Districtwide Distance Education Steering Committee (DDESC)

Meeting Notes for Monday, May 13, 2013

12:00-1:30 p.m.

Miramar College W248

Attendees

Elizabeth Barrington, Hank Beaver, Gwyn Enright, Michelle Fischthal, Dave Giberson, Alison Steinberg Gurganus, Andrea Henne, Mary Kingsley, Paula Miranda, Rechelle Mojica, Karen Owen, Katie Palacios, Sandra Pesce, Angela Romero, Susan Schwarz, Joe Safdie, Christy Scott, Claudia Tornsaufer, and Jim Wales

Meeting Notes

The Committee reviewed the meeting notes from the April 8 meeting. All meeting notes are posted to http://www.sdccdonline.net/handbook/

Announcement

Andrea Henne announced that she will be retiring from the SDCCD. Her last work day will be July 31, and her retirement is effective October 31.

Status of Faculty Training

Paula has been facilitating the Oncampus Faculty Blackboard training. The training consists of 3-5 hours focusing on copyright, accessibility and Blackboard tools. She reported for 2012-2013 that 120 instructors have enrolled and 62 instructors have completed. She reported the numbers by institution; City College 26 enrolled and 11 completed; Mesa College 77 enrolled and 45 completed; Miramar College 16 enrolled and 6 completed; and Continuing Education 1 enrolled and did not complete. These numbers are similar to 2011-2012 training. Faculty have until May 20 to finish the current training course. Paula noted that there are 15 people who are currently in progress toward completion.

Karen attended Mesa College’s school meeting on Thursday. She requested information on the Regional Online Faculty Training. Andrea reported that she met with the SDICCCA DE Subcommittee and they have been charting the training each college is providing. Each college is doing something slightly different. None have the comprehensive online faculty training program that SDCCD has. There is no single or consistent training within the region. Also, there were regional differences in either recommending or requiring training. Some instructors throughout the region are taking advantage of the @One training which takes a whole year, costs money, and is not necessarily customized for participating institutions. SDCCDOLP’s has been held in high esteem and has been regionally recognized as superior. The SDICCCA DE Subcommittee members are considering using the SDCCD Online Faculty Training and Certification Program. Each institution could customize the training and would provide their own facilitators, or use a shared staff model much like ‘Ask a Librarian.’ There has been no timeline established for creating a regional training. SDICCCA will have more information available after the September meeting. Karen also voiced concerns about ‘mandatory training’ at Mesa College. Andrea reminded the group that SDCCDOLP serves the District and is willing to accommodate whatever training is requested. Andrea suggested that Karen bring the issue of mandatory training to Mesa College’s Academic Senate.

Andrea shared that she, Katie and Dave, with Christy’s assistance, have been working on the 2013-2014 version of the training course. The new course will be available at the beginning of July, which is the start of the new Flex calendar. Katie reported that 207 instructors have completed the Online Faculty Training and Certification Program. She reported the numbers by college: City College 21 instructors; Mesa College 161 instructors; Miramar 18 instructors, Continuing Education 3 instructors; Southwestern College 1 instructor; and 1 SDCCD staff. Comparing training completions, we had 114 total last year and have nearly doubled that with the 207 total completions. From 2011-2012 to 2012-2013 City College went from 7 to 21, Mesa 96 to 161, Miramar 9 to 18, and Continuing Education 2 to 5.

SDCCDOLP responded to a request from the Vice Presidents of Instruction that the training be broken down into parts by designing a 6-part training with modules expected to take instructors about 3-hours each. Part 1 – DE Guidelines had 13 instructors compete, Part II – Modules 3 & 4 had 2 instructors complete, Part III-VI nobody has completed. Dave said that SDCCDOLP is seeing a tapering off in the number of support requests. Many positives can be contributed to the training. Dave reported that SDCCD can boast that the online retention rate when compared to face-to-face courses differ only 7%, the national average is somewhere around 15-20%

CCC Chancellor’s Office DE Student Satisfaction Survey preliminary data

Andrea briefly reviewed the preliminary data from SDCCD on the DE Student Satisfaction Survey report conducted by the State Chancellor’s office. She reviewed many questions with the group. ‘In this class the teacher was an active member of the discussion group?’ ‘The discussion board provided opportunity for problem solving with other students?’ ‘The discussion board provided opportunity for critical thinking with other students?’ ‘The discussion board in this class was a waste of time?’ ‘The course documents in this class facilitated my learning?’ ‘The course assignments in this class facilitated my learning?’ ‘The quizzes and exams in this class facilitated my learning?’ ‘This online class experience has helped improve my written communication skills.’ ‘The breadth of coverage facilitated my learning.’ ‘The depth of coverage facilitated my learning.’ ‘I received timely feedback within 24-48 hours from my teacher.’ ‘I felt frustrated by the lack of feedback from my teacher.’ ‘I was able to get individualized attention from my teacher when needed.’ ‘Although I could not see the teacher in this class, I felt his/her presence.’ ‘There was clear human presence of the instructor evident in this distance education course.’ ‘Did the class create a sense of community among students?’ Overall the responses to the questions were “Agree” or “Strongly Agree,” providing evidence of positive attitudes towards online education and the students’ learning experiences. Andrea provided a copy of the report to each college and reminded the Committee that the SDCCD Online Student Survey results are available online.

