DISTANCE EDUCATION REPORT, 2007-2008
Distance Education Report
Chabot College
2007-2008
Prepared by:
Minta Winsor, Instructional Technology Coordinator
Lisa Ulibarri, Instructional Designer
Substantial content provided by:
Jan Novak, Chair of The Committee on Online Learning
DISTANCE EDUCATION REPORT, 2007-2008
Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................. 3
Continued Substantial Growth in Online Learning .................................................. 3
Program Review, Year Two of Three ........................................................................ 5
Our Online Students: Online Learning Student Survey, Spring 2008 ...................... 5
Online Student Success and Retention: Data ........................................................... 6
Support Initiatives for Students ............................................................................... 7
Faculty Survey on Online Learning, Fall 2007 ......................................................... 8
Blackboard Update: Upgrade to Version 7.3 ............................................................ 8
Future Plans ............................................................................................................. 8
2007-08 Annual Distance Education Institutional Survey ....................................... 9
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DISTANCE EDUCATION REPORT, 2007-2008
Introduction
2007-2008 was a very busy but exciting year for distance learning at Chabot College, marked by
continued substantial growth in online learning course offerings and enrollments. To address the growing
needs of online students and faculty, the Distance Education Committee (renamed the Committee on
Online Learning in fall 2008) worked in conjunction with the Instructional Technology Center (ITC) on
several research and support initiatives for both students and faculty. As part of program review, focus
projects included important areas of online learning such as student success and retention. In addition,
the DE Committee continued to provide several online teaching skill development opportunities and
incentives for faculty to develop new online course offerings, while the ITC continued the ongoing training
and support for Blackboard, new online faculty, and general instructional technology support.
Continued Substantial Growth in Online Learning
During 2007-2008, Chabot College offered 65% more sections of online courses compared to the
previous year. In the spring of 2008, approximately 4,161 students were enrolled in 101 sections of 87
different courses, up from 49 sections of 37 different courses in Fall 2006. Compared to spring 2007, the
FTES for spring 2008 online courses increased by 70%.
DISTANCE EDUCATION REPORT, 2007-2008
Based on this significant increase, Chabot now offers online courses in all divisions, and it is
expected that approximately 10% of Chabot’s enrollment will be in online courses. Furthermore, all
AA/AS degree General Education and transfer (CSU-GE Breadth) requirements can be fulfilled online
with the exception of Math. In addition, Chabot offers several fully online certificate programs in Business
and Computer Application Systems. In addition, the overall use of Blackboard for both distance education
and regular courses continues to grow at a steady rate. By the middle of spring 2008, requests for
Blackboard sites totaled 414 course sections, a 37% increase compared to Spring 2007.
DE and Blackboard Course Sections and Enrollments, 2006-2007 to 2007-20008
Online
Courses*
Blackboard
course sites
Telecourses**
Sections
Enrollment
Sections
Enrollment
Sections
Enrollment
Su06
20
940
85
2,332
12
470
F06
49
1,935
294
7,950
13
437
S07
78
2,743
401
9,941
12
323
Su07
38
1,714
114
3,490
11
457
F07
103
3,444
384
10,596
12
349
S08
101
4,161
414
11,755
12
361
06-07 vs. 07-08
65%
66%
17%
28%
-5%
-5%
*Includes online hybrid courses.
**Includes CD-ROM and other hybrids that are coded as telecourses.
Much of the growth in online learning is attributed to the initiatives of the Distance Education
Committee, especially the leadership of the chair Jan Novak. In the past couple of years, the committee
expanded their scope to include a much broader involvement in several aspects of distance education
beyond curriculum approval, such as providing online teaching skill development opportunities and
mentoring for faculty, recommending and assisting in implementation of online student support
programs, and coordinating the evaluation of DE delivery instruction. The program includes providing
monetary incentives for faculty to develop new online course offerings, and incentives to complete
significant training programs such as those offered by @ONE. During 2007-2008, 35 Chabot participants
registered for their institutes, distance education courses, and web-based seminars (Source: Lenora
Pinkston, @ONE Project). All of this has contributed to a dramatic increase in the number of Chabot
faculty teaching online, from 21 in Fall 2006 to 58 scheduled for Fall 2008.
Continued administrative, training, and technical support for online courses is provided by
Instructional Technology Center (ITC) staff members Minta Winsor (coordinator) and Lisa Ulibarri
(instructional designer. During 2007-2008, the Instructional Designer provided introductory training on
Blackboard to approximately 43 instructors. The instructional designer also met with faculty for initial
consultations, formative evaluations, and a wide variety of topics on Blackboard, totaling approximately
100 training and consultation appointments throughout the year. Student support is provided by an
Instructional Assistant (Melita Fogle through Spring 2008; Randi Ray beginning August 2008), who is
allocated 50% of their time to Blackboard and Online Learning Support.
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DISTANCE EDUCATION REPORT, 2007-2008
Program Review, Year Two of Three
In Fall 2006, the Distance Education program began it’s first program review, with a clear focus
on online teaching and learning. (This report contains a summary of the Program Review. The complete
Program Review can be found at http://www.chabotcollege.edu/ProgramReview/ ). Since the Chabot
online program is still in many respects in its infancy, it was challenging to narrow our focus to only one
“rock”. Instead, the DE Committee chose to pursue five different areas of inquiry. Those were:
Rock #1: Who are our online students?
Rock #2: How can we improve online student success?
Rock #3: How can we improve online student retention?
Rock #4: How can we motivate faculty to teach online?
Rock #5: Are online and on-campus courses truly equivalent?
At the end 2007-2008, significant progress was made on these rocks, which included the first
Online Learning Student Survey (spring 2008), research and focus on student success and retention, and
the Online Learning Faculty Survey (fall 2007). The following sections of this report review highlights of
the research and results of the surveys.
Our Online Students: Online Learning Student Survey, Spring 2008
During spring 2008, all of the students enrolled in online courses were asked to complete the
“Online Learning Student Survey.” The purpose of the survey was to find out more about online students.
The survey attempted to identify student’s motivation for taking online courses and to identify their needs
(courses, support, class design, tutoring, etc.). The survey asked what types of computer skills and
technology they have, what they believe they and their instructors can do to maximize their chances of
success in online classes, and how they would compare online to on-campus learning experiences. The
results of the survey would better enable the development of online student preparation programs, to
prioritize the purchase of new online learning software tools, to inform our faculty and administrators
about online student needs, to develop future online teaching training opportunities, and to better market
the Chabot online curriculum to students. An astonishing 1,026 students participated in our online
survey. Here’s what they told us:

