Thursday, November 20, 2008
NEW ProfHelp Process
Need help with a course issue? Instead of emailing ProfHelp with your questions, please use the NEW ProfHelp form located on your Faculty Gateway page. You can get to the Faculty Gateway by using the link on your “My CCCOnline” page or by using this direct link: at.ccconline.org/faculty. Just log in and look for the ProfHelp link. This new process will allow us to track the kinds of issues that you are seeing so we can better address recurring problems, etc. Thanks!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Sandboxes for LMS Finalists Available Now!
Hi Everyone-
As most of you know we are in the process of evaluating responses to the RFP for a new Learning Management System. The selection committee met last Friday to choose finalists for the new LMS. Those 4 vendors have set up sandbox areas for testing and evaluation of their products. We would like as many of you as have time to review the LMS's and pass your opinions/thoughts on them on to us via a survey form. The URL and login information as well as a link to a survey is posted on the wiki at
http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Sandbox_Areas_for_LMS_Finalists
If you lose the direct link just go to the faculty wiki and click on the Learning Technology Council link in the box at the top of the page. It is linked from there.
These 4 vendors will be evaluated based on feedback from faculty, staff, and students, on their presentations to the selection committee (scheduled for the first week of December), and on information from reference checks. At this point we will also include cost information. Based on the evaluations from this step we will choose one or two vendors for site visits by the technical evaluation team. We hope that will add enough information to enable us to make a final choice.
We appreciate the time you are taking to support us in this process and value the feedback on the LMS's!
best,
Lisa Cheney-Steen
As most of you know we are in the process of evaluating responses to the RFP for a new Learning Management System. The selection committee met last Friday to choose finalists for the new LMS. Those 4 vendors have set up sandbox areas for testing and evaluation of their products. We would like as many of you as have time to review the LMS's and pass your opinions/thoughts on them on to us via a survey form. The URL and login information as well as a link to a survey is posted on the wiki at
http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Sandbox_Areas_for_LMS_Finalists
If you lose the direct link just go to the faculty wiki and click on the Learning Technology Council link in the box at the top of the page. It is linked from there.
These 4 vendors will be evaluated based on feedback from faculty, staff, and students, on their presentations to the selection committee (scheduled for the first week of December), and on information from reference checks. At this point we will also include cost information. Based on the evaluations from this step we will choose one or two vendors for site visits by the technical evaluation team. We hope that will add enough information to enable us to make a final choice.
We appreciate the time you are taking to support us in this process and value the feedback on the LMS's!
best,
Lisa Cheney-Steen
Monday, November 17, 2008
Help With Wiki Organization
Hi everyone! As we move more content to the Wiki, we've discovered that we need to work on the organization of the Wiki so it's simpler to find things. Jonathan has been hard at work adding and modifying search tools within the Wiki, but we'd also like to create some organizer pages to help everyone locate the information they need.
Please answer the following questions for us by Thursday, November 20.
1. What top three categories of information do you most often search for on the Wiki?
2. What top five specific topics do you most often search for on the Wiki?
Thanks!
Please answer the following questions for us by Thursday, November 20.
1. What top three categories of information do you most often search for on the Wiki?
2. What top five specific topics do you most often search for on the Wiki?
Thanks!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
StudyMate Webinar Reminder
Hi Everyone,
This is a reminder about a training opportunity Friday, November 14th at 10 am. The webinar session will be facilitated by Shae Ramquizt, Sr. Account Manager for Respondus, Inc., the makers of the StudyMate Class Server product. CCCOnline's Blackboard Vista instructors can enable this learning tool now!
Come learn from Shae about all StudyMate Class Server can do for you and learners. This webinar counts as one training credit, and No RSVP is required, just join us at http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/.
This is a reminder about a training opportunity Friday, November 14th at 10 am. The webinar session will be facilitated by Shae Ramquizt, Sr. Account Manager for Respondus, Inc., the makers of the StudyMate Class Server product. CCCOnline's Blackboard Vista instructors can enable this learning tool now!
Come learn from Shae about all StudyMate Class Server can do for you and learners. This webinar counts as one training credit, and No RSVP is required, just join us at http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Study Mate Webinar Friday!
Hi Everyone,
We have a few training opportunities left this year. On Friday, November 14th at 10 am, we have a webinar session facilitated by Shae Ramquizt, Sr. Account Manager for Respondus, Inc., the makers of the StudyMate Class Server product. CCCOnline's Blackboard Vista instructors can enable this awesome learning tool now! Come learn from Shae about all it can do for you and learners.
This webinar counts as one training credit, and No RSVP is required, just join us at http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/.
We have a few training opportunities left this year. On Friday, November 14th at 10 am, we have a webinar session facilitated by Shae Ramquizt, Sr. Account Manager for Respondus, Inc., the makers of the StudyMate Class Server product. CCCOnline's Blackboard Vista instructors can enable this awesome learning tool now! Come learn from Shae about all it can do for you and learners.
