College of the Redwoods
CURRICULUM PROPOSAL FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION COURSE
Date: 3/11/14
1. Division: Career and Technical Education
2. Course ID and Number: BT 53A
3. Course Title: Beginning Technical and Professional Office Procedures
4. Please select the distance education method that describes how the course content will be delivered:
Online-internet based - Delayed Interaction: Students and instructor interactions are not
simultaneous, but are delayed or distributed over time.
Online-internet based - Simultaneous Interaction: Students and instructor interactions are
simultaneous, with immediate opportunity for exchange among participants.
Hybrid online-internet/classroom based: Students and instructor interactions are both classroom
and internet based, with classroom time reduced and replaced by required online participation.
5. What perceived need will this distance education course address?
This course will provide professional office skills in the following areas:
1. Records management and retention.
2. Effective, professional written and verbal communication.
3. Prioritization and time management.
4. Beginning to intermediate computer skills for the office environment.
5. Customer service skills.
6. Will approval of this course offer a certificate or degree program with 50% or more of its curriculum delivered
by distance education?
Yes
a. If yes, has this certificate or degree program been approved by the Curriculum Committee for 50% or
more delivery by distance education?
Programs approved by the ACCJC
7. Describe in detail how the course design will ensure Regular Effective Contact (refer to Regular Effective
Contact Policy) and include:
b. Threaded Discussion Forums (or equivalent)
c. Weekly Announcements (or equivalent)
d. Instructor-Prepared Materials (e.g., text-based, video &/or audio files) in addition to publisher-created
materials to create a virtual equivalent of the face-to-face class.
Weekly interactive class participation will be required. This is accomplished either by threaded discussion
forums or group projects, depending on the week. Each week, the instructor will post either a discussion
forum assignment or a group project agenda with problems to solve within their assigned team of peers
(generally 3 to 5 students per team). Students must review visual lecture and other support materials
individually and respond in the discussions by specified dates. The instructor may reply to the student's
discussion posts by answering questions, asking additional questions, and clarifying information. The
instructor also provides a "general questions" forum where students can post questions they have about
the course or specific assignments. These general forum questions may be answered by other students in
the course or the instructor. The instructor will prompt students to stay on task and on time by using the
Curriculum Approval: 03.14.14
Academic Senate Approval: 04.04.14
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calendar tool, regular announcements, messages and email. Students may send the instructor messages
and/or emails concerning questions about the course and expect a prompt response at any time during the
course. In addition, the instructor may hold a "virtual" office hour using synchronous communication
technology such as CCC Confer or Skype. Students will receive feedback and earn grading points from
assignments, team participation on group projects, online activities, quizzes, and exams.
8. To illustrate the description in #7, describe what students in this course will do in a typical week of this course.
Login to the CLE tor review Weekly Assignments.
Read chapter assignment instructions and study assigned material from text.
Study instructor assigned visual lecture.
Research/review material from third-party websites identified in Weekly Assignments.
Post discussion forum messages, engaging with instructor and class colleagues as assigned.
Review assignment instructions.Review supporting assignment media (i.e. web-based video, articles,
research web-sites).
Review feedback from instructor and class colleagues on discussion posts.
Reply to Discussion Forum messages describing personal viewpoint or perspective on assigned topic,
sharing new knowledge gained from further research and/or reading since their original message.
Complete and submit assignments via the CLE assignment submission portal link.
Review instructor feedback from previous week assignments.
9. What is the course “statement of expectations” to be included in the syllabus for instructor frequency and
timeliness of instructor-initiated contact and student feedback? (refer to Regular Effective Contact Policy)
Discussion forums, assignments, quizzes, and exams are graded promptly. The instructor will make detailed
comments regarding the score achieved and will refer the student to the materials provided that were
pertinent to the discussion forum, assignment or quiz. Detailed grade rubrics are used so students can see
specifically where they have strengths and weaknesses in their submitted work. Students who send a
message or an email or post a question in the "General Questions" discussion forum are responded to
usually within 24 hours or less. As the instructor reviews discussion forum postings, they can quickly assess
whether the student is struggling with the topic(s) being discussed based upon their responses. The
instructor can respond in the discussion forum and further prompt the student to re-read the appropriate
material. Also, the instructor can have a more private conversation with the student by sending them a
private message. Quiz scores are reviewed by the instructor. Those students with scores that fall below
average or are significantly lower than any previous exam score, are notified via message, email, or phone.
Exam taking skills can be reviewed. A periodic review of course grades is done to determine who is slipping.
Those students are then notified using the message and email system. Help is offered via an exchange of
emails, a telephone conversation, a synchronous online communication, or meeting face-to-face. Students
who are not participating through the weekly discussion forums or assignments are notified using the
message and email system or contacted via phone.
10. How is this course designed to address Student Authenticity? Preventive measures may include: multiple
assessment techniques, written assignments, threaded discussions, exams based on randomly drawn test
bank items, timed exams, and raising student awareness of the College’s Code of Conduct.
This course includes multiple assessment techniques including, project based learning, essay exams,
written assignments, threaded discussions and multiple choice exams that are randomly drawn from a test
bank. The College's Code of Conduct is addressed in the course syllabus. Additionally, anti-plagiarism
resources are used in grading.
11. This course will have proctored exams. (refer to College Proctoring Policy)
No
Yes
Optional
Curriculum Approval: 03.14.14
Academic Senate Approval: 04.04.14
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12. Describe how assessments are used in this course to ensure that the student work is evaluated effectively,
accurately, and in a timely manner.
Detailed assignments and quizzes are developed by the instructor and administered by the appropriate CLE
tool. Students submit their completed assignments, quizzes and exams to the appropriate CLE page and the
instructor downloads these submissions for grading. When the assignment is a group submission, each
student's participation level and specific project tasks are tracked through pre-submissions. Assignments
have due dates for completion. The instructor provides feedback to the student and student teams through
the appropriate assignment page and will often times return student work with embedded comments,
grammatical, and formatting corrections. All assignments, quizzes and exams will include detailed
instructions and detailed grading rubrics so students will know what is expected for successful completion
of course assessments.
13. Describe the contingency plan for this course if there is an unexpected instructor absence (refer to Regular
Effective Contact Policy).
Short term disruptions of less than a week or two can be handled using College of the Redwood's email
system or adjustments in due dates. Longer term disruptions over 2 weeks would be problematic and may
require a substitute instructor.
14. Both state and federal law require community colleges to design courses to ensure access for students with
disabilities, including compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Please indicate the steps taken to
ensure accessibility by checking the Yes, No, or NA boxes below. For further assistance with accessibility and
assistive technology, please contact DSP&S.
Yes No NA Requirement and Purpose
1. The course delivery provides a text equivalent for all non-text elements such as
images, animations, applets, audio/video files and art. This will enable a screen reader
to read the text equivalent to a blind student.
2. The course delivery provides descriptions for important graphics if they are not fully
described through alternative text or in a document’s content. The description would
inform a blind student of what a picture represented.
3. The course delivery ensures that information conveyed by the use of color is also
understandable without color. For example, so a blind or color-blind student could
understand a color-coded representation of DNA.
4. The course delivery provides textual equivalents to audio information (captioning).
The text will enable deaf students to know what others are hearing.
5. The course delivery provides an alternative audio description for multimedia
presentations. The sound will enable blind students to know what others are seeing.
6. The course delivery ensures that moving, blinking, scrolling, or auto-updating objects
or pages may be paused or frozen. The movement can be distracting for students with
certain disabilities.
Yes No NA Requirement and Purpose
7. If using faculty web site vs. college provided course management system, the web
site identifies, by labeling or other appropriate means, row and column headers. The
identification will enable screen readers to discern the headers, which disclose the
purpose of the data in the rows and columns.
8. If using faculty web site vs. college provided course management system, the web
site provides title frames and includes sufficient information as to their purpose and
relationship to each other. This will help blind students understand the organizational
purpose of the frame.
Curriculum Approval: 03.14.14
Academic Senate Approval: 04.04.14
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9. If using faculty web site vs. college provided course management system, the
instructor has ensured, through HiSoftware’s “Cynthia Says”
http://www.cynthiasays.com/ or other appropriate verification, the usability of
pages, and will attach to this proposal evaluation printouts of Section 508 and
WCAG—Priority 1 compliance.
10. If interactive software for homework/instruction is used, the company has provided a
current 508 statement of compliance ensuring accessibility to students needing the
use of a screen reader. This ensures that publisher provided programs to supplement
or augment textbooks are as accessible as the class website.
11. My course syllabus recommends that students who require accommodations for a
disability, such as accessible formatting of course materials, contact me immediately.
Example: “In compliance with equal access laws, I am available to discuss appropriate
academic accommodations that you may require as a student with a disability.
Students are encouraged to contact Disabled Students Programs and Services (DSP&S)
for disability verification and for determination of reasonable academic
accommodations.”
Submitted by: Barbara Jaffari
Tel. Ext: 4328
Approvals:
Distance Education Faculty Appointee Mark Winter
Division Dean or Director: Marla Gleave
Date: March 11, 2014
Review Date: 12/5/14
Review Date: 12.18.14
CURRICULUM COMMITTEE USE ONLY
Approved by Curriculum Committee: No
Academic Senate Approval Date: 02.06.15
Curriculum Approval: 03.14.14
Academic Senate Approval: 04.04.14
Yes
Date: 01.23.15
Board of Trustees Approval Date: 03.03.15
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