 20, 2012

Welcome to Daniel Metz!


Hello –

I am very pleased to announce Daniel Metz has accepted the position of Associate Dean, Liberal Arts and Communication at CCCOnline; he will start August 1.   See the bio info below to get to know him a little better, and join me in welcoming him to our CCCOnline family!

Best,
Terry


Daniel Metz, Liberal Arts and Communications

Daniel Metz holds a BA in Philosophy and World History, and received an MA in Philosophy from the University of Bristol, U.K., concentrating on issues in epistemology, metaphysics and linguistics in ancient Greek philosophy.  Other areas of interest include Kantian epistemology and ethics, Existentialism and Aesthetics. 

Daniel has been with CCC Online for nine years, as a philosophy and humanities instructor, and as chair of the Arts and Humanities program since 2006. Daniel has also served as the CCCS chair of philosophy. Prior to these endeavors, he taught philosophy and cultural studies for the University of Leeds and EFL at Shoin University in Japan, and retains an interest in Japanese philosophy and art.

Daniel considers teaching a privilege: “In my view, teaching is really about opening doors to different perspectives, and facilitating the learning process. This process involves each learner encountering new ideas and new ways of looking at the world, and developing critical thinking skills in order to better understand other perspectives, and in doing so, broadening one's own.”

Daniel enjoys traveling, hiking, viewing art, contemplating the meaning of the universe, listening to contemporary symphonic music, and discussing ideas about education.  Daniel relates, “I am gratified for the opportunity to contribute to our collaborative effort at CCC Online to strive for the best quality of education in the online environment.”



Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Check this out – Changes to the Library Resources web pages and New Resources!!


Check this out – Changes to the Library Resources web pages and New Resources!!


Hey everyone, take some time to check out what’s new with our Library Resources.  First, the Library Resources and Research & Writing Toolkit pages have officially moved from the student wiki over to the ccconline.org website: http://www.ccconline.org/Library_Resources.  Once you’re on the main page of the Library Resources, you’ll also notice a link to the EBSCO article databases.  So, in addition to being able to access the databases once you’re logged in to D2L, you can also click on the EBSCO link, login with your S# and password and get into the databases right from the Library Resources page.  

Inside D2L, you will also notice a change to the Helpful Links widget, with just one link to Library Resources instead of several.  Click on the Library Resources page, and you’ll see the same page that you see out on the ccconline.org website; you just won’t need to login to access the databases.

Please take some time to check out the article databases as well; we now have some additional databases – including  CINAHL (nursing and health science database), History Reference Center, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, Science Reference Center, Points of View, Consumer Health Complete, and more.  We still have the always wonderful Academic Search Premier, and Business Source Premier.  Visit the Library Article Databases Tutorial to see descriptions of all of our databases.
Note also that CCCOnline is now a member of AskAcademic, the 24/7 academic Ask-a-Librarian service offered through the Colorado State Library.  Check out the AskAcademic widget on the Library Resources main page.  Students can still email me, cccolibrarian@ccconline.org, with their questions; I will have more first-hand knowledge of specific research assignments in their courses, but do encourage your students to use the AskAcademic reference service.  The service is manned by trained reference librarians from the AskAcademic member libraries – visit the AskAcademic website to learn more: http://www.askacademic.org/ and here’s a list of the participating libraries: http://www.askacademic.org/participating.html.  CCCOnline pays a small fee to the Colorado State Library and mans the virtual reference desk for 2 hours a week in return for great reference and information service to both students and faculty.

Be sure to check back to the Library Resources web pages from time to time   - I have some ideas for new features and will be adding those as I have time. Have interesting ideas related to anything library related?  Have questions?  Email me at mary.cash@cccs.edu

Thanks,
Mary Cash, Instructional Online Librarian, CCCOnline

Friday, July 13, 2012

CCCOnline Academic Technology Administrator a Finalist for D2L Award

CCCOnline’s own Frank Vazquez is a finalist for the 2012 Desire2Excel Innovation Award!  Along with other finalists from across the US and Canada, Frank is recognized in Desire2Learn’s current e-newsletter _The Horizon_. At this month’s D2L FUSION conference in San Diego, the Desire2Excel award winners will be announced.

Frank’s project, “One Login for All Students,” created single-sign-on access between D2L and third-party vendors. This impressive initiative has helped our students while cutting down on help desk requests and administrative costs. Congratulations, Frank!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

August Trainings Open for Registration

Hello!

We've just opened three workshops in August, which are available for registration starting today.

