Webinar on SecondLife

Hi Everyone-

On Thursday, May 17th, Cheryl Comstock and I (mostly Cheryl) are presenting a webinar for NROC on SecondLife, the online 3-D digital world. Any of you are welcome to attend. I will send out directions next week.

Cheryl sent me some information for first time SecondLife users so any of you interested in that webinar could get started in SecondLife before the webinar. If you don't want to set up your avatar don't worry about it, but if you do, these directions will get you started.

Cheryl, for those of you who don't know her, is the Director of Instructional Design for Colorado Community Colleges Online. As part of a graduate program she has been taking classes and teaching in Second Life for the past year. From Cheryl:

Here are some basics for you and others to get started - let me know what else you need.

1. Go to www.SecondLife.com. Create an account and name your avatar. You pick your own first name, but need to use one of their provided lastnames

Note:Right away under the "View" menu select Camera controls and Movement controls, this will help you navigate more easily!

If it is dark selecting "World" Force Sun Noon will give you 4 hours of daylight

2. Here are some spots you can go to get started and see what educators are doing:

Inside SL Click on the Map link at the bottom of your window:

type in the numeric coordinates in the location fields, and click teleport

• NCI/New Citizens Plaza -- Kuula 53, 169, 28
• Ivory Tower Library of Primitive, Natoma (208, 165, 27)
• Managing in the Innovation Age, Ohio University (70, 200, 26)

(Side note from Lisa -- this is really important. It's easy to get stuck on the welcome island.)

For more sites search Education or whatever you like.

Try sitting (most chairs and couches let you sit, but also may have a "sit ball". This is scripted to make your avatar sit a certain way.

To stand again click "stand up" button.

Here some information you can share from my Getting connected poster.

Getting Connected in SL - Navigation

This is a simple navigation and features tour that you will want to keep handy when arriving to EdTech Island (or other place in SL). (This list has been limited to the most frequently used features by most beginners. As you spend more time inworld you will learn extended features and new ways to navigate more quickly. Always remember to use the HELP menu included at the top of your screen.)

Upper Navigation
SL features a navigation bar at the top of the page and at the bottom of the page.
The Main Menu is a common Windows styled pull down menu containing commands and helpful shortcuts.

File
- The most common files that you will use as a beginner are the Take Snapshot and Snapshot to disk. You will need Linden dollars to upload a snapshot from inworld to your Inventory/Snapshot Folder. You can also download a Snapshot to Disk (this is free, unless you want to upload it later to your Inventory/Snapshot Folder. Each snapshot costs L$10

- You can also find the Upload selection under the File menu – this is for images sounds and animations. Bulk uploads are the most economical way to upload.

Edit
- The Edit menu in SL is similar to other Windows based software, Search and Preferences will be your most frequented items. You will find that working with properties such as your profile, appearance and gestures are easily navigable from when right clicking on your avatar’s body.

- Preferences deal with your computer setup. Leave these set to the default settings unless a more experienced user wants to assist you with this process or you are having issues with your computer

View
- There are many items listed here that deal with you “see” featured properties in SL. Try learning the keyboard short cuts for these when possible to save time. Mouse look is the most used; enables you to see “through your avatars eyes”. Simply use the “M” key on your keyboard to activate, use the ESC key to disable.

World
- The most commonly used under world with be to start a gesture, chat or more importantly Force Sun. There are four basic lighting settings; Sunrise, Noon, Sunset and Midnight. Each will last 4 hours and since time tends to pass quickly in SL, you will find yourself frequently changing the light back to something different from what it has just changed to.

Tools
- Tools are used later when you’re more acclimated to being inworld. You will have plenty of time to play with these.

Help
- You will find this selection to be of some use, don’t be afraid to ask others inworld, most people are friendly and will respond to your questions.

Main Lower Navigation

IM – once you have requested friendship with another user you can utilize the IM feature to have private conversations with that one person.

Chat – Allows you to have discussions with multiple users or users that you have not accepted friendship with yet.

Friends – Is a list of users that you have accepted friendship with and will be able to access quickly for IM, Teleporting, reading their profiles, paying, adding or removing friends.

Fly – Something you will do a lot here, mostly because you can…and because it is really the fastest way to travel in SL too.

Snapshot – An easy way to access all the photo properties and options

Search – Search inworld for people places and things

Build – Used to build and edit Prims inworld.

Mini-Map – Exactly that, a mini map of the area that you are currently visiting

Map – is a large scale map of the SL world; allowing you to access points all over the SL globe.

Inventory – This is where all your “stuff” is located for your avatar, building, a place to store all your items inworld. See the Inventory Note card for a more in-depth description.

Communication

This is a simple navigation and features tour that you will want to keep handy when arriving to EdTech Island (or other place in SL).

Chat or IM –
If you find that who you want to contact is not online, you can send them information in an email; they will receive a notification at their preferred email destination.

Note Cards – Just as you have received this note card from this display, you can type information directly on to a note card or copy and paste text to a new card and store it in your inventory

Money

To start out even with a free membership it is good to have a couple of Linden dollars in the Bank. Just for simple things like uploading the snapshot of your avatar on the free Jet Ski that you found while touring Inworld. You can contribute money by using the L$ Icon in the upper right hand corner of your screen. Right next to that is the amount of money that you have in your Linden Bank account. You can also make contributions to the various educational efforts that are going on inworld.

Current Exchange rate is $1 US dollar = L$270 Linden dollars.

Passing L$ Money to purchase items or make contributions: Right click on you’re the item that you would like to contribute and a Pay window will appear. You can then select the denomination that you’re contributing.

Becoming Connected in SL

Simple Navigation and features that you will want to interact with when arriving to EdTech Island (or other places inworld). These are limited to the most frequently used by a beginner. As you spend more time inworld you will learn other features and learn how to use the HELP menu more extensively.

Inventory Basics

When you come into SL you receive an inventory folder. Here you will find clothes, textures, note cards, landmarks, snapshots etc. and then any other Prims that you create or purchase while inworld.

Just for Starters

- Everyone starts out with both an Inventory folder and a Library folder. You can retrieve items from the library, but you cannot use this area for storage. That is why you have an Inventory folder.

