Attendees: Jan, Novak (chair), Ahmad Asir, Norman Buchwald, Bob Buell, Desmond Chun, Tom Clark, Mary Dermody, Richard Dinwiddie, Scott Hildreth, Michael Langdon, Judy O'Toole, Andrew Pierson, Rachel Ugale, Lisa Ulibarri, Lani Wilson.
Jan welcomed Rachel Ugale to the committee.
Spring Proposals:
The committee has reviewed and approved all written proposals submitted by the
initial 9/11 deadline. We have five courses that require course
demonstrations, and the "leads" for scheduling these demonstrations have been
identified as Michael L. for Michael Thompson's History course, Andrew for
Sherry Yeager's History course, Lani for Tram's Psychology Counseling course,
Mary for Terrance Thompson's Work Experience course, and Jan for Charlotte
Lofft's Business Law course. These "leads" will schedule demonstrations
with the proposer and at least two team members, and these demonstrations should
be completed by early December.
We have received three proposals after our September 11th deadline: CAS-72D, CSCI-14,
and GNST-4931. Jan will post these proposals in BOLT for the committee to
review. Jan also asked committee members to email her if they have an
interest in being approved to teach GNST-4931, the Intro to Online Learning
course, and we'll prepare a submission that covers multiple instructors. We will ask the CAS-72D instructor to demonstrate his
course to the committee at the beginning of Spring semester, before the course
goes live.
Online Course Evaluations:
The committee discussed the status of online course evaluations for this
semester. Jan provided a comprehensive overview of the evaluation process,
including contract language that requires evaluation of all first-time DE
instructors, evaluation forms, and instructions to both evaluators and evaluees.
Everyone is invited to attend the evaluator training sessions on November 8th at
noon and again at 3:00 in Room 301.
Online Teaching Technology "Mini-Grants":
The committee reviewed the six proposals we received for mini-grants. We
discussed the requirements to receive the grants: the instructor purchases
the products on their own, pilots the use of those products in their Spring 08
online course, reports back to the committee on how these new tools have
enhanced their course, and then will receive reimbursement for their purchases.
A common thread through many of the proposals was the use of audio--whether in
podcasts or in voice-over Powerpoint presentations. We also discussed the
opportunity to pursue "bulk" purchases, which seems to be most relevant for
Respondus. Jan and Minta will pursue this option. Lisa and Minta are
also exploring new online teaching tools, and will examine one new tool each
week. The committee approved all mini-grant proposals, with the advice to
ensure that faculty be aware of and follow any software licensing constraints
(such as only one installation per copy of the software).
Online Student Survey:
This survey has been deferred to Spring 2008, as implementation requires
extensive work by the same individuals now working on the online course
evaluations.
Announcement of Online Course Incentives/Timeline/Training for Summer and
Fall 2008 Courses:
The committee decided to announce our programs for next summer and fall online
courses by Thanksgiving to give faculty adequate time to consider teaching an
online course and to develop a proposal. The course development incentive
for next summer and fall will remain at $400 for a 3-unit course. We will
offer two training incentives, each at $250: our ongoing training
incentive for courses such as @One and a new incentive for completion of the
Developing an Online Course Proposal course. A suggestion was made to
include information about access to "live courses" for interested faculty to
view, and to consolidate a number of courses into one simple access for these
instructors. Lisa will investigate if this is possible. We will also
include information on our new online Introduction to Blackboard and Initial DE
Consultation self-paced courses in the announcement.
Blackboard Summer 2008 Upgrade:
We now have confirmation that both colleges will upgrade
to Bb7.3 for Summer session 2008. Planning for this major upgrade will be
critical to student and faculty satisfaction and success. A first step to
determining training needs is to schedule a demonstration to the DE Committee
this semester. Some ideas for helping students through this transition are
to email all students in advance of the semester to alert them of this change,
to provide a module that can be inserted into all online courses on "The new
Blackboard", and to provide a discussion forum in all online courses that
explains the new forum features and enables students to practice. Much
more to come!
Special Planning Meeting:
Jan reminded the committee of our upcoming special planning meeting, which will
be on November 13th, from 1-3 p.m., in Room 301. At this meeting, we'll
conduct "test drives" of our new Introduction to Online Learning course for
students and our Developing an Online Course Proposal course for faculty.
We may also then walk over to the DSRC to view an online course as "seen" by a
visually handicapped student.