New D2L Tools to Use as you Update your Courses for Fall!

As you prepare your courses for the fall term, please remember that you must have a content related graded assignment completed prior to the census date for fall 1 which is September 14th. This assignment will help you determine how to mark students on the attendance roster that you will complete.

We would also like to announce the addition of some new tools in D2L. The first is TurnItIn which you may have already noticed in your Dropbox tool. Plagiarism Detection scans Dropbox submissions resulting in an "Originality Report" icon for instructors on the "Submissions" and "Leave Feedback" page with color-coded percentages of possible plagiarism. Online Markup allows instructors to insert inline text, highlight text, and add and reuse comments across submissions in a variety of document formats all from the Dropbox Folder "Leave Feedback" page. Visit the wiki page for more instructions, tutorials, and information on Plagiarism Detection and Online Markup in D2L: http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_D2L_-_Dropbox

Some suggestions to keep in mind when using the plagiarism detection tool:
-Before you use the plagiarism tool, consult with your Program Chair about expectations.
-Include information for learners that this tool will be used when grading assignments and consider adding to your course "Instructions" about viewing the Originality Report and/or Online Markup.
-View the Faculty Handbook Academic Integrity page for ideas about constructive use of the Plagiarism Detection option (link below).
-Select to "Allow submitters to see Originality Reports" and leave all other settings at defaults.

Another exciting, handy tool for faculty as you update your courses for fall is the Manage Dates Tool which you access through Edit Course. Using the Manage Dates tool for Dropbox and Quiz items adjusts the start and end date for these items. Students can see them, but not access them until the dates you set in Manage Dates. Be careful, using the Manage Dates tool for Content, Discussions, and Grades affects the VISIBILITY of these items. If you set dates for Content, Discussions, and Grades from the Manage Dates tool those items are not VISIBLE to students before or after the dates you set in Manage Dates. CCCOnline strongly discourages the hiding of any content in our courses.

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

D2L Grades Webinar

Do you have trouble using the Grades tool in D2L? Do your grade columns match up with your grade items? Do you need a bonus column? Come to the D2L Grades webinar from 1-3pm on tomorrow, Tuesday Aug 3rd where the voice of Profhelp, Amy Sorenson, will answer all these questions and more.

Join us at https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008363&password=M.085ABAE2B05F344DCC68DC9E8172C3

Also, don't forget to register for the faculty conference! Sessions are filling up quickly!

2010 Faculty Conference Registration is now open!

Time to roll up your sleeves and join us for our 2010 CCCOnline Faculty Conference Constructing Quality: Expand your Toolbox.



Go to our 2010 Conference wiki page to find:

-Registration
-Conference Details
-Descriptions of the sessions and times
-And a fun graphic created by our Flash Developer, Beth Kitts. Can you guess whose voice she used?

Can’t wait to see you there! I’ll be the one in the red tool belt.
Please send me your questions about the conference directly at Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu

August Training Opportunities

As we wrap up the summer term, you have several training opportunities you will want to mark on your calendars.

On August 3 from 1-3pm Donna Hall, Design Team Coordinator, will provide a D2L Grades Webinar where participants will learn the basics of using the D2L Grades tool effectively, including the basics of setting up Grades and making sure your Grades tool is accurate during and at the end of a term. Use this link to access the webinar https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008363&password=M.085ABAE2B05F344DCC68DC9E8172C3

Register today through the Faculty Gateway for our Learning Styles Workshop with Leecy Wise facilitating that begins August 9^th and concludes August 20^th.

We will have a two part webinar series on August 25^th and August 27^th on Second Language Writers with Ruth Brancard from 1-2:30 pm. By examining profiles of 5 non-native speakers of English, participants will explore strengths such students bring to the college classroom as well as challenges these students face. Highlights from recent research on second language writers and older research in the area of contrastive rhetoric will inform a discussion of how instructors can use knowledge about students’ linguistic backgrounds to support students’ learning. Log in information can be found on the upcoming webinar wiki page at https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Professional_Development_-_Upcoming_Webinars

Finally, be ready to roll up your sleeves at this year’s faculty conference Constructing Quality: Expand your Toolbox on September 17, 2010 at Arapahoe Community College. Bookmark this wiki page for session information coming soon https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Teaching_Resources_-_Presentations_-_2010_CCCOnline_Faculty_Conference

Student Survey Now Available

Please do not reply to this message. Email me directly at donna.welschmeyer@cccs.edu if you have questions or comments.

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!

Training Opportunities This Week

As Summer Heats up, join us for two training opportunities this week!

Session 3 - Second Life Series - Expression and Learning through Communicating in SecondLife
When: July 22, 2010 (3:00PM - 5:00PM - Mountain)
Who: Cheryl Comstock, CCCOnline Director of Online Programs
What: In this session, we will be presenting and practicing the use of various communication tools for traditional and non-traditional forms of communication.
Where: In Second Life. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Colorado%20EduIsland/133/111/22Contact Cheryl Comstock with questions: Cheryl.Comstock@cccs.edu

Authentic Assessments
When: Friday, July 23, 2010 (1:00PM - 3:00PM Mountain)
Who: Karen Kaemmerling, CCCOnline Director of Training & Professional Development and Social Science Program Chair
What: Participants will leave this session able to define and compare Authentic Assessments and Traditional Assessments and have knowledge about the development of authentic assessments implemented in history courses based on Colorado Common Course Numbering System. Where: Online via Elluminate. Access up to 15 minutes before the start time from:https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008363&password=M.B52B6F7AF023620CDD22540AF91F18

Faculty Voices

Hi Everyone-

Please take a few moments to read this summers Faculty Voices blogs.  You can access them from the Faculty Community shell in D2L or I have again set up a public Netvibes page at http://www.netvibes.com/lisacs#Faculty_Voices.