This webinar counts as one training credit, and No RSVP is required, just join us at http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/.
Saturday, November 08, 2008
The CCCS Learning Management System RFP
In the summer of 2008 the Learning Technology Council (LTC) initiated an RFP process for the Learning Management System. There were several reasons for this decision. First, our current contract with Blackboard expires on June 30th of 2009. The size of this contract is such that the LTC feels that we have a fiscal responsibility to look at our options before signing another multi-year contract. We also feel that the market for learning management systems has changed significantly since the last RFP and warrants another look. Then in July of this year Blackboard announced the development schedule for their new, combined product, Blackboard Next Generation. Their product development schedule suggests that if we stay with Blackboard we will find ourselves migrating to a new BB product in about two years. Thus we are probably migrating to a "new" LMS whatever the result of this RFP process. And last, Blackboard Vista has not been as stable a product for us as we would like it to be, leaving us wondering about its ability to handle the growth in usage we expect over the next two years.
The RFP process formally began last spring, when we surveyed faculty for your input on the current LMS and your thoughts about a potential change. Later that spring and into the summer the LTC invited potential LMS vendors to make presentations to us as part of an overall market review. Finally in August we formalized the RFP committee as the members of the Learning Technology Council plus a representative from SFAC, Kathy Winograd (English Faculty from ACC). This means that every college has at least one representative on the RFP committee. (This membership list is for internal use only.)
It is very important to the selection committee to have input into the LMS decision from as many faculty and staff as possible. To facilitate this input the committee will ask the finalists in the selection process to provide a sandbox with access to their product for usability testing. The access will include faculty, student, and administrative roles. The selection committee will have a feedback survey available for your use once you've had a chance to review the products. The tentative dates for the sandboxes and surveys are Nov. 17th through December 3rd. We would appreciate it if you would block out some time for this review during that period.
As the RFP process for the new Learning Management System moves forward, the selection committee has outlined a plan for evaluating vendors and making our recommendation to the Executive Steering Committee (made up of CCCS senior administrators and several college presidents) by mid-January. The tentative schedule is as follows:
Best,
The Learning Technology Council
CCCOnline, Rhonda Epper, Lisa Cheney-Steen, and David Chatham
CCCS-IT, Julie Ouska
ACC, Lee Christopher
CCA, George Lesko
CCD, Jeanne Stroh
CNCC, Sandy McKelvey
FRCC, Tammy Vercauteren and Donna Hall
LCC, Vicke Denniston
MCC, Don Estes
NJC, Cyndi Vandenbark
OJC, Vanessa Forselius
PCC, Robin Leach
PPCC, Julie Witherow and Fabrizio Labate
RRCC, Rebecca Woulfe
TSJC, Jocelyn King
The RFP process formally began last spring, when we surveyed faculty for your input on the current LMS and your thoughts about a potential change. Later that spring and into the summer the LTC invited potential LMS vendors to make presentations to us as part of an overall market review. Finally in August we formalized the RFP committee as the members of the Learning Technology Council plus a representative from SFAC, Kathy Winograd (English Faculty from ACC). This means that every college has at least one representative on the RFP committee. (This membership list is for internal use only.)
It is very important to the selection committee to have input into the LMS decision from as many faculty and staff as possible. To facilitate this input the committee will ask the finalists in the selection process to provide a sandbox with access to their product for usability testing. The access will include faculty, student, and administrative roles. The selection committee will have a feedback survey available for your use once you've had a chance to review the products. The tentative dates for the sandboxes and surveys are Nov. 17th through December 3rd. We would appreciate it if you would block out some time for this review during that period.
As the RFP process for the new Learning Management System moves forward, the selection committee has outlined a plan for evaluating vendors and making our recommendation to the Executive Steering Committee (made up of CCCS senior administrators and several college presidents) by mid-January. The tentative schedule is as follows:
* Sept 18th, RFP released;If you have additional questions please contact your LTC representative. We will continue to post updates (including committee membership) on the wiki - http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=LMS_Selection_Process#LMS_Selection_Process.
* Oct. 30th, proposals due back from vendors;
* Nov. 14th, first vendor down-select, possibly to 2-4 finalists;
* Nov. 17th through December 3rd, usability testing (sandboxes available);
* Dec. 3rd through December 5th, vendor presentations to the selection committee;
* Dec. 7th through mid-December, possible visits by a technical team to the finalist's hosting facilities;
* Mid-December, final analyses and reports from sub-committees;
* Early January, Final summary analysis;
* Mid-January, recommendation to Executive Steering Committee;
* Summer 2009 and fall 2009, pilot new LMS.