Two-thirds of our online students prefer online classes because their family or work
schedule makes attending on-campus classes difficult.

Students believe online classes are equivalent to on-campus classes in terms of required
time investment and difficulty.

Students state that they participate as much or more in online discussions than they do in
the classroom.
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DISTANCE EDUCATION REPORT, 2007-2008

They miss the interaction with the instructor and the lecture that occurs in the classroom,
but appreciate the quick feedback they receive on quizzes and assignments. Multimedia
technologies will enable faculty to provide “lectures” in online classes, and emerging tools
may allow for more real-time interaction.

They point to course organization as the single most important feature of an online class,
and time management as the most important personal attribute in terms of their ability to
succeed in an online class. This information gives us areas of focus in both faculty
training and support and in student preparation programs.
Complete results of the complete Survey can be found at http://www.chabotcollege.edu/DECSC/.
Online Student Success and Retention
In the Fall of 2007, the overall retention rate for online courses was 73% while the retention rate
for face-to-face courses was only three percentage points higher (76%); similarly, the retention rate for
Spring 2008 for online courses was 76% while 79% for face-to face (Source: Chabot College Office of
Institutional Research).
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DISTANCE EDUCATION REPORT, 2007-2008
Support Initiatives for Student Success and Retention
Based on anecdotal evidence and our own instincts, we decided to proceed to develop student
support programs that might improve both success and retention. Those programs included professional
review course evaluations, campus-wide orientations, expanded Blackboard / Online Learning support
hours, an Introduction to Online Learning course, mini-modules (literacy tutorial, introduction to
Blackboard, online student success skills), and an enhanced online learning website.

Use of CLASS-Web for confidential, professional review course evaluations.
During 2007-2008, 28 online courses were evaluated. As a part of the evaluation, online
students are asked to complete a survey through CLASS-Web, which provides a passwordprotected, confidential method of collecting survey information from the students. Evaluators
are then able to access the results of student survey on CLASS-Web and they are also
provided access for a private observation of the course.

On-campus Orientations for online students. In the spring of 2008, 142 students
participated in 12 Spring orientations, while 87 students participated in two summer session
orientations.

Expanding Blackboard support hours, which began in spring 2008. Evening and
weekend help request coverage was added, along with evening walk-in support for the first
few weeks of the semester.

Online Course: Introduction to Online Learning 0.5 unit class, which was offered for
the first time in spring 2008. The course includes an introduction to the Blackboard course
management system, an overview to how online courses work, and a review of strategies for
success as an online student (including time management, study skills, and netiquette).

