Come Learn What's New with the CCCOnline Library!

Join us in two weeks for our August webinar, hosted by our very own Online Instructional Librarian, Mary Cash. Mary will outline what’s new with the CCCOnline Library. She'll also talk about our embedded librarian program and how you can get your class on-board. Come and learn about some great new resources for your classes at CCCOnline!

This webinar will run on Aug 17, 2012 from 1:00-2:00 PM MST.

Register at http://at.ccconline.org/training

Welcome to Daniel Metz!

Hello –

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

Best,

Terry

Daniel Metz, Liberal Arts and Communications

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Please take some time to check out the article databases as well; we now have some additional databases – including  CINAHL (nursing and health science database), History Reference Center, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, Science Reference Center, Points of View, Consumer Health Complete, and more.  We still have the always wonderful Academic Search Premier, and Business Source Premier.  Visit the Library Article Databases Tutorial to see descriptions of all of our databases.

Note also that CCCOnline is now a member of AskAcademic, the 24/7 academic Ask-a-Librarian service offered through the Colorado State Library.  Check out the AskAcademic widget on the Library Resources main page.  Students can still email me, cccolibrarian@ccconline.org, with their questions; I will have more first-hand knowledge of specific research assignments in their courses, but do encourage your students to use the AskAcademic reference service.  The service is manned by trained reference librarians from the AskAcademic member libraries – visit the AskAcademic website to learn more: http://www.askacademic.org/ and here’s a list of the participating libraries: http://www.askacademic.org/participating.html.  CCCOnline pays a small fee to the Colorado State Library and mans the virtual reference desk for 2 hours a week in return for great reference and information service to both students and faculty.

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

Thanks,

Mary Cash, Instructional Online Librarian, CCCOnline

CCCOnline Academic Technology Administrator a Finalist for D2L Award

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

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

August Trainings Open for Registration

Hello!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sean Renner
Training and Professional Development Coordinator 

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

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

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

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

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

CCCOnline would like to introduce Rudilee Gabel, our new College Math Program Chair. Rudilee has been a CCCOnline instructor since 2008 and “absolutely loves the online environment.” She also has taught with Pikes Peak Community College, and altogether has been teaching within the Colorado Community College System for over seven years. 

Rudilee recently completed her Doctoral degree in Education Leadership with an emphasis in Curriculum and Instruction from University of Phoenix. She earned a Master’s degree in Secondary Education and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Colorado College.

She hails from Pueblo, Colorado, and she and her husband currently reside in Colorado Springs with their two small daughters and two Shih Tzu dogs. Rudilee enjoys shopping, reading, watching movies, camping, traveling, and spending time with her husband, family, and friends.

July 2012 Professional Development Opportunities

Greetings!

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

Workshops

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

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

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

Webinars

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


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

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

Sean Renner
Training and Professional Development Coordinator

Hello,

If you are interested in the upcoming COLTT Conference, please see the message below.  The message also contains info on how to register for the conference, as will as how to request a conference scholarship.

Best,
Terry

SUBJECT: Dr. Kirsten Sanford Named as the 2012 COLTT Conference Keynote Presenter; Register or Request a Scholarship Now!

The 15th Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology Conference (COLTT) is

proud to welcome renowned science journalist Dr. Kirsten Sanford of the "Dr. Kiki's Science Hour" podcast as the conference's 2012 keynote speaker. Dr. Sanford recently participated in the Conference on World Affairs as a panelist

for a variety of topics, including the session "Technology: Hurting or Helping." Her work helps us understand how our brains are constantly developing and adapting to the technology that we create. To learn more about Dr. Sanford, please visit her website at http://www.kirstensanford.com/.

COLTT 2012 is shaping up to be another great opportunity for faculty and graduate students to network and to gain access to new ideas and technologies that can be incorporated into classroom and online teaching. Attendees will find sessions on gamifying the classroom, info graphics, flipped classrooms,

learning analytics, and Google apps, among other topics. The conference will be held in the Wolf Law Building on the University of Colorado Boulder campus, Wednesday, August 1st,

and Thursday, August 2nd, 2012.

To register and pay directly for COLTT use the registration page:

https://www.cusys.edu/coltt/2012/registration.html. 

To Request a Scholarship please follow these directions:

There are a few remaining scholarship slots for Colorado Community College System faculty, instructors, and staff. Please directly email jill.lester@colorado.edu to get approval to register your request online, or to be placed on the waitlist. COLTT has asked that you please use this process rather than requesting online at this time. Thank you.

COLTT is sponsored by the Colorado Community College System through CCCOnline, along with a number of other institutional and exhibitor sponsors. Questions about COLTT 2012 may

be directed to Jill Lester, Conference Coordinator, coltt@cu.edu. We look forward to seeing

you in August!

Jill C. Lester

COLTT Conference Coordinator

303-492-8426

jill.lester@colorado.edu

www.cusys.edu/coltt

Congratulations to Linda Hamons!