Stay organized: You want to organize your inventory on a regular basis so it does not get out of control (this can easily happen when you first start building and buying “stuff”). Try to work on it at least every other visit.

Don’t Buy It - Build it! The items you build can be copied or modified and you can allow others to share in this feature if you set the Prims properties to do so.

The No Copy Rule
- The items you buy, most of the time cannot be copied or modified, because they have been created for commerce purposes and the original creator wants L$ for the item.

Store your Stuff
- Once you own land you can store a certain amount of your prims on your land. Here the size of the prim isn’t as important as how many you have left out on the land space.

“Your mother doesn’t work here”
- Just like when you go to another’s home in your first life, you need to clean up after yourself in SL. Always be courteous and retrieve all of your personal items and assist other users in storing shared items for projects.

The SL Five Golden Rules for Inventory Management

1. Organize Inventory contents before you leave from one Landmark to the next. Try not to keep two copies of the same item.
2. Subfolders are your friends. They can be named and moved to any other folder. Try to avoid having loose items floating around in main folders.
3. Try to avoid hanging on to stuff that you are not going to be using in the near future especially if it is something that you got for free. You can resale your used non-replicable and purchased items. Fill your piggy bank for the next shopping spree by having a Prim Sale.
4. Make a back-up copy of your inventory when possible. You can lose files and folders just as easily as you can in your first life.
5. Make a point of emptying the trash before you leave. This way you will have more room for all the new cool stuff that you can get the next time you come inworld.
   

If you ever need help just ask. Enjoy your time in Second Life and on EdTech Island!

Cheryl Comstock (a.k.a. Ize Mesmer)

C-IDeisgn.com

This was a long post, but it should help your initial visit to Second Life more exciting!

Lisa Cheney-Steen

CCCOnline

Update on Vista Issue

Hi Everyone-

If you or your students are having difficulties with the quiz tool or adding attachments to email the best solution is to logout of Vista, close your browser, re-open everything, and log back in. Most of the time this will move you to a new node. The issue appears to be primarily related to a single node (of 6). Here's what I have from BB:

Hi David,

Larry has been working on this issue with our Operations team.
Currently, this may be isolated to a particular App/node server. We are
in process of moving the users on this particular node to anther node.
We will then be taking it out of circulation for more testing. As soon
as there is a further update please expect to hear from either me or
Larry.

Thank You,

Alex

More updates when I have them. Grades are due Thursday. Let us know if giving students extra time is going to cause you to be late. best, Lisa

Possible Testing Issues

Hi Everyone-

We have had some reports of students having problems starting and completing exams this weekend. So..... if you hear from a student that they had difficulties this weekend and weren't able to complete the final exam before the course ended we'd appreciate it if you would give them an extra day.

Thanks-
Lisa

Entering Spring Grades

Dear Faculty;

It’s that time of year again, the end of the semester and time to enter grades. 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)

All grades are due no later than Thursday, March 10, 2007.

Once you have submitted your grades, we will pull a daily report listing the grades and they will be manually entered into Banner for the students. Grades will not be viewable by the students until after March 10.

If you have any students needing their grades earlier, please contact me.

To submit final grades:

go to the online Grade Book here, https://www.cccodevelopment.cccs.edu/gradebook/input/login.php

Login using your Blackboard CE/Vista login credentials

Select the appropriate section

**If you are missing any section(s) or have extra section(s) listed, please contact Frank Vazquez, frank.vazquez@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 must be given a grade, even if they have not participated in the section

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

Click “Update” and return to the menu to select the next section if needed

Approved grades

Non-developmental courses (course numbers 100 and above, e.g., PSY 101)
A
B
C
D
F (must include last day of attendance)
I (must include incomplete contract)
W (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)
I (must include incomplete contract)
W (must include last day of attendance)

Want a Vista Refresher Before Summer?

If you already successfully completed Vista training at an earlier time this year but would like to freshen up before you begin teaching this summer, you can sign up for the training and just do the portions you need at this time.

The session will run May 14th - May 25th.

To do so, register by Thursday, May 10th at http://cccs-lms.ccconline.org/RegistrationForm/

Registration reminder sent to students

The following reminder was sent to all spring students.

Thanks!
John


Don’t stop now! You can get some more classes crossed off your list during CCCOnline’s 10-week summer session that starts June 4. Check out the list of classes for summer session at http://www.ccconline.org/courses/session_su.htm -- everything from Accounting to Women’s Studies, and most of the general education core classes you need for your associate’s degree.

Registration has already started! Visit http://www.ccconline.org/register/ to get enrolled.

CCCOnline
Student Services
1.800.801.5040

Vista Volunteer Thank You

As we wrap up our transition to the new learning management system I'd like to extend a huge thank you to the Vista Volunteers. They did a fabulous job of supporting all of you, trouble-shooting Vista issues, and keeping everyone as calm and productive as possible.

A heart-felt thank you to:

Al Turner
Jose Garcia-Paine
Sharon Taylor
Carol Ohle
Stan Kuchel
Dan Branan
Chris Levesque
Jessy Devasia
Louis Sass
Aarthi Ramesh

And many thanks to Phyllis Dobson for coming up with the VV concept and organizing team! We never would have made it without you!

Lisa

Vista Next Steps Training Opportunities

Do you want to learn what more is available to help you facilitate your Vista courses? There’s a whole ‘nuther world of Vista tools out there accessible through the Build tab and many additional functions to learn in the Teach tab. You can enhance your knowledge and skills by taking Next Steps with Vista!

Workshop Topics:

• Gradebook

• Discussions tool

• Assessments tool

• Assignments tool

• File Manager, file editing

• Learning modules

• Web links

• Selective release options

• Tech Talk and Teaching Tips

• And, more!

If you have a specific problem area, bring your questions for class discussion, as we all learn from the experiences of others! This course is specifically designed for those instructors who have been teaching in Vista for one or two semesters.

What You Will Get:

• Instructions on using Vista Discussion Tools.

• User Guides on the tools

• A forum for discussing Vista tool problems.

Sign up Today for May, August, or September Offerings!

