College of the Redwoods
CURRICULUM PROPOSAL FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION COURSE
Date: 5/1/13
1. Division: Math, Science, and Engineering
2. Course ID and Number: GEOL 10
3. Course Title: Environmental Geology
SHORT TITLE (appears on student transcripts; limited to 30 characters, including spaces): Environmental Geology
4. Please select the distance education method that best describes how the course content will be delivered to most
students taking this class:
CTV
DE 52: One-way video and two-way interactive audio (delivered video and telephone)
ITV
DE 51: Simultaneous Interaction: Two-way interactive video and two-way interactive audio
Online
DE 71: Internet based - Simultaneous Interaction: Session under supervision of instructor not
available by line of sight using the Internet with immediate opportunity for exchange
between participants.
DE 72: Internet based - Delayed Interaction: Session under supervision of instructor not available by line of
sight using the Internet without the immediate involvement of the instructor.
Other
DE 53: Simultaneous Interaction: Two-way interactive audio only
DE 60: Text One Way
DE 70: Audio One Way
5. Attach course syllabus to this proposal.
6. What perceived need will this distance education course address?
At current time there are only two (2) science courses being offered online from RCCD: this
transfer-level area-B1 GE-approved course (GEOL-10) and a basic skills CHEM-100 (Prep for
General Chemistry).
This non-lab course, first approved for DE delivery in October 2008 and first delivered in Spring
2009, provides crucial access to students requiring a CSU/UC-transferrable GE-applicable nonlab physical science class. It is also applicable to the LA: Science Exploration Degree.
Online sections of this course have proven to be in high demand: at least one section (and
sometimes two sections) have been delivered each semester since its initial rollout with it being
full/closed/waitlisted virtually every semester.
7. Describe in detail how the course content will be delivered and how students will engage this content. Be sure
to describe the specific technologies and/or software to be used.
Course content is delivered asynchronously through the Learning Management System (LMS)
provided by RCCD (which at the time of this writing is a version of the open-source Sakai
platform called "MyCR"). Students are urged to have reliable broadband connections and
Curriculum Approval: 01.23.09
Academic Senate Approval: 03.04.09
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modern computers & operating systems to best navigate this (or any) LMS. Optional lecturecapture video content is linked from the LMS but provided within and closed-captioned by a
separate system (at the time of this writing it is McGraw-Hill's "Tegrity" system, which is also
provided by RCCD).
Materials provided to the students (e.g. syllabus, schedule, lecture documents, assignment
documents, and supporting documents) are posted in an ADA-compliant PDF format. Weekly
announcements are also sent via email to students, initiating each week's work. An extensive
"Lessons" section within the LMS guides students through every week's work, step by step.
Quizzes and exams also use the LMS; however, major exams are proctored (to ensure
authentication, as suggested by Dep't. of Education and ACCJC). Grades are stored within an
online gradebook and updated weekly. Students are urged to login several times per week; they
are also required to participate in weekly discussion forums throughout the semester covