Classes Delayed 24 Hours

Hi Everyone -

The following message went out to students this morning:

Courses Begin Tuesday at Noon (MT)

August 29 First Day of Class
The first day of class has been moved from Monday to Tuesday, because of data issues. CCCOnline is using this extra day to ensure that all students are in their correct online courses.

The Colorado Community College System (All 13 Colorado State Community Colleges) is still in the process of moving to a new student information database. Information coming from this new database continues to have incorrect data. However, CCCOnline is working to get this issue resolved and we expect to receive correct data in time for courses to begin on Tuesday, August 29th at Noon (Mountain Time).

The basic issue has been pulling the dropped student information from the new student information system (Banner). We initially enroll all of our students in section C11, then drop them from that section and move them to the other sections. Without the drop data all students are still in C11 as well as the correct section. That might cause a *challenging* situation for everyone teaching a C11 section (CE and Vista), so we've moved our start date to tomorrow to clean it up.

Stay tuned for updates.

Sorry-

Lisa

Odd Happenings in Courses

Hi All-

Over the weekend we've had a couple of odd things happen in Vista courses. We have at least one course with a welcome announcement popping up that the instructor didn't write. The My CCCOnline page also has calendar entries from BIO 111 no matter what whether you are enrolled in that class or not. (And the calendar tool is still turned off.....)

We're working on figuring out what is causing both of those issues. Please email Rick.Hadley@cccs.edu if you have an unexpected welcome message popping up in your class. I think the BIO piece on the MyCCCOnline page is there for almost everyone, so don't bother emailing on that one.

Last there is the matter of names -- everyone's name is coming from Banner and what Banner has in its database is your legal name (from your social security card). Many of us (including me) don't use that name and are frustrated by the inability to change it for students. As soon as you try to change a student's name in Vista to the name they want to be called you will be frustrated by your inability to do that also. We're working on a solution for this also -- don't hold your breath though because it's fairly far down in the que. Bugs the heck out of me, but I swore I wouldn't hassle IT about this one.

Keep an eye out for other odd happenings in your classes and let your VV know if you see any. We expect more, but hope for none.

Now aren't you folks who didn't get to move to Vista this semester really, really sad? :^)

Get ready, get set, .......

Lisa

Books and Financial Aid

Hi Everyone-

This year the conversion from our old SIS to Banner has made many of our standard processes more challenging. One area that has ben particularly problematic has been student financial aid. As a result of these problems many students were foced to order their textbooks fairly late. That means of course that more students than usual may not have their textbook on the first day of classes. Please remember that just this once it wasn't their fault and be patient.

Thanks-
Lisa

Friday enrollment update

Enrollment update from John --

We are at 9,916 total enrollments for fall this year and we had 9,497 on this date last year. For Fall session 1, we are at 8,551 enrollments. We were at 8,134 enrollments last year on this date for session 1. For session 2 this year, we are at 1,365 enrollments and we had 1,363 last year on this date.

Remember that none of the colleges have done a purge for non-payment, so your class may have a few more non-active students than you typically see. Of course if you can talk those students into participating we will collect tuition eventually.

Thanks,

Lisa

Student Rosters with Email Addresses

Hi Everyone-

We are still sharing students out over course sections and expect to continue to this process through Sunday night, thus we won't be able to load students into your course shells until Monday morning. Because we won't have accurate rosters for each section until the student load process runs Monday morning you won't have external email addresses for your students until then.

I know many of you send out welcome emails the weekend before classes start - unfortunately those will have to be delayed until Monday afternoon.

We are still planning on opening classes at noon on Monday, but that is not absolutely guaranteed at this point. Student services personnel are moving each student, one at a time, into the correct section, then checking to see that the overall section is balanced, then making any adjustments needed. We may not have the section enrollments as perfectly balanced as usual this fall because of all the hand work involved.

It's been an interesting last few weeks. Thanks to all of you for all of your patience!

Lisa

Note for Vista faculty -- Subscribed files

Hi Everyone-

I forgot to mention that the files for your schedule and syllabus may be "subscribed". That means they are linked to a template and you can't change them. Before you change them you have to unsubscribe. That copies them down into the course and makes them your personal files.

I am trying to go through classes and do this for folks, but I am sure I will miss a few.