What: Vista Next Steps -- CCCOnline training workshop

Format: Facilitated and self-paced. Be expected to spend at least an hour a day or more in this workshop. You will be expected to complete a series of tasks within the session time frame.

Where: All Online

When: May 14-25; August 13-24; September 10-21

How: Register at http://cccs-lms.ccconline.org/RegistrationForm/

For more information: Training@ccconline.org

3.5 Minute Video on RSS Feeds

I saw a link to this video about RSS Feeds today by Lee Lefever of The Common Craft Show Blog. What do you think of it info-wise and as instructional video? Let us know below :). Best, Alice

Click To Play

There are two types of Internet users, those that use RSS and those that don't. This video is for the people who could save time using RSS, but don't know where to start.

In honor summer that isn't

Maybe it's the weather -- summer one day, then snowing today -- but I thought today was a good day to let you know about some long term projects we are working on.

24/7 help desk

This project belongs to the Learning Technology Council, rather than just CCCOnline alone. We've looked into hiring a vendor to help us provide 24/7 help desk services to students having technical difficulties in their online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses. As a part of this project Rebecca Woulfe of Red Rocks Coommunity College recently surveyed all 8,000 students who dropped a course this semester. Approximately 8% of them said they dropped the course due to technical difficulties.

I have to admit that number was a surprise to me. I expected it to be much larger. It is still large enough to support our desire to provide a 24/7 help desk, but I wanted to solve a bigger problem. :^)

Application Pack 2 Beta test

CCCOnline, ACC, and FRCC are participating directly in the beta test of Application Pack 2 for Vista. This application pack is planned for an early summer release although in all probability we won't be able to install it until the Christmas Break. Since we are heavily involved in the testing of the ap pack we will feel more confident that it will solve some of our problems with Vista and not create too many new ones.

Unfortunately the ap pack does not have fixes to all of the issues we have with Vista (the calendar tool for example and who's online).

System-wide Conferenceing software license

As many of you know FRCC has a license for Elluminate, a web-based conferencing tool. Several of you have asked if CCCOnline will ever have a license of our own to use. The Learning Technology Council is also interested in a system-wide license for a tool like this, so we are going forward looking at the options available. Meanwhile Elluminate's free Vroom is a great alternative for small groups.

Grade Export Program

This program would grab the final grades you enter in Vista and automatically move them to Banner. You would no longer need to do dual entry. The scripts are almost written, but the project has slowed down due to limitations on programmer time.

I'm sure we have other "three steps forward, two steps back" projects out there, but I think those are the ones I get the most questions on. :^)

Lisa

Bringing Closure to Spring Term - May 6th

The last day class activity for spring term is May 6th. The list of suggestions below is drawn from the CCCOnline website under the Faculty tab, with a few updates:

Ways to Bring Closure to the Term with Students

• Learners may be tired; encourage students to persist to a strong finish.
• Provide a reflective learning and suggestion discussion thread.
• Provide a “saying our good-byes” community thread.
• Have Learners Review Their Progress to Date-An end-of-Term learner-directed exercise at this time is to ask the learner to pull down the various grading requirements for the term and tally their own grade books against the assignments and categories and the syllabus and communicate with you if there are any variations.
• Post course grades in the course grade books before they are officially due, inviting learners to review and ask questions before grades are officially submitted.
• Submit grades through email link like last term: Student Services will send an email with directions to faculty.
• Submit course grades by Thursday, May 10th, 5 pm.

Early Grades for Graduates

You may have a few requests from learners for early final grades—this is due to a few campuses asking for grade submissions for graduation purposes. These can be sent to Roxanne.manske@cccs.edu.

In addition to the grade, please include the course title, number, section, your name, and the learner’s name as an attachment (FERPA).

Issuing an “Incomplete”

Faculty may agree (not required) to granting an “I” if a learner only if a learner has completed a minimum of 75% of the course work at a “C” or better. IMPORTANT: The Incomplete form located in your faculty lounge needs to be submitted to CCCOnline Registrar Roxanne.Manske@cccs.edu at the time the “I” is filed. A copy should also be sent to the learner.

While land-based schools allow up to one year to complete coursework, CCCOnline students will only have one term access to the online course. Having the learner commit to a shorter timeline can encourage finishing the course.

Alternative to the “I”

An alternative to the “I” is to tell the learner that you will assign the grade earned to date, but that would agree to accept assignments after the term, and then file a change of grade as appropriate. Once again, the specifics should be in writing, and sent to the learner. In this case, it would also be advisable to send a copy to the chair in case any questions arise. The benefit of this decision is that it brings closure to the term gradebook.

Looking Ahead to Next Semester

Making Notes, Saving Posts: How do we use what we’ve learned towards next term?Stephen Brookfield (1995) and Pratt and Paloff (1999) all note the value of using what we’ve learned to actively inform our practice, and Angelo and Cross (1993) also note that a part of assessment and evaluation is to use that feedback to improve instruction.

While the course experience is still fresh, jot down notes on what you might want to change based on student feedback as well as your own sense of how the course went. It might include screen edits (and you could save those pages), thoughts about revisions to assignments, tweaking assignment directions, revising rubrics to more clearly indicate what you assign points to and how that it observable in the learner’s submission, thoughts about how to improve content or interactivity. It might include policy changes, like allowing the learner to skip a discussion or take a late quiz or assignment of their choice, thus decreasing the negotiations that are required between you and the learner.

Others also choose to select and compile all the first discussion posts they create to announce a given discussion topic and the instructions for posting to it. Such a file is sometimes stored in the course info files in the shell for easy referral the next term.

Downloading and Saving the Gradebook
Download and save a copy of your gradebook to your desktop to answer student grade- questions that might come up at a later date.

Vista was down this morning 6:15 through 7:45

Here's what I have from Melissa Burke, Director of ASP Hosting with BB:

Lisa –

I am working with the DBA group to get specifics and the information you requested in your last email. We will certainly issue a root cause analysis (RCA) report to you and cover the topic of how we plan to avoid this type of issue in the future.

In summary, the archive logging ran out of space. While a temporary solution was put into place, some downtime will be needed to completely alleviate the situation. We are working on an estimate for that now and Larry is trying to schedule this during the normal maintenance window. The splash page did not display as the webserver component of the application was still running.

