Chabot College
Distance Education Course Proposal Form
2008-2009
Course Title & Number: Critical Reading and Composition, English 1A
Faculty Name: Dennis Chowenhill
Course Delivery Method:
_ Online (all instruction is online; campus orientations/assessments may be included)
_ Hybrid online (instruction occurs both online and on campus
_ Telecourse
_ Other (please describe)
First Semester To Be Offered: Spring 2008
1.Need/Justification

What is the intent in offering the course by distance education? What student needs will this
offering meet? Are there learning opportunities made possible in a distance education course that
might not be available in a traditional course?
Like other online course offerings, this online 1A course will meet the needs of students whose
transportation challenges and scheduling conflicts prevent them from attending courses on campus.
English 1A is required of all students intending to transfer, so accessibility to it is essential for many
Chabot College students. Offering of English 1A online broadens the range of individuals served by the
college, by improving their access to this academic requirement.
Beyond the quality of access, it has been observed that the online environment may serve some students
better than face-to-face environments. Students who have difficulty responding in classroom settings,
because of lack of confidence or peculiarities of their own socialization, often find it easier to participate
in asynchronous, online discussions that give them the opportunity to reflect longer before responding and
to read and write comments without feeling the self-consciousness that can be experienced in face-to-face
settings. Five years of observing students’ participation in online discussions and journals in classes of
my own (either with hybrid, or in face-to-face with online work assigned) have borne this out.
English 1A also has qualities that recommend it for online instruction. The development of reading and
writing skills are central to the objectives of this course, and asynchronous discussions, like formal essay
writing—both requirements of this online course—are excellent occasions for focusing on both these skill
areas. It can be argued that students have greater opportunities for the development of their skills in these
areas than they have in face-to-face classrooms, where the rigors of time pressure as well as the
opportunities to speak as little as possible can work against the students’ developing these skills.
The potential advantages of online instruction in English courses, however, remain to be tested. Online
education mediated by computers is relatively new to higher education, and educators remain driven as
much by anecdote and instinct as by research that demonstrates the real efficacy of online instruction in
English courses. Our primary rationale for offering online instruction of English remains access, i.e.,
making the courses accessible to students whose difficulties getting to the college could prevent them
from taking the classes. One of my primary justifications for offering this online section of English 1A is
to give myself the opportunity to examine at close range, and with the assistance of the students in the
course, the effectiveness of online instruction in English. During the same term that I am offering this
online English 1A, I will be offering a face-to-face version in which I apply the same texts and—to the
extent that the different modalities permit—the same assignments.
2. Course Content Delivery


Describe the distance education modalities used to deliver the course contend and provide an
approximate schedule of the time allocated to each modality. What percentage of the course will
be on-campus, if any? What percentage of the course will consist of online lecture, video, email,
web, CD-ROM, etc.?
Note that the total number of contact hours should approximate the equivalent number of hours
required in an on-campus setting. Account for those hours in your proposal.
At this point I am proposing two possible plans for the balance of on-campus and online contacts. In both
cases, the instructor-student contacts will be primarily online, with on-campus meetings for the purposes
of orientation, question-answer periods, testing, and in-class writing (partly to make plagiarism less
likely). One plan is for the class to meet twice on campus, once at the beginning of the term and once at
the end, on both of which occasions students will have an opportunity to ask questions, discuss materials
face-to-face, and write essays. The other plan is for the class to meet three times on campus, the third
time at the middle of the term, at which time the students will take a midterm exam that includes an essay
response.
The time commitment for students in English 1A, an academic 3 unit course, is three hours in class each
week, and six hours outside of class working on homework assignments and projects. The six hours
outside of class, devoted mainly to reading, taking notes, writing expository and argumentative essays,
and conducting research to apply to essay writing, will be used the same in this online course offering as
they are in a face-to-face English 1A course. Students will receive their instructions for these
assignments, and guidance online, by means of Blackboard contacts (Announcements, Virtual Office,
Discussion Board, and External Links). The three classroom hours in a face-to-face section of English 1A
are devoted to in-class discussions, instructor presentations, peer reviews of writing, and tests/quizzes.
For this online offering of the course these same activities will occur, by means of Blackboard
announcements, instructions, and coordination from the instructor. Small group discussions and peer
editing will be accomplished by means of moderated and graded forums set up for small groups. Tests
and quizzes will be posted online and students given limited time frames to complete and submit their
responses.
3. Nature and Frequency of Instructor-Student Interactions
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

Provide examples of course components taught using distance education technology. This will
include either or both synchronous—online at the same time and asynchronous—online at
different times.
Describe the number and frequency of interaction for students making satisfactory progress and
for intervention when students are at risk of dropping or failing due to poor performance or
participation.
For each type of interaction listed above, describe why you believe it will be effective for this
particular curriculum and delivery model.