To unsubscribe a file:

1) Click on File Manager
2) Your syllabus and schedule pages are probably in the course information folder, so click there.
3) Click on the little drop down menu beside the file
4) Click on unsubscribe
5) It asks you if you are sure -- you are. :^)

If there is a little green icon next to your file name, then that file is subscribed. The subscription concept is kind of neat for things in our courses that we share over multiple sections and/or multiple faculty, but it adds a little complexity also.

Thanks-
Lisa

Logins, URLs, due dates, etc.

Hi Everyone-

First of all, we have more enrollments today than we did on this same day last year! So I hope most of you have as many sections to teach as you wanted to have.

For folks teaching in CE:

You should see your classes by now. Remember to log in between terms you need to go to http://instructors.ccconline.org. The other big change is that you have to use your S# and new password from Banner. You should have received an email with that information. If you didn't please email Jonathan.Fuller@cccs.edu for help.

For technical support this term please email profhelp@cccs.edu as usual.

For folks teaching in Vista:

Probably you see your classes, but we still have a few laggards. Today is the deadline for finishing those, so by tomorrow you should have your course. You also use your S#to log in; email Jonathan.Fuller@cccs.edu if you don't have that. To log in go to http://cccs.blackboard.com and click on CCCOnline.

For technical support please turn first to your Vista Volunteer. Your chair should have introduced you to whomever that is by now and made sure your have contact information for them. Please email your chair right away if you don't know who your VV is. Your VV has gone through some extra training and was part of the Vista pilot this summer. They are ready and waiting to help you with everything you need! (Applause for the VV's here!)

We just turned the calendar tool off (in Vista). It was showing every student every due date, whether they were registered for a course or not. Rick Hadley is trying to fix that. If he can we will turn it back on again. Meanwhile we thought it was too confusing, so turned it off. Sorry!

For Everyone:

We know we have been running behind this fall, so understand if you can't have your syllabus and schedule updated by Thursday. You still have to have them current by Sunday night, but we won't knock anyone off of matrix 2 if they are running a little behind also.

It is going to be a challenging start to the semester on Monday, so please be prepared with an extra helping or three of patience.

Thanks-
Lisa

And more ahead!

We are at 8,133 total enrollments for fall this year and we had 7,563 on this date last year. For Fall session 1, we are at 7,112 enrollments. We were at 6,491 enrollments last year on this date for session 1. For session 2 this year, we are at 1,021 enrollments and we had 1,072 last year on this date.

That's up about 9%.

The tricky part here is that the colleges have not done a purge for non-payment and are not planning on doing one this year. That means some of those students are folks who have signed up for classes they aren't really planning on taking and are assuming they will be purged. We will ask you to remind students this fall that they need to be sure to pay their tuition bill, since they won't get that reminder from the colleges.

Still -- it's looking pretty good today! And I do expect fall 2 to be very very large.

Lisa

We're Ahead!

We have pulled ahead of last years numbers. A total of 7,026 enrollments for fall this year and we had 6,999 on this date last year. For Fall session 1, we are at 6,146 enrollments. We were at 6,004 enrollments last year on this date for session 1. For session 2 this year, we are at 880 enrollments and we had 995 last year on this date.

Thanks!

John

John Schmahl

Director of Student Services, CCCOnline

Enrollment update

We are down only 6% this morning!

Lisa

CCCWeb down until just before noon today

The CCCWeb site for CCCOnline was down until just before noon today. If you are still having problems please contact John Schmahl at John.Schmahl@cccs.edu.

Lisa

"Ghost" courses in Campus Edition and Vista.

Dear Faculty:

This semester CCCOnline will be delivering some of our courses in the Vista Learning Management System (LMS) and some in Campus Edition LMS. Students may have courses in both LMS. All students will be directed first to Campus Edition, even when the course they have registered for is delivered in Vista.

Inside Campus Edition the student will find links to all of their Campus Edition courses and links to course shells for the courses the student may be taking via Vista. These shells contain information about the two delivery methods and links to the Vista courses. The student can then bookmark the Vista site for future use.

Inside Vista, the student will see shells for their Campus Edition courses as well as their Vista courses. These shell for CE courses will give them instructions about the CE course and also provide a link back to CE. So, whether in CE or Vista, the student will have a link to either put them inside the course or take them to their course in the other LMS.

