Chabot Community College

Committee on Online Learning
Minutes for Meeting: September 15, 2009

Attendees: Ramona Silver(chair), Kathleen Allen, Bob Buell, Des Chun, Tom Clark, Mary Dermody, Richard Dinwiddie, Aldrian Estepa, Scott Hildreth, Michael Langdon, Jan Novak, Julian Prentice, Randi Ray, Lisa Ulibarri, Lani Wilson, Minta Winsor.

1). Minta Winsor asked the COOL for Scheduling Language in the Course Schedule in reference to the naming of Online and or Hybrid Courses so that when students search for these classes in Class Web the language will be more accurate. Scott Hildreth suggested that they call them, "Online WIth Required Meetings".

2). Drop Policy Language Revisited: Scott Hildreth suggested a "wait list" feature to offset the lack of a drop policy. Lisa Ulibarri suggested that when the students log-in there be a "tip" that lets the learners know that they can be dropped from the course if they do not post, log in, or at least check in to the course site. Lisa Ulibarri further emphasized that this would not then need to be "official" but rather simply a "tip" for the students to read and acknowledge. Additionally, we discussed the idea of being sure to offer a clear policy for attendance and dropping in the Course Syllabus.

3). Julian Prentice informed the COOL that the Library was facing a major monetary shortfall. This will affect their ability to maintain their subscriptions to all of there Online Databases for articles, periodicals and very significant research resources. The loss of these online data bases will severely affect every student whether online or face-to-face and every department. Tom Clark suggested that the library staff may want to consider not purchasing as many hard copies of texts that are available online and redirect those funds to online databases. However, Julian Prentice stated, that the faculty really prefer to have hard copies of texts available to the students.

4). Flex Day Proposal/Ideas: Jan Novak had offered three possible ideas for the Flex Day presentation: 1) Hybrid Learning; 2) An Introduction to Blackboard 9; 3) Multimedia. The COOL want to encourage more faculty to consider the possibility of converting a course to a Hybrid format. It is clear from educational research that students learn more and retain more from Hybrid formats rather than only Face-to-Face learning. The COOL want to make sure that the Faculty understand that there is a great learning benefit to using a Hybrid delivery. Bob Buell suggested that we could present Hybrid learning as a means to enhance student learning and the delivery of the course material. Michael Langdon suggested that Hybrid learning is GREEN and that this may influence the faculty to have a more favorable response to Hybrid Learning. NOTE: (As on Thursday September 24, 2009, R. Silver, L. Ulibarri and M. Winsor submitted a Flex Day Proposal to Carmen Johnston. The title of the Proposal is: "Information on the Benefits and Flexibility of Hybrid Online Learning for both face-to-face and partially online courses".)

5). The Chair informed the committee that Jan Novak, Minta Winsor and she had set up a meeting for Thursday September 17, 2009-9:30AM with Vice President, George Railey to discuss Program Review highlights and to discuss with him our needs and concerns.

Next COOL Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 12:00PM in room 1506.