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
Saturday, August 28, 2010
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
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