They are truly wonderful blogs to read -- Dave Trott's post on gardens today is a gem.

Lisa

Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu

Summer Training Opportunities

As you beat the heat and stay inside on a hot summer afternoon, how about joining us for a webinar or workshop. Also, mark your calendar for our upcoming annual conference at Arapahoe Community College on September 17th. Our theme this year is Constructing Quality: Expand your Toolbox. Be looking for registration information soon!

Here is a list of upcoming events , visit the upcoming webinar page on the wiki for more information.
Authentic Assessments
When: Friday, July 23, 2010 (1:00PM - 3:00PM Mountain)
What: Participants will leave this session able to define and compare Authentic Assessments and Traditional Assessments and have knowledge about the development of authentic assessments implemented in history courses based on Colorado Common Course Numbering System.
D2L Grades
When: Tuesday, August 3, 2010 (1:00PM - 3:00PM Mountain)
What: Participants will lean the basics of using the D2L Grades tool effectively, including the basics of setting up Grades and making sure your Grades tool is accurate during and at the end of a term.
Second Language Writers Part 1 - Understanding Second Language Writers
When: Wednesday, August 25, 2010 (1:00PM - 2:30PM Mountain)
What: By examining profiles of 5 non-native speakers of English, participants will explore strengths such students bring to the college classroom as well as challenges these students face. Highlights from recent research on second language writers and older research in the area of contrastive rhetoric will inform a discussion of how instructors can use knowledge about students’ linguistic backgrounds to support students’ learning.
Second Language Writers Part 2 - Working with Second Language Writers and Their Writing
When: Friday, August 27, 2010 (1:00PM - 2:30PM Mountain)
What: Using student writing samples, participants will discuss strategies for working with second language writers to improve writing in English. Drawing on research on second language acquisition and second language writing, the presenter will address issues of content, organization, grammar, and voice. Suggestions for the timing and content of feedback to students will be addressed.

You may also register for our Learning Styles workshop facilitated by Leecy Wise starting on August 8th through the faculty gateway.

D2L Version 9

Hi Everyone-

Yesterday we upgraded to version 9 in D2L.   Today you may have noticed some of the new features.  Among them you should see:

• If a student has added a picture to their My Settings widget, it will show up in the classlist and in discussion posts.
• When grading you can now leave feedback for each student's discussion in the Topic Score Details window.
• Classlist now shows the last time a student has accessed the course.
• Files can now be edited in Manage Files.  Rolling your mouse over a file and then clicking the drop-down arrow will give options to edit, rename, copy, cut, delete, download, preview, and add content topic.
• When something is saved a bkue bar appears at the top of the D2L page (covers the Global Navbar) for about 5 seconds saying "saved successfully".
• Rubrics  are similar to grade forms in BB.  This is a really cool tool and training on it will be available later this summer. (We recommend you wait for training before trying to set it up.)

More information coming soon as we spend time with this version!

Lisa

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu

CCCOnline

Colorado EduIsland 1st Anniversary Celebration!

We will be celebrating Colorado EduIsland’s 1st year in Second Life (SL). There will be music, games, and fun tours around the island.

When: Thursday, July 8th
Time: 3-6 pm
Where: Colorado EduIsland : http://slurl.com/secondlife/Colorado%20EduIsland/132/110/22
How to get there: You will need to start an account and download SL (viewer 2) and then you can access the link.

If you don’t already have a SL account you can easily create one by visiting SecondLife.com. Please use the CCCOnline Faculty wiki, to get you started in SL. http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_Other_Tools_-_Second_Life .You can also email questions to me directly at, Cheryl.comstock@cccs.edu.

If you are interested in virtual worlds as a teaching tool to deliver synchronous topics in your classes, and /or create community among your students and educational peers, please feel free to join us on Colorado EduIsland to share your ideas! Colorado EduIsland is a space for our Colorado colleges to use and research learning possibilities within virtual environments.
See you in-world!
Cheryl/ a.k.a. Ize Mesmer
Cheryl.comstock@cccs.edu.

D2L Operational

Hi Everyone-

Yesterday evening beginning around 8:30 we were having database issues with D2L that resulted in an inability to login.  Those issues were resolved around 10:00 pm last night.

Lisa

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu

CCCOnline

D2L System Upgrade

D2L will be upgraded to Version 9 on Monday, July 5. D2L will be unavailable to students and faculty from 6:00 a.m. until approximately 4:00 p.m., July 5.

Colorado Teaching and Learning Conference (COLTT)

***Please do not reply to this message. Instead, please direct questions to Jill Lester, the COLTT Conference Coordinator at coltt@cu.edu***

The annual COLTT conference will be held August 11 and 12 at CU Boulder. Visit the conference website at https://www.cusys.edu/coltt/2010/index.html for additional information.

The Colorado Community College System has generously offered to sponsor registration for approximately ten faculty members from across the Community College System to attend COLTT this year. Please note that the intent is to distribute the scholarships across the community colleges, hence we will first prioritize one applicant from each school. Sponsorships will be awarded on a first come first serve basis.

For those who represent any of the following schools, an additional travel honorarium will be provided for their attendance at COLTT to help underwrite their travel costs. (This travel benefit does not apply to faculty from the metro area colleges.) The campuses that would be eligible for the travel honorarium are Trinidad, OJC, Lamar, Pueblo, Pikes Peak, NJC Sterling, Morgan CC, CNCC, CCC online.

Please submit your application online through our registration link, choose the skip payment option and reference CCCS in the text box. Upon completion please forward a copy of the confirmation page to Jill Lester, the COLTT Conference Coordinator at coltt@cu.edu. Please contact Jill for more information regarding the conference or eligibility questions.

