Surf's Up!

This from one of our faculty members:

Just a quick note to say that my surf band will be playing again, this Friday Feb. 6, 9 pm, at McDonough's Pub in Aurora (they're on East Iliff, right off of 225). We'll be playing along with the really fine rockabilly band, the Redline Rockets. No problem at all if you can't make it - I just wanted to give you the info. (Feel free to mention it to anyone else around the office, too!)

I now return you to your regularly scheduled Tuesday!

John Ragan
www.myspace.com/theroyalaces

Lisa Cheney-Steen

No Show Reporting

Hey Everyone,

I think we finally have this automated again! Just in time to move to a new LMS and start the project all over again also....

From John Schmahl:

I just wanted to let you know that faculty will not need to report no-shows for Spring. Frank has a report he can run that will show students who have not yet accessed any of the Vista tools. We found in testing that this gives us the same students as those who have not yet logged in. We will be pulling the report this morning and forwarding it to the colleges.

However, please remember that not all colleges drop no-show students.

Thanks!

John

best,

Lisa Cheney-Steen

(LMS update: We are still targeting this summer for pilot and fall for move/pilot. We expect to complete the selection process in about a week.)

Innovate Ezine

From LisaMarie:

Innovate (www.innovateonline.info)

The February/March issue opens with Marc Prensky revisiting--and revising--the digital native/digital immigrant dichotomy he added to our lexicon in 2001. Arguing that the native/immigrant paradigm will become less meaningful when everyone will have grown up in the era of digital technology, Prensky introduces the notion of digital wisdom. Digital wisdom, as Prensky defines it, comprises both wisdom in the prudent use of echnology and the wisdom we gain from sophisticated technologies that enhance human cognition.

(See http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=705&action=article)

I wonder if the "digital divide" may change in nature -- for example, I see the colleges working hard to implement a student email system, but I don't see any teenagers actually using email to communicate with each other.... email is a tool for older folks.

Also LisaMarie pointed out that the Horizon Report 2009 is out:

Horizon Report. (2009). The Horizon Report: 2009 Edition (PDF). A collaboration between The New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) an EDUCAUSE program.

Featured technological categories, or topics, in the 2009 report include:

• Mobiles
• Cloud Computing
• Geo-Everything
• The Personal Web
• Semantic-Aware Applications
• Smart Objects

A favorite quote is: "These recommendations are a starting place for continued dialog and reflection around the six topics in the Horizon Report, and are acknowledgments that while these technologies offer considerable promise and potential, much work remains to be done before many of them are really ready for mainstream use" (p. 31). The quote is a favorite to me because it reminds me of how new technologies become mainstream - through use.

best,

Lisa Cheney-Steen

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

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.

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

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

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

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."

eLCC Conference (Formerly TELECOOP)

The 20th annual eLCC technology conference, "Technology and the Next Generation: Are YouReady?" will be held April 15-17 in Vail. CCCOnline can send 2 - 3 faculty to this conference as presenters, so please feel free to submit your workshop proposal to eLCC (by January 23) and let Lisa CS or Donna know if you'd like to present. For more conference information, please go to http://www.telecoop.org/conference/index.html.

LMS Selection Process Update

Dear Faculty,

The LMS selection committee would like to update you on our progress towards choosing a learning management system for the future. As you already know, we down-selected in November to four finalists. Those finalists provided sandbox areas for all of us to review the products. (Those sandboxes are open through January 5^th, as is the survey form for feedback to the selection committee). We also had the finalists come to Colorado to present their solution to the selection committee. The vendor presentations took place the first week of December.

Our next task will be checking references. We plan to be as thorough as possible, with all members of the selection committee taking part in the reference check process.

Last, in mid-January we are planning on sending a technical team to visit the hosting facilities of at least the top two vendors.

Once we have all of that information in place the selection committee will meet to make the final selection. That meeting is currently scheduled for late January. After the selection committee has agreed on a recommendation we will take that recommendation to the executive steering committee and to the presidents at the February 10^th presidents meeting. The name of the finalist will be released at that time.

We would all like to be more forthcoming about the process and the many discussions taking place around the merits of the vendors and learning management systems, however, as you know, the state purchasing rules which govern the RFP process require strict confidentiality throughout the process. We extend our appreciation to all who participated in this process by testing the sandboxes and completing the survey. The information gleaned from these surveys was instrumental in crafting additional questions for the current finalists and will also be utilized as part of the final evaluation process. Be assured we are releasing as much information as possible without compromising the process.