Describe how the interactions will facilitate student learning and how students will benefit from
the DE modalities selected.
Material that would in a face-to-face classroom be presented by means of the instructor speaking to the
students (i.e., lectures and demonstrations) will be handled by means of announcements (on Blackboard’s
Announcement page), discussions (on Discussion Board), and External Links. An advantage to this
presentation style is that students will have access to the material as frequently as they need, rather than
the one-time access generally provided with face-to-face presentations. Discussions will be time
sensitive: as each discussion is initiated, students will be given deadlines for participating, and
instructions for the level of participation required. Acceptable contributions to discussions will be 100 –
300 words, depending on the complexity of the topic, and on the extent to which the instructor will be
accommodating students’ needs to be working on other aspects of the class during the same period of
time (while formal essays are being written, for instance, the instructor will require less writing during
discussions). But after these discussions have been completed, according to their scheduled deadlines, the
record of them will be preserved for students to access throughout the term. Much of this material (like
notes taken during class in a face-to-face situation) will be useful to students as they prepare for the
midterm and final examinations.
Another central component of English 1A is the instruction of formatting for including researched
material in one’s writing. Students are responsible for learning to integrate researched material into their
own writing and to document it in their texts as well as in Works Cited pages, usually according to the
Modern Language Association (MLA) format, since this is the format that is required of academic writing
in the discipline of English. For this online section of English 1A, students will have access to the MLA
format and guidance in how to use it, provided for them through external links as well as the guidelines in
“handouts” provided online by the Chabot College library. They will be given the assignments of
creating Works Cited page entries and posting them on Discussion Board for their peers and the instructor
to review, and correct as necessary. An advantage to this online instruction of research documentation is
that the number and variety of resources for learning MLA formatting will be greater than it generally is
when instructors depend on hard copy handouts and the limits of classroom time for students to work out
difficulties they are having.
Another key component of English 1A is the “writer’s workshop” environment in which students have the
opportunity to review and critique each others’ work. This will be facilitated by means of the “group”
feature of Blackboard, which enables students to post their work for review by pre-set, small writing
groups, and to post their responses to the work of others in their group. It is difficult online to duplicate
the advantages in the classroom of face-to-face peer responses to student writing, but an advantage
offered by the online version of this activity is that students are allowed more time to review and reflect
on their peers’ work, and to frame their responses to it. The “back and forth” dynamic of this activity in
face-to-face settings should not be underappreciated, however, and if it proves feasible, this course will
provide at least one opportunity for students to experience this during one of the scheduled face-to-face
meetings of the class.
As with onsite courses, weekly “attendance” will be required of the students in this online English 1A,
and monitored by the students’ participation in various activities that require them to post text online.
The nature of this participation will vary from week to week, mainly to accommodate the students’ needs
when they are working on their formal essays. For onsite 1A classes, students are generally required to
spend less time on writing assignments like journals while they are supposed to spending their homework
time writing their essays. The same will be true for this online version of the course. At minimum,
however, students will be required to submit two deadline-sensitive posts per week, and students failing
to do so will be contacted by the instructor via email or phone. Persistent failure to complete these
requirements will be treated like persistent absences, with the possible result of being dropped from the
class. The weekly activities, along with the other assigned work—completing reading assignments,
conducting research, writing formal essays—will be designed to require the nine hours per week that is
expected of students taking a 3 unit class. The activities will not be entirely “flat,” that is, requiring only
that students respond to a prompt provided by the instructor, but frequently “dynamic,” requiring students
to interact by responding to follow-up questions.
The reading and writing requirements of this online version of English 1A will duplicate the requirements
of onsite versions. Students will be required to write four full-length expository/argumentative essays and
to read two full length texts (the books about 300 pages each), as well as supporting material on the topics
of the books. Their midterm and final examinations will also require one essay response each.
4. Nature and Frequency of Student-Student Interactions