Reminder: Back Up Your Gradebook

*Please do not reply to this message. If you have questions, please email me directly at elizabeth.dzabic@cccs.edu.*

This is a reminder to back up your course gradebook by exporting grades to your own computer. For help, please see the “Exporting Grades” tutorial.

Following this process each time you post grades means you’ll have a backup in case of technical difficulties. Thanks!

No Show statistics to date

With 64% of faculty reporting here is where we are so far:

82% of students are active in class.

10% are no-shows.

8% don't meet the definition of active, but have been reported as keepers.

70% of the 10% (7%) of students reported as no shows are attending a home college that does drop no shows.  That means we will see some roster clean-up from this exercise.

Thanks everyone!  And if you are one of the 36% of faculty who have not reported no show students please do.  

best,

Lisa

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Co-Exec. Dir., CCCOnline

The Keep Column and why the new No-Show Policy?

Hi Everyone-

I want to talk just a little bit about our new student no-show policy.  This policy is in direct response to two significant issues surrounding distance learning:  student authentication and student presence.

I am sure you have had someone ask you how you know who your students are.  Is the student who signs up for your course the student who completes the work?  Many of you have seen websites advertising services around taking exams and writing papers for students.   We address this concern in several ways.  We ask students to log into our learning management system. That is very straight-forward and also simple to get around by giving someone else access to the user name and password.  Beginning this fall we will also ask students to respond to a set of identity questions similar to the questions used by online banking.  (This service will be provided by Acxiom, a data company many private concerns also use.)  We are also beginning to track data such as IP addresses.  If a student logs on consistently from one or two computers we wouldn't expect them to take all exams from a third computer.

Our other concern is student presence.  Sometimes the correct student has signed up for a course, but has no intention of completing the course.  We are addressing that through our own participation requirements - the introductory discussion and the first assessment. Student participation and presence matters.  We all want to teach students who are actively engaged in the course and with the course content.  Classes are better when the majority of student in the class are actively engaged in the class.

CCCOnline has been a target of a couple of major financial aid fraud schemes.  Online learning is certainly also a target of concerns around student authenticity outside of the financial aid schemes.  We clearly need to continue to address both of these issues.  On the other hand, we want to make sure we don't introduce inappropriate barriers to our actual students.  That gets me to the "Keep" column of our current no-show policy.

Many of you will have students who have emailed or otherwise interacted with you, but who have not completed either the introductory discussion or the first assessment.  You might feel that it would be inappropriate to drop these students at this point in the course.  The keep column allows you to keep them in the class at your discretion.  We are planning on gathering course completion statistics on the students who are kept at faculty discretion.  We'll pass that information back to you, giving you another advising tool for students.    For example, if on average only 10% of the students kept on the basis of the keep column pass their courses you can pass that information on to your students and perhaps it will be what they need to hear to enable them to either drop the course or change their priorities so they can pass the course.

Please keep in mind also, that not all colleges drop students based on no-show reports, so only some of the students you no-show will actually disappear from your course.  It does send a message to students however and it may help prevent fraud and to limit classes to those who are actively engaged in the courses.

I appreciate everyone's assistance with this endeavor.  We hope to have some data on its success or failure by this time next year. 

best,

Lisa

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Co-Exec. Director, CCCOnline

Disability Accommodations

**Please do not reply to this post. If you have questions, please email me directly at** Donna.Welschmeyer@cccs.edu.

It's that time of the semester when we begin to see accommodation requests from students who have documented disabilities. It is our goal, of course, to provide needed assistance to these students while ensuring the validity of the requests. This is a reminder of the steps in that process and how it affects you as an instructor:

1. Students who request accommodation must do so through their home college.
2. The home college provides CCCOnline student services staff with an accommodation request that outlines the specific accomodations we are asked to provide to the student.
3. CCCOnline student services staff forward the request to all affected instructors.
4. Instructors should direct all questions regarding received requests to their program chair or to CCCOnline staff.

Please note

1. It's always a good idea to communicate with the student regarding the request you have receive and how you intend to accommodate him/her. You can explain, for example, that you have set the time for the exams for this student to double the time other students have, or that you don't have timed exams in your class. It's important that the student be informed of how his/her needs will be met.
2. Unless you have received an accommodation request from CCCOnline student services staff, you are not required to provide accommodation to the student. If the student has not processed a request through the home college, direct him/her there.
2. Students must request the accommodation every semester; you will be notified by CCCOnline staff at the beginning of each term if you have students for whom you should provide accommodations.
2. If a student says to you that he/she requested accommodation, please email john.schmahl@cccs.edu and ask if we do indeed have a request on file.
3. The typical accommodation we provide is extra time on exams. If you need assistance setting this up, please submit a profhelp ticket at the faculty gateway.
4. We do not usually provide extra time for "regular" homework assignments because students know from day one what those assignments are and generally have ample time to complete them.

To help you better understand the accommodation process, the training and professional development department has created a great tutorial that can be accessed here: https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Policies_%26_Procedures_-_Faculty_Handbook_-_Teaching_for_CCCOnline_-_Faculty_Role_In_the_Classroom_-_ADA_Training.

No-Shows due Wednesday, June 16

This is just a reminder that you need to report on ALL students as part of our new no-show policy as being either "Present", "Keep" or "Missing" on the class roster by Census, this Wednesday, June 16. Please see the policy details below for more information.

Thanks!
John


No-Show Policy

CCCOnline's no-show policy helps to identify students who do not intend to actively participate in courses. If necessary, courses will need revised to comply with the No-Show 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.

a. The discussion may or may not be graded.