It looks like the system went down shortly after 8:15 eastern and came back at about 9:45 eastern.

Melissa

As soon as I know more I will pass it on.

Thanks-
Lisa

Analytics

Hi Everyone-

Rhonda and I had an interesting conversation last night with Steve Rheinschmidt and Gretchen Bartelson of The Iowa Community College Consortium. They have begun looking seriously at the student data they have from their LMS (eCollege) and tying the data to retention and student success. Steve indicated the best early predictor of student success seems to be the amount of time a student spends in the LMS the first week of classes -- if the student spends more than 7 hours they will be successful; less than 7 hours they tend to need help.

Iowa has very generous drop add policies the first week of classes, so the student population in the classes is not particularly stable. That of course makes it hard to really begin to dig into the course material the first week, so they are concentrating on developing/promoting community building activities that grab the students and keep them in the class.

Steve also commented that students who use the discussion tool more than average tend to be successful students and that students who use them email tool more than average tend not to be successful. I bet that is about your experience also. :^)

We are planning to start looking at the data we can get from Vista and from Banner soon -- as soon as we have time.

best,
Lisa

Study Mate Workshop: April 23 - 27

“Alex, I’ll take Interactivies for 200”
“The answer is…a nine letter word that starts with S.”

What is StudyMate?
Correct you are!

Want to add some zip to your course? How about some fun activities to help your students through rough concepts or vocabulary? Try StudyMate! This program will help you create 10 different games and activities that you can upload into your online course.

What you will get:
• Instructions to download and install the program on your computer.
• An electronic user manual to keep on your computer desktop.
• Instruction and practice creating the interactivities including Fact Cards, Flash Cards, Crossword puzzles, Challenge games and more.
• Instructions for uploading your files into your Vista course.

What: StudyMate -- CCCOnline training workshop
Format: Self-paced with facilitator guide
Where: All Online
When: April 23-27
How: Register at http://cccs-lms.ccconline.org/RegistrationForm/
For more information: Training@ccconline.org

TELECOOP Pictures

This year the Learning Technology Council (DL folks from all of the colleges nominated CCCOnline's Academic Technology Team for the Technology Support Person of the Year. Above you see Jonathan Fuller, Rick Hadley's brother Drew, Frank Vazquez, and David Chatham. Chris Dos is a part of the team, but was unable to come collect the award in person. Yea guys! This was a well-deserved award considering the amount of support they have given all of us this year!



And just as a side note, this is the second time Frank has won the award.



Rick's mother, Anne Hadley, was also able to come up to TELECOOP this year to spend some time with us and to watch Cheryl's Second Life presentation. Cheryl did a fantastic job -- she kept the entire room spell-bound for the presentation. It was a good time to talk about Rick and the enthusiasm he had for Second Life and the Second Life project. Cheryl is planning to continue that project and even has some "land" in SL courtesy of Rick.










Cheryl presented a second time, with Aaron and Mary. This presentation also received rave reviews from a rapt audience. (It was Friday morning after all of the dire snow warnings and they still had a full room.) This presentation was on Teaching with Technology - I had several requests to get them to put it together as a workshop so more folks could attend.



















Alice Bedard-Voorhees presented on podcasting and audio interviews. She had yet another fascinated audience for that topic. This is Mary and Alice, with Donna Welschmeyer (Accounting) in the background taking pictures.



I didn't manage to get a picture of Jeri Heinicke, LL Program Chair, and Jon Sherrill, math faculty and other hats, in their presentation. They demonstrated software Jon wrote to allow students and faculty to record foreign language assignments for the foreign language courses. It's really exciting stuff and might add something to courses other than the language courses.



Karen Kaemmerling, SS Program Chair, and Rhonda Epper presented on the Digital Content Project and talked about Karen's textbook free history course. Somehow my camera missed them also. Karen also provided a lot of input in my presentation on using 3rd party content in courses.



And Linda Bowman, system VP for Academic Affairs and CCA President, came up for part of Thursday to watch the guys get their award. I did get a picture of her, but didn't think it was one she would want on the blog. :^)



The slides from all of these presentations will eventually be available on the www.telecoop.org website.



It was a great conference as usual -- lots of information of exciting subjects like Second Life, Podcasting, Quality Matters, Distance Learning happenings in nearby states, etc.



We also had a chance to talk to old friends who have moved away like Ed Bowen and Paul Romero. That's Ed below. He's in Texas now as an Executive Dean for Dallas Telelearning. He talked on the Quality Matters project - I really want to bring him back for our conference in September.




And in case you think no one does any work at conferences, here's Jonathan and Frank gradually building themselves a home in one of the labs.






















best,


Lisa

Workshop Opportunity: Creating Virtual Teams 4/16 - 4/27

Creating Virtual Teams

Research suggests that building a virtual community with others who share common goals or purpose may help defray feelings of isolation in distance learning. Collaborative learning, such as small group work, can help foster relationships through team-building activities that create a mutual-interdependency to succeed. So why aren’t more faculty using collaborative activities?

These are the questions we often hear:

o What should be done to facilitate the best possible group outcomes?
o What Vista tools are available, and how are they used?
o How should teams be formed?
o How many students should be in each group?
o What are some dark sides of teams, and what can be done to overcome these issues?

In Creating Virtual Teams, you’ll learn the answers to these questions and much more.

What you will get:
• Information on theory and best practices for setting up and facilitating collaborative projects.
• Instructions on using the Vista Group Tools.
• A lesson plan that can immediately be applied in your virtual classroom plan.
Sign up today!

What: Creating Virtual Teams -- CCCOnline training workshop
Where: All Online
When: April 16-27
How: Register at http://cccs-lms.ccconline.org/RegistrationForm/
For more information: Training@ccconline.org

Scholarship Fund for Rick

Many of you have asked me if there is a place for contributions honoring Rick. Rhonda has helped his family to set up a scholarship fund in his name at Metro State College where he completed his undergraduate degree. If you wish you can send a contribution to:

MSCD Foundation
P.O. Box 17971
Denver, CO 80217 -9812
Please note on your check: In memory of Rick Hadley

The memorial service is this afternoon beginning at 12:45 at the Carbon valley Recreation Center in Frederick, CO (outside of Longmont).

There is also an online memorial to Rick at the SLED project blog (Second Life Education -- a project Rick was very excited about). Your posts are welcome there: http://www.rickhadley.com/sled/

Lisa

Dear Faculty-

Today's email is from Gail Krovitz, who teaches for CCCOnline and also works for eCollege. She is looking for participants in a survey, the topic of which I find interesting.

********************From Gail**************

As you might know, I currently work for eCollege (in addition to teaching for CCCOnline!), and my team is doing a research study investigating the time it takes to teach online versus on-ground. The study starts in mid-April and I’m wondering if it would be possible to distribute this request to faculty teaching for CCCOnline. Anyone who is interested can contact us directly (at research@eteaching.ecollege.com) to receive the survey. The criteria for participation are listed below, along with more information. Essentially, an instructor must teach the same course online and on-ground (with comparable term lengths), and must have taught the class at least once.

Please feel free to pass this on to anyone who might be interested (LMS doesn’t matter)!

Gail

--

Online vs. on-ground: How much time are you spending?

As online education becomes more prevalent, the academic consultants at eCollege are asked more and more questions about the medium. One question we continue to hear is, How much time does it take to teach online? Developing an online course is one thing, but there are also time considerations with teaching an online course.

A common perception is that it takes more time to teach online than it does to teach on-ground. We’ve seen many articles that anecdotally support this view as well. However, is this really the case?

That’s what we want to know, and we need your help!

In April of 2007, the Academic Services team at eCollege will be conducting a survey/short study to help us lay the foundations for ongoing studies of instructor time commitment, both on-ground and online.

In order to participate, you must meet each of these three criteria:

1) You must teach the same class online and on-ground, with a comparable term length.
2) You must have taught the class at least once in both environments (i.e., this cannot be your first semester teaching this particular class online or on-ground).
3) You must teach at the Higher Education level.

The survey will track faculty time requirements for “average” teaching weeks during the semester. We ask that you track your teaching time for a period of 2 weeks and then fill out our online survey.

Would you be willing to participate?

Sign up today if you’re interested, and we will send you the survey in April.

Please give this information to other faculty you know who might be interested in participating.

Sign up (or ask questions) by sending an email to:

research@eteaching.ecollege.com

best,
Lisa

Rick Hadley - Update

Rick is in critical care at St. Anthony Central. He has extensive head injuries. I can forward any messages you have for his family.

best,
Lisa

Rick Hadley

Hello Everyone-

Rick Hadley was in a serious auto accident late yesterday evening. He is in critical condition at St. Anthony Central with his parents and brother. They have requested no visitation except family at this time, but would appreciate your best wishes. I know many of you have worked closely with Rick and thought you would like to know about the accident.

Sorry,
Lisa

Preferred First Name- Reminder

Hi Everyone-

Carol has only heard from 16 of you regarding your preferred first name. I would have sworn we had more people using nicknames than that. If you would like us to enter a name other than the one on your social security card into Banner please send an email to Carol Verver at Carol.Verver@cccs.edu. This is the name that will appear in Vista for teaching purposes. Your official name is still what will appear on your pay advice and in other official communications.

Thanks-
Lisa

Questions About Phonecasting

Hi All,

Some questions have come in since yesterday's post about using Gabcast. "What's phone casting?" someone asked. It's creating a podcast using a telephone. I mentioned Gabcast. Gabcast is one of the services that allows the creation of sound files using a phone.

You can get a free account at gabcast.com. I paid for an account because it allows me to upload files I've created on my machine or link to external files. It is also possible to create files and not publish them or hide them from being placed on the web. I wanted this option because I don't intend student work to be published to the web unless the person would want it placed there.

My Gabcast podcast is at http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&id=6604.

There are other services, no doubt. This is the one I currently find very usable.

Cheers,

Alice

Phone and Pen (Cursor) ?

How do we articulate what we have learned—by our developed thinking, writing, and speaking skills. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about finding the balance between assessments requiring only writing.

The thinking also relates to a GT (Guaranteed Transfer Course) competency that is out there…“Communicate orally and in writing about the content.”

With the evolution of phone casting, there are now some opportunities to allow student to demonstrate some of the learning via the phone.

So today, I posted the option to a class to submit a case study in written or spoken format using my paid gabcast account ($6/month). Students could also submit sound files by recording them on their desktops using software like Audacity or Garage Band.

BTW, though the students will submit them via phone, they won’t be published on the web. Stay tuned…I’ll report back.

Cheers, Alice

Removing_the_Calendr_Channel_From_Your_CCCOnline_Login_Page

Hi Everyone-

The calendar tool remains problematic for some Vista users. It's not causing problems for everyone, so we don't want to turn it off at a high level. However, some of you may want to turn it off for yourselves both within the course and on your MyCCCOnline page.

Directions for the latter are now on the Vista FAQ in the Faculty wiki at http://www.facultywiki.ccconline.org/~www66/index.php?title=Removing_the_Calendar_Channel_From_Your_CCCOnline_Login_Page
(That is a very long link, so you may have to cut and paste or go directly to the wiki at www.facultywiki.ccconline.org, click on WebCT Vista in the upper section of the page, then on Calendar tool. IT's the last link under Calendar.

The fixes to the calendar tool are currently targetted for an update to Vista in the future, so nothing soon. We are as yet unsure why there are problems for some and not for others, so are also still working on that.

best,
Lisa

Using Creative Commons licensing

Dear Faculty,

I just read an interesting article on "Seven Things You Should Know About Creative Commons Licensing."

http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7023.pdf

As we move into using and creating more open content, this offers a way for you to share your ideas with the education community, while protecting your rights to attribution and how the content is used. The article also mentions several repositories where you can find open resources licensed under Creative Commons.

Rhonda

Rubric Workshop Opportunity: April 6 - 20

Need an easy way to grade your assignments?

Want to make sure your students understand exactly what is required in an assignment?

How about developing a Grading Rubric [rü-brik]? A grading rubric is a set of criteria for evaluating assignments/assessments and for giving feedback.