Describe opportunities in your course for student to student interaction. This may include
discussions, group projects, peer review of assignments, and other approaches.
The nature of peer review assignments is accounted for in the response to #3, above.
Threaded discussions will occur every week, and participation in them will be required. As described
above, students will be required not only to respond to the original prompts provided, but to respond to
postings of their classmates, in order to make “discussions” genuine. On most occasions responses will
need to be 100 words to be acceptable, so that a weekly minimum will be 200 words. Responses will
need to be longer on occasions when students are not working on their formal essays. The quality of the
student writing will also be considered: students will need to respond thoughtfully, making observations
beyond the obvious, and that reflect the reading and other discussions that have occasioned the discussion
prompts.
All peer reviews of the students’ essay writing will be required and also assessed for their quality,
determined by the insight and usefulness of a student’s response to another’s writing.
Beyond these formal requirements students will also have opportunities to carry on ancillary discussions
of topics of interest to them. These will occur in a Virtual Office provided on the Discussion Board and
on ad hoc boards that may be generated, devoted to topics that are popular enough to merit such a
structure (e.g., discussions of movies, music, television programs many students share an interest in, and
current events). This will be provided in order to approximate the classroom climate that students enjoy
when attending college onsite.
5. Assignments & Methods of Evaluation


List the criteria that will be used to substantiate student learning, and describe the methods of
evaluating student progress.
Describe planned interactions and evaluations to ensure participation and verification of student
learning that permit timely instructor intervention.
This online section of English 1A will have the same reading and writing requirements as onsite versions:
students will be required to read non-fiction essays and books, and they will produce a minimum of 8,000
words of essay writing of their own. At least one of the formal essays will require students’ original
research (of secondary sources). Student writing will be evaluated by means of peer review, and graded
by the instructor by the same standards as other sections of English 1A. Evaluated writing will include
not only the formal essays, but essay responses to questions in quizzes and tests. Typical criteria for the
evaluation of a formal essay include the following:
 Maturity of thought (going beyond the obvious)
 Clarity of expression
 Completeness of supporting evidence or argument
 Appropriateness of language (to accomplish rhetorical goals, e.g., the persuasion of a specified
audience)
 Adherence to conventions of sentence and paragraph writing
As with onsite offerings of English 1A, students will receive with each essay assignment the rubric by
which their writing will be evaluated. A student’s grade at the end of the term will not represent an
average of how the student has performed throughout the term, but rather reflect the level at which the
student is writing and reading consistently at the end of the term.
Students’ reading comprehension will be assessed by means of reviews of their discussions of reading
assignments and quizzes and tests.
6. Technology

Describe any special software or multimedia tools you plan to utilize in your course (Powerpoint,
Articulate, Camtasia, Flash, pod casts or other audio, etc.). This is helpful to determine
technology support needs.
Students will need a computer with an Internet connection, a web browser, and a word processing
program (ideally, a post-1997 version of MicroSoft Word). To address technical difficulties they
encounter, students will have the same access as other Chabot students have to assistance via the online
help services offered by the college; those who can get to the campus for this purpose can also consult
with staff in the computer lab in Room 3906 or the WRAC Center, or contact their instructor.
7. Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

Describe how you will accommodate students with disabilities. For a telecourse, is the video
close-captioned? If you plan to use any multimedia (video, podcasts, specialized software), is
that accessible to your students in terms of both software availability at home and on campus and
accessible for students with disabilities?
According to Blackboard.com, Blackboard is in compliance with all federal accessibility requirements.
For example, screen readers for the blind (such as JAWS) can be used with Blackboard, as can alt tags,
which convert images to text. Blackboard also offers training in its accessibility features to any teachers
who are using its products.
The syllabus will request that any students needing accommodations for disabilities contact their
instructor, and the instructor will make every possible effort to meet the needs of those students.
Input from Colleagues and Administrators
As you develop your proposal and build your course, please consult with your colleagues and do some
background research, including the following?
_Meet with Instructional Designer for initial consultation and Blackboard training.
Date(s) completed:
_ Review of similar courses elsewhere. Are similar courses offered at other colleges? If so, note the
college(s).
_ Meet with your Division Dean and subdivision colleagues to secure preliminary support for offering
this course via Distance Education. Date completed:
_ Consult with other faculty experienced in DE. With whom did you consult?
_______________________. Date completed:
_ Review your completed plan with your subdivision colleagues. Attach a separate page listing attendees,
meeting date, and a summary of the recommendations or reservations of your division/subdivision.
9. Submit your proposal (electronic version via email and hard copy via campus mail to the chair
of the DE Committee).
Faculty signature: __________________________________ Date: _____________________
Division Dean signature: _____________________________ Date: _____________________