Spring Session 2 Rosters Now Available

You can now view your Spring Session 2 class roster.

To access your class rosters please go to the Faculty Portal here,

https://myportal.cccs.edu/jsp/misc/schoolLoginNew.jsp?school=ccco

Enter your S# and Password.

On the Faculty Tab, go to the CCCOnline Faculty Gateway Access Channel

Select "Course Online Rosters".

For a tutorial on the Faculty Portal please go here, https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_CCCOnline_Portal_Overview

Thanks!
John

Intelligent Agent Gone Wild, Again

Happy Wednesday! We apologize for any confusion that you experienced due to an intelligent agent that was created back in 2009. We have attempted to delete this agent but it returned like a little gremlin today. We have deleted it again today but please let us know if you receive any additional messages asking you to visit the CCCOnline Community Course. We do hope to see you in the community where your department faculty lounges are located and we have several all faculty discussions ongoing. However, you are not required to log in within a certain number of days to the community.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy the pretty weather while you can!

CCCOnline Student Retention Strategies Webinar

We are testing a new system for registration of Webinars.
Please register for our upcoming webinar at https://at.ccconline.org/training/register/?id=487 , and let me know if you have questions or problems using this form. Whether you register in advance or not, please join us anyway at the link below.

When: Friday, February 18, 2011 (2:00 - 3:00 PM MT)
Facilitators: Lisa Brown-Roberts & John Schmahl
Focus: Participants will learn about current CCCOnline retention projects and projects planned for the upcoming academic year. Participants will have an opportunity to brainstorm about retention strategies, including "early alert" systems.
Where: Online via Elluminate. Access up to 15 minutes before the start time from https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008363&password=M.BC3D4EDF62221A0B2180936AD9E87F

Student Authentication

Starting this Wednesday, February 2, your students may receive a series of authentication questions designed to help us authenticate and verify student identity. This process is managed by a third-party company called Acxiom. This is part of our on-going effort at improving student identification, attendance and retention.

The following e-mail has been sent to all students regarding the start of our use of Acxiom on Wednesday and our authentication policies in general. The 24x7 Support Center (PerceptIS) has also been informed of this change.

Thanks!
John

CCCOnline Course Authentication and Participation Policy (CAPP)

To improve our overall program integrity, ensure that each student is doing his/her own work and comply with our home colleges’ accreditation agencies, CCCOnline is implementing the following steps:

• During the semester, students may be presented with random pop-up security questions when logging into their online course(s). It is important that students answer these questions as accurately as they can.

• All students will be required to complete at least two assignments within the first two weeks of the semester.

Students who do not meet the CAPP requirements may be reported by their instructor to the CCCOnline Student Services Department.

The random security question authentication process is managed by a third-party company. CCCOnline does not have access to this database. This data is secured by the third-party company, which complies with student privacy and FERPA regulations.

Reporting Student Attendance for Session 1

This is just a reminder that you should report on student attendance for any students in session 1 courses by midnight of the session 1 census date, February 8, 2011.

Information on how to record student attendance is listed below.

CCCOnline's attendance policy helps to identify students who do not intend to actively participate in courses. If necessary, courses may need to be revised to comply with the Attendance Policy. Contact your Program Chair for guidance with necessary revisions.

To comply with this policy, each CCCOnline course must require students to:

1. Participate in an "Introductions" discussion, which may or may not be graded.

2. Submit a graded, content-related assessment prior to the census date.

- The census date is the last day to drop in a term (see the Academic Calendar).
- The assessment must be content related – it should not be a "syllabus quiz".
- The assessment may be a Dropbox, Quiz, or Discussion

Thanks!
John

Process for verifying student attendance

Use the following instructions:

1. By Census Date (Feb 8th), login to the Faculty Gateway through the faculty portal at : https://myportal.cccs.edu/jsp/misc/schoolLoginNew.jsp?school=ccco

2. Click the "Online Roster" link.

3. Click the "Attendance Register" link next to the title of the course.

4. Click on the checkbox for “Introductory Discussion” if the student completed an Introductory Discussion post.

5. Click on the checkbox for “First Assignment” if the student has completed the first assignment (Recall that this assignment should be a graded, content-related assignment.).

6. Click on the checkbox for “Extenuating Circumstances” if the student did not post to the Introductory Discussion or the content-related assessment, but you have additional information that leads you to believe that the student may be active at a later date. The “Extenuating Circumstances” designation might be selected, for example, if:

- The student communicated with you or class peers elsewhere in the course.
- The student notified you s/he will start the term late.
- The student has given you other reasons to expect s/he may become active.

7. After selecting the designation for each student, click the “Submit” button to save your selections.

Spring Session 1 Rosters Now Available

You can now view your Spring Session 1 class roster.

