Minutes for December 2 2004 - 4 P.M. – 5 : 30 P.M. CTL Workroom
In attendance at the DLMG meeting : Stacey Cochran, Amadou Gaye, Jennifer Townsley, Chuck Hall, Sheryl Girard, and Peggy Johnson ,
Three faculty showed the online course they have been developing this semester.
Stacey Cochran Stacey's Readings for Writers Course looks good. The pages have a clean, crisp, uncluttered look to them. Stacey plans to use the same homepage for both CRW 195 and 200.
Each course will be one credit hour. CRW 195 will focus on plot development in Jurassic Park and The Firm . CRW 200 will focus on character development in Beloved and Anna Karinina . Most likely these two courses will be offered in the summer session, with each course being five weeks in length.
Stacey's students will write two papers, probably comparing and contrasting features of the two books they read. They will also compose an annotated list of twenty books they would like to read. Stacey plans to use the WebBoard for extensive online class discussions.
A suggestion was made that Stacey might want to include a note to the students indicating that this is the first time he has taught this course online. As a result, there may be adjustments as the course progresses and he is interested in feedback on what is going well and what is not going on so well.
Turnitin.com ( http://www.turnitin.com) was recommended as a site that can check student work for plagiarism. Some faculty copy and paste a sentence or two into a search engine such as Google ( http://www.google.com ) for this purpose.
Sheryl Girard Sheryl's Records and Information Managment Course contains a wealth of materials, including course competencies and an outline of the course. It is designed to be a 14 to 16 week, three-credit course. Assignments are listed on a weekly basis in the course calendar.
The pilot course is delayed as the course must be added to the district course bank. It likely will be offered next summer or Fall, 2005. Sheryl includes a link to the browser tuneup provided by WebCT ( http://www.webct.com/tuneup ). This helps students make sure their computer is ready/able to access their course in WebCT.
The homepage has a "Do This First" icon. It links to directions on the CTL site regarding course navigation (such as an introduction to common WebCT Tools at http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/other/ctl/coursematerial/webct/tools/webct_tools.pdf ).
Sheryl has added some photographs to the homepage to add interest. A content disclaimer indicates Sheryl may change the course if she chooses to do so - an important item to include.
Sheryl's course includes information about access for disabled students (a link referring them to MCC's Disability Resources and Services Dept. might be useful http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/services/disability/ ). Students will visit two businesses, talk to their records manager, and do a report on what they saw.
There was a recommendation that Sheryl include a list of ideas on how to schedule the visit, what to wear, how to act etc. on a business interview. Students also will post to the discussion board and can access their grades in WebCT.
Sheryl will be utilizing Powerpoint presentations and supplements that came with the textbook she is using. Students will take online quizzes on vocabulary - lucky Sheryl! Sheryl has included an extensive set of links to records management sites that might be of interest to her students.
She is pursuing the idea of having her professional association sponsor an essay contest in which her students could win prizes (top prize $500). What a great incentive!
Sheryl plans to post at least one message a week for her students using the portal tools. You go to the portal ( http://www.mc.maricopa.edu ) and enter your MCC username and password. Then select the "My Tools" tab, followed by "Add DL Message". Create your message, select which sections you want to see it, and students will see the message when they log into their course. This is a handy way to get their attention.
Jennifer Townsley Jennifer's COM 230 course (Small Group Communications) will be a twelve-week course. Jennifer has made it visually attractive with lots of clip art. Explicit objectives for each week are delineated.
She plans to mail a letter to each student before the semester begins giving them important information on how to get started in COM 230. The course homepage includes a "Start Here" icon that gives students an overview.
Jennifer has included several files under "General Information", such as "Is This the Right Course for You?", Highlights (emphasizing the presence of firm deadlines in the course), a list of Student and Instructor Responsibilities, how to get help, course objectives, and a "Meet the Instructor" section that is very reader-friendly.
Jennifer placed copies of much of the information in her course in several course sites so that students are likely to find it when they need it. Jennifer has created very explicit directions regarding her expectations for student participation on the WebBoard discussions. Students will do some of their discussions in groups so there will be separate boards for them to post to. She will also use the discussion board to have students conduct a debate (pros/cons of an issue).
For the pilot course, Jennifer's students will take an online quiz every other week. Jennifer hopes to eventually add more quizzes so that they will be taken weekly. The Modules are conditional. Students can only view them for set time periods so that they stay on schedule. Jennifer has included examples of some activities (such as a good essay) in her course. ________________________________________________________________
Peggy suggested all faculty create a demonstration/question and answer site for their online course that is not password protected - e.g. outside of WebCT, linked to your department and/or faculty webpage. When students send you emails inquiring about your course, you can direct them to this site. This will save you lots of time that you would otherwise spend creating individual responses. For a sample, click on this link http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~johnson/ and select Online Bio 100 Biology Concepts. REMEMBER there are lots of resources you might use at this site also: http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~johnson/DLMGRSRC.HTM
Our last DLMG meeting will take place on Thursday, Dec. 9, at 4 P.M. in AS 192. Chuck, Jennifer G., and Amadou will share their courses.
Peg Johnson