Best,
The Learning Technology Council
CCCOnline, Rhonda Epper, Lisa Cheney-Steen, and David Chatham
CCCS-IT, Julie Ouska
ACC, Lee Christopher
CCA, George Lesko
CCD, Jeanne Stroh
CNCC, Sandy McKelvey
FRCC, Tammy Vercauteren and Donna Hall
LCC, Vicke Denniston
MCC, Don Estes
NJC, Cyndi Vandenbark
OJC, Vanessa Forselius
PCC, Robin Leach
PPCC, Julie Witherow and Fabrizio Labate
RRCC, Rebecca Woulfe
TSJC, Jocelyn King
Friday, November 07, 2008
Last Day at Sloan-C Conference
Hey Everyone-
I am still looking for the Holy Grail of Educational Gaming, so as a part of that I started the day with a presentation by Harvard Business Publishing on simulations. The presenter had some very good lessons learned -- 1) syllabus space is tight, so develop very small topical sims rather than try to replace the entire class; 2) the administrative hurdle of managing sims is huge (that is both faculty administration and the business side; 3) students expect an engaging interface; 4) beware of the "complexity = reality" trap; your sim must stay "teachable and usable". Harvard Publishing primarily develops sims that can be completed in under 2 hours -- that includes prep, play, and de-brief. They have to support case-based teaching.
Harvard is developing in conjunction with a company called Forio (http://forio.com/simulations.htm) because that was the best way they found to solve delivery and payment issues. It sounded like they charge students for the sims via credit card. We would probably have to expand our digital content fee instead, but it is doable now.
The Universal Rental car pricing is a single player sim, the Everest climb is multi-player. They are both interesting. Forio also has free sim development software that probably sucks you into buying the full version. :^)
(As a side note the night before I had dinner with the folks from Lab-Paq, who are thinking of developing a forensics course based on CSI. There is a ot of interest in games!)
I put on my student services hat next and went to a session on developing student community and support via social networking tools such as Twitter, Second Life, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube. I am planning a survey in the not too distance future to find out which web2.0 technologies both you and our students use. We do need to expand and organize our community space, decide which parts belong behind the firewall and which belong outside, decide which tools to use for which purposes.
My last presentation was on designing a First Year Seminar experience for online, adult learners. There is a large body of research showing that traditional first year students benefit significantly from success seminars. While there is not much research on online, adult learners our orientation has ben very popular with students. We also have two program chairs who have been puching for the development of some sort of success seminar for studens for quite some time. Goals of such a seminar would include
Finally, the closing speaker was Liz Burge (http://www.unbf.ca/education/faculty/burge.html), professor of adult education at the University of New Brunswick. Three general principles from her presentation:
Then a long plane ride home where I reverted to a very old technology and knitted. :^)
Lisa
I am still looking for the Holy Grail of Educational Gaming, so as a part of that I started the day with a presentation by Harvard Business Publishing on simulations. The presenter had some very good lessons learned -- 1) syllabus space is tight, so develop very small topical sims rather than try to replace the entire class; 2) the administrative hurdle of managing sims is huge (that is both faculty administration and the business side; 3) students expect an engaging interface; 4) beware of the "complexity = reality" trap; your sim must stay "teachable and usable". Harvard Publishing primarily develops sims that can be completed in under 2 hours -- that includes prep, play, and de-brief. They have to support case-based teaching.
Harvard is developing in conjunction with a company called Forio (http://forio.com/simulations.htm) because that was the best way they found to solve delivery and payment issues. It sounded like they charge students for the sims via credit card. We would probably have to expand our digital content fee instead, but it is doable now.
The Universal Rental car pricing is a single player sim, the Everest climb is multi-player. They are both interesting. Forio also has free sim development software that probably sucks you into buying the full version. :^)
(As a side note the night before I had dinner with the folks from Lab-Paq, who are thinking of developing a forensics course based on CSI. There is a ot of interest in games!)
I put on my student services hat next and went to a session on developing student community and support via social networking tools such as Twitter, Second Life, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube. I am planning a survey in the not too distance future to find out which web2.0 technologies both you and our students use. We do need to expand and organize our community space, decide which parts belong behind the firewall and which belong outside, decide which tools to use for which purposes.
My last presentation was on designing a First Year Seminar experience for online, adult learners. There is a large body of research showing that traditional first year students benefit significantly from success seminars. While there is not much research on online, adult learners our orientation has ben very popular with students. We also have two program chairs who have been puching for the development of some sort of success seminar for studens for quite some time. Goals of such a seminar would include
- Examine reasons for attending college,
- learn strategies for becoming a successful adult learner,
- build a support system,
- learn how to manage work, family, school,
- learn study skills,
- learn about college support services,
- and many more.
Finally, the closing speaker was Liz Burge (http://www.unbf.ca/education/faculty/burge.html), professor of adult education at the University of New Brunswick. Three general principles from her presentation:
- Technology application is a defining, but not a single, attribute of distance education.
- Technology should transparently mediate interactions.
- Never feel compelled to adopt the new because it is new; that is not the point.