Mini-Modules. Funded by a Basic Skills grant, the SearchPath lnformation Literacy
tutorial was piloted in Fall 2007, and expanded in Spring 2008. Introduction to
Blackboard provides an overview of the Blackboard course management system, how to
participate in discussions, how to submit assignments, how to take quizzes, how to get help,
and more. Online student success skills provides tips and tools to help online students
succeed, including time management, study tips, making your learning style work for you in
an online course, getting help, and more. These mini-modules can improve student
preparation for their online course, and success in the research projects required in many
online classes. Piloted in summer 2008.
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DISTANCE EDUCATION REPORT, 2007-2008

Enhanced Online Learning website. Improving the information provided to potential
students about online classes. We have revamped the printed schedule information, and are
working with faculty to provide expanded web information about their online classes that can
help students make wiser class choices.
Faculty Survey on Online Learning, Fall 2007
In order to gauge the interest level of online teaching among the faculty, the Distance Education
Committee distributed a survey to all Chabot faculty. The survey attempted to determine attitudes toward
online learning, as well as information and training needs. The survey included approximately 44
questions such as “If you are curious about online teaching, how can we best support your exploration?”
We learned from those that replied that:

29% were already teaching online, and an additional 31% planned to teach online at some
point in the future.

Faculty were evenly split on whether online and on-campus courses provide equivalent
learning experiences for our students.

The vast majority of faculty believed that online courses enhanced accessibility to a
community college education, and also believed that it helped our overall enrollment.

Faculty wanted to learn more about student learning in online courses, about retention
issues, and about academic integrity in online courses.
Although this wasn’t a statistically valid survey, this information gave us some directional clues,
and encouraged us to continue sharing our learning with faculty. We did this through a series of Online
Learning Newsletters (5 to date) containing information about our online students, our initiatives to
better support students, learning about cannibalization of on-campus enrollments by online classes,
opportunities for training, an analysis of online offerings at key Bay Area community colleges.
Blackboard Update: Upgrade to Version 7.3
On June 6, 2008, the CLPCCD Blackboard Server was upgraded to version 7.3. The upgrade
included several enhancements to existing tools such as announcements, email, assessments, the
gradebook, and the discussion board. Instructors can now simultaneously post an announcement within
the course as well as send an email to students, so that students receive the announcement even if they do
not login to the course. Instructors can now add individual comments to grade entries, providing more
information and feedback to students. Also included is a new feature called the The Early Warning
System, which enables instructors to quickly and proactively monitor and communicate student
performance.
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DISTANCE EDUCATION REPORT, 2007-2008
Future Plans

Streamlined Blackboard course setup. After many collaborative hours between ITS staff
members Stacey Followill, Pong Pungchai and Chabot and LPC Instructional Technology
Coordinators Minta Winsor and Scott Vigallon, faculty will be able to quickly and easily request
their Blackboard course sites in CLASS Web. The availability of this newly automated request
system ties with the recent implementation of CLASS-Web for faculty and is expected to be made
available in October 2008.

Enhanced access to course information. As the result of joint meetings of the Chabot, LPC,
and District ITS, the course schedule notes of Distance Education course in CLASS-Web will
contain live hyperlinks. This will allow students immediate access to more information about
online learning and how to begin their online course.

Web portal and student email. On March 18 2008, district ITS kicked-off the Luminis Portal,
with the goal of providing access to a variety of services with a single sign-on point for the
different web systems on campus. The portal is expected to categorize information based each
user role and affiliations, offer different layouts for information and services to students, faculty,
staff, and administrators, include student email, calendar, announcements, discussion groups,
CLASS-WEB, other college applications, and more. Live implementation of the portal / student
email system is expected for spring 2009.

Focus on Student Success, Retention, Course Equivalency, Academic Integrity. As
part of the third year of the program review, the Committee on Online Learning will include a
focus on ways to help our students succeed with an emphasis on improving student retention and
demonstrating online vs. on-campus course equivalency, as well as addressing academic integrity
concerns.
2007-08 Annual Distance Education Institutional Survey
Every year, each community college is required to report on the status of distance education in
their college to their local Board of Trustees and the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s
Office. Reporting to the Chancellor’s Office is accomplished through the completion of the annual
institutional survey. This year, the survey was sent via email on February 25, 2009 by the Dean of
Academic Affairs for the Chancellor’s Office of California Community Colleges, LeBaron Woodyard and
must be completed by March 30th, 2009, so a completed copy is attached.
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