Most of You Expect Online Community College Enrollments to Increase

Current California community college online enrollments are about 6% of all enrollment.

  • 45% of you expect that to roughly double in 10 years, to 10-15%
  • 29% of you expect that to triple or more in 10 years, to 15-25+%

You Want to Learn More About Online Teaching and Learning:

  • Academic integrity in online courses: 57% of you want to know more
  • Student learning in online courses: 56% of you want more information
  • Specific online teaching techniques, such as blogs, journals, webquests, group projects, chat, etc.: 48% of you want to learn these techniques
  • Retention in online courses: 46% of you want to learn more
  • Online teaching technologies, such as voice-over Powerpoint, video, and other multimedia tools: 44% of you want to know more about this software
  • Blackboard technical support for our students: 42% of you want more information
  • Offering labs in online courses: 40% of you want to how to do this
  • Online tutoring: 40% of you want to know how this could work

Your DE Committee is reviewing survey results, and we’ll be providing you with more information throughout the semester. For those of you interested specifically in online teaching technologies, please join our afternoon FLEX session on February 14th, New Tools for Online Teaching.

Spring Semester Updates

  • 117 students participated in our new Online Learning Orientation sessions during the first week of class. Thanks to the leaders of these nine sessions for helping our online students get a strong start in their classes. Those leaders are Jas Bhangal, Melita Fogle, Ken Grace, Dmitriy Kalyagin, Jan Novak, Andrew Pierson, Nolly Ruiz, Lisa Ulibarri, and Minta Winsor.
  • 4,582 students are enrolled in 105 online sections this semester, and FTES in online courses appears to have increased by about 70% vs. Spring 2007.
  • Online students now have access to Blackboard technical support on the weekend! Students who complete online Help forms will receive help within 24 hours (and usually much sooner) 7 days a week.
  • 27 students began our new Introduction to Online Learning class on January 28th. This 0.5 unit, 3-week online course is designed for students curious about online learning, or those about to take their first online course. If you have similar students, refer them to the second section of the course which begins on April 21st. It’s General Studies 4931.

They Teach That Online??

If you’ve ever wondered what classes other colleges are teaching online, please spend a few minutes reviewing our Online Course Comparison at We looked at the Winter or Spring schedules of six Bay Area community colleges in some key disciplines to see what they’re offering online. The colleges are DeAnza, Foothill, Ohlone, Las Positas, DiabloValley, and WestValley. Here’s some highlights:

All six schools offer courses in Anthropology, Computer Science, Economics, English, Music, Psychology, and Speech.

The most “popular” disciplines for online offerings areEnglish, with 60 sections, and Computer Science, with 57 sections at these six colleges.

Five of the six colleges teach Math online, mostly in a format which requires exams to be taken on campus. DiabloValley offers 31 sections of 11 different Math courses.

We found courses offered online in every discipline we investigated with one exception: Chemistry.

Online courses are offered in some interesting disciplines, including Administration of Justice, Dental Hygiene, Nursing, Biotechnology, Engineering, Photography, Physics, and Theater .

At least half of the schools offered online courses in Art History, Digital Media, Nutrition, Photography, and Real Estate.

Foothill has a major online Art program, with 11 different Art classes, including Ceramics and Drawing. How do they do that?

Library Skills courses are offered online by 4 of the 6 colleges.

Some interesting English courses are offered online: Creative Writing (2 colleges), Women in Literature, Shakespeare, Poetry Writing, and more.

Ohlone and Foothill love their online music programs. Ohlone offers 18 sections of 9 different courses. Foothill offers 14 sections of 10 different courses.

Our comparison didn’t include all disciplines, and specifically excluded those that already have major online programs at Chabot (Business, CAS, Humanities, PE). If you’d like to explore online offerings in your discipline, another place to begin is which has a searchable schedule of online courses throughout California. It’s a bit out of date, but a good place to start.

Come FLEX With Us!

/ Join us on FLEX Day, February 14th, for three FLEX sessions. These sessions should be useful for everyone—no online teaching experience or commitment required!

The sessions are:

Test drive Blackboard 7.3—our new version for Summer/Fall 08! Morning Workshop. At the end of this semester, we’re implementing a major Blackboard upgrade. Blackboard 7.3 has lots of great new features, but is a big change requiring a well-planned transition for both faculty and students. Join us for a demonstration of this new version, and to help us develop transition/training programs for both faculty and students. We’ll also provide an overview of opportunities to use Blackboard to enhance your on-campus class, for a hybrid online class, or for a fully online class.

Meet the Online Student. Lunch Workshop. In “Going the Distance”, Chabot students and faculty share their experiences in taking—and teaching—online courses. They speak candidly and with insight about:

  • How the availability of online courses plays a crucial role in their college matriculation
  • What it takes to succeed in the online setting
  • How their workload compares with more traditional classroom settings
  • How student interactions compare with traditional classroom settings
  • What it’s like to interact with an instructor in the online environment
  • And more!

This new video, produced by the same student filmmakers who brought us “Reading Between the Lines”, offers an engaging, fresh discussion of the promise and challenges of online education. The video will be followed by a group discussion activity. All faculty, staff, and administrators are invited.

New Tools for Online Teaching. Afternoon Workshop. Join us for demonstrations of new tools to enhance learning in online courses, such as Respondus testing software, the SafeAssign plagiarism detection tool, the SearchPath library research skills tutorial, Camtasia voice-over Powerpoint software, and podcasting. Attendees will be entered into a drawing for prizes such as a Respondus license or Camtasia video creation software.