Then a long plane ride home where I reverted to a very old technology and knitted. :^)
Lisa
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Day 2 of Sloan C
Hi Everyone-
I started the day at a session on the state of gaming in education. The presenter was Benjamin Noel who got his start in World of Warcraft, but is now moving on to education. Hi current company has two games for education available or soon to be available. The first is Burn Center. It's goal is to teach peopple how to deal with large scale disasters -- in this case 40 burn patients at once. It makes sense to do that in a game because it is a low likelihood scenario, but one that our health professionals possibly should be prepared for. There is a movie on the game available here -- http://www.360ed.com/products/. The second game is Conspiracy Code, a game aimed at teaching American History to K12. History is another obvious target for gaming as whether or not you found it interesting probably depended entirely on your teacher. We watch the History Channel obsessively, but complain equally incessantly about how it's taught in K12.
Both look like they have possibilities and I do see the positive aspects of games as a learning strategy. I think my older daugher has learned more economics and history from Civilization IV than she has in school. I am not sure we have a financial or educational model that works well with games yet though.
Next I wet to a session on search engines. That was fascinating -- one presenter (Ray Schroeder) has a blog site with links to engines at http://alternatesearch.blogspot.com
There is also a tutorial at About.Com that incudes much of the information from the presentation - http://websearch.about.com/.
They reminded me of really cool sites like Archive.org and the WayBackMachine, which are fabulous if a link you used in a course has gone missing.
Last presentation of the morning was a panel talking abouthte future. Not a lot there unfortunately, but there were brief mentions of software as service, online computing (ie Buzzword from yesterday) and cloud computing in general. There are some very important questions around data storage when you begin to seriously use the power of cloud computing. (Do you know where your gmail or delicious bookmarks are stored? How about the presentations you out up on Slide Rocket?) However, the sheer power, convenience, and ability to scale are going to outweigh many of those data considerations for many of us.
And it's only noon here...
Lisa
(And I apologize for any typos -- I am sitting by the pool to type this and can barely see the screen. :^))
I started the day at a session on the state of gaming in education. The presenter was Benjamin Noel who got his start in World of Warcraft, but is now moving on to education. Hi current company has two games for education available or soon to be available. The first is Burn Center. It's goal is to teach peopple how to deal with large scale disasters -- in this case 40 burn patients at once. It makes sense to do that in a game because it is a low likelihood scenario, but one that our health professionals possibly should be prepared for. There is a movie on the game available here -- http://www.360ed.com/products/. The second game is Conspiracy Code, a game aimed at teaching American History to K12. History is another obvious target for gaming as whether or not you found it interesting probably depended entirely on your teacher. We watch the History Channel obsessively, but complain equally incessantly about how it's taught in K12.
Both look like they have possibilities and I do see the positive aspects of games as a learning strategy. I think my older daugher has learned more economics and history from Civilization IV than she has in school. I am not sure we have a financial or educational model that works well with games yet though.
Next I wet to a session on search engines. That was fascinating -- one presenter (Ray Schroeder) has a blog site with links to engines at http://alternatesearch.blogspot.com
There is also a tutorial at About.Com that incudes much of the information from the presentation - http://websearch.about.com/.
They reminded me of really cool sites like Archive.org and the WayBackMachine, which are fabulous if a link you used in a course has gone missing.
Last presentation of the morning was a panel talking abouthte future. Not a lot there unfortunately, but there were brief mentions of software as service, online computing (ie Buzzword from yesterday) and cloud computing in general. There are some very important questions around data storage when you begin to seriously use the power of cloud computing. (Do you know where your gmail or delicious bookmarks are stored? How about the presentations you out up on Slide Rocket?) However, the sheer power, convenience, and ability to scale are going to outweigh many of those data considerations for many of us.
And it's only noon here...
Lisa
(And I apologize for any typos -- I am sitting by the pool to type this and can barely see the screen. :^))
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Emerging Technologies Workshop at Sloan-C
Hi Everyone-
I am at the Sloan-C conference on Online Learning in Orlando this week. I am attending all sorts of fascinating presentations and workshops and I want to pass at least some of the information on to you. Today I am at a workshop on emerging technologies....
Adding Audio
Adobe Acrobat lets you embed little tiny audio files in pdf files. So you can read your student's papers and comment via audio on their work. This of course requires that you own Acrobat Pro, which he thought was around $60.
The speaker's (Phil Ice) research suggests it saves about 60% of overall grading time. He also had research suggesting learning outcomes were significantly improved. The other reason to add audio comments on student work was some research quoted that showed learning improved when two senses were involved in the learning process (audio and visual). I will try to track that down as well.
Another way to do this is to record your grading session in Elluminate (we have a license or Elluminate V-Room is the free version) or in Adobe Connect (Connect Now is the free version). This also works well, but is a little bit more challenging for students to manage. I think you could also do this in Voice Thread, but haven't tried that yet. (VoiceThread.com, also has a free version).