SDCCD OER Project - http://sdccdolvid.org/vidblog/

Katie and Dave presented the SDCCD OER site available at http://sdccdolvid.org/vidblog/. The reception to the site by the Committee was overwhelmingly positive. The site is currently organized into groups: ‘Blackboard Tutorials,’ ‘Instructional Technology Tutorials,’ and ‘Recent Videos.’ Different tabs available are ‘Blackboard Tutorials,’ ‘Academic Disciplines,’ ‘Student Support,’ Workshop Archives,’ and ‘All Resources.’ The site is searchable to make finding content a breeze. Unless otherwise noted, resources on the SDCCD OER site are available for use through a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (no modification) license. By request, Katie will consider adding an option to share the videos via email.

EduStream Updates – http://www.edustream.org

EduStream hosts over 6,000 video clips averaging 5-minutes in length. Dave demonstrated the site and complimented the video quality as “Professionally done” and “Very high quality educational videos.” Instructors can contact their campus EduStream Coordinator to obtain an account. Many of the technical issues with EduStream have been worked out; their new hosted Flash player makes using the resources much better. Hank is developing a workshop ‘Film on Demand’ and may add a portion on how to access EduStream video clip resources. Gail explained that after the 5-year grant ends the site is planned to be self-sustaining.

2012-2013 SDCCD Online Faculty Mentors’ Final Reports

Rechelle finished her second semester as Miramar Online Faculty Mentor. She experienced some challenges encouraging participation from faculty to attend flex presentations. She said the deans and VPI have been helpful getting the word out on upcoming events. She held a couple of workshops. One on Universal Design was followed up with a visit to Continuing Ed to share the information with a large audience. She also held ‘Free Tools, Apps and Websites to increase Student Engagement in Online Classes’ workshop. She collaborated in the Spring 2013 Online Student Panel held at Mesa College and hopes to participate in the 3rd annual Student Panel next year. She plans to offer 1–topic 1-hour workshops next year and continue helping instructors one-on-one. Rechelle also reported that the ‘Are You Ready To Learn Online?’ student preparedness cards that Dave created in a response to a request from Miramar DE Committee were well received. Dave provided copies of the cards to representatives at each college. Angela commented she may use a picture of the card in her auto-response to student emails.

Gwyn reported that she was happy the mentor assignments were for one year as it makes planning trainings and workshops easier. Gwyn held successful workshops throughout the year. A Blackboard workshop in Fall that was well attended and a Blackboard for Newcomers held this Spring which was a very positive experience. She said that in general the online faculty and the oncampus faculty using Blackboard to enhance their courses at City College are pretty well settled. Her focus will be on the newcomers next year. Gwyn is considering creative ways to provide online students with orientation clips or checklists to help online instructors prepare their online students. She will also be working with City staff to hopefully purchase headsets for City College’s lab computers. Gwyn is in the process of proposing a City College Distance Learning Committee (CCDLC) to the Faculty Academic Senate, Sandra has agreed to help with the proposal. Gwyn and Sandra will present the idea this afternoon to the Senate Executives; hoping to formally propose the CCDLC at the next senate meeting. Gwyn voiced concerns about the negativity on campus with funding for technology at a slow-down and the Faculty Union speaking out against MOOCS. Gwyn spoke with Jim Mahler and shared her concerns that the Union was spreading information without actual clarity and understanding. She is concerned that a distinction is not being made between MOOCS and traditional online courses. Angela added that it is not only the Unions, but other organized institutions world-wide that are targeting MOOCS in a negative light.

This spring Joe helped assist online faculty in the Mesa College lab during Katie’s leave of absence. He reported that instructors are becoming comfortable with Blackboard and that Hank can meet most of the needs of online and oncampus instructors using Blackboard. He feels the best mentor-to-faculty contact is by direct email. Joe said he hopes Katie resumes her once a week one-on-one appointments for Mesa College faculty. Katie suggested using Instructional Design support via ‘Join Me.’ This would work two-fold in helping the instructors with their needs and also teaching them how to use ‘Join Me’ which they could apply with their students. Joe would like to see another Online Student Panel next year, possibly at a different campus. Also, Joe would like to develop a ‘Pre-online Class Checklist’ to give instructors contemplating teaching online a preview of what online teaching entails. Lastly, Joe proposed a summer Online Teaching retreat. Meeting space has been reserved for August 8 at San Diego’s Mission Trails Park.

Mentor Awards

Jane, not in attendance, received her award individually last Friday. Andrea presented the Online Faculty Mentors with awards and thanked them for their service throughout the year.

2013-14 Meeting Schedule

Andrea provided the group with the 2013-2014 DDESC proposed meeting schedule. The group agreed that the DDESC Steering Committee meetings should continue to rotate campuses. Michelle asked that the Sept 9 proposed meeting at Continuing Education be switched due to construction concerns at North City Center.

Next Meeting: Monday, September 9, Mesa College LRC 435, 12:00–1:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted: Mary Kingsley