The purpose of the dual shell system is to make sure students can access all of their courses from both CE and Vista, so no one forgets they have a course in Vista and only goes to CE.

You will probably see these "ghost" courses in either CE or Vista. You may feel like you need to update these shells and/or change the information included in them. Please don't do that. Academic Technology (that's David, Frank, and Rick) will provide any set-up needed. Our goal is to keep the extra shells consistent and you definitely don't want students doing work in the wrong place. Student services (Judy, Roxanne, John, and Deb) are also communicating with students about the extra shells and their purpose.

The Academic Technology folks are working on a script that will unenroll you (faculty) from all of the extra shells, but we don't expect that script to be complete before the fall term begins.

I should probably mention that students will also see course shells for all of their face-to-face courses in Vista. If the instructor is not using the course shell at all, clicking on the link gives students a pop-up window which recommends that they call their instructor for more information. You may receive questions about those shells also -- just let students know that that probably means their instuctor isn't using the shell, but that they should ask during the next class period.

Thanks for your help.

Lisa

Enrollment

Hi everyone-

Today's enrollment figures are looking up. For Fall session 1, we are at 5,443 enrollments. We were at 5,982 enrollments last year on this date for session 1. For session 2 this year, we are at 768 enrollments and we had 948 last year on this date. That means we are down about 9% for session 1 with about 2 weeks of registration to go.

I also sent out the file with enrollment is specific courses via email.

Lisa

Enrollment update

From John Schmahl:

Here are the numbers for today. For Fall session 1, we are at 5,011 enrollments. We were at 5,553 enrollments last year on this date for session 1. For session 2 this year, we are at 689 enrollments and we had 871 last year on this date.

Thanks!

John

We are down only 10.8% now!

Lisa

Access to Fall Course Shells

Dear Faculty:

This email is to let you know what to expect for logins and course sections for Fall whether you are teaching in VISTA or WebCT CE (Campus Editon):

USE THE NEW LOGINS FOR VISTA & WEBCT CE COURSE FOR FALL and TRAINING:

Access to all Fall courses will be with Banner ID’s and passwords in both Vista and Campus Edition.

Training started after August 1 will only use the Banner ID and password. Your Banner ID and information about your password has been emailed individually to each CCCOnline instructor. If you did not received this information, contact Jonathan.Fuller@cccs.edu or David.Chatham@cccs.edu.

VISTA:
Vista brings a different process for creating and duplicating sections for you. The is how it will work for Fall:

1. Chairs submit requests.
2. Student Services assigns section to instructor in Banner.
3. Designers in consultation with faculty confirm that the Course Template is ready for use.
4. Academic Technology links the new template to the sections.
5. CCCOnline AT (Academic Technology Team) pick up Banner data run to show the section assignment from step 2.
6. Beginning August 7, CCCOnline AT will begin to load faculty and course sections –updates as new courses are added will be sent to chairs.
7. Faculty Login will be at this URL: http://online.ccconline.org
   you will use your new login (S# + PIN – this info was sent August 1). You will see your course (s) there as it (they) are added.
8. If you have questions about the dupe timeline, please contact your chair.

MULTIPLE VISTA SECTIONS

IMPORTANT: If you are teaching multiple sections of one course, you may update the first one and leave the others for us to copy. We are using a Template system this semester, so if you get one section completely ready and let your chair know, the Chair can have the others duplicated as a copy of the finished one, completing the process. This way you only have to get one section ready. If you are only teaching one section, then you simply make the changes in that section. This is similar to what we have done in CE.

FALL SECTIONS IN WEBCT CE
The URL for CE courses will be http://instructors.ccconline.org.

These sections will be created as requested by your Department Chairs. There have been some delays, due to the department reorganization and the software not cooperating with these changes. That has been remedied and sections should be coming soon for all.

David Chatham,
Dean of Academic Technology

Duping Courses -- from David Chatham, Dean of Academic Technology

Faculty:

Vista brings a different process for creating and duplicating sections for you. The process of getting access to Fall sections is as follows:

1. Chairs submit requests
2. Student Services assigns section to instructor in Banner
3. Designers, in consultation with faculty, confirm that the Course Template is ready for use.
4. Academic Technology links the new template to the sections
5. We pick up Banner data run to show the section assignment from step 2.

