CONDITIONAL RELEASE

Sheila shared her online communication course (COM 110 Intercultural Communication) with DLMG faculty. In these courses, Sheila gives assignments students can practice in their real life (offline). For example, students are asked to partner with a person of another culture they find in the community and work with that partner all semester on various tasks.

When students open the course homepage, there is only one icon visible to them. They must complete the orientation assignment and then the rest of the course will become visible. Sheila uses WebCT selective release feature to accomplish this task. The other icons are "conditional" and are revealed when the student has completed "Worksheet 0" (a quiz on the syllabus and other general information the student must read) with a score of 18 or better (out of 20 possible). The student can take the quiz as many times as he/she wants to, but cannot progress through the course until they earn their score of 18 or higher. The condition for Worksheet 0 is set in WebCT as "after 17", which means a score of more than 17.

In addition to taking the quiz, Sheila's orientation requires students to post an introduction of themselves on the discussion board (bulletin board) along with a photo of themselves and send the instructor an email message. Research suggests you want students to do one of each task they will be required to do in during their course (e.g. post to a discussion board, email their instructor, take an online quiz).

Sheila has created one course homepage that she uses to teach three online sections of the same course. However each section has its own discussion board (bulletin board). Otherwise there would be too many students to have a good discussion. So she makes the discussion board "conditional" on the the student's section number as listed in the gradebook. (Students only have access to their section's discussion board.)

At the end of the course, Sheila's students complete an online survey with questions about how the course went. The survey is "conditional" upon the final exam in the gradebook being "not blank".

Sheila originally taught the course in 11 weeks. However, students complained there was not enough time to complete the work. So Sheila currently teaches it the whole semester (16 weeks). The first two weeks are used strictly for orientation though (no real communications content is attempted).

Sheila requires students to post to the discussion board at least five times per module (each module lasts 10 days). Each module has a review quiz consisting of questions only on vocabulary. The student earns 5 points for taking the quiz; they can take it as often as they wish until they get it all correct.

FORMS

To keep up with the many assignments students submit, Sheila created a different form for each assignment. She uses the rules in Microsoft Outlook to route the assignment to a folder in her email box that contains only those assignments. This works because part of the form has the exact name of the assignment in the subject line. The subject line is what Outlook uses to apply the rule of "which folder to move the assignment to".

Sheila uses forms rather than attachments to minimize problems with computer viruses being acquired via student emails. The routing of the form allows her to easily keep track of what has been submitted, what needs to be graded, etc.

Sheila created the form with a dialog box for the student to type in their email address, their name, and the answers to the various questions. The student clicks the "submit" button at the end of the form and then it is routed to the appropriate folder in Sheila's email box for subsequent grading. The student automatically receives a message saying the assignment has been submitted.

A document from the CTL workshop on creating forms can be found at this URL http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/other/ctl/_ctl_SD/resources/helpdocs/workshops/dreamweaver_form/index.html

Sheila has graciously shared two of the forms she uses. Use this link Form 1 or this link Form 2. If you choose to "View Source" while you have your browser open (e.g. Internet Explorer or Mozilla), you can see the HTML code for the form. You can edit the form for your use with Frontpage, DreamWeaver, or other HTML editing software.

Sheila's tip: Designate Word software as your html editor in Microsoft Outlook so it does the Word Wrap for you. Also, save student assignments on the school server rather than your own computer. If your computer crashes, you loose it all. The school makes backups of their servers.

If you want to create a form for your students to use, it is recommended that you meet with Melanie Kroening in the CTL (phone 480-461-7799, mkroening@mail.mc.maricopa.edu)

Nicole's suggestion: Nicole suggested an alternative to forms is to create the assignment using Respondus software (we will have a workshop on Respondus March 2). The student submits it and it is graded as a WebCT quiz. This would work well also.

Peggy's suggestion: Peggy recommended Clipmate software as a handy program for copying and pasting comments on assignments. You tend to use a lot of the same feedback for students but you want it to seem personalized. Cutting and pasting can save you time and make your students feel you are paying attention to them. You can get a free 30-day trial of Clipmate at this site: http://www.thornsoft.com/download.htm

Guest Access

To request guest access to Sheila's online course, contact her at smerritt@mail.mc.maricopa.edu

VIDEO

Sheila uses short movie clips in her course. She captures a few minutes (less than 10%) of the movie with a video capture card attached to her computer. She uses movies such My Big Fat Green Wedding to illustrate multicultural viewpoints. The publisher of the textbook Sheila uses for her course also provides some movie clips.

HOMEDIRS

Because you are a faculty member of MCC, you have space on the school's server (called Homedirs). You can upload any materials you want to there (assuming it is work related). Because this server is backed up frequently, it is a secure place to save copies of your work. In addition, you can make links for your students to materials at this site. You can provide these links within your WebCT course or from the MCC automated homepage.

If you do not have an MCC automated homepage, you can set one up very quickly. Directions can be found at http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/its/tss/pdfs/MCC_homepage_instructions.pdfhttp://www.mc.maricopa.edu/other/ctl/_ctl_SD/resources/helpdocs/workshops/mcc_portal/documents/automatedhomepage.pdf

Step-by-step d irections for uploading files to the Homedirs server can be found at this site: http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/its/tss/file_transfer.html

If you have questions about your homedirs account, transferring files, or your MCC automated homepage, contact MCC Technology Support Services at (480) 461-7217.

NEXT WEEK

Melanie will be giving us a workshop on using Breeze software to add audio files to Powerpoint presentations for the web. If you have a Powerpoint presentation that you would like to add sound to, bring it on a thumb/flash/USB drive. Alternatively, you could email it to yourself and then download it from your email account at our DLMG meeting. You don't have to make bring a Powerpoint presentation to work on (you'll still get a lot out of the workshop), but it will make your time more efficient if you are using one of your own presentations rather than just a sample practice file Melanie provides.

Peggy Johnson