We have good news to share about one of our instructors!  Linda Hamons, CIS/CNG instructor, was accepted for this summer’s IT internship program with CU-Boulder.  Please see a description of the internship program below.  Congratulations to Linda!

Community College HPC Internship

About the internship program

Our program is a 9-week summer research internship for community college faculty and instructors teaching in a computing field. Participants will spend nine weeks working with a research mentor on a project that will be reflected in a future community college courses. The stipend for the internship is $9000. Participants work full-time on a group or independent research project, and participate in workshops focused on computational research. The program is a collaboration between Research Computing, the Departments of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado at Boulder and two organizations committed to increasing the diversity of information technology and computer science education and work, the National Center for Women & IT (NCWIT) and the Colorado Coalition for Gender & IT (CCGIT). Both NCWIT and CCGIT make extensive use of tested practices to recruit and retain women and underrepresented minorities at all points of the pathways that lead into pathways from K-12 settings, to technical jobs, to advanced computing professions. Over the past several years, CCGIT has established itself as an expert in non-traditional pathways into IT, focusing on partnerships with community colleges, workforce development centers, and the military.

CCCOnline FAQs

Hello everyone,

As we are starting a new academic term soon, I thought it might be useful to post some CCCOnline Frequently Asked Questions.  If you have other questions about CCCO that you would like answers to, feel free to contact me at terry.reeves@cccs.edu.

Best,
Terry

CCCOnline FAQS:

·         Why does CCCOnline start classes later than the system colleges?

o    CCCOnline is a service organization to the system colleges.  Classes start later so students can register for classes that may have filled up at the colleges, or for students who are registering late.

·         Who receives the tuition and FTE for CCCOnline students?

CCCOnline students are actually the colleges’ students.  Since CCCOnline is not a college, it does not receive any FTE; this goes back to the students’ home college as well as associated COF funds.  This is important as FTE affects the system funding formula for each college.  In regards to the tuition, CCCOnline receives 51% of the tuition from CCCOnline courses while 49% of this tuition is retained by the respective home college.  CCCOnline pays instructors’ salaries, as well as the annual licensing, maintenance and support costs of the Desire2Learn platform, the Perceptis help desk costs, Turnitin, Respondus and Soft Chalk that all colleges use. 

·         Does CCCOnline report on student attendance by the census date?

o    Yes, CCCOnline's attendance policy helps to identify students who do not intend to actively participate in courses.  To comply with this policy, each CCCOnline course requires 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 assessment must be content related - it should not be a "syllabus quiz".

-The assessment may be a Dropbox, Quiz, or Discussion

The lists of students who do not actively participate are sent to the respective home colleges.

·         How do students contact their instructors before classes start?

o    CCCOnline tracks enrollment numbers.  Based on this they determine the number of instructors needed for a term; instructors are given class lists a couple of days before a semester starts.  Before a term starts, instructors send out welcome emails to their students; prior to this, students also receive a welcome email from CCCOnline.  If a student needs course information prior to being assigned an instructor, they should contact the appropriate Associate Dean (http://www.ccconline.org/About_Us/People/Divisions/).

·         Whom do we call for help at CCCOnline?

o    Contact information is available at http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Who_to_Contact.  For Associate Dean Contact information, see http://www.ccconline.org/About_Us/People/Divisions/.

·         Do CCCOnline students have to meet course pre-requisites?

o    Yes, course pre-requisites are set by each college and CCCOnline students must meet those pre-requisites.

·         How do students appeal grades or file complaints about instructors?

o    The best place for students to start, when they have a complaint or concern about an on-going or recently completed course, is to the Program Chair (http://www.ccconline.org/About_Us/People/Programs/).  Program Chairs are the instructors’ immediate supervisors and are very familiar with the instructors, courses, and course requirements.  Following is the grade protest and academic misconduct process at CCCOnline:

CCCO Grade Protest and Academic Misconduct Procedure –

For a student grade/instructor issues:

§  Students will be asked to resolve the conflict with their instructors.  If this is unsuccessful, the appropriate CCCO Program Chair, Associate Dean, and Academic Dean will be brought in accordingly and in this order.

§  If the student issue is not resolved at the Associate Dean level, the CCCO Academic Dean will have the final rule and will communicate decision(s) to the student.

§  If a grade change is determined to be the appropriate action, the VPI at the student’s home college will be notified by the CCCO Academic Dean.  The VPI will start the process at the home college to affect the grade change.

For student misconduct issues:

§  Students will be asked to resolve the conflict with their instructors.  If this is unsuccessful, the appropriate CCCO Program Chair, Associate Dean, a Student Services Dean will be brought in accordingly and in this order.

§  If the student issue is not resolved at the Associate Dean level, the CCCO Student Services Dean will have the final rule and will communicate decision(s) to the student.

·         At the jurisdiction of the CCCO Student Services Dean and/or for repeated student misconduct offenses, the CCCO Student Services Dean will contact the student’s home college and notify the appropriate person(s) of the student’s misconduct.

·         Is CCCOnline bookstore information available?

o    This information is available online at http://www.ccconline.org/Students/Bookstore/?type=flash.