To access your class rosters please go to the Faculty Portal here,

https://myportal.cccs.edu/jsp/misc/schoolLoginNew.jsp?school=ccco

Enter your S# and Password.

On the Faculty Tab, go to the CCCOnline Faculty Gateway Access Channel

Select Course Online Rosters.

For a tutorial on the Faculty Portal please go here, https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_CCCOnline_Portal_Overview

Thanks!
John

Save Yourself the Headache!

At the end of each term Amy Sorenson, who is Profhelp, is inundated with questions about the Grades Tool in D2L. So, in order to avoid future headaches, we asked several faculty and Amy for helpful tips and suggestions.

Here they are:
1. Change your Personal Display options so you can always see the students' grades and the Final Calculated Grade when you enter the gradebook. http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_D2L_-_Grades#Set_Personal_Display_Options.3F
2. Run the Gradebook Wizard before the term starts. Enter fake grades for the Jenny Grade student to verify your grades are totaling correctly and match your Course Syllabus-Grading and Evaluation page.http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_D2L_-_Grades#Run_the_Grades_Setup_Wizard.3F
3. Towards the end of the term don’t forget to release the Final Calculated Grade column to the students so they can see their final grade.http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_D2L_-_Grades#Release_the_Final_Calculated_Grade_to_Students.3F

If you're still struggling with the Grades Tool after using these D2L Tool pages, please use the Profhelp form located in the CCCOnline Portal.

Each week the Cultivating Excellence Blog runs reminders like these and more. View the blog by clicking the the Faculty Tab in the CCCOnline Portal, and share your comments in appropriate discussion in the CCCOnline Community Course.

Are you ready to start cleaning your courses?

At times the process of getting your course "duped" or copied for the upcoming term seems convoluted, but here is a brief description of that process and your role.

Prior to the term, you and your Chair determine which course/s you would like copied and potentially how many is a reasonable amount for you and the department. The Chair then completes a form that requests that course for you and the AT team processes that request. Sometimes while they are processing the dupe request, you may see an empty course shell appear in D2L, but you will know for sure when it is ready for you to look at when you receive an automated email notifying you of the course. (If you are not getting these emails, check your SPAM folder and update your email address through the Portal or Faculty Gateway page.)

After you get the email, you have 72 hours to log into D2L and in order to confirm the content in the course is correct. ***This requires some looking around your course and checking tools like discussions and quizzes, ect to be sure they have the correct settings. Once you have checked the course to be sure it is correct, log into the CCCOnline Portal and go to the Faculty Tab to access the Content Verification Form. If there is a problem with the content in your course, contact your Chair immediately. Your next step is to get the course ready for students. Use the Course Readiness Checklist to be sure you aren't missing any steps: http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Policies_%26_Procedures_-_Faculty_Handbook_-_Teaching_for_CCCOnline_-_Faculty_Role_in_Course_Development_and_Maintenance_-_Course_Readiness_Checklist

***Don't forget to reset your course home page, update your instructor widget, run the gradebook wizard, and clear your course navigation bar of tools like Rubrics if you aren't using them. Review the Course Readiness Checklist for a comprehensive explanation of what to remove and not to remove. Many faculty are really good house cleaners and are making tools inactive that are really needed like the question library ...so be cautious and thoughtful about this part of the clean up. The course must be ready for students for first day checks no later than Thursday morning prior to the start of the term (for spring session 1, this is January 20th). When your course is ready to be reviewed, return to the Faculty Tab on the Portal and click Course Readiness Form to acknowledge that the course is ready.

One final reminder is that you must have a content related assignment due before census which for spring 1 is February 8. This assignment must be more the introduction discussion.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from all the Staff at CCCOnline!

Our offices are closed from December 24 and repen on January 3rd. We look forward to a great 2011.

Determining Last Date of Attendence

Dear Faculty;

After discussions with the system financial aid directors and the system office we have determined that you may use the mid-point date of the course when reporting a student’s last date of attendance (LDA). The mid-point dates for our courses are listed below. As a reminder, the LDA must be reported for any student who receives a failing grade in a course. If the student completed any course work or submitted any assignments during the semester, use the mid-point date for the LDA. If the student never submitted any assignments, never logged in or never communicated with you, use the first day of the course instead.

As always, please feel free to contact me (john.schmahlcccs.edu) if you have any questions.

Thanks again for your continued hard work and support!

John

Mid-point date for 15 week courses – 10/24/2010
Mid-point date for 10 week courses – 11/8/2010

Sentence Works changes it's name to Grammarly@edu

Sentenceworks, the free online grammar checker available to CCCOnline students, changed it’s name to Grammarly@edu. Check out the new site and features by using the Grammarly@edu link in the Helpful Links widget inside your Desire2Learn classroom.