Collaborative Documents
Adobe's new product is Buzzword. If you have used Googledocs this is significantly snazzier. Buzzword.acrobat.com. If you want to send me your email address (to Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu) I will add you to a document so you can see how it works with sharing turned on. (Side note -- there are two paths to collaboration -- wikis and web-based document management systems. They may be going to the same place, but are taking different routes. Wikis are very simple to use and have built in discussion tabs and version tracking. Buzzword concentrates on giving you the ability to build a document that you might print -- easy to add images for example. We have a wiki available for your use also -- students.ccconline.org or faculty.ccconline.org.)
Other Powerpoint Type Presentations
Slide Rocket is an online powerpoint presentation with a free version. You can find it at www.sliderocket.com.
Keynote - Terry Anderson of Athabasca University
Athabasca is Canada's online university. Here are the slides up on Slideshare already - http://www.slideshare.net/terrya/sloan-2008-presentation-720143.
Tonight Terry included some research on the efficacy of distance learning, synchronous versus asynchronous models, and the relative importance of different types of interaction (student/student, student/teacher, and student/content). Student/student turns out to be very important and it might be true that if you get one type right you might be able to sluff a bit on the other two.
Oh and slide 6 gives you the reason eLearnng is so popular right now. Completely wortyh the entire presentation just for that slide.
More tomorrow -- it's dinner time here.
Lisa Cheney-Steen
I am at the Sloan-C conference on Online Learning in Orlando this week. I am attending all sorts of fascinating presentations and workshops and I want to pass at least some of the information on to you. Today I am at a workshop on emerging technologies....
Adding Audio
Adobe Acrobat lets you embed little tiny audio files in pdf files. So you can read your student's papers and comment via audio on their work. This of course requires that you own Acrobat Pro, which he thought was around $60.
The speaker's (Phil Ice) research suggests it saves about 60% of overall grading time. He also had research suggesting learning outcomes were significantly improved. The other reason to add audio comments on student work was some research quoted that showed learning improved when two senses were involved in the learning process (audio and visual). I will try to track that down as well.
Another way to do this is to record your grading session in Elluminate (we have a license or Elluminate V-Room is the free version) or in Adobe Connect (Connect Now is the free version). This also works well, but is a little bit more challenging for students to manage. I think you could also do this in Voice Thread, but haven't tried that yet. (VoiceThread.com, also has a free version).
Collaborative Documents
Adobe's new product is Buzzword. If you have used Googledocs this is significantly snazzier. Buzzword.acrobat.com. If you want to send me your email address (to Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu) I will add you to a document so you can see how it works with sharing turned on. (Side note -- there are two paths to collaboration -- wikis and web-based document management systems. They may be going to the same place, but are taking different routes. Wikis are very simple to use and have built in discussion tabs and version tracking. Buzzword concentrates on giving you the ability to build a document that you might print -- easy to add images for example. We have a wiki available for your use also -- students.ccconline.org or faculty.ccconline.org.)
Other Powerpoint Type Presentations
Slide Rocket is an online powerpoint presentation with a free version. You can find it at www.sliderocket.com.
Keynote - Terry Anderson of Athabasca University
Athabasca is Canada's online university. Here are the slides up on Slideshare already - http://www.slideshare.net/terrya/sloan-2008-presentation-720143.
Tonight Terry included some research on the efficacy of distance learning, synchronous versus asynchronous models, and the relative importance of different types of interaction (student/student, student/teacher, and student/content). Student/student turns out to be very important and it might be true that if you get one type right you might be able to sluff a bit on the other two.
Oh and slide 6 gives you the reason eLearnng is so popular right now. Completely wortyh the entire presentation just for that slide.
More tomorrow -- it's dinner time here.
Lisa Cheney-Steen
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Conference Archive
Hi Everyone,
The 2008 Faculty Conference Archive pages are up for you to revisit presentations that you loved or review information about sessions you missed. Also, we have already gotten some thoughtful and useful suggestions on our conference survey. If you have not taken the survey yet, please take a moment to share with us your comments about our conference this year and what you would like to see from training in the upcoming year. The direct link is http://faculty.conference.org/2008Faculty_Conference_Survey
Karen Kaemmerling
The 2008 Faculty Conference Archive pages are up for you to revisit presentations that you loved or review information about sessions you missed. Also, we have already gotten some thoughtful and useful suggestions on our conference survey. If you have not taken the survey yet, please take a moment to share with us your comments about our conference this year and what you would like to see from training in the upcoming year. The direct link is http://faculty.conference.org/2008Faculty_Conference_Survey
Karen Kaemmerling
CCCOnline Employee of the Year
Dear Faculty;
Please join with me in congratulating our CCCOnline Employee of the Year, Roxanne Manske!
Roxanne started with CCCOnline over 9 years ago when we had less than 300 students. Today, thousands of students and hundreds of thousands of e-mails and phone calls later, Roxanne continues to be the star behind the scenes at CCCOnline. Her hard work and dedication keeps us afloat each semester and helps ensure the fantastic service and support that you have all come to expect.
It is no exaggeration to say that without her, our growth and success would not be possible. So, please join with me in thanking her for all of the work she does everyday and for helping us better serve you and our students!