There is a lot of work right now going on for even these steps to occur. On Monday (Aug 7), we plan to upload the faculty ID’s to our CCCOnline institution. We will make sure that all sections that are actually ready are assigned to the instructor (the process which gives you access to the courses). I plan to communicate with the chair regularly as far as what sections are available in Vista. They would be the best source for this or you can simply login to Vista (online.ccconline.org) to see what is ready. If you happen to login and there isn’t an actual course there with content, then the section hasn’t yet been processed. Please do not feel that you need to do anything. Contact your chair for information on timeline.

IMPORTANT: If you are teaching multiple sections of one course, you may update the first one and leave the others for us to copy. We are using a Template system this semester, so if you get one section completely ready and let your chair know, the Chair can have the others duplicated as a copy of the finished one, completing the process. This way you only have to get one section ready. If you are only teaching one section, then you simply make the changes in that section. This is similar to what we have done in CE.

Access to all Fall courses will be with Banner ID’s and passwords in both Vista and Campus Edition.

Campus Edition:

These sections will be created as requested by your Department Chairs. There have been some delays, due to the department reorganization and the software not cooperating with these changes. That has been remedied and sections should be coming soon for all.

Access to all Campus Edition sections will be under the Banner ID’s and passwords. Rather, the courses will not show up under the old firstname,lastname login we have used for summer. The old logins will be left alone for access to Summer courses and any training or other projects that began before August 1. Training started after August 1 will only use the Banner ID and password. Your Banner ID and information about your password has been emailed individually to each CCCOnline instructor. If you did not received this information, contact Jonathan.Fuller@cccs.edu or David.Chatham@cccs.edu.

Faculty Access to Vista for Fall Courses

I've received lots of questions on when everyone will have access to your fall course shells in Vista. One of the more significant differences between Vista and Campus Edition is the connection to the student information system. Vista is much more tightly tied to the student information system (Banner beginning this fall) than CE was. Under Banner faculty are assigned a course section. When we pull the student enrollment data from Banner and load it into Vista the instructor information comes with that load. We can go ahead and assign you access to the courses with your current Vista login info, but that means you would be in your courses twice for the fall term.

David Chatham, Dean of Academic Technology, has been working with the Banner team to pull the faculty names and usernames from Banner so he can load that data into Vista and tie your fall courses to that username. John Schmahl, Director of Student Services and our Banner expert, is also still loading faculty into Banner.

If this all feels a tad last minute, we agree, it is. However, it's what we have to work with, so we're going forward as fast as we can. We do have a fall back plan if the faculty load doesn't happen this afternoon or Monday. Based on that we expect to give faculty access to their sections no later than the end of bext week, probably sooner.

Life is nothing if not exciting. :^)

Lisa

Today's Enrollments

Here are the numbers for today:

We are at 4,686 total enrollments. Last year on this date we had 5,348 enrollments.

That leaves us down 662 enrollments or 14%. I am forecasting flat for fall 1 and some growth for fall 2. Of course enrollment is uneven across classes and programs - for example courses which are pre-requisites for health professions are generally up, not down. For a complete copy of the enrollment picture please email your program chair.

Pike's Peak Community college and one or two others slid their fall start date a week, leaving it matching ours (we can't start any later because we run into Christmas break). That means any students closed out of classes offered at PPCC will need to take our fall 2 courses. Between that and college personnel and students just figuring out the new registration system I expect to see a lot of fall 2 enrollments.

Lisa

Fall Registration

Directions for students on how to register for fall courses are available on the CCCOnline web site at http://www.ccconline.org/register .

It would be great if everyone reminded students that it is registration time and gave them that link. We are sending emails and postcards, but it doesn't hurt to send the message again.

Lisa

CCCWeb back up

From IT:

Good news this time, the new server is up and running. Both CCCWeb Student and Faculty sites are available. We are still configuring supporting functions and hope to have them up soon. In the meantime, students and faculty should be able to use the sites without problem as of 10am. If a problem is reported, please try to ascertain that it occurred after 10am and forward it to the helpdesk as soon as possible.

Lisa