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

a. The census date is the last day to drop in a term (see the Academic Calendar).

b. The assessment must be content related – it should not be a "syllabus quiz".

c. The assessment may be a Dropbox, Quiz, or Discussion.

Reporting No-Shows Procedure

To Report No-Shows, use the following instructions:

1. On the Census Date, login to the Faculty Gateway: https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/login.php

2. Click the "Online Roster" link.

3. Click the title of a course from the Online Roster page to open its roster.

4. Each student MUST be reported as Present, Keep, or Missing.

Report students by selecting the radio-circle for the appropriate designation as follows:

a. Present – Student completed the Introductions discussion and content-related assessment.

b. Keep – Student did not complete the Introductions discussion and/or the content-related assessment, but you decide think the student may be active at a later date. The Keep designation might be selected, for example, if you have any reason to believe the student may become active:

- 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.

c. Missing – Student did not complete the Introductions discussion or content-related assessment and you decide not to designate the student as "Keep". Students designated as "Missing" will be reported to their home college as a "No-show".

Reporting a student as Missing DOES NOT mean the students will automatically be dropped from the course. Several colleges do not drop no-show students. However, CCCOnline uses the No-Show data to help monitor and evaluate student retention and success.

5. After selecting the designation for each student, click the "Roster's Course Listing" link (on the upper-left of roster page) to save your selections

Academic Integrity Focus Group & E-mail Updates

*Please do not reply to this message. If you have questions, please direct them to Lisa Marie Johnson or Liz Dzabic.*

--In order to develop training and informational materials around the topic of academic integrity, we need your help. Please participate in the Academic Integrity Focus Group. The focus group is happening in a discussion topic inside the "CCCOnline Community" course. The guidelines for participation are explained in detail in the discussion.
To access the Focus Group discussion:
1. Log in to CCCOnline's D2L
2. On your My Home page, in the My Courses widget, click the "Student" tab.
3. Locate the "CCCOnline Community" course and enter it by clicking its title.
4. Once inside the course, click the "Discussions" link on the course navbar.
5. Enter the topic "Focus Group: Academic Integrity Violations.”
*If you have questions about the Academic Integrity Focus Group, please contact Lisa Marie Johnson directly at LisaMarie.Johnson@cccs.edu.*

--Just a reminder: if you need to update your e-mail address in the system, please remember to do so through the Faculty Gateway (https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/login.php).
*If you have questions about updating your e-mail, please contact Liz Dzabic directly at Elizabeth.dzabic@cccs.edu.*

Thanks!

Reporting No-Show Students

No-Show Policy

CCCOnline's no-show policy helps to identify students who do not intend to actively participate in courses. If necessary, courses will need revised to comply with the No-Show 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.

a. The discussion may or may not be graded.

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

a. The census date is the last day to drop in a term (see the Academic Calendar).

b. The assessment must be content related – it should not be a "syllabus quiz".

c. The assessment may be a Dropbox, Quiz, or Discussion.

Reporting No-Shows Procedure

To Report No-Shows, use the following instructions:

1. On the Census Date, login to the Faculty Gateway: https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/login.php

2. Click the "Online Roster" link.

3. Click the title of a course from the Online Roster page to open its roster.

4. Each student MUST be reported as Present, Keep, or Missing.

Report students by selecting the radio-circle for the appropriate designation as follows:

a. Present – Student completed the Introductions discussion and content-related assessment.

b. Keep – Student did not complete the Introductions discussion and/or the content-related assessment, but you decide think the student may be active at a later date. The Keep designation might be selected, for example, if you have any reason to believe the student may become active:

- 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.

c. Missing – Student did not complete the Introductions discussion or content-related assessment and you decide not to designate the student as "Keep". Students designated as "Missing" will be reported to their home college as a "No-show".

Reporting a student as Missing DOES NOT mean the students will automatically be dropped from the course. Several colleges do not drop no-show students. However, CCCOnline uses the No-Show data to help monitor and evaluate student retention and success.

5. After selecting the designation for each student, click the "Roster's Course Listing" link (on the upper-left of roster page) to save your selections

Summer Rosters Now Available!

You can now view your Summer class roster.

Please note that we have added a new field for personal e-mail address. This is the personal e-mail address reported by the student. If it is blank then the student did not provide a personal e-mail address. Also note that students are not required to update their personal e-mail addresses so we cannot guarantee their accuracy.

Please go to the Faculty Gateway here,

https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/login.php

Login using your S# and Password.

Please contact myself or Frank Vazquez, frank.vazquez@cccs.edu, if you have any trouble accessing your roster.

Thanks!
John

Ready for Summer?

Please do not reply to this message. If you have questions, please email me directly at donna.welschmeyer@cccs.edu.

As we approach our summer term starting June 7, many of you are busy preparing your courses.

Recall, the Course Readiness Checklist is located in the Faculty Handbook at https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Policies_%26_Procedures_-_Faculty_Handbook_-_Teaching_for_CCCOnline_-_Faculty_Role_in_Course_Development_and_Maintenance_-_Course_Readiness_Checklist. Please be sure to read through this information so you understand what is required of you at what point in time.

1. Verify, within 72 hours of receiving email notification that your course has been duped, that the course content is correct.

2. Verify (as soon as possible but no later than Thursday, June 3, at 8:00 a.m.) that you have completed the “First Day Checks” tasks. Find a list of these tasks at http://tinyurl.com/32gw5ka.

Log in to the faculty gateway at https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/login.php to complete both of these verifications.

3. Complete all tasks on the "Course Readiness Checklist" as soon as possible but no later than Sunday, June 6.

4. Be sure that you have made any necessary changes to the first assignment in your course so that it is due prior to census date (June 16).

