Hi all,
I'm not sure how long we are supposed to blog after the summer session has ended, but I did want to post a comment telling you all that I won't be able to attend this year's Conference. I was hoping to be able to get away, but I have new responsibilities at my college this year that will keep me busy both in and out of the classroom (I get to take on the fun task of Outcomes Assessment as part of my Division Director duties, and I am now the only DD overseeing both of our divisions; think of it as an Assistant Dean of Instruction position without the title*smile*). That, and one of my adjunct instructors scheduled OC Training next Saturday, and the chance to see some of my students get hit with pepper spray is just too irresistible to miss.
I hope to see you all the following year!
Holly DB
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Online courses can be addictive!
Hi all,
As our Fall I courses get into full swing, I am sure we are all quite busy reading introductions, posting replies, responding to student questions, and making sure that everything is working correctly in our courses. It seems that just as we catch our "wind" in the Fall I session, it will be time to get ready for Fall II.
One of the things I'd like to comment on before my blog-time wraps up is how "addicted" I've become to teaching the online courses. When I first started teaching for CCCOnline (gee, was that really in 2002?), I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into. I thought of my computer as a giant paper weight on my desk that was great to type tests on. However, a few semesters later and I realized just how enjoyable it was to have the opportunity to be able to reach a much broader group of students than was possible in my F2F courses.
I enjoy the discussions tremendously in the online courses and I have yet to come away from a semester without having learned something new in every section I teach. The critical thinking that is going on is truly enjoyable to watch and when you see a student "get it," the feeling is great. You feel as if what you are doing as an instructor is really "worth it."
I hope all of you are getting off to a good start during this first week of classes and I hope you will enjoy your students as much as I enjoy mine. Thanks for reading.
Holly DB
As our Fall I courses get into full swing, I am sure we are all quite busy reading introductions, posting replies, responding to student questions, and making sure that everything is working correctly in our courses. It seems that just as we catch our "wind" in the Fall I session, it will be time to get ready for Fall II.
One of the things I'd like to comment on before my blog-time wraps up is how "addicted" I've become to teaching the online courses. When I first started teaching for CCCOnline (gee, was that really in 2002?), I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into. I thought of my computer as a giant paper weight on my desk that was great to type tests on. However, a few semesters later and I realized just how enjoyable it was to have the opportunity to be able to reach a much broader group of students than was possible in my F2F courses.
I enjoy the discussions tremendously in the online courses and I have yet to come away from a semester without having learned something new in every section I teach. The critical thinking that is going on is truly enjoyable to watch and when you see a student "get it," the feeling is great. You feel as if what you are doing as an instructor is really "worth it."
I hope all of you are getting off to a good start during this first week of classes and I hope you will enjoy your students as much as I enjoy mine. Thanks for reading.
Holly DB
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Advising Online Students
Hi Everyone,
As we get ready to rock and roll in the online courses on Monday, I have been having a lot of discussions with my colleagues regarding advising, course enrollment, etc. We started f2f classes here at Dawson CC on Wednesday. In addition, DCC is currently in the process of switching over to Banner (which all of you in CO are already using). We've been told that this type of data-switch takes over a year to complete; our College is doing it in less than 6 months!! Being familiar with Banner (thanks to CCCOnline), I am very much looking forward to having more computerized access to data, enrollment, transcripts, schedules, etc. at my fingertips and I know the students are wanting to have access to their information as well.
Our conversion to Banner has brought up an interesting concern regarding advising. Currently all students at DCC are expected to visit with an advisor prior to enrolling in courses. No one is quite sure what is going to happen once students get "full access" to the capabilities that Banner provides. A concern is that students will be able to enroll in courses online, drop or add courses, or withdraw completely without having to speak to an academic advisor.
My question to all of you that teach for CCCOnline and/or also serve as faculty advisors to students is "How does your college manage it?" Do you require that students consult with academic advisors prior to enrolling in courses (or adding, dropping, withdrawing), or can the online student sign up for classes every semester without ever having to talk to a faculty advisor? Any insight you can provide me will be shared with others up here that have similar concerns.
Thanks for reading.
Holly DB
As we get ready to rock and roll in the online courses on Monday, I have been having a lot of discussions with my colleagues regarding advising, course enrollment, etc. We started f2f classes here at Dawson CC on Wednesday. In addition, DCC is currently in the process of switching over to Banner (which all of you in CO are already using). We've been told that this type of data-switch takes over a year to complete; our College is doing it in less than 6 months!! Being familiar with Banner (thanks to CCCOnline), I am very much looking forward to having more computerized access to data, enrollment, transcripts, schedules, etc. at my fingertips and I know the students are wanting to have access to their information as well.
Our conversion to Banner has brought up an interesting concern regarding advising. Currently all students at DCC are expected to visit with an advisor prior to enrolling in courses. No one is quite sure what is going to happen once students get "full access" to the capabilities that Banner provides. A concern is that students will be able to enroll in courses online, drop or add courses, or withdraw completely without having to speak to an academic advisor.
My question to all of you that teach for CCCOnline and/or also serve as faculty advisors to students is "How does your college manage it?" Do you require that students consult with academic advisors prior to enrolling in courses (or adding, dropping, withdrawing), or can the online student sign up for classes every semester without ever having to talk to a faculty advisor? Any insight you can provide me will be shared with others up here that have similar concerns.
Thanks for reading.
Holly DB
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Semester preparation - Course Checklist
Hi all,
If you have a Fall semester course, no doubt you are getting your section(s) ready. Like many of you, I teach courses in more than one area for CCCOnline and keeping straight the updates in one course and/or the other can sometimes get away from me. One of the items I've found that helps keep me organized is a "semester checklist" that I developed for my own course preparations. I developed the list several years ago and the change to D2L required a nearly total revamp of the checklist. And, while I'm sure you are all aware that there are a couple of different checklists in our Faculty Wiki and in the Faculty Handbook I thought it might be useful to provide my version of the semester preparations checklist. You can find the document attached in our CCCOnline Community under the CCCOnline Blogs Discussion. Feel free to adjust it to your own needs.
Good luck with your Fall semester preparations.
Holly DB
If you have a Fall semester course, no doubt you are getting your section(s) ready. Like many of you, I teach courses in more than one area for CCCOnline and keeping straight the updates in one course and/or the other can sometimes get away from me. One of the items I've found that helps keep me organized is a "semester checklist" that I developed for my own course preparations. I developed the list several years ago and the change to D2L required a nearly total revamp of the checklist. And, while I'm sure you are all aware that there are a couple of different checklists in our Faculty Wiki and in the Faculty Handbook I thought it might be useful to provide my version of the semester preparations checklist. You can find the document attached in our CCCOnline Community under the CCCOnline Blogs Discussion. Feel free to adjust it to your own needs.
Good luck with your Fall semester preparations.
Holly DB
Friday, August 20, 2010
What happened to summer?
Hi everyone,
Does anyone know what happened to summer? I seem to have misplaced mine.*smile*
I don't know about the rest of you, but this summer seemed to roll by very quickly for me. I'm sure we are all feeling that way, especially if you teach full time somewhere and are getting ready to fire up for fall semester. We just had our two days of in-service up here at Dawson CC (Glendive Montana - our students are the ones that are in your classes, in your grade book, but not on your grade sheet when you post grades). We see new students on Monday and Tuesday with all classes starting Wednesday. It's nice that the online courses don't start until the following Monday (Aug 30) as it gives us a chance to enroll students in the online courses after we've come back to work.
Summer may be over, but I'm looking forward to a great fall semester. How about the rest of you? Are you ready to go?
Holly DB
Does anyone know what happened to summer? I seem to have misplaced mine.*smile*
I don't know about the rest of you, but this summer seemed to roll by very quickly for me. I'm sure we are all feeling that way, especially if you teach full time somewhere and are getting ready to fire up for fall semester. We just had our two days of in-service up here at Dawson CC (Glendive Montana - our students are the ones that are in your classes, in your grade book, but not on your grade sheet when you post grades). We see new students on Monday and Tuesday with all classes starting Wednesday. It's nice that the online courses don't start until the following Monday (Aug 30) as it gives us a chance to enroll students in the online courses after we've come back to work.
Summer may be over, but I'm looking forward to a great fall semester. How about the rest of you? Are you ready to go?
Holly DB
Monday, August 16, 2010
End of the Semester - Student Statistics via View Progress
Hi everyone,
I don't know about you all, but the end of the semester always feels as if it comes quickly but with relief. I've also been on yet another summer trip so I've added traveling on top of end-of-the-semester duties. We headed to SW Colorado this time to see relatives (and checked out the Great Sand Dunes National Park...my cats would be in 7th Heaven!) I'm looking forward to going back to work full-time at DCC later this week so that I can relax;-)
One of the things I wanted to comment on was the use of the student statistics we can access via the "Classlist" link (i.e., "View Progress" of Students). As I prepare to post final grades, I have been taking a few minutes to look through each of the course tools to review how much time students have spent on different pages (for example, did they read all of the lectures or submit all of their assignments). I am finding it very useful if students are borderline between two grades (it allows me to make an informed decision on whether they get the grade they earned or if they deserve a break). I can even review the comments I made to them and see if students improved on their essays based on my suggestions (or did they ignore my suggestions for improvement).
Another use for the View Progress tool is that it provides us with a nice summary of all of our course content and how students have used that information. I can use this information for the future as I revise course content and update information.
Does anyone have any other suggestions on how we can use the View Progress tool in our courses? I'm always open to other uses. Thanks for reading,
Holly DB
I don't know about you all, but the end of the semester always feels as if it comes quickly but with relief. I've also been on yet another summer trip so I've added traveling on top of end-of-the-semester duties. We headed to SW Colorado this time to see relatives (and checked out the Great Sand Dunes National Park...my cats would be in 7th Heaven!) I'm looking forward to going back to work full-time at DCC later this week so that I can relax;-)
One of the things I wanted to comment on was the use of the student statistics we can access via the "Classlist" link (i.e., "View Progress" of Students). As I prepare to post final grades, I have been taking a few minutes to look through each of the course tools to review how much time students have spent on different pages (for example, did they read all of the lectures or submit all of their assignments). I am finding it very useful if students are borderline between two grades (it allows me to make an informed decision on whether they get the grade they earned or if they deserve a break). I can even review the comments I made to them and see if students improved on their essays based on my suggestions (or did they ignore my suggestions for improvement).
Another use for the View Progress tool is that it provides us with a nice summary of all of our course content and how students have used that information. I can use this information for the future as I revise course content and update information.
Does anyone have any other suggestions on how we can use the View Progress tool in our courses? I'm always open to other uses. Thanks for reading,
Holly DB
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Fall 2010 Course update - Lectures
Hi everyone,
Wow, switching over to an ebook has been quite an experience. Not only does the POS 111 American Government course have a new textbook, but it also has new lectures and audio links for students to learn more about selected topics.
My hope with this revision of POS 111 has been to address as many of the different learning styles. The online courses definitely have the visual and read/write learners accommodated with the reading that students have to do (and the ebook will add in the charts, graphics, etc. that benefit them). The new version of the course will have some hands-on activities including open-book quizzes for the kinesthetic learner and the auditory learner will be able to listen to explanations of some of the topics.
I just hope students won't be overwhelmed with the amount of information that is available in the course. Has anyone else had "too much" included in their courses?
Thanks,
Holly DB
Wow, switching over to an ebook has been quite an experience. Not only does the POS 111 American Government course have a new textbook, but it also has new lectures and audio links for students to learn more about selected topics.