Thank you Roxanne and congratulations!
John H Schmahl
Please join with me in congratulating our CCCOnline Employee of the Year, Roxanne Manske!
Roxanne started with CCCOnline over 9 years ago when we had less than 300 students. Today, thousands of students and hundreds of thousands of e-mails and phone calls later, Roxanne continues to be the star behind the scenes at CCCOnline. Her hard work and dedication keeps us afloat each semester and helps ensure the fantastic service and support that you have all come to expect.
It is no exaggeration to say that without her, our growth and success would not be possible. So, please join with me in thanking her for all of the work she does everyday and for helping us better serve you and our students!
Thank you Roxanne and congratulations!
John H Schmahl
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
What’s going on @t your CCCOnline Online Library?
Hi Everyone,
We’ve decided to start up a monthly blog posting on all things library at CCCOnline, so welcome to the first posting Some of this is information that you may already know, but it’s always good to be reminded of what’s out there.
CCCOnline/FRCC College Hill Article Databases:
Do you have students in the middle of a research project who are having problems finding good, solid and trustworthy information? Remember, all CCCOnline students can use the CCCOnline/FRCC College Hill article databases. Students can search on 30 different databases, including Academic Search Premier, Biomedical Reference Collection, ERIC, Business Source Premier, Consumer Health Complete, History Reference Center, Literary Reference Center, Newspaper Source, Nursing and Allied Health Collection, and more. In order to use the article databases, students will need to request a bar code and pin from the College Hill Library.
For more information, visit the Article Database information page on our student wiki ( http://www.studentwiki.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Search_Our_Online_Article_Databases).
The Research and Writing Toolkit:
Another valuable resource available to both faculty and students through our Online Library pages on the student wiki is the Research and Writing Toolkit at http://www.studentwiki.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Research_%26_Writing_Toolkit. The toolkit offers information on plagiarism, research and writing resource as well as information on different citation styles including MLA, APA, and more.
Ask a Librarian:
Two very important Ask a Librarian resources are available to CCCOnline students.
Ask Your Librarian - email service through College Hill Library (FRCC - Westminster). See http://www.frontrange.edu/form.aspx?id=2931
Ask Colorado - 24/7 Live Chat with a Librarian, an online information service provided by Colorado Libraries. See http://www.askcolorado.org/
Visit CCCOnline’s Online Library on the student wiki for more library and research resources: http://www.studentwiki.ccconline.org/index.php?title=CCCOnline%27s_Online_Library.
And, look for the “What’s going on @ your CCCOnline Online Library” post next month. If you have any questions, email me at mary.cash@cccs.edu. If I don’t know the answer to your question, I can steer you to someone who does know.
Mary Cash,
CCCOnline Instructional Designer/Library
We’ve decided to start up a monthly blog posting on all things library at CCCOnline, so welcome to the first posting Some of this is information that you may already know, but it’s always good to be reminded of what’s out there.
CCCOnline/FRCC College Hill Article Databases:
Do you have students in the middle of a research project who are having problems finding good, solid and trustworthy information? Remember, all CCCOnline students can use the CCCOnline/FRCC College Hill article databases. Students can search on 30 different databases, including Academic Search Premier, Biomedical Reference Collection, ERIC, Business Source Premier, Consumer Health Complete, History Reference Center, Literary Reference Center, Newspaper Source, Nursing and Allied Health Collection, and more. In order to use the article databases, students will need to request a bar code and pin from the College Hill Library.
For more information, visit the Article Database information page on our student wiki ( http://www.studentwiki.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Search_Our_Online_Article_Databases).
The Research and Writing Toolkit:
Another valuable resource available to both faculty and students through our Online Library pages on the student wiki is the Research and Writing Toolkit at http://www.studentwiki.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Research_%26_Writing_Toolkit. The toolkit offers information on plagiarism, research and writing resource as well as information on different citation styles including MLA, APA, and more.
Ask a Librarian:
Two very important Ask a Librarian resources are available to CCCOnline students.
Ask Your Librarian - email service through College Hill Library (FRCC - Westminster). See http://www.frontrange.edu/form.aspx?id=2931
Ask Colorado - 24/7 Live Chat with a Librarian, an online information service provided by Colorado Libraries. See http://www.askcolorado.org/
Visit CCCOnline’s Online Library on the student wiki for more library and research resources: http://www.studentwiki.ccconline.org/index.php?title=CCCOnline%27s_Online_Library.
And, look for the “What’s going on @ your CCCOnline Online Library” post next month. If you have any questions, email me at mary.cash@cccs.edu. If I don’t know the answer to your question, I can steer you to someone who does know.
Mary Cash,
CCCOnline Instructional Designer/Library
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Faculty Conference 2008
Thank you to everyone who attended the 2008 Birthday Conference! We had a great time and learned a lot from all of you!
We started the conference with a slide show --- just some of the wonderful and talented people who have helped to make CCCOnline what it is through the years.