A rubric is useful for the students so that they understand exactly what is required of an assignment and how it will be graded before turning it in. A rubric will help you, the instructor by providing an easy guide for grading the assignments.

And……..Vista even provides a Grading Forms tool which will let you input your grading rubrics and then use them to grade your assignments through the Assignment tool.

What you will get from this training session:

• A virtual trip to France!

• An understanding of rubrics and their uses

• What comprises a good rubric- several examples of rubrics

• How to write a rubric

• How to use the rubric within your Vista course

What: Creating Grading Rubrics -- CCCOnline training workshop

Where: All Online

When: April 6-20

How: Register at http://cccs-lms.ccconline.org/RegistrationForm/

For more information: Training@ccconline.org

Preferred First Name

To All of You Who Don't Use Your Legal First Name on a Daily Basis:

We finally have the ability to change from your legal first name to your preferred first name. Banner will still use your legal first name, payroll will also still use your legal first name, but your students will see your preferred first name in Vista.

To set this up we need to collect preferred first name from all of you who prefer something differnt from what is listed on your social security card. Please send your preferred first name, your full legal name and your S# to Carol Verver at Carol.Verver@cccs.edu.

For those of you who also have a preferred last name that is not your legal last name -- still working on it, but doesn't look like we will correct this soon. (I fall into both of these categories FWIW).

best,
Lisa

ADA for blind folks

Hi Everyone -

Kathy Miles sent the following email to me regarding tips for meeting the needs of our blind students. I thought you would all be interested in it also as you make changes to your courses:

All:

As reported by several chairs at our January A-Team meeting, we do now have blind students taking our online courses. This has ADA implications for how we list Web links in our course pages, which we need to begin addressing as we migrate courses into Vista and as we revise current courses or develop new courses. To meet ADA guidelines, please do your best when migrating, revising, and developing courses to create Web links with meaningful descriptions. Here's why, and what we need to be aware of:

Software readers for the blind "read" URL links (and other content) to a student when these links are encountered within the content on a Web page. These readers also are designed to place all URL links on that Web page in a list which may be "read" as the student scrolls through it for quick access to those links. This means that the links need to be meaningful to the student in terms of providing information about what the link will go to.

For example, what if a course page intends to tell the student that "to see research resources, go to this link"?
In our courses that link is generally specified in one of three ways within the content on a page: by telling the student to "click here" to see the site, by listing the complete URL for the Web site, or by specifying the name or purpose of the site itself as the link. So the list drawn up from a content page by the software reader might contain three links like these:

1. click here
2. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/index.html#writing
3. how to conduct research and document sources

I think you can see that #1, when "read" in a list without any referencing context, is totally meaningless in terms of what it will go to. Likewise, #2 - while potentially less meaningless - nevertheless requires the student to remember and decipher a lengthy reading of letters, words, and symbols to make sense of the URL ("h-t-t-p-colon-forward slash-forward slash-owl-period-english-period-edu-forward slash-handouts-..." etc.). Only #3 provides a meaningful description of what resource the link goes to, when listed without its surrounding content.

In order to comply with ADA guidelines, therefore, I'm requesting that whenever possible as you migrate courses and/or work with faculty in revising and developing courses, please ensure that Web links on content pages are written in the format exemplified by #3 above (or re-written if they currently exist in a form like #1 or #2 above) - i.e., please use a Web link format which specifies the name and/or purpose of the site. In some cases this will require re-phrasing the context surrounding the Web link for that link sentence to make sense.

Along with content pages, the Resources page in particular often contains a list of URLs as links rather than descriptive links, and time constraints might limit your ability to change all of these in courses migrating for summer - plus we haven't done this in most of the courses we've migrated so far since I don't think any of us thought much about this issue before. So you may need to create a list indicating which of your courses have had all the Web links redone and which have not, for future reference. However, re-doing Web links for summer courses now whenever possible - and certainly in a course's content pages - will be a good start.

Please let me know if you have any questions or think of something I've missed. Thanks!

Kathy

Best,
Lisa

Get Some Style--Teaching Style Workshop April 2 - 13

Teaching With Style

Style……….everyone has their own and we’re not talking What Not To Wear!

Learning Styles are how we take in and process information to effectively learn. You may like to read step-by-step instructions whereas your best friend may like to actually plunge in and do the task a number of times in order to understand it. Or perhaps you remember what you hear but your friend remembers best what she sees in a picture or a chart.. Because of such differences we most likely learn in very different ways.

Additionally, did you realize that for the first time ever, there are four possible generations of learners in our classroom: Veterans, Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y (The Millennials). All four generations come from a different mind-set based on personal and cultural experiences, and thus they each learn much differently.

How do these learning-style and generational differences translate into our teaching and its effect on our students’ learning? What implications are there for course design? You will engage in a variety of exploratory activities as you work individually and with each other in this fast-paced workshop examining the world of Learning Styles.

What you will get:
· Information on common Learning Styles and methods for measuring them.
· Information on Intergenerational Learning Styles and preferences.
· Information on your own learning style.
· Information on implications for designing course activities in alternative learning style.
· Practice in designing course activities to engage and support different styles.

What: Teaching With Style -- CCCOnline training workshop

Where: All Online

When: April 2-13

How: Register at
http://cccs-lms.ccconline.org/RegistrationForm/

Teaching-Blog Carnival #22 is Up!

Hi All,

About a month ago, I put up an interview with Liz Kleinfeld, who was about to host a teaching-blog carnival. So Liz's went up, and now mine has. I tried to replicate the actual carnival post here, but this blog keeps refusing to post the entry.

http://mocozone.blogspot.com

So step right up and visit the carnival! It was great to tour blogs created by our teaching colleagues. Who knows, you might even like the idea enough to want to host one (heh, heh).

Cheers,

Alice

Maintenance Window for Vista

Hi All-

From David:

I just got a call from our Vista TSM and there is a maintenance window scheduled for tonight at 1 AM MDT until 3 AM MDT. A message about this was supposed to be sent out earlier in the week for proper notification but that didn't happen. They are a little red-faced but they say they need to do this. They are doing some necessary maintenance for the entire data center, where we are hosted.

