Chabot Community College

Committee on Online Learning
Minutes for Meeting: September 29, 2009

Attendees: Ramona Silver(chair), Kathleen Allen, Mary Dermody, Richard Dinwiddie, Randi Ray, Lisa Ulibarri and Minta Winsor.

1). Student Success: We discussed possible ideas for facilitating better overall student success in online classes.

Mary Dermody feels that there are definitely students who should drop but refuse because of Financial Aid. Kathleen Allen suggests that instructors should be clear about the demands of the course. Lisa Ulibarri thinks that the students should be better prepared and that maybe the Introduction to Online Learning should be a pre-requisite to all Online classes. Instructors may want to recccommend that students sign up for the Introduction to Online Learning.

Ramona Silver offers these ideas for student success:
Online Learning Contracts: Before the course begins, an instructor can send out the first assignment in advance, which would be a "learning contract". The students would need to fill it out for credit as part of the course work. In the contract, the instructor may ask students to discuss in writing how they will make time for studying, how many hours they intend to study, what their learning goals are for the course and what computer they will use and how often they have access to it. Learning Contracts can let the student know the rigors of the course while also compelling them to reflect deeply on what they will need to do to be successful. Students can revisit their contracts at Midterm to see if they are on track with their original goals and intents.

Tests/Assessments: If the course is a concept based course like science or math the instructor may want to consider giving a slightly harder quiz or test before the drop date as a way to aid students in deciding if they have the right skills for the course. Then for the second test/quiz after the drop date, I suggest that the instructor give a slightly easier test as a reward to the students who made it through the first test.

Reflection/Assessments: Even for science, math or other quantitative based courses, reflective writing has been proven to aid in generating better student success. To do this the instructor may want to consider using the discussion board or an individual assignment, where the students are asked to write an open ended reflection response describing how they will solve certain equations or problems on an upcoming exam. Also, the instructor can have students do a "muddiest point" assessment where they are asked to list one thing they don't get about the lecture material for that week and put it in the Tag line of the thread. That way instructors can offer suggestions or clarify points. Also, the instructors will have a better idea if the students are really "getting" the main points. etc. There are many assessments that are discussed in Classroom Assessment Techniques by Cross & Angelo.

Student Input: If the instructor is open to suggestions from learners. He/She can put up a forum to ask the students to offer 1 or 2 of their own suggestions for exam questions with the idea that the Instructor would be willing to use at least 3 of the suggestions from the class for the actual mid-term. This offers students the opportunity to invest themselves more emotionally in the actual course.

Portfolios: Do you always need to use exams and quizzes as a means of assessment? Why not consider a combination of quizzes and a learning portfolio where students keep a record of their learning? You can have students keep a portfolio of science or math problems and have them gather material in how to solve them and also have them demonstrate solving them.

All of these methods do require more work on the instructor's part but implementing just one may help a few more students to be successful. I think that it is important to remember that students have their own agendas for taking courses and sometimes their agendas do not necessarily match those of the instructor. Thus, it may be important to take the time to be sure that the instructor makes his/her agenda clear through types of assignments, discussion board activities, announcements, clear and specific assessments and open sharing of course goals and outcomes.

2). Ramona Silver, Lisa Ulibarri and Minta Winsor presented their Flex Day presentation. Mary Dermody offered great suggestions for the Power Point slides! (Mary Dermody's ideas were definitely implemented for our Flex Day program with great success!)

3). Those present discussed how we should offer the @ONE incentives this semester and in the Spring 2010 semester. Our committee has limited funds this year and we need consider how we will implement the incentives. There were suggestions as to reducing the amount of incentives, the types of courses that would fit the incentives, having a time limit or participant limit. Because, quite a few members of our committee were not able to be present we deferred voting on our incentives until the next meeting scheduled for Tuesday October 20, 2009 in Room 1506.