Distance Education Exit Report
Peter Howell
Gavilan College
March 2007
Table of Contents
Page 1 of 42
Semester Timeline
1 month before semester begins
2 weeks before the semester begins
Night before semester begins
First month of semester
Second month of semester
Third month of semester
Lms Administration
Tasks
LMS Functions
Coordinate Teachers
Interaction with Gavilan Instructors
Teachers have Moodle Accounts
Technical Support and Questions
Library Help Desk
Orientations
Walk-in Help
Web Editing
Teachers have HHH Accounts
HHH Server Administrator
Faculty Evaluation
Who
What
Recommendation
Disted Website
About the Web Site
Class Portal
Technical Support For Students
Introductory Information
News and Updates
Links to Online Student Services
Sis Integration
MIS
Troubleshooting
Migration to Banner
Lms Selection
Summary
Also See
Participants in 2006 Selection
The Landscape
Backend Technology
Four recommendations:
Contacts
Reports
Automation
Content
Appendix A: Fall ’06 Distance Ed
Survey and Responses
About the Survey
Enrollment
Summer Session
Individual Departments
Where do our students come from?
Success Rates
Success rates:
Success rates.
Online Instructors
General Education Requirements
Page 1 of 42
Semester Timeline
1 month before semester begins
Make sure all instructors are familiar with necessary tools (Moodle and Contribute). Track down new instructors and bring them up to speed.
2 weeks before the semester begins
Make sure all courses have shells in the LMS.
Advertise classes that didn't make it into the schedule.
Make sure all instructors are setting up classes:
- Ensure new shell is created for each class
- Help teachers to migrate content from old shell (previous semester) to new shell
- Check links and update broken ones
Get list of shell names and section numbers to Dave Phillips for roster uploads.
Update DistedWebsite, Moodle front page.
Night before semester begins
Activate links to class shells on the Distance Ed page.
First month of semester
- Update student rosters
- Help students who can't log in
- Other help for students and instructors
- Get list of all classes and instructor contacts to library staff
- Update library staff on any changes to orientations for online courses
- Provide evening and weekend orientations to complement the LibraryHelpDesk daytime orientations
Second month of semester
- Emphasize training, when teachers have the time, and they can use new skills immediately
- advertise for late-start classes
- assist with evaluations
Third month of semester
- begin compiling next semester's class list
Lms Administration
Tasks
The LMS (Learning Management System) is currently a software package called Moodle. The technical tasks of administration (hardware, network, backups, database management) are handled by the CSUMB consortium. Gavilan pays approximately $9k annualy for this service.
The non-technical administrative tasks are handled by the DistedCoordinator. These tasks include:
- Account management for students and instructors
- Instructional shell management. (A shell is an online classroom. It is active for a single semester, and is associated with a section number or group of cross-listed sections, one or more instructors, and a roster of students. The instructor is responsible for the contents of the shell.)
The list of shells needs to be ready [before] the semester starts, with instructors and students properly assigned to each one.
- Collaborative shell management: These shells are not linked to Gavilan's student database. Instead, they exist for Gavilan instructors and employees to communicate and share resources. These shells need to be maintained with the proper participants, which change over time. The shells themselves exist for periods longer than one semester. (Examples: Faculty senate, online teachers, and English Department all use a collaborative shell to help communicate amongst the group.)
The LMS provides the following functions:
- Keep track of student and instructor accounts
- Reading and writing permissions, based on account
- Provide an area for each class:
- Content organization (by week or topic)
- Assignment tracking
- Quiz / test
- Survey
- Other collaborative tools
- Grading
- Log-keeping and activity reporting for all student and instructor accounts
Coordinate Teachers
Interaction with Gavilan Instructors
The DistedCoordinator works primarily with online teachers. As more and more face to face teachers make their classes web-enhanced, interaction with them will increase.
Goals:
- maintain contact with teachers in order to handle problems before they become trouble
- keep system running smoothly with proper administration of accounts, permissions, shells and other software tools
- provide adequate online training (help files) and face to face training (classes and workshops)
- build institutional knowledge of good online teaching practices
- with the department chairs, encourage and reward instructors for innovation, refinement, content creation, and engagement
- work with interested teachers to fine-tune new technology (ex: audio and video lectures)
Teachers have Moodle Accounts
Each online instructor has a Moodle (LMS) account. The account name is constructed according to a standard formula: (lastname) + (last 4 SSN digits). In general, teacher accounts are created on-demand when the Gavilan SiS database indicates that a given teacher is teaching an online class.
A number of accounts need to be manually created. These are teachers that are using Moodle for collaborative purposes (English Department, Faculty Senate, etc...) but aren't in the database as teaching an online class. Manual account creation is handled as-needed by the DistedCoordinator.