I hope you are all fast asleep in bed during those hours and were not planning on working in your classes then. Sorry for the late notice.

best,
Lisa

Student Opportunity

Dear Faculty:

I need your assistance finding a female student who fits into the category of Stuck in a Rut - just getting by with her job but needs some help moving forward.

Andrea Beaumont, a producer for Good Morning America has contacted CCCOnline for piece they are doing on March 30 in three different cities. You can see Andrea’s exact request below. She’s getting the most response in Denver on the “Stuck in a Rut” category and that’s where we fit. Here are our tasks:

I need to put Andrea in contact with our student to Andrea ASAP! They want to interview and profile the woman THIS WEEK. They have a career counselor who will meet with her and give her some free advice, etc. The piece will demonstrate how online learning is a great option to help you get OUT of a rut.

On March 30, starting at 5 a.m., GMA wants to host a gathering of about 200 women for this segment that will air live from Denver. Our student profile will air that day and she will be a guest. Andrea asked if there might be a location where WE could host the 200 women and live broadcast. She had that idea on the spot. We are still working on this piece, but it is completely separate from my request for faculty.

Please get your answers to me as soon as you can so we don’t miss this opportunity! My email address is Jennifer.Frank@cccs.edu. Please don't email Lisa or Rhonda, just me.

Jennifer Elizabeth Frank

CCCOnline

Marketing Manager

Financial Aid Advisor

9026 E. Severn Place

Denver, CO 80230

720-858-2738 Work

720-323-8345 Cell

Respondus Workshop March 19 - 23

Got Questions????????????????????

We’ve got Respondus!

The Colorado Community College System has purchased a system-wide license for all system faculty to use Respondus, a tool which can be used to create and manage tests.

With Respondus you can

• Create hard copy exams or upload directly to an online course.
• Retrieve test banks from an online course and move them to another Learning Management System.
• Create up to 15 question types, including calculated and algorithmic formats.
• Add tables, bulleted lists, font changes, and other formatting similar to a word processor.
• Insert mathematical and scientific symbols.
• Embed graphics, audio, and video.
• And much more!

Online Respondus Training

When: March 19-23
How: CCCOnline Training
Registration: http://cccs-lms.ccconline.org/RegistrationForm/
Questions: CCCOTraining@aol.com
Join us online!

Daylight Savings Time

Hi Everyone-

Donna Welschmeyer wrote up this explanation of how the DST patches may have changed due dates in your exam and assignment settings in Vista:

A weekend Blackboard patch to the Vista CMS has created some confusion about due dates/times in Vista courses. Any assignment or exam with an end time of midnight for dates BETWEEN our early change to DST (March 11) and the normal change to DST (April 1) will have converted to 1:00 a.m. on the day following your original due date. For example, an assignment with a due date of midnight on March 15 will now have a due date/time of 1:00 a.m. on March 16. While this is only an hour difference, it may cause confusion for students because the date itself changes.

It appears that due dates/times for assignments that occur AFTER April 1 remained the same as originally set in your class.

If you think this may cause your students to think they have an extra day to turn in assignments or complete exams, please be sure to either change the dates/times back OR post an announcement or send an email explaining the situation.

Sorry for any confusion,
Lisa

Census Day

Congratulations Everyone! Our average drop rate between day 1 of spring session 2 classes and Thursday (day after census day) was 17.5%. That is pretty darn good. Everyone please give yourselves a hand!

Lisa

CCCOnline will offer another real-time Plagiarism session for Students in Elluminate on Wednesday, March 14th at noon. I’ve included the announcement that will appear on the Student News blog.

If this topic is especially important for learners in your cours(s), here’s an opportunity to offer “extra-credit” carrots to them :).

Best, Alice

For the Student Blog:

Avoiding Plagiarism Potholes: The Ethical and Correct Use of Sources

Every college student knows plagiarism is against the rules. It’s also very easy to do – even unintentionally! CCCOnline will show you how to recognize and stay away from plagiarism during a live, interactive, online student workshop:

Wednesday, March 14 th, from noon to 12:45 p.m.
Additional sessions will be offered if there is sufficient demand

Avoiding Plagiarism Potholes is a 45-minute online seminar during which students can discuss three key issues with moderator Alice.Bedard-Voorhees:
What is plagiarism?
What are the consequences of plagiarism?
What are some basic practices to avoid plagiarism in using sources created by others? (Best Practices include resources).

There are up to 50 "seats" available for each session and these are available on a first-come, first-served basis. CCCOnline will offer additional seminars if there is sufficient demand.

There are two steps to joining the meeting.

Download the Elluminate software and pre-configure your system by going to the support page at:

http://elm1.elluminate.com/support.html.

The process may take anywhere from two to 20 minutes, depending on your Internet connection speed. You won’t be able to participate if you have a dial-up connection! In addition to the software, you’ll need speakers to hear the session and a microphone if you want to ask questions or participate in the discussion.

Before the seminar start time, participants can join by using the following link:

http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/join_meeting.html?meetingId=1170366918332.

You DO NOT need a password to join!
--

Last Day to drop reminder to students

The following email was sent to all session 2 students and posted on the student blog.

Thanks!
John

This note is a final reminder that you have until tomorrow, Wednesday March 7, 2007, to drop your CCCOnline delivered Spring session 2 course(s) with a refund.

If you do not plan to drop your course(s) or have already dropped your course(s) please disregard this reminder.

Session 2 courses are those courses with a section ID starting C2* (example ENG 121C21)

Please note that due to the large size of CCCOnline courses, we split courses into multiple sections (C22, C23, etc.), therefore, your online section may not be C21, however, if you want to drop the course, you will need to drop the C21 section at your college.

**Contacting your instructor(s) will NOT result in your being dropped or withdrawn from your course(s)**

To DROP your course(s):

- go to http://ccconline.org/start/college_table.htm or your home college web site
- click on the Self-Service Banner link for your home college
- select Login and enter your Student ID and 6-digit student PIN
- click Enter
- select the Student Menu and then the Registration Menu
- select Add or Drop Courses and follow the steps to get to your Current Schedule of
courses
- on your Current Schedule, use the Drop Down box under Action and select Drop
Web
- Click Submit Changes at the bottom of the page
- check your Current Schedule to make sure the course(s) has been dropped

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us or your home college.

