Distance Learning Mentoring Group

Minutes for January 25,2007 - 4  P .M.- 6 : 0 0 P.M. AS192

In attendance at the DLMG meeting: Aileen Ormiston, Allie Marino, Elizabeth Atencia-Oliden, Erica Morley,  Gretchen Berning, Janell Pierce, Karen Blevins, Keith Anderson, Kim Hohol, Ray Gless, Thom Schuett, and Peggy Johnson. 

Faculty shared online courses they had located, identifying features they appreciated about the course or would change in their own online course. Three faculty found E-packs for their courses. Some liked what they found, others were disappointed. You can customize these E-packs to use just what you want to use and add your own material, so they can be a great resource.

Several faculty chose courses from the WebCT Exemplary Course list. These courses can be accessed at http://www.webct.com/exemplary Suggestions for quality online courses include:

*Have a strong contrast between the background color of your course pages and the text color. Students with vision problems have trouble seeing internet material that has poor contrast (e.g. pastel text on a bright background).

*Bobby software can analyse any web page and alert you to problems of accessibility for disabled students. Info about Bobby can be found at http://www.gcn.com/print/vol19_no26/2841-1.html

*Break documents up into separate files that have no more than approximately two pages (e.g. syllabi). Viewers won't scroll much more than two pages.

* Allot the first week of class to have students do one of every kind of task they will do the entire semester. Use the first week to have students get hardware & software in place. They should take an online quiz if they will do that later. They should submit an attachment, send the instructor an email, post to the discussion board, etc. if those tasks will later be required.

* Keep the navigation simple and obvious. WebCT helps you do that.

* Don't clutter the homepage with two many icons.

* Think about whether you want to reveal all course documents from day one or release them gradually (perhaps weekly) as students get to them.

* Pages and pages of text or outlines are not very compelling. Include activities students should do with the information as they learn it, e.g. crossword puzzles, essays, quizzes.

*Give some thought as to whether you want to post pdf files or html files to your course. HTML files can be viewed by anyone with a browser. Pdf files require acrobat reader (or equivalent software) to be downloaded but it is free. Pdf files will display exactly as you want them to no matter what hardware/software the student uses. The student cannot copy and/or alter a pdf file.  The disadvantage to pdf files is that if you want to edit them, you have to go back to the original document, edit and then resave as pdf. To convert your files into pdf, you can bring them into the CTL Acrobat is loaded onto the computers there. It takes just a minute to save your file in pdf format. Alternatively, you can use free software to create pdf files, such as CuteFTP at http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp  or PrimoPDF at http://www.primopdf.com/

*You will want to create a homepage outside of WebCT so students who are interested in your online course can get information and/or see a demo about it. This will save you time answering student emails about the course also. Here is a link to Peg's homepage info about her online course: http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~johnson/online100.html

*You can create a homepage in any program you like, e.g. Frontpage (available to MCC faculty who take two blank CD disks to the TSS (helpdesk) and ask for it. 

SoftChalk, software available to MCC faculty, can create attractive webpages also. We will be having a workshop on this terrific software. However, the quickest and easiest way to get a simple homepage is to use the automated MCC homepage feature. You can add up to 5 links to this page and one link could be about your online course.  Directions for how to create an automated homepage (it will only take a couple of minutes) can be found by clicking on this link: ht tp://ctl.mc.maricopa.edu/_ctl_SD/resources/helpdocs/how_to/index.html

Click on the heading WebPages to find the reference document.

*Pay attention to copyright law. General guidelines for copyright include:

A ccording to Ko and Rossen's book Teaching Online, A Practical Guide , copyright laws permit you to use

a. Motion Media (such as videos and animations): up to 10 percent of the original work or 3 minutes, whichever is less

b. Text : up to 10 percent of the original work or 1000 words, whichever is less

c. Poems : up to 250 words

d. Music : up to 10 percent of the original work or 30 seconds, whichever is less

e. Photos and images : up to five works from one artist or photographer; up to 10 percent or fiftenen works, whichever is less, from a collection

R   Recent court decisions  make MCC liable for making sure this educational fair use content is password-protected a   and  can't be accessed and saved by the general public. Streaming material within WebCT covers these restrictions.

Much more detailed information about copyright can be found on the DLMG resource page at         http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~johnson/DLMGRSRC.HTM

We ran out of time for Janell to show her course. She passed out papers with URL's she recommended and will make a short presentation about the sites she chose at our next DLMG meeting. Several questions were answered that arose at our previous meeting:

*Turnitin.com is available to MCC faculty by contacting Jonelle Moore at 461-7668, email jonelle.moore@mcmail.maricopa.edu  This software is useful for identifying plagiarism. Faculty can check student work that has been submitted. Alternatively, faculty can have students submit their work first to Turnitin.com before they submission to the instructor. If the students get notice of plagiarism in their work from Turnitin.com, they can edit it before the faculty receive the paper.

*MCC does not have access to Wimba for foreign language courses. Instead MCC faculty use Pure Voice. Steve Budge or Maria Gardeta-Healy in the Foreign Language department can give you more details on Pure Voice software.

*When converting Powerpoint presentations to Breeze for uploading to the internet, the animations are kept. However, gif animations (graphics that move) are lost.

*Faculty who want to include video clips in their online course should make individual appointments with Jeff Anderson, phone 461-7709, email jeffa@mail.mc.maricopa.edu The schedule for this semester's meetings was circulated.

Next week we will be looking at Peggy's and Donna Gaudet's online courses to see two different pedagogical approaches.