As you prepare for summer, we recognize you may need assistance with D2L. Access the CCCOnline Community course from the "Student" tab on your My Courses widget on your My Home page in D2L. In it, you will find a module dedicated to D2L Resources that includes:

ProfHelp Form - Use this form to contact ProfHelp for specific technical assistance with D2L tools. The ProfHelp request form is also linked in the Faculty Gateway. Remember that our D2L Mentors are no longer under contract, so please direct all questions to ProfHelp.


D2L Tech Tools Pages - These are the Faculty Wiki D2L Tech Tool pages with answers to Frequently Asked Questions and video tutorials about tools.

User Guides - These are the tool user guides provided by D2L.

Additionally, in our newly revised CCCOnline Community course, you have access to a Let's Talk About D2L! discussion to explore successes and challenges with D2L, "Program Lounge" discussions to communicate with program colleagues, and a Faculty Resources module with links to a variety of online teaching resources from CCCOnline and beyond!

If you have trouble accessing or navigating the CCCOnline Community course, please contact training@ccconline.org (Do not reply to this message).

D2L Course Readiness Reminders

As you prepare your courses for the summer term, you MUST do the following items:

1. Reset your homepage (this is most likely why your instructor widget that you created in the spring isn’t appearing on the course homepage).

2. Clean up unused tools on the course navigation bar.
Please note that you should NOT make inactive the following tools: Classlist; Content; Discussions; Dropbox (deactivate if NOT using dropbox items); Grades; Import/Export/Copy Components; Intelligent Agents; Links; News; Question Collections; Quizzes (deactivate if NOT using Quizzes); SCORM; SIS Holding Tank; User Profile; User Progress

3. Run the Grades Wizard. If you don’t run the grades wizard you are likely to have problems at the end of the term with your grade book and final points. Check now to be sure your total points in the final calculated column matches what you say in the syllabus is the possible points for the course.

Please send your questions directly to me at Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu or go to the Faculty Gateway and use the Profhelp form for additional assistance.

Save the Dates! SecondLife Training Series

Have you heard of the virtual world SecondLife and wondered how to use it in your online courses? Curious about the Colorado EduIsland space in SecondLife available to CCCOnline faculty and students?

Join us for the series of 5 training sessions described below.

Register for the training from the following link:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEQzR2tYSjNmcm1mX1NKOW1TWU43RFE6MQ

Session 1 - Second Life Series - Simulated Learning Spaces
May 27, 2010 (3:00 - 5:00 PM Mountain) - Online, via Elluminate.
In this session, we will be exploring educational values using SL or other simulated spaces, use of SL in classroom for teaching and building learning communities, and you will learn how and where to set up accounts. At this session, participants will be polled for the best times to have remaining sessions.
Session 2 - Second Life Series - Moving around in SecondLife
June 24, 2010 (Time TBD) - in SecondLife
In this session, we will visit and examine existing learning spaces in SL, and we will go through some exercises on how to maneuver your avatar in SL.
Session 3 - Second Life Series - Expression and Learning through Communicating in SecondLife
July 22, 2010 (Time TBD) - in SecondLife
In this session, we will be presenting and practicing the use of various communication tools for traditional and non-traditional forms of communication.
Session 4 - Second Life Series - Educational Expressionism
August 19, 2010 (Time TBD) - in SecondLife
In this session, we will be talking about writing performance based curriculum for simulated spaces for your classroom.
Session 5 - Second Life Series - Conference – Virtual Podium
September 17, 2010 (Time TBD) - at CCCOnline Faculty Conference
In this session, the SL series attendee's will present curriculum and educational tools learned from series.

Summer 2010 Course Readiness Reminders

Below are a few reminders as you prepare for your summer courses:

-once your course is created or duped, you will receive a Course Verification e-mail (you will receive a separate e-mail for each course you are teaching)
-within 72 hours of receiving this e-mail, you should check your course’s content to ensure it is correct; verify the course content through the link in the e-mail or the Faculty Gateway
-prior to the Thursday before classes begin, complete the items at the First-Day QA Checks section on the Faculty Wiki
-after you have completed these First-Day Check items, verify your course as “ready” in the Faculty Gateway. Once your course is ready, we will QA Check it (using the First-Day QA Checks criteria).
-please note that in addition to completing your First-Day Check items, you must complete all items at the Readiness Checklist by midnight on Sunday before classes begin

Thank you!

Summer Training Opportunities

We have several training opportunities this summer starting with the E-Portfolio Workshop facilitated by Phyllis Dobson from May 24 – June 11.

An E-Portfolio is thoughtful collection of files in an electronic format which demonstrate academic work, reflection, work experience and other activities presented in various media formats ( text, audio, image, and video). Students as well as faculty can create an e-portfolio for personal use to organize and display artifacts, reflect on experiences and electronically share the portfolio with others.

The E-Portfolio workshop will introduce you to the Folio program (e-portfolio software) which is available free to students and instructors through collaborative efforts of the Colorado Department of Education, Department of Labor, the Community College System and other workforce professional groups. You will receive a login, learn how to upload artifacts, create and share portfolios for different purposes. You will also gain insight into using this type of assessment tool with your students.

If you are interested in registering for this training or other training opportunities, go to the Faculty Gateway and click on Training Registration. If you have any questions, please contact me directly at Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu

Thanks to our D2L mentors!

We would like to formally thank our D2L mentors for their hard work during spring term to make our conversion to this LMS a bit easier.

These folks patiently answered our questions, held our hands, and soothed our frustrations when things didn't work the way we thought they should. . .and for that, we extend to them our eternal thanks!