Sincerely,

The Learning Technology Council/RFP Committee

Link to Sandboxes: http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Sandbox_Areas_for_LMS_Finalists

Voice Grading

Here's a link to a post by Terry Anderson of Athabasca University on using Adobe Acrobat's voice annotation tool to grade papers. There is also an interesting comment from someone else in response on another tool. I think I mentioned this tool as a possible "time saver that actually increases comment quality" in a past post, but this includes more information.

http://terrya.edublogs.org/2008/12/14/marking-with-voice-tools/

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Happy Holidays

This picture even has Kurt -- under the Santa hat at the back. And that is LisaMarie in the pc. Aaron is the Santa on the left.

Lisa

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from the CCCOnline Staff

Student Surveys, Course Dupes

Student surveys are now available for your viewing pleasure! Follow this link http://at.ccconline.org/survey/faculty2 and log on using your S# and pin.

Also, just a reminder: Please be sure to read the emails you receive when a course has been duped for you and indicate within 72 hours whether or not the correct content is in the course; you'll then respond one more time (prior to the beginning of the term) to indicate that the course is ready for first-day course checks. This helps ensure that you and your students don't have any unpleasant surprises on the first day of class!

LMS Sandboxes

Hi Everyone-

Just a reminder that the sandboxes are open for the finalists in the LMS selection process. Login information is available at http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Sandbox_Areas_for_LMS_Finalists. Please complete the survey form for anyone you play with.

The selection committee will continue to compile questions from those surveys and we will make sure we ask them of the vendors.

Thanks!

Lisa Cheney-Steen

FERPA Update

Hi Everyone-

LisaMarie sent me a link to an article on Inside Higher Ed about the "new" rules around FERPA. The article is available online here: http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/12/09/ferpa

Of interest to me was this quote:

For example, here is the language on disciplinary records: “[N]othing in FERPA prevents an educational agency or institution from including in a student’s records and disclosing to teachers and school officials, including those in other schools, appropriate information about disciplinary actions taken against a student for conduct that posed a significant risk to the safety or well-being of that student, other students, or other members of the school community.”

As CCCOnline grows we will inevitable see more disciplinary problems and, even though we are online, we do now and then have scary communications with a student. In general I think it is still important to allow students to have the benefit of the doubt -- to assume that just because they had problems in one class does not mean the problems will escalate in the next class. That means we still don't want to exchange much information about students with whom we have had problems in a course and that the best way to exchange information is still through student services. That said, if there is a trend, it's nice to know that we aren't violating student privacy rights it we collect information about discipline problems across courses and act on it.

Don't forget we have a new FERPA training site on the faculty wiki at http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=FERPA_and_Online_Communications.

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Last Training Reminder

Stuck at home due to snow today or do you just need to get your training credit?

Join us today for a Webinar scheduled for l2pm! The session will focus on what SafeAssign is as well as how and when to use SafeAssign. Session will be facilitated by members of CCCOnline's Training and Professional Development and Instructional Design teams. Additionally, the CCCOnline Associate Academic Dean, Donna Welschmeyer, will be available during the question and answer portion to address questions about policies for plagiarism and use of SafeAssign.
· TUESDAY, December 9, 2008, from 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM (Mountain)
· Click here to access the session (opens Elluminate).
· OR, access from the FRCC Elluminate page by going to the following link and clicking on the date: December 9, 2008: http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/

Fall Grades Due by December 11

Dear Faculty;

It's that time of the semester, Fall grades are due no later than Thursday, December 11, 2008.

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.

If you have any students needing their grades earlier, please contact John Schmahl, john.schmahl@cccs.edu or Roxanne Manske, roxanne.manske@cccs.edu.

To submit final grades:

go to the online Grade Book here, https://at.ccconline.org/gradebook/input/

Login using your Blackboard Vista login credentials

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 section**

Enter a Last Date of Attendance for any students receiving a grade of “F”

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)
I (must include incomplete contract)

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)
I (must include incomplete contract)

Last Training Opportunity this Year!

Can you believe 2008 is almost over? I know I'm enjoying the snow and the holiday season, but can't believe how fast the year has gone.

Our last training opportunity this year is next week. A Webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at l2pm (noon) and will focus on what SafeAssign is as well as how and when to use SafeAssign. Session will be facilitated by members of CCCOnline's Training and Professional Development and Instructional Design teams. Additionally, the CCCOnline Associate Academic Dean, Donna Welschmeyer, will be available during the question and answer portion to address questions about policies for plagiarism and use of SafeAssign. No preregistration is required and this does count as a training credit.

TUESDAY, December 9, 2008, from 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM (Mountain)
Click here to access the session (opens Elluminate). OR, access from the FRCC Elluminate page by going to the following link and clicking on the date: December 9, 2008: http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/