It's a little larger on the wiki if you want to watch it there -- http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=08FacConf_Slide_Show.
Mary Beth Susman, past president of the Colorado Electronic College, the first incarnation of CCCOnline, was our keynote speaker. She left us with a raft of interesting links and things to think about as we enter our second decade.
We've place many ,inks to her information on the faculty wiki at http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=08FacConf_Keynote_Materials.
Some of the hightlights:
FURMAN COLLEGE that gives students video cameras to tell what they like about FURMAN
Example: www.engagefurman.com/home_1col2.asp
UNIGO – A beta site that is having students at colleges rate their colleges: specifically designed for high school students deciding on colleges. This link is to what they have about CU.
http://www.unigo.com/Colleges/UnigoReview/Default.aspx?CollegeId=50
3D Technology: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIqNdMqA7Kc
ITUNES U- Wonderful video/audio lectures
Walter H.G. Lewin M.I.T. Lectures, Promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zc9Nuoe2Ow
(There are many physics lectures online fo this professor also.)
Randy Pausch Your Childhood Dreams- Carnegie Mellon, the entire lecture is available on Youtube -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
Dan Ariely Predictably Irrational - Duke and M.I.T.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ5baAOrxXY
Online Course
Langdon Hammer Modern Poetry -Yale, http://oyc.yale.edu/english/modern-poetry.
RADIOHEAD
My inspiration that college needs to be free, because if the music industry can do it, we can.
http://stereogum.com/archives/new-radiohead-album-in-rainbows-out-october-10th_006620.html. (Here's a comment from an econ blog on that model though that isn't entirely positive. http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/10/pay-what-you-wa.html.)
More information about conference materials coming soon.
Lisa Cheney-Steen
We started the conference with a slide show --- just some of the wonderful and talented people who have helped to make CCCOnline what it is through the years.
It's a little larger on the wiki if you want to watch it there -- http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=08FacConf_Slide_Show.
Mary Beth Susman, past president of the Colorado Electronic College, the first incarnation of CCCOnline, was our keynote speaker. She left us with a raft of interesting links and things to think about as we enter our second decade.
We've place many ,inks to her information on the faculty wiki at http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=08FacConf_Keynote_Materials.
Some of the hightlights:
FURMAN COLLEGE that gives students video cameras to tell what they like about FURMAN
Example: www.engagefurman.com/home_1col2.asp
UNIGO – A beta site that is having students at colleges rate their colleges: specifically designed for high school students deciding on colleges. This link is to what they have about CU.
http://www.unigo.com/Colleges/UnigoReview/Default.aspx?CollegeId=50
3D Technology: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIqNdMqA7Kc
ITUNES U- Wonderful video/audio lectures
Walter H.G. Lewin M.I.T. Lectures, Promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zc9Nuoe2Ow
(There are many physics lectures online fo this professor also.)
Randy Pausch Your Childhood Dreams- Carnegie Mellon, the entire lecture is available on Youtube -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
Dan Ariely Predictably Irrational - Duke and M.I.T.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ5baAOrxXY
Online Course
Langdon Hammer Modern Poetry -Yale, http://oyc.yale.edu/english/modern-poetry.
RADIOHEAD
My inspiration that college needs to be free, because if the music industry can do it, we can.
http://stereogum.com/archives/new-radiohead-album-in-rainbows-out-october-10th_006620.html. (Here's a comment from an econ blog on that model though that isn't entirely positive. http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/10/pay-what-you-wa.html.)
More information about conference materials coming soon.
Lisa Cheney-Steen
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
ADA Training Opportunities
Hi Everyone,
Please check out another non-credit training tool that you can visit over and over on the wiki. Lisa Marie Johnson and John Schmahl collaborated to create this wonderful, interactive tutorial on Learners with Disabilities. Check it out at http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Learners_with_Disabilities_-_Identification%2C_Documentation%2C_and_Accommodations
Then join John Schmahl and Lisa Marie Johnson for the webinar on Friday Oct 24 at 1pm with your questions regarding ADA and FERPA at http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/ (Attending the webinar does earn you training credit. No RSVP is required.)
Can’t attend webinars? We record them and archive them for you to listen to at your convenience at http://www.facultywiki.ccconline.org/index.php?title=TPD_Webinars
Karen Kaemmerling
Please check out another non-credit training tool that you can visit over and over on the wiki. Lisa Marie Johnson and John Schmahl collaborated to create this wonderful, interactive tutorial on Learners with Disabilities. Check it out at http://faculty.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Learners_with_Disabilities_-_Identification%2C_Documentation%2C_and_Accommodations
Then join John Schmahl and Lisa Marie Johnson for the webinar on Friday Oct 24 at 1pm with your questions regarding ADA and FERPA at http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/ (Attending the webinar does earn you training credit. No RSVP is required.)
