Note from the Design Team

Hi Everyone-

I have a couple of design team notes for you today. Some of you may have noticed that the type of the home page of your Vista courses is very very small. You can leave that alone. Here's what Cheryl Comstock has to say:

We've reported that issue to BB via the Academic Technology Team. They are working on a fix right now. If BB is unable to correct the issue in a timely manner the Design Team can change the basic style sheet to correct it at least temporarily. We'd prefer to correct it through the style sheet so that we can more easily change again to adapt to any fix BB eventually makes.

So please ignore the tiny type. It will magically fix itself before the term begins.

I also have the design team's instructional design note for faculty teaching in Vista. Remember that you are generally welcome to make appropriate changes to course content and assessments as long as the class continues to meet the official outcomes. If you are interested in major changes to your course please talk with your program chair. We do sometimes cover some expenses.

From the Design Team:

The CCCOnline Design Team has worked with the Community Colleges-wide committee on the design and layout of courses offered online in planning the Vista course offerings. The format adopted is reflected in the way this course has been laid out for use by students. It provides a consistent approach for all courses to minimize student confusion about course content access.

We ask that you please observe the following guidelines:

• Please do not remove the Welcome Message posted on the Homepage. Announcements posted on the Course Homepage create large opening pages with long loadup times for students. Also, we are striving to maintain a similar "opening page" experience across the CCCOnline system to provide a level of comfort in consistency for our students. Instead, use the Announcements Tool to Post course announcements.
• Vista's Announcements Tool allows you to post your Announcement as a"pop-up" in the student view when the student logs in the next time.
• Please be judicious about the use of colors and animated graphics in the course--ADA requirements specify what colors can be used by persons with disabilities. Those selected by the Course Design Team meet those requirements.
• Last, please do not UNSUBSCRIBE the BasicStyles.css and the syllabus-coursepolicies.htm files. CCCOnline may need to adjust these from time to time with official changes. If these files are not subscribed, the changes will not be added to this course.
  

If you have any concerns about any of the above items, please direct inquiry about them to Cheryl Comstock, cheryl.comstock@cccs.edu or your course designer.

(Photo credit, Aaron Leonard)