Amy Valentine
Jake Camp
Jessy Devasia
Carol Ohle
JoAnn M Gilliland
Diane van Os
Donna Fair-Klikus
Vail Shoultz-McCole
Jon Sherrill
John Ragan
Linda Rowley
Kate Lormand
Jesse Stommel
Al Turner
Aarthi Ramesh

Student Privacy and the Faculty Listserv

Everyone, we've reminded you a few times about the reasons not to reply to posts you receive that are obviously intended for all faculty. Those messages come to you from the faculty blog and are visible there as well as via email to your inbox. When you reply to those, whether or not you use "reply" or "reply to all," your replies go to multiple people in our office.

Most times, it's not critical other than the fact that it may slow down a response to you and it fills up our inboxes. However, I'm concerned that I've seen several messages regarding confidential student information and incompletes pass through this system, and that could present a privacy concern for students.

Please be certain to email that kind of information directly to the individual to whom it is intended. For example, all information regarding incomplete grades or grades in general should go directly to Roxanne.Manske@cccs.edu or john.schmahl@cccs.edu.

Thank you!

D2L Course List Page for Summer

***Please do not reply to this message. If you have questions, please email me directly at donna.welschmeyer@cccs.edu***

Hey everyone, this is just a quick note to let you know that some of you may be seeing some "extra" courses on your course list for summer. A programming issue resulted in these extra courses popping up; our staff is working to correct this as we speak, and those extra courses should disappear within the next couple of hours. Thanks!

Final Grades!

We are noticing some problems and errors in course grades in D2L because of grade books not being setup correctly. Please verify your grades before posting to the Gateway! Double check the final calculated grades like you used to do, instead of counting on D2L to add it correctly for you.

Do you have extra columns in your grades? - extra columns will cause the Final Calculated Grades to not total correctly
1. You can delete them.
Step by Step instructions: http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_D2L_-_Grades#How_do_I_delete_unnecessary_Gradebook_columns.3F

2. Or mark them as “Exclude from final grade calculation” .
Step by step instructions: http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_D2L_-_Grades#How_to_I_Exclude_items_from_the_Final_Calculated_Grade.3F

Is the Final Calculated Grades totaling the correct number of possible points (after all extra columns are removed)?
1. If not, most likely you selected to Drop Ungraded Items when you ran the Grades Wizard at the beginning of the term. You now need to either return to the wizard and select treat ungraded items as zero or manually enter zeroes for students who missed work.
Step by Step instructions: http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_D2L_-_Grades#How_do_change_the_setting:_select_treat_ungraded_items_as_0_.22zero.22.3F

If you are struggling or are not confident with what to do, contact your D2L mentor or log into the Faculty Gateway and select the Profhelp link for assistance.

Save the Date for our 2010 CCCOnline Faculty Conference

Are you ready to use new tools to be more efficient or expand what your course offers students? Then you don’t want to miss the

CCCOnline Faculty Conference

Constructing Quality: Expand your Toolbox

on September 17th

at Arapahoe Community College.

At this year’s conference, we’ll help you hammer out ways to renovate your courses; provide blueprints through teaching concepts and authentic assessment; and demonstrate remodeling through new multimedia…all to bolster student success!

3 Local Job Opportunities in Distance Education

Hi Everyone-

I recently received notice of three somewhat local job opportunities in distance education:

The Colorado Department of Education is looking for a Director of Online Education:  http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdemgmt/HR/jobs.htm

The Community College of Aurora is looking for an Instructional Technology Trainer:  http://www.ccaurora.edu/job-opportunities/jobs-cca/instructional-technologist2http://www.ccaurora.edu/job-opportunities/jobs-cca/instructional-technologist2

The University of Wyoming is looking for a Director for the Wyoming Center for Excellence and Innovation in Distance Learning and Technology (try to fit that title on a business card!):  http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/HR/hremployment/showjob.asp?jobid=8245

If any of you take one of those positions please let me know!  I'd like to stay in touch.

Lisa

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Lisa.Cheney-Steen@cccs.edu

Ending the Term

***Please do not reply to this message. Instead, email me directly at donna.welschmeyer@cccs.edu with questions or comments.***

Well, we've all survived another exciting term. . .our first term fully online with D2L! I hope you and your students found it to be effective and easy to use!

Please remember these tips as the term draws to a close:

1) The Final Grades column in D2L must be released in order for students to view their grades, so please be sure to release the grades in your classes if you haven't already done so. This isn't an automatic process, but requires you to complete just a few steps in the gradebook. For help, please see the wiki information at http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_D2L_-_Grades#How_Do_I_release_the_Final_Calculated_Grade_to_Release_in_student_Grade_book.3F

2) Post an announcement or send an email to your students to let them know the last day you will be checking the class and to tell them how to reach you outside the class if they have questions about grades, etc.

3) Be sure to calculate and submit your final grades no later than Thursday, May 13. You should have received information from student services about how to submit your grades, how to determine last date of attendance, etc. If you have questions, please contact John.Schmahl@cccs.edu.

4) You should also have received information about the incomplete form and grade change form. If you plan to give an incomplete, please be sure to complete and return the required form. If you have questions about this process, please contact roxanne.manske@cccs.edu or your program chair.

5) Finally, have a GREAT break between classes, and if you're not teaching this summer, enjoy the time off. Thanks for all your hard work.

Quality Time: Level of Formality in Online Discussions

**Please do not reply to this post. Please either use the comments option below or contact me directly at elizabeth.dzabic@cccs.edu.**

What kind of rules, if any, should instructors set on formality levels in online classroom discussions? This seems to be a controversial topic: on one side, some believe informal, even “texting” style writing is acceptable in discussion boards (though perhaps not in essays or other projects); others believe formal academic writing should be expected throughout a college course. Ultimately, these decisions are up to the instructor and depend on individual course outcomes, but below are a few points to consider.