My hope with this revision of POS 111 has been to address as many of the different learning styles. The online courses definitely have the visual and read/write learners accommodated with the reading that students have to do (and the ebook will add in the charts, graphics, etc. that benefit them). The new version of the course will have some hands-on activities including open-book quizzes for the kinesthetic learner and the auditory learner will be able to listen to explanations of some of the topics.
I just hope students won't be overwhelmed with the amount of information that is available in the course. Has anyone else had "too much" included in their courses?
Thanks,
Holly DB
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Fall 2010 Course update - quizzes
Hi everyone,
One of the additional changes I'm looking at doing with the government course I teach is to reformat the quizzes. Currently students are allowed to retake their quizzes as many times as they like before a unit closes. However, the students are getting the same questions each time (in the same order). It hasn't been much of a challenge for them.
A change I am making to my course is to continue using chapter quizzes and allowing students to retake the quizzes as many times as they like prior to a unit ending. The change comes with how the questions are selected. The questions will now be selected from a pool of questions and students are likely to get new questions each time they retake a quiz. This should make the quizzes more challenging for the students, should help reinforce the information they are learning, and will require that they complete their work earlier in a unit instead of waiting until the final few minutes of a unit to do their homework. And, by allowing the retakes, students still have the chance to earn a 100% on every quiz (if they work at it).
What experiences have the rest of you had with using chapter quizzes in your courses? Are they good, bad, ugly (sorry, had to add in a Clint Eastwood pun here).
Thanks,
Holly DB
One of the additional changes I'm looking at doing with the government course I teach is to reformat the quizzes. Currently students are allowed to retake their quizzes as many times as they like before a unit closes. However, the students are getting the same questions each time (in the same order). It hasn't been much of a challenge for them.
A change I am making to my course is to continue using chapter quizzes and allowing students to retake the quizzes as many times as they like prior to a unit ending. The change comes with how the questions are selected. The questions will now be selected from a pool of questions and students are likely to get new questions each time they retake a quiz. This should make the quizzes more challenging for the students, should help reinforce the information they are learning, and will require that they complete their work earlier in a unit instead of waiting until the final few minutes of a unit to do their homework. And, by allowing the retakes, students still have the chance to earn a 100% on every quiz (if they work at it).
What experiences have the rest of you had with using chapter quizzes in your courses? Are they good, bad, ugly (sorry, had to add in a Clint Eastwood pun here).
Thanks,
Holly DB
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Fall 2010 Course Updates - going to an ebook
Hi everyone,
One of the items I'd like to blog about here are the changes that I'm making to the POS 111 American Government course for Fall. After hearing many, many excuses over the years for why students don't have the correct version of the textbook, I've opted to go with an ebook embedded within the course. In addition, I'm changing the quiz structure slightly (one quiz per chapter instead of two and the questions will be randomly selected from a larger pool of questions for each attempt at a quiz - I allow students to retake the quizzes as many times as they want prior to a unit closing so they can earn a potential 100% on them if they work at it).
I'd be interested in any feedback from other instructors about the pros and cons of having the textbook directly in the course, as well as any other thoughts you may have on interesting assignments in your courses. What works, what doesn't work?
Thanks,
Holly DB
One of the items I'd like to blog about here are the changes that I'm making to the POS 111 American Government course for Fall. After hearing many, many excuses over the years for why students don't have the correct version of the textbook, I've opted to go with an ebook embedded within the course. In addition, I'm changing the quiz structure slightly (one quiz per chapter instead of two and the questions will be randomly selected from a larger pool of questions for each attempt at a quiz - I allow students to retake the quizzes as many times as they want prior to a unit closing so they can earn a potential 100% on them if they work at it).
I'd be interested in any feedback from other instructors about the pros and cons of having the textbook directly in the course, as well as any other thoughts you may have on interesting assignments in your courses. What works, what doesn't work?
Thanks,
Holly DB
Monday, July 19, 2010
We enjoyed Glacier National Park!
Hi everyone, in a previous blog message I had asked if any of you got much opportunity to get out of town while you are also teaching your online classes. I thought I'd share this photo from our trip last week. We were up in Glacier National Park for several days. I sure didn't want to come home...it's absolutely gorgeous over there right now! Holly DB
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Computer recommendations and D2L
Hi everyone,
I have a question for anyone reading this. Has anyone used a Dell Mini-10 (or something similar) to teach the online courses? As some of you may have read in my other postings, our newer laptop suffered a "camper accident" earlier this summer and we now have to replace this old hunk of junk I am currently typing on. I'm wondering if any of you have used the smaller laptops and what you think of them for teaching online?
Thanks,
Holly DB
I have a question for anyone reading this. Has anyone used a Dell Mini-10 (or something similar) to teach the online courses? As some of you may have read in my other postings, our newer laptop suffered a "camper accident" earlier this summer and we now have to replace this old hunk of junk I am currently typing on. I'm wondering if any of you have used the smaller laptops and what you think of them for teaching online?
Thanks,
Holly DB
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Hi again, everyone...
Well, so far this blog-thing is working (I won't go into the frustration over the weekend when it wasn't showing properly...)*smile*
Anyhow, I am planning to head west tomorrow and will be doing a little R & R in Glacier National Park. My only requirement is that I have access to cell phone service so I can log into my online classes. How about the rest of you? Do you find that you can take a little time for yourself (and your family) and still keep up with your online courses?
P.S. Meet Jasmine (Golden Retriever) and Sadie (English Springer Spaniel). They will be on our little outing as well, they pretty much go everywhere with us...
Well, so far this blog-thing is working (I won't go into the frustration over the weekend when it wasn't showing properly...)*smile*
Anyhow, I am planning to head west tomorrow and will be doing a little R & R in Glacier National Park. My only requirement is that I have access to cell phone service so I can log into my online classes. How about the rest of you? Do you find that you can take a little time for yourself (and your family) and still keep up with your online courses?
P.S. Meet Jasmine (Golden Retriever) and Sadie (English Springer Spaniel). They will be on our little outing as well, they pretty much go everywhere with us...
Friday, July 2, 2010
Hello from Holly DB
Hi Everyone,
Well, I decided to take the plunge and try out the faculty blog for the remainder of the summer. I don't generally read blogs, so I decided this will be my "something new" for the year.
I am a college instructor at Dawson Community College (Glendive MT) and I will be starting my 20th year this fall. Wow!! I never felt so old as the day I realized that I've been teaching longer than some of my students have been alive.*smile* I joined the CCCOnline faculty in 2001-2002 and currently teach POS 111 American Government and CRJ 220 Human Relations & Social Conflict.
I have found that I truly enjoy teaching students from a wide variety of ages, backgrounds, and experiences. It can be quite the rush! How about the rest of you? What do you find enjoyable about teaching online and/or in the traditional (f2f) classroom?
I look forward to hearing from you in the CCCOnline Community.
Have a safe and happy 4th of July!
Holly DB
Well, I decided to take the plunge and try out the faculty blog for the remainder of the summer. I don't generally read blogs, so I decided this will be my "something new" for the year.
I am a college instructor at Dawson Community College (Glendive MT) and I will be starting my 20th year this fall. Wow!! I never felt so old as the day I realized that I've been teaching longer than some of my students have been alive.*smile* I joined the CCCOnline faculty in 2001-2002 and currently teach POS 111 American Government and CRJ 220 Human Relations & Social Conflict.
I have found that I truly enjoy teaching students from a wide variety of ages, backgrounds, and experiences. It can be quite the rush! How about the rest of you? What do you find enjoyable about teaching online and/or in the traditional (f2f) classroom?
I look forward to hearing from you in the CCCOnline Community.
Have a safe and happy 4th of July!
Holly DB
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)