Title: Managing Discussions
When: August 6th - August 17th 2012
Where: Online in Desire2Learn
Focus: The discussions component of your online course is your virtual classroom. In this two-week online workshop, explore different ways to organize discussions, make discussions more engaging, to maximize your own participation in discussions as well as that of your students, evaluate discussions, explore QA expectations, and more.
Registration close date: July 27th, 2012

Title: D2L Essentials (intended for pre-hire CCCOnline instructors)
When: August 13th - August 24th, 2012
Where: Online in Desire2Learn
Focus: This is a two-week fully online workshop designed to introduce instructors to the Desire to Learn (D2L) course system. Its primary goal is to prepare instructors to teach with D2L at a basic level during their first term. Activities are completed in a practice course.
Registration close date: August 3rd, 2012

Tite: Getting Started (intended for pre-hire CCCOnline instructors)
When: August 20th - August 24th, 2012
Where: Online in Desire2Learn
Focus: This is a one-week online orientation course for new Instructors. Getting Started introduces instructors to the culture of CCCOnline, support resources and support processes for teaching with CCCOnline.
Registration close date: August 10th, 2012

To register for any of these opportunities, please visit https://at.ccconline.org/training/login.php and log in with your S# and related portal password.

As always, please feel free to contact training@ccconline.org with comments and questions.

Sean Renner
Training and Professional Development Coordinator 

Sunday, July 08, 2012

Getting to know Sean Renner, CCCOnline's Training and PD Coordinator


For the past 5 years, Sean Renner has brought his leadership, creativity, training and multimedia skills to higher education, helping to create and facilitate engaging and effective learning experiences.

Sean graduated from Elon University in North Carolina with a degree in Communications and Multimedia Production. In 2007, Sean moved to Saint Louis, Missouri, where he served as the Instructional Media Developer for the Saint Louis College of Pharmacy. There, Sean focused on developing and implementing academic technology solutions for the college, and training faculty, staff, and students on instructional technology, software, and the creation of creative multimedia content.

In 2010, Sean moved to Denver, Colorado, where he began working at CCCOnline as an Instructional Designer, collaborating with instructors to create innovative courses for CCCOnline as well as helping to develop multimedia professional development opportunities for staff and instructors. Sean is excited about being a relatively new Colorado resident, as he loves spending time outdoors. Sean is also known as a seasoned traveler and a lover of all things musical.

Meet Rudilee Gabel, CCCOnline's new College Level Math Program Chair

CCCOnline would like to introduce Rudilee Gabel, our new College Math Program Chair. Rudilee has been a CCCOnline instructor since 2008 and “absolutely loves the online environment.” She also has taught with Pikes Peak Community College, and altogether has been teaching within the Colorado Community College System for over seven years. 
Rudilee recently completed her Doctoral degree in Education Leadership with an emphasis in Curriculum and Instruction from University of Phoenix. She earned a Master’s degree in Secondary Education and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Colorado College.
She hails from Pueblo, Colorado, and she and her husband currently reside in Colorado Springs with their two small daughters and two Shih Tzu dogs. Rudilee enjoys shopping, reading, watching movies, camping, traveling, and spending time with her husband, family, and friends.

Monday, July 02, 2012

July 2012 Professional Development Opportunities

Greetings!

There are several professional development opportunities for coming up this month that are still available for registration.

Workshops

Title: Managing Discussions
When: July 16th - July 30th 2012
Where: Online in Desire2Learn
Focus: The discussions component of your online course is your virtual classroom. In this two-week online workshop, explore different ways to organize discussions, make discussions more engaging, to maximize your own participation in discussions as well as that of your students, evaluate discussions, explore QA expectations, and more.
Registration close date: July 6th, 2012

Title: D2L Essentials (intended for pre-hire CCCOnline instructors)
When: July 23rd - August 6th, 2012
Where: Online in Desire2Learn
Focus: This is a two-week fully online workshop designed to introduce instructors to the Desire to Learn (D2L) course system. Its primary goal is to prepare instructors to teach with D2L at a basic level during their first term. Activities are completed in a practice course.
Registration close date:July 13th, 2012

Tite: Getting Started (intended for pre-hire CCCOnline instructors)
When: July 30th - August 6th, 2012
Where: Online in Desire2Learn
Focus: This is a one-week online orientation course for new Instructors. Getting Started introduces instructors to the culture of CCCOnline, support resources and support processes for teaching with CCCOnline.
Registration close date: July 20th, 2012

Webinars

TitleFair Use/Copyright Basics for Online Education
When: July 20th, 2012 from 1:00pm - 2:00pm MST
Where: Online in WebEx
Focus: Recently there’s been concern surrounding the use of Pinterest and copyright violation. You’ve also probably run into questions when you’ve wanted to include an image, article or some other materials in your course. Come to learn about the updated Association of Research Libraries Fair Use policies and other helpful resources that will help you navigate the very rocky world of copyright in online education.


 To register for any of these opportunities, please visit https://at.ccconline.org/training/login.php and log in with your S# and related portal password.

As always, please feel free to contact training@ccconline.org with comments and questions.

Sean Renner
Training and Professional Development Coordinator