In attendance at the DLMG meeting : Marcia Graber, Keri Sanders, Lorna Peralta, Bob Klassen, Sandra Woien, Danene Richardson, and Peggy Johnson.
Peggy's Course
The meeting was spent looking at Peggy's online biology course. Features/options available in WebCT were discussed (WebCT mail, discussion board, quizzes). WebCT's ability to offer alternate questions so students do not get the same questions on a particular quiz was highlighted.
To get permission to enter her course as a guest, email Peggy at johnson@mail.mc.maricopa.edu
If you are an MCC faculty member, feel free to use any of the materials you would like. You may take them as is or modify them in any way that is useful to you. You do not need to credit me as the source. I found a way for you to copy the HTML code even though you enter the course as a student (guest). When you are viewing a page you want to keep, right click on your mouse.
From the menu that appears, select view source. This will show you the code that the browser reads to display what you see on screen.
If you copy and paste it into Front Page or Word (and save for web), you'll have code you can use/modify.
One other feature of WebCT that I neglected to discuss is its selective release feature. The instructor can easily set when the student has access to course materials. So you may make lessons available at only certain times to encourage students to stay together on a task and not procrastinate. Or you can make content available only after a student has earned a minimum grade on a quiz (eg. lesson 2 appears only after the student has earned at least a score of 70% on quiz 1. This works if you let them take quiz 1 multiple times.)
HUMOR
Included in each lesson is some type of humor. Some faculty were interested in sites to find jokes appropriate for general posting. To get joke ideas, I subscribe to two humor sites. They send me an email each day. I try to modify the joke a bit to be under copyright but I get a lot of good ideas from them. Here are the two sites I use:
1. Crosswalk
Here's today's joke that arrived in my email box:
Midterm Exam
The professor of a graduate-school class of gifted students included a HUGE amount of material on the midterm exam.
Tension in the room built, people were sighing and gasping aloud as they realized how much material they had covered and were expected to recall.
The following week, the professor tossed the graded papers on her desk and announced, "Class, after I left here last week, the Lord spoke to me.
He said, 'Thanks, professor. I haven't heard from some of those people in years.'"
If you'd like to subscribe to this free service, go to this URL
http://www.crosswalk.com/community/newsletters/
Scroll down the page to the "Fun" section. Select "You Make Me Laugh".
2. ArcaMax Jokes
Scroll down to the Jokes on http://www.arcamax.com/cgi-bin/reg (under "The Funnies") and subscribe to this free service.
3. In addition, I look for bumper stickers, greeting card humor, posters etc. that are humorous and clean enough to use online.
CLIP ART
A significant amount of clip art is incorporated to spice up the lessons. You can get clip art from
1. free sites on the internet [just type in free clip art in Google (http://www.google.com) and you'll see a long list of sites]
2. relatively inexpensive software that is available (I spent about $30 for Printmaster Gold at Costco several years ago and it provided almost all of the clip art I used). Be sure any software you purchase has a search feature to save you time in finding appropriate pictures for your course.
3. To save any clip art you like, you can right click on the mouse. Select "Save Image As" to save the image to your computer.
4. To incorporate an image into your webpage, you can use this HTML code:
<img src="images/lgbio100.jpg>
This says to insert an image that is in a folder within the WebCT course called "images". The image itself is a jpg image entitled "lgbio100". You would adapt this code for your situation (the name of the folder you are storing your pictures in and the name of your image).
Alternatively, you can use an HTML editor like FrontPage or DreamWeaver and insert the image. You then upload the image into a folder within WebCT along with the page you created in Front Page to it find the image to display. If you need help inserting images, you can make an appointment with me, Melanie, or Donna in the CTL. It's an easy skill to learn.
HTML EDITORS
MCC has a site license for Front Page. When you are creating pages for the web, you can create them in Word and then "Save for Web". But this does put in a lot of extra code that isn's necessary. So many faculty prefer to use a WYSIWIG editor like Front Page or Dream Weaver. These software programs are "What You See Is What You Get", meaning you type in your text just like you do in Word, but behind the scenes, the HTML code is automatically being generated for you.
It is pretty easy to learn the basics of Front Page - enough so you can do text pages, tables, etc. You can get a copy of this software by taking a blank CD to the Technology Services Support area (helpdesk) located on the West side of the old Administration building (to the east of the flag pole, north side of campus). Their phone number is (480) 461-7217.
You can play around with Front Page, using the on-screen help to guide you. Alternatively, the CTL is offering a workshop on Front Page Fundamentals on Wed. March 2 from 4 to 6 P.M. You can register online at http://ctl.mc.maricopa.edu/events/display.jsp
Or you could make an appointment with Jeff Anderson, Melanie Kroening, Donna Gaudet, or Tammi Saffold in the CTL. I can also work with you. I know enough about Front Page to get you started but am not an expert like the others I've listed above.
I recommend you go ahead and learn how to use Front Page since you will be creating a lot of web pages if you are teaching an online course. It is more "web friendly" than creating your documents in Word. But if you want to create your documents in Word and "Save for Web", this will work.
ACROBAT
There was a question about Acrobat software. If you convert a document into a pdf file, it displays the same in all browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla, etc.). So if the alignment/format is critical for your document, you would want to save your file as a pdf document. Acrobat software does that quickly and easily for you. MCC does not have a license for Acrobat but all the computers in the CTL have it installed and you are free to come in and use it there. You could create your files at home and then in less than a minute, convert a file into pdf in the CTL.
Alternatively, you can use Cute PDF Writer to create pdf files. It's a free program and it works fine. You need to download the free writer and the converter and install them both on Windows 2000 or higher. When you go to the "print" command, Cute PDF Writer will show up as a printer (just like your other printers). When you select the Cute PDF Writer, it saves your file as a pdf. Very easy! Here's the URL for Cute PDF Writer:
http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp
COMMON MISTAKES
A hand-out was provided listing the most common mistakes new online instructors make, courtesy of Donna Gaudet. Be realistic as to what you can accomplish in one semester. The course you develop doesn't have to be perfect. You will improve upon it each semester you teach, just as you do your on-campus courses.
Don't just copy the textbook online. Students can read the textbook. Your materials should augment the text, like your on-campus class would.
CHECKLIST
A checklist of the features you need to include in your course was provided. MCC online students are directed to look for these features in your course, so lay them out in an easy to find manner.
NEXT WEEK
Previous DLMG faculty will come to discuss their experiences in teaching online. After the faculty are through, Donna Gaudet will attend and show her CIS (Teaching on the Web) course. We are likely to run past 5 P.M. for this session. If you can stay for Donna's presentation, we'd love to have you. If you cannot stay, we understand.
Peg Johnson