At the new site, you’ll find the same familiar features you’ve been using along with some new functionality including:
-Even more accurate grammar checking
-Support for more writing genres
-Printable reports

Your Sentenceworks user name and password will work at the new site (http://www.grammarly.com/edu/students). Easily retrieve your forgotten password for Grammarly by clicking on the “Forgot Your Password” link on the login page. Your password will be emailed to your college email account. Do you need a new account? No problem! Click on “Create Account” and fill out the required information.

Support for Grammarly@edu is available online at http://support.grammarly.com/home.

Enjoy the new grammar services!

Fall Grades due Dec 16!

Dear Faculty;

It's that time of the semester, Fall grades are due no later than Thursday, December 16, 2010.

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.

You must report a Last Date of Attendance (LDA) for any student who receives a grade of “F”. The LDA is the date that the student submitted their last graded assessment or assignment. To find this date in D2L, you can follow the directions here http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_D2L_-_Classlist#How_do_I_review_student.27s_access_to_the_course_or_a_tool.3F

If the student never accessed the course, you can enter the first day of the session, August 30 for session 1 courses and October 4 for session 2 courses.

If you have any students needing their grades earlier, or any students not listed on the grade roster, please contact John Schmahl, john.schmahl@cccs.edu or Roxanne Manske, roxanne.manske@cccs.edu.

To submit final grades:

Login through Faculty Portal at https://myportal.cccs.edu/jsp/misc/schoolLoginNew.jsp?school=ccco

(For a tutorial on the new Faculty Portal please go here, https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_CCCOnline_Portal_Overview)

- Select the Faculty Tab

- Under the Faculty Gateway channel, Click on the Online Gradebook

- 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 course**

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)

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)

Fall student survey is now available

The student survey is now available to students. Note that students will receive a popup message when they log into D2L until they have completed the survey for each of their courses. Please encourage students to complete the survey in order to help us better serve them.

Thanks!
John

D2L 9.1 Upgrade- a Success!

The D2L 9.1 upgrade that occurred over the Thanksgiving Holiday was a success. The one major change you may have noticed already is that instead of the save message occurring across the top of the D2L window when you save changes in D2L the message now appears on the bottom right of your screen.

I would also like to highlight our last webinar of the year on Friday December 3 at 1pm, Creating and Facilitating Groups in D2L with Lisa Marie Johnson. If you haven't completed your training requirement this year, you don't want to miss it! To join us go to https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008363&password=M.0EB8DF8CB07BB2627174FA49487CAB

It will also be recorded and you can listen to it and our other archived webinars at https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Professional_Development_-_Webinar_Archive .

Learning Key Chain Webinar this Friday

Do your students sometimes appear not to connect to your subject, its materials, or even to you? Do you sometimes disconnect from teachers or presenters even when the topic is of interest to you? Learning preferences play a great role in how much and how well we learn or want to learn anything. When we decide to learn something, we pick the key that works for us. A flexible "lock" allows for many fits to access content.

Join us for an interactive webinar on Friday November 5th at 1pm with Leecy Wise. Participants will explore how they learn and teach best. The webinar will provide instructors with a broad perspective on how students might prefer to learn. The webinar will open instructors to new ways of presenting content and engaging students with a variety of learning needs and abilities.

No registration required, just join us at https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008363&password=M.7535BE50A6EE6D4A8B14AFA1F589FE

You may also want to visit the faculty wiki for our archived webinars or more information on upcoming webinars at https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Professional_Development_-_Training_Options

If you have questions about this post, please contact Karen Kaemmerling directly at karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu

Congratulations in Order

Congratulations to Frank Vazquez and David Chatham of CCCOnline's Academic Technologies team. David and Frank received national recognition at the annual Desire2Learn conference in Chicago last July for their submission to the Desire2Excel awards program.

To read the entire article as published in the CCCS Connections newsletter, follow this link (http://www.cccs.edu/communications/connections/2010/603/index.html), scroll down to Section D (Technology Update), which will open in Adobe Reader, and then to Section F.

October Training Reminder

Each faculty is expected to earn one training credit per year. You can do this if you haven’t already by attending Friday’s webinar.

Student Research & Writing Toolkit Updates Webinar Reminder
When: Friday, October 22, 2010 (1:00 - 2:30PM Mountain)
Who: Mary Cash & Liz Dzabic
What: Review of the updates to the Student Wiki "Research & Writing Toolkit".
Where: Online via Elluminate. Access up to 15 minutes before the start time from:https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008363&password=M.5B943246C8C210B8165AD731371D95

For more upcoming webinar information and for the recorded archived webinars visit the faculty wiki.