Can’t attend webinars? We record them and archive them for you to listen to at your convenience at http://www.facultywiki.ccconline.org/index.php?title=TPD_Webinars
Karen Kaemmerling
Upcoming Training Available
Hi Everyone,
I really enjoyed seeing so many of you at our faculty conference this year. We learned a lot from the conference sessions and from collaborating face to face. Congratulations to Lisa Marie Johnson who earned the Faculty Leadership Award and to Roxanne Manske who earned Staff of the Year. Also, congratulations to all those who were recognized as Gold Medal Faculty.
If you were not able to join us at the Faculty Conference, we do still have several training opportunities available this year.
This Friday, Oct 24 at 1 pm John Schmahl from student services will host a webinar on ADA and FERPA issues. No need to RSVP in advance, just join us at http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/
Also you can register for facilitated training, E-Portfolios and Measuring What Matters, at https://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?402726
I really enjoyed seeing so many of you at our faculty conference this year. We learned a lot from the conference sessions and from collaborating face to face. Congratulations to Lisa Marie Johnson who earned the Faculty Leadership Award and to Roxanne Manske who earned Staff of the Year. Also, congratulations to all those who were recognized as Gold Medal Faculty.
If you were not able to join us at the Faculty Conference, we do still have several training opportunities available this year.
This Friday, Oct 24 at 1 pm John Schmahl from student services will host a webinar on ADA and FERPA issues. No need to RSVP in advance, just join us at http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/
Also you can register for facilitated training, E-Portfolios and Measuring What Matters, at https://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?402726
Monday, October 13, 2008
Faculty Conference This Friday!
Yeh! It's here, It's here, the Faculty Conference is Friday Oct 17th at Arapahoe Community College. I am looking forward to seeing all of you and hearing some fantasitc presentations. This year we celebrate 10 years of creativity, innovation, and leadership. A continental breakfast will be served during registration from 8-9.
Including some great give aways for everyone, this year we will raffle software during the Round Table sessions including Snagit and Camtasia from TechSmith. If you haven't registered yet, please do so right away. Registration will officially close Wednesday at midnight. You can go directly to registration at this link http://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?445037.
Please contact me with questions at karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu .
Including some great give aways for everyone, this year we will raffle software during the Round Table sessions including Snagit and Camtasia from TechSmith. If you haven't registered yet, please do so right away. Registration will officially close Wednesday at midnight. You can go directly to registration at this link http://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?445037.
Please contact me with questions at karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu .
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Ses 2 Pay
Dear Faculty,
The following note is forwarded from Randy Macy:
Faculty will not get paid for session two classes on today’s paycheck. Session two classes will not start paying until October 24th. Bonus contracts for session two will not start paying until November 7th.
If oyu have any questions, please contact Randy Macy at randy.macy@cccs.edu
Thanks.
RDM
The following note is forwarded from Randy Macy:
Faculty will not get paid for session two classes on today’s paycheck. Session two classes will not start paying until October 24th. Bonus contracts for session two will not start paying until November 7th.
If oyu have any questions, please contact Randy Macy at randy.macy@cccs.edu
Thanks.
RDM
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Lots and Lots of Students!
So if you feel like you have a lot of students in your classes you are correct! If you know more people who would like to teach for us please give their names to your program chair.
Lisa Cheney-Steen
Webcast: Education Advisors to the Presidential Candidates
Education and the Next President: McCain and Obama Advisors to Debate
On October 21, the education advisors to the presidential candidates will face off in a debate at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York City. The debate will feature Lisa Graham Keegan, former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction and advisor to Senator John McCain (R-AZ), and Linda Darling-Hammond, the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University and advisor to Senator Barack Obama (D-IL).
The debate is set to begin at 7:00 p.m. EST and will be webcast by Education Week. Susan Fuhrman, president of Teachers College, will serve as the moderator.
Individuals who want to examine the candidates’ education platforms prior to the debate can do so by visiting the following websites:
Senator McCain: http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/
Senator Obama: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/
To register for the webcast, visit http://www.edweek.org/ew/index.html and look for a banner with information on the debate in the upper right corner of the page.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
No-Show Reporting
Dear Faculty;
In session 1 we asked you to help us report no-show students because we did not have a report in BB Vista that allowed us to pull this information. Now, thanks to Frank’s great work with the folks at Blackboard, we have a report that gives will tell us which students have not yet logged in to courses. So, we will be running this report tomorrow, Wednesday.
What this means for you is that you don’t have to do anything to report no-show students. As always, if you have any questions about any student in your course, please feel free to contact me.
As always, thanks for your hard work!
John
In session 1 we asked you to help us report no-show students because we did not have a report in BB Vista that allowed us to pull this information. Now, thanks to Frank’s great work with the folks at Blackboard, we have a report that gives will tell us which students have not yet logged in to courses. So, we will be running this report tomorrow, Wednesday.
What this means for you is that you don’t have to do anything to report no-show students. As always, if you have any questions about any student in your course, please feel free to contact me.
As always, thanks for your hard work!
John
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