For any technical questions or problems with your course, please visit http://ccconline.org/support/

Thank you for your time and we hope you continue to have a great and successful semester!
CCCOnlineStudent Services1.800.801.5040
http://ccconline.org/support/

Financial Aid and Textbooks

Hi Everyone-

Phyllis D. had a question about textbooks and financial aid yesterday and thought the rest of you might like the information also.

We process textbook orders for students using financial aid to purchase their textbooks through the CCCOnline offices. That adds about a day to the time it takes for a student to receive their books and it requires them to use the official bookstore - MBS.

When a student receives financial aid the college sets up an account for them at the college. The college uses the funds in that account to pay for tuition, fees, and books, then eventually disburses any remaining funds to the student. When CCCOnline orders books for the students we pay for the books, then send a statement to the colleges. The colleges reimburse CCCOnline out of the financial aid account they have for the student.

That means we have to be careful not to order books for the students after the financial aid funds have already been disbursed to the student. To ensure that we stop ordering books for students the week before classes begin. If a student registers late for session 1 classes and does not immediately order their textbooks they will have to cover the cost of the textbooks from their personal funds until they receive their financial aid check. Session 2 students are in a slightly better position. They generally receive their financial aid funds the fourth week of the semester and can use that money to purchase books for session 2 classes.

Session 1 students who don't order books promptly may be caught in the donut hole between the closing of the CCCOnline process and the disbursement of their financial aid funds. Unfortunately right now there is not a lot we can do about that. It's another reason we like the digital content project as the cost to the student is included on their tuition bill and access to the content runs with the class.

best,
Lisa

Daylight Savings Time

Hi Everyone-

Sunday morning we all spring forward an hour to daylight savings time. This may be a little problematic in that our computers don't expect to spring forward for another three weeks. Blackboard is updating the Vista server and Vista itself, but it's a complex process, so they do request that users check the time on their various tools after the daylight savings time change this weekend. There are too many variables like when the particular tool function was created, when the time was set in a section tool, when the patch is run on the server. To be safe, faculty should check after the daylight savings time takes effect and make sure the hour time hasn't changed by one hour.

David also sent me information re Java: "JRE 1.5.0 Update 6 has the daylight savings time update. System computers are supposed to have the update. They can check their version on their home computer and get needed updates and information at www.sun.com."

Your learners may or may not update their computers to match the correct time, so please be aware that we may have three weeks of students with assignments that are 1 hour late or at least time stamped one hour late.

You may also need to update your own personal computers. For those of you with windows PC's Microsoft has more information on that available at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst. I also glanced at the apple website and it looks like there is a patch there for apple users.

Some very good news -- John tells me only 5% of our spring learners have dropped so far; census day is Wednesday, so that is very good news. Thanks you so much for all of your retention efforts!

best,
Lisa

Faculty Practice: Mid-Term Student Survey from Linda Rowley

OSH Faculty Linda Rowley recently shared this mid-term practice--she sends this anonymous survey to her students and makes mid-course corrections to improve the course experience rather than waiting till the end of the term. Thanks for sharing this practice, Linda!

SURVEY

Instructions: For simplicity, rate each on a 1-3 scale. 1 – needs improvement 2 – satisfactory 3 – excellent OR respond to open-ended questions with your own remarks.

1. About the course
a. The syllabus was clear and easy to understand.
b. The schedule page is organized and lists the course assignments and due dates.
c. The Start Here page adequately explained how to begin the course.
d. The assessment techniques (discussions, quizzes, assignments) used in this course allow me to demonstrate and build my skills and knowledge.
e. Instructions for course navigation (e.g., turning in assignments, taking exams, participating in discussions) were adequately explained.
f. Other comments?

2. A student self-assessment
a. Are you achieving your learning and educational goals in this class?
b. I am engaged in the weekly discussions.
c. My responses to other learners helps build on information, offer new perspectives, and engage in discussions.
d. I am motivated to read other materials related to the chapters or discussions.
e. How would you rate on a self-assessment?
f. Other comments?

3. About the class
a. Other students help me to learn.
b. Other students provide meaningful discussion postings.
c. Other students post frequently.
d. Students in the class are supportive, and provide a good network for me.
e. Other comments?

4. About the instructor
a. The instructor encourages students to actively participate in the class through email, announcements, and discussion.
b. The instructor challenges students to think/analyze/evaluate.
c. The instructor relates the subject matter to other classes, college programs, life and/or employment.
d. The instructor encourages the students to ask questions and/or express opinions.
e. The instructor is engaged and responsive to students.
f. Other comments?

5. What is working well in this course?

6. What could be better?

7. Other comments?

To all CCCOnline Faculty: Do you have some course feedback and response techniques you use with learners in your courses? Please share yours in the Comments :).

Last day to drop reminder sent to students

The following reminder was sent to all session 2 students today.

Thanks!
John

This note is a reminder that you have until Wednesday March 7, 2007, to drop your CCCOnline delivered Spring session 2 course(s) with a refund.

If you do not plan to drop your course(s) or have already dropped your course(s) please disregard this reminder.

Session 2 courses are those courses with a section ID starting C2* (example ENG 121C21)

Please note that due to the large size of CCCOnline courses, we split courses into multiple sections (C22, C23, etc.), therefore, your online section may not be C21, however, if you want to drop the course, you will need to drop the C21 section at your college.

**Contacting your instructor(s) will NOT result in your being dropped or withdrawn from your course(s)**

To DROP your course(s):

- go to http://ccconline.org/start/college_table.htm or your home college web site
- click on the Self-Service Banner link for your home college
- select Login and enter your Student ID and 6-digit student PIN
- click Enter
- select the Student Menu and then the Registration Menu
- select Add or Drop Courses and follow the steps to get to your Current Schedule of
courses
- on your Current Schedule, use the Drop Down box under Action and select Drop
Web
- Click Submit Changes at the bottom of the page
- check your Current Schedule to make sure the course(s) has been dropped

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us or your home college.

Thank you for your time and we hope you continue to have a great and successful semester!
CCCOnlineStudent Services1.800.801.5040
http://ccconline.org/support/