Please send your questions directly to me rather than replying at Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu

Reporting student attendance for session 2

Just a reminder that tomorrow is census for session 2 courses. You should report on student attendance for any students in session 2 courses tat you may be teaching by midnight tomorrow, Thursday, October 14. More information on our attendance policy and how to report on student attendance is listed below. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!
John


CCCOnline's attendance policy helps to identify students who do not intend to actively participate in courses. If necessary, courses will need revised to comply with the Attendance Policy. Contact your Program Chair for guidance with necessary revisions.

To comply with this policy, each CCCOnline course must require students to:

1. Participate in an "Introductions" discussion, which may or may not be graded.

2. Submit a graded, content-related assessment prior to the census date.

- The census date is the last day to drop in a term (see the Academic Calendar).
- The assessment must be content related – it should not be a "syllabus quiz".
- The assessment may be a Dropbox, Quiz, or Discussion

Process for verifying student attendance

Use the following instructions:

1. By Census Date (Oct 14th), login to the Faculty Gateway through the faculty portal at : https://myportal.cccs.edu/jsp/misc/schoolLoginNew.jsp?school=ccco

2. Click the "Online Roster" link.

3. Click the "Attendance Register" link next to the title of the course.

4. Click on the checkbox for “Introductory Discussion” if the student completed an Introductory Discussion post.

5. Click on the checkbox for “First Assignment” if the student has completed the first assignment (Recall that this assignment should be a graded, content-related assignment.).

6. Click on the checkbox for “Extenuating Circumstances” if the student did not post to the Introductory Discussion or the content-related assessment, but you have additional information that leads you to believe that the student may be active at a later date. The “Extenuating Circumstances” designation might be selected, for example, if:

- The student communicated with you or class peers elsewhere in the course.
- The student notified you s/he will start the term late.
- The student has given you other reasons to expect s/he may become active.

7. After selecting the designation for each student, click the “Submit” button to save your selections.

Session 5 - 2010 Second Life Series – The Virtual Podium

* When: October 14, 2010 (3:00PM - 5:00PM - Mountain)
* Who: Cheryl Comstock, CCCOnline Director of Online Programs
* Prior sessions: see the the Webinar Archive page
* What: In this session, the participants will learn about pre-developed curriculum and its uses with educational tools discussed during the prior 4 sessions in this series. Additionally, participants will go on a virtual field trip to experience the virtual podiums in SL, we will also visit the Information & Communications Technology Library (ICT ) located in Second Life.
* Where: In Second Life. Cheryl will send you more information after you register - You may go to the following site to register for the session at, http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Professional_Development_-_Upcoming_Webinars.

Please note: There has been an update for the Viewer 2, which will prompt you at your next login. All information for the update is available on the login page of SL. It is helpful to update your viewer a day or two before our virtual meeting time.

About the Second Life Series

* Questions about this series should be directed to Cheryl Comstock: Cheryl.Comstock@cccs.edu
* REGISTRATION FOR ALL SESSIONS IS REQUIRED - click here to register.
* For an overview of Second Life as a tool, see the Faculty Wiki Second Life Tech Tool page found at, http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_Other_Tools_-_Second_Life

New Student Authentication Process

Starting this Monday, October 11, your students may receive a series of authentication questions designed to help us authenticate and verify student identities. This process is managed by a third-party called Acxiom. This is part of our on-going efforts at improving student identification, attendance and retention (see the previous post from Lisa on Sept 13, "Attendance Policy for Students/Formerly No-show).

The following e-mail has been sent to all students regarding the start of our use of Acxiom on Monday. PerceptIS has also been informed of this change.

Thanks!
John


CCCOnline Course Authentication and Participation Policy (CAPP)

To improve our overall program integrity, ensure that each student is doing his/her own work and comply with our home colleges’ accreditation agencies, CCCOnline is implementing the following steps:

• During the semester, students may be presented with random pop-up security questions when logging into their online course(s).

• All students will be required to complete at least two assignments within the first two weeks of the semester.

Students who do not meet the CAPP requirements may be reported by their instructor to the CCCOnline Student Services Department.

The random security question authentication process is managed by Acxiom, a third-party company. CCCOnline does not have access to this database. This data is secured by Acxiom, which complies with student privacy and FERPA regulations. Acxiom’s privacy policies are available at www.acxiom.com/privacy.

After the student enters his/her S# and password on the D2L login page or accesses D2L via the portal, a screen appears to “Verify Your Identity.”

Students should type their current address into the Identification Verification box.

• After the address is submitted, up to four questions will appear on screen asking Identity Verification questions. There may be a short delay before these questions display on the screen.

• Students should answer the questions honestly, and keep in mind that “none of the above” may be a valid answer for some questions.

• After students answer and submit their answers to the Identity Verification questions, there is a delay before the student is logged into their online course. This delay can last up to two minutes. Please be patient and do not click the submit button multiple times.