Be sure to follow the standard for usernames: otherwise the teachers will have two accounts if they teach online later.
Teachers help to double-check shells
At the beginning of a semester, the DistedCoordinator will ensure that all needed shells have been created. The online teachers assist in this task by making sure that there is a shell in place for each and every class they are teaching that semester. This shouldn't be a hardship for the teacher, as their shell will require significant preparation before the class begins.
Technical Support and Questions
During the semester, the online teachers will have questions, problems, feature requests, complaints, recommendations and all sorts of comments regarding the online teaching experience. It is the responsibility of the DistedCoordinator to field these comments and respond as best as possible, or refer them to someone more qualified.
Library Help Desk
The Reference Librarian provides direct help for online students. Help comes in the form of answering questions and leading orientations during the first month of the semester. Many online teachers require their students to take the orientation, or give extra credit for attending.
Orientations
Currently, about 100 students are served over 2 weeks of small sessions. This number varies depending on how many online classes are offered and how many teachers require orientation.
Walk-in Help
Provided throughout the semester. The library is a centrally-located student service with long hours. As such, it provides a useful place to direct students with questions. Help is available all day, in an easy-to-find location.
Web Editing
Teachers have hhh Accounts
[hhh.gavilan.edu] is the faculty web server. A teacher will have an account on this computer. The account is used to present class content in the form of web pages.
Editing web pages is a skill that the teacher may not possess. In this case, we install a program called Macromedia Contribute on their computer. Contribute is a no-frills web page editor. We show the teacher how to maneuver around the program, create new pages, add links, images, and do basic page layout.
The benefit of using the faculty web server for class content is that the content will exist on our server regardless of which LMS is used. Keeping content independent of the LMS means that switching LMS is much easier, and the college maintains technical control over its own content.
HHH Server Administrator
The webmaster, Kyle Billups, is responsible for creating and maintaining accounts on the hhh server. Requests can be made to him directly.
HHH account usernames follow the same format as gavilan email accounts: (first initial) + (lastname)
Faculty Evaluation
According to policy, Gavilan instructors undergo periodic evaluation. The procedure and criteria for evaluating online instructors is necessarily different than those of face to face classes.
Who
Faculty evaluations are performed by the deans. Tenure evaluations are performed by the instructor's tenure committee.
What
Since the deans and tenure committees may not be fluent with the LMS, an important task of the DistedCoordinator is to facilitate these evaluations. This would involve helping the evaluators:
- navigate the LMS and the relavent classes
- see the back-end records, such as instructors' access patterns, consistency, turnaround time, and individual attention
- advise on effective online teaching patterns
Furthermore, the deans and tenure committees do not have administrative accounts on the LMS. An administrative account is necessary to see complete records and logs, especially access patterns and overall usage of instructor accounts.
Recommendation
For tenure committees evaluating an instructor who teaches online classes, it is recommended that at least one member of the tenure committee be an experienced online teacher.
Disted Website
About the Web Site
The address of the website is
The website is printed in the class schedule and given as the official instructions for the student to access their class for the first time.
The Distance Ed. website is a major focal point for the students' experience. It provides:
- A link to every single online class currently offered
- Technical support for students
- Introductory information for potential students
- News and updates
- Links to online student services
Class Portal
The list of online classes is important because it is the students' primary way of "finding" their class. The links on the portal go to the instructor's "Welcome Page", which in turn, contains a live link to the classroom (when the class is in session).
The instructor's welcome page provides basic information about the course. It is similar to a "Green Sheet".
Technical Support For Students
Tech support web pages greatly reduce the number of individual requests for help. They cover topics such as:
- OS and Browser issues on student's computer
- Details about the LMS, and its component modules
- Handling file formats and attachments
- Saving work to prevent data loss
- How to download "helper" programs, such as a PDF reader or PPT reader
- Tips for effective online learning
The primary method of adding content to the help pages is in response to student and teacher questions. The LibraryHelpDesk also helps to identify problem areas and their solutions.
Introductory Information
"Is online learning for me?"
It isn't for everyone. The introductory information for prospective students is intended to help prospective students decide if they are well suited to the environment.
News and Updates
This section is a formal and informal way to pass along useful information, events and other tidbits to teachers, students, and prospective students.
Any crucial information is also posted to a sidebar on the main class portal page.
Links to Online Student Services
To maintain compliance with Chancellor’s office requirements, this is important.
Sis Integration
SIS is an acronym for Student Information System. Currently, this means the Santa Rosa System. Within 2 years, it will instead refer to Banner, SRS's intended replacement.
The SIS keeps track of all classes offered, section numbers, cross-listed sections, instructors, enrolled students, and many other details.
Information from the SIS is passed along to the LMS (Moodle) in a one-way channel. (No information flows from Moodle to the SIS.)
Keeping this info flow running smoothly is a crucial part of keeping the online classes running smoothly. Things grind to a halt fast when teachers or students don't have appropriate access to their class accounts.
MIS
The MIS department has responsibility for operating the SIS. The contact for this process is Dave Phillips, Assistant Director of MIS.
Every semester, Dave needs a list of the section numbers (including cross-listed sections) which correspond to every:
- online class
- hybrid class
- web-enhanced class
With this list he can:
- pull the student names from the SIS
- pull the teacher names from the SIS
- combine the two into a list of Moodle accounts needed
- pull the course names from the SIS
- create a list of shells needed
- create a list of roles (teacher or student) for every name
- pass the lists to Moodle to create or update all named accounts and shells
Troubleshooting
For various technical and non-technical reasons (communication difficulties) this process is prone to glitches. The first sign of trouble is that the correct students aren't appearing in a Moodle shell. When this happens, the DistedCoordinator needs to double-check with Dave that he has the right section numbers and that his scripts are operating correctly.
For glitches affecting only one, or few students, double-check with Admissions that they are indeed enrolled in the course. The Library Help Desk also assists with this process.
Dave will also work directly with Andrew Coilie, the technical contact at CSUMB for Moodle, to resolve issues with this process.
Migration to Banner
This is slated to happen, as far as I know, beginning with the Summer semester of 2008.
CSUMB currently uses Banner, and has already successfully integrated it with Moodle. They are willing to share this work with us.
Lms Selection
Summary
In the history of Distance Education at Gavilan College, we've used a small variety of LMSs, or online course software. (These dates are approximate)
1996-98:Web CT, hosted by California Virtual Campus
1998-2000: Web CT, hosted by Gavilan MIS Dept.
2000-2007:Etudes, hosted by the Foothill Consortium
2007+:Moodle, hosted by CSUMB Consortium
As the number of online classes grew, the decision-making process became more difficult. The 2000 switch from Web CT to Etudes, for example, was decided by the Distance Ed coordinator. The decision was a good one and it lasted for 6 years until the Foothill consortium discontinued their product.
For the most recent selection, it was decided for some reason that the DistedCoordinator was not qualified to make this decision, and a committee was formed. Unfortunately, most of the committee members were unfamiliar with the needs, the options, and the tradeoffs for different software packages. And so a decision-making committee turned into an information-seeking committee: many hours were spent by the DistedCoordinator educating people about the options, followed by suggesting the best option, while still trying to appear as an unbiased moderator. This is a painful, wasteful way to make decisions.
The most-affected constituent group, the online teachers, were unanimous in delegating this decision to the DistedCoordinator.
The initial decision made by the DistedCoordinator was the one ultimately chosen by the committee. The only other participants with strong opinions were MIS, who preferred the "safer" choice of a $100,000 commercial product.
Overall, shifting responsibility for this decision from the most qualified person to a committee of more-or-less qualified/informed/interested people represented a colossal waste of time. I cannot emphasize how much time was wasted in this process. To take the most informed, qualified person available and force them into a role of unbiased moderator didn't (and still doesn't) make any sense.
The final evaluations and criteria to justify the 2006 selections can be found online[1].
Also See
A record of the info-gathering and decision making is online[2]. There is also a log of the initial meetings to investigate a consortium led by CSUMB[3].
Participants in 2006 Selection
TeachersVic Robinson, Kaye Bedell, Rey Morales, Erin Crook
MISDave Phillips, Kyle Billups, Saul Salinas, Mimi Arvizu
DistedPeter Howell, Jo Anne Howell
AdmissionsJoy Parker
DRCJane Maringer
LibraryDana Young
AdminFran Lozano
Instructional Technology
Innovation in instructional technology is necessary to keep pace with the changing online education landscape.
Advances in our use of technology, whether formal or informal, keep us competitive and improve the quality and reach of our services.
The Landscape
Various directions in online instructional technology are listed below, in rough order from currently-in-use to brainstorming.
- Web pages with text and graphics
- Accessible technology
- Audio: lectures, messages, or other content
- Narrated slideshow and Powerpoint presentations
- Embedded web video
- Online collaborative applications
- Phone tree
Backend Technology
Backend Technology is investment in making the Disted office run more efficiently and effectively.
Four recommendations:
- Contacts: Keep mailing lists and use them
- Reports
- Automation
- Content
Contacts
Keep mailing lists and use them. For teachers, for potential teachers, for current/past/prospective students, for contacts in the high school community,
Keep a list of people who'll put your flyer on their bulletin board
There are tools to help do this well
Reports
Generate statistics for planning, for justifying the budget, for getting a feel for successes and shortcomings
Automation
Continue to integrate more cleanly with Gavilan's database.