Attendees: Jan Novak (chair), Nick Alexander, Norman Buchwald, Mary Dermody, Richard Dinwiddie, Scott Hildreth, Michael Langdon, Judy O'Toole, Andrew Pierson, Lisa Ulibarri, Wanda Wong.
Jan welcomed guest Abdullah Yayha.
Members of the committee reviewed the responses from proposers to our feedback in BOLT. Following this review, the committee:
Jan distributed copies of the comprehensive schedule of training in online teaching techniques, Blackboard tools, and our course development process. This was placed in all faculty mailboxes this week.
The committee discussed next steps in approval of the online teaching mini-grants that we awarded in Fall. Based on his comprehensive demonstration of Camtasia/SnagIt/Dragon Naturally Speaking on FLEX Day in February, the committee approved payment of Scott Hildreth's grant. We will request written reports from Beth Belzer (Sony voice recorder) and Cristina Moon (Respondus and WavePad sound editor) prior to approving those grants. We will ask Debra Howell (Captivate) and Anne Brichacek (podcasting recorder and software) to demonstrate their use of these technologies at a future DE Committee meeting prior to approving those grants.
Jan has been discussing with LPC's DE Committee the possibility of a meeting to discuss common issues and needs, and to request needed support from District ITS. Potential agenda items include the need for a streaming media server, the inclusion of hyperlinks in Class-Web course listings for online courses, online tutoring, online counseling, the TEACH Act, support management software for Blackboard technical support, e-portfolios, the provision of Adobe 8 software to faculty, and policy issues around dropping online students. The committee is enthusiastic about this meeting, and suggested tentative dates of May 2nd or May 9th. Not all committee members are available on either date, but we don't want to go much later in May given the end-of-semester workload of faculty.
Jan distributed a list of websites to explore, along with a questionnaire about what we'd like to see as we develop more robust website information and tools for our online students. We began that exploration at the meeting, and committee members are asked to complete their exploration of these websites for discussion at our next committee meeting.