Committee on Online Learning

1.    Confirmation of summer/fall course demonstration reviews.

OUTCOME:  Course demonstrations for new online instructors have been scheduled as follows:

• Leadbetter:  Recommended with reservations

• Raeber:  Approved

• Cirera:  Approved

• Mofidi:  Approved

• Estepa:  Approved

• Nelson:  Approved

• Nijjar:  Approved

• Moon:  Approved

• Parrish:  Approved

• Ozdemir:  Approved

• Cherrington:  Recommended with reservations

• Casini:  To occur week of 5/25

• Oreshkova:  will occur during summer session

Demonstrations for Fernandez, Brooks, and Wang will not occur until fall semester.

2.   General discussion of course demonstrations and our course approval process.

      OUTCOME:  After reviewing all of the course demonstrations this year, the committee has pleased to see the level of online course design skill, and the emerging creativity of our faculty.  It's great to see the understanding of online pedagogy in our new online teaching faculty.  A challenge for the future is that our online teaching tools are becoming more sophisticated, and this sophistication will increase when we move to BB9.  Where we once were more concerned with helping faculty transition from classroom pedagogy to online pedagogy, it now appears that we have to increase our efforts to train faculty not on pedagogy, but on the tools to deliver their great ideas.  That's a big goal for next year:  how do we provide training in all of the great tools available in our current version of BB, in our new multimedia tools, and in BB9?

      Our current proposal review process seems to be working well.  We're able to provide helpful feedback to our colleagues in a very collegial way, and we're all learning a lot from the process.  (Question:  should we survey those that have completed the process for their feedback?)

3.  Finalizing the 2009-10 proposal form.

      OUTCOME:  A few revisions were suggested, particularly those on the "Accommodations" section of the form.  Jan will make the final revisions, forward them to the Curriculum Committee, and post them repeatedly on our website.  We'll continue to refine the form next year.

4.   Potential topics for next year:

      OUTCOME:  In the course of our discussions, a few goals for next year were identified.  These include:

• Further revisions of our proposal form.

• Developing additional Blackboard training options, and finding ways to encourage faculty participation.

• Clarifying the importance of (and possibly a policy for) instructor to student interaction in online courses

5.   We celebrated our achievements for the year, and gave an embarrassed (but grateful) Jan gifts, a plague, and a tiara.  We also all confirmed our commitment to continue our membership in this vibrant committee next year under Ramona Silver's new leadership.  After eating too much cake, we adjourned for the year.