In defense of informality…
Some say as long as students are writing, participating in class, and exchanging ideas, casual writing is acceptable. Aside from informal tone, students may make spelling errors and typos, write in lowercase letters, and the like. We may not enjoy this kind of writing, but if we enforce correctness and formality, students may freeze up and quit communicating altogether. Some defenders of informality claim if students make mistakes, it may be because they are relaxed enough to be comfortable with the course: this is a good thing.

Even those who disagree with this perspective might consider some classroom occasions in which informality is perfectly acceptable. In the face-to-face environment, students interact by informally chatting before or after class or in study groups; online forums can be set up for this express purpose and remain ungraded. Also, an instructor teaching developmental courses may decide the importance of any student participation outweighs, at this point on students’ educational paths, the need for formal or even correct language.

In defense of formality…
As an English instructor, I am familiar with the teaching philosophy that, formal or casual tone aside, “content” of a written piece is more important than correctness (e.g., complete sentences, correct spelling and grammar). However, one might consider clear, correct usage of the language as a vital part of content. If more and more college instructors adopt the “as long as ideas are good, expression of ideas is negligible” philosophy, we could graduate more and more college students who never have been taught to write clearly and concisely for an audience.

Also from an instructional perspective, and on a practical level, requiring correct, clear writing makes sense in two ways. One, because CCCOnline instructors must require students to demonstrate writing proficiency, a simple way to do that is to require college-level writing in every assignment submitted to a class. Two, if instructors consistently require correct, clear writing--even if informal in tone on some occasions--this writing can be more easily compared to the same students’ formal projects to assess whether all assignments are being completed by the same person.

It is gratifying to know that as instructors, we can help our students to cultivate a habit of writing more clearly. First, such a habit demonstrates courtesy for others; we try to teach writing students that the burden of clarity should be on the writer, not the reader. Also, building better writing skills encourages practicing clearer and more logical thinking: surely a desirable activity in every college-level course.

Students might be persuaded by the “reputation” argument for taking care while writing; this argument is expressed eloquently here (from the “Communicating Online” page by Julie Watson, The Higher Education Academy, University of Southampton, UK): “The reader will judge you by what you send and be distracted from what you are saying if the message contains errors in grammar, spelling or punctuation. In an academic context such mistakes look particularly bad.”

Finally, we might consider expecting quality writing to be in line with expecting general quality work from students. If we expect more, we get more; and we might expect more from college students than the ability to relax and “just be themselves” in their written discussions. A college classroom, face-to-face or online, is a professional space; and we might expect the level of discourse to reflect that.

Quality Time is a series of posts concerning course quality issues, best practices, and/or CCCOnline policy.

New No-Show Process for Summer

***Please do not reply to this post. Email me directly at donna.welschmeyer@cccs.edu with questions.***

Over the past few semesters, you may have seen an increase in the number of "inactive" students whose names remain in your course for the entire term. In an effort to identify students who do not intend to actively participate in courses, CCCOnline has implemented a new no-show policy and process.

In the past, no-show students were identified simply as those students who never logged into a course. Beginning with summer term, you are asked to require that students 1) post in the introductory discussion and 2) complete a graded, content-related assignment or assessment (not a syllabus quiz or similar assignment) prior to census date (June 16).

Many of you may already have an assignment of this type that is due before census date; for those of you who do not, please modify your course to meet this new guideline. If you have concerns about how best to accomplish this in your course(s), please talk with your program chair.

You will receive instructions after summer term begins regarding how to report no-show students.

Introducing CCCOnline's New Quality Assurance Coordinator

***Please do not reply to this message. If you have questions, please contact me directly at donna.welschmeyer@cccs.edu***

Everyone, I would like to introduce you to Liz Dzabic, our new Quality Assurance Coordinator. Liz began her new duties with us on April 1, and we're very excited to have her on board! Liz will be completing the regular QA tasks that you are used to seeing as well as working with both the training department and design team to help us all focus on excellence in both course design and facilitation.

I asked Liz to tell you a little bit about herself:

"My background is teaching English, face-to-face and online, and I taught full-time at the community college level for seven years. I also coordinated the Honors Program at my last college, Laramie County Community College in Wyoming. My teaching philosophy is to innovate and use educational technology to improve teaching, but always keep academic rigor as the most important goal.

I am excited about CCCOnline’s QA process because it is so useful to instructors in maintaining high academic standards. The online classroom is a fairly new frontier, and the QA process, by recognizing best practices in e-learning, helps guide and assist faculty to maximize course quality."

You will be seeing blog posts and other communications from Liz soon, so please help us welcome her! You may contact Liz at elizabeth.dzabic@cccs.edu

Spring Grades

Dear Faculty;

It's that time of the semester, Spring grades are due no later than Thursday, May 13, 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 enter the first day of the session, January 25, 2010 for session 1 courses and March 1, 2010 for session 2 courses.

The additional fields in the gradebook for reporting students as “present” or Missing” are not for use this Spring. These will be used this Summer for reporting no-shows. We will send out additional directions regarding reporting Summer no-shows in a few weeks.

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 at the Faculty Gateway here, https://at.ccconline.org/faculty/

- You can use your Blackboard login credentials

- 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)

New Elluminate! Webinar

On May 17, CCCOnline will be moving to a new Elluminate server. Because of this, all current moderators will need to learn about this new server. Join Donna Hall on Friday May 7th at 11am and learn how to login to the new Elluminate server, create meetings, edit your profile, and pulling reports about your meetings.

Elluminate link: https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.D4363B256A49906D23B224E8E496C1

Upcoming Training Events

Hopefully your courses end more smoothly than our Colorado weather has been this week. To help you prepare for the close of the term, join Training and Professional Development staff and Academic Dean Donna Welschmeyer for a Ending A Term: D2L Tools, Pedagogy, and Q&A Webinar on Friday April 30th from 1-3 pm. Participants may access 30 minutes before start time. Select the webinar link from the ElluminateTM site: http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/

Additionally, please log into the Faculty Gateway, check you’re your training record, and register for a workshop this summer. Here’s the workshops you’ll find available so far:

What Matters with Lisa Marie Johnson May 17th –May 28th
Managing Discussions with Daniel Metz June 14th-June 25th
Learning Styles with Karen Kaemmerling June 21st- July 2nd
Measuring What Matters with Lisa Marie Johnson July 12-July 23

Mark your calendars for our annual CCCOnline Faculty conference which will be September 17th at Arapahoe Community College. More information coming soon!

Master Teacher Blogs

Hi Everyone-

I had forgotten to go read the master teacher blogs regularly, so just went back to catch-up.  (This might have been part of a mid-semester slump that several of our bloggers commented on or maybe I was just on vacation.)  If you also have skipped a couple of weeks and need a little energizing go read those blogs right this very minute.  

You can get to them in the Faculty Community shell (login to D2L and then click on the student tab) or via a public Netvibes page I set up, http://www.netvibes.com/lisacs.  

They are well worth reading!

Lisa Cheney-Steen

Griefing presentation in SecondLife

Please join us for a presentation on “Griefing” in SecondLife.

What: Learn how to deal with Griefing in SecondLife
When: April 2nd, 11:00 am (MDT)
Where: Colorado EduIsland, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Colorado%20EduIsland/133/110/22.

Special guest Bill Freese/Friis, of Montana State University will introduce us to griefing, how it happens and the various tools you can use to prevent and avoid distracting occurrences. This session will assist you to recognize and understand better when and why you may need protection, how to protect yourself and your students, and how to respond in the least distracting ways possible. Learn what being griefed really means; while what may be perceived as griefing, may not always be griefing but perhaps a spirited introduction of someone new to this virtual environment. Learn how identify the differences between griefing of experienced users and unintentional behavior by new users. Bill Freese is the new Assessment Coordinator at MSU. His experience includes Director of Instructional Media, Archaeology and Historical Technician, and holds Masters degrees in Secondary Education and History.

D2L Quicklinks Tip

Are you struggling with creating a link to a course file or a URL? Visit the faculty wiki at Html Editor page for NEW tutorials on Quicklinks and other HTML editor features.

Mark your calendars for an Ending the Term and D2L QA webinar on Friday April 30th from 1-3 pm.

Communication Tools and Teaching Strategies in Second Life

Colorado EduIsland will be hosting two, 1 hour sessions on Communication Tools and Teaching Strategies in SL.

Location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Colorado%20EduIsland/133/110/22.
When: March 29th, 2010
Session 1: 8:45 - 9:45 (MT) - First session, we will discuss simple communications technologies (e.g., chat, email, IM, etc.) then we graduate to intermediate communications technologies (e.g., blog-huds, and VoIP), next we graduate to the higher-end technologies (e.g., Media boards, Tweet Huds). We will close the first session with a quick tour of the island. There will be a discussion and question and discussion session at the end of the hour.
Session 2: 10:00 – 11:00 (MT) - Second session, we will briefly review communication tools, and then start discussing Teaching Strategies in SL. Next we will tour the new Early Childhood and Judicial learning centers; which have been established on the island for students and faculty in these disciplines to use. A follow-up discussion and question session will be held at the end of the hour.

These sessions are being broadcast LIVE, to the Iowa Community College Online Consortium 2010 Conference, but our faculty, staff and other interested parties are invited to attend these in-world events. Here is a quick start link from Linden Labs: http://static-secondlife-com.s3.amazonaws.com/downloads/Second_Life_Quickstart.pdf

CCCOnline also has getting started information on the faculty wiki SecondLife home page: http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_Other_Tools_-_Second_Life

You may also contact Cheryl Comstock directly with your questions at cheryl.comstock@cccs.edu

D2L Webinar Archives

We really appreciate all the attendees to our D2L webinars this spring. Lisa Marie Johnson did a fantastic job discussing the D2L Grades tool today. If you missed it or any other D2L Tool Webinar, you can revisit the recordings at the archive on the wiki.

If you have D2L questions or other comments, please contact me directly at Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu

D2L Grades Webinar Tomorrow

It is supposed to be a dreary day tomorrow, Friday March 26th , perk up and join us for the D2L Grades Webinar from 1-3 pm. To join us log in to http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/

D2L Grades Tip: How to release the Final Calculated Grade to Students
1. Click the Grades Tool
2. In the Grades Area>Click Manage Grades
3. Find the Final Calculated Grade in the Grades List
4. Click the Ruler with a checkmark to the right of the Final Calculated Grade
5. Scroll to the right and find the Release Final Calculated Grade Column>Click the checkbox in the column for each student,
6. Click Save
If you have questions or comments please contact me directly karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu

You now have access to your Training Record!

You now have access to your Training Record with CCCOnline by logging into the Faculty Gateway .

On the left hand side you will see a link for Training Registration and History.
· To register for an upcoming training click Registration.
· To see your training record or history with CCCOnline click on History.
· If you find an error or have a question about your history, click on Training Support Form at the top of the page.

Have a wonderful spring day!
Karen Kaemmerling
Please contact me with other questions at Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu

D2L Grades and Webinar

Next Friday March 26 from 1-3 pm, we have the last in our series of spring D2L webinars. We conclude with the D2L Grades Tool and a Question and Answer period. To join us log in to http://elm.elluminate.com/FRONTRANGE/

You may also want to check out our resources for the D2L Grades tool on our faculty wiki .

If you have questions about your grades tool in D2L visit our wiki at If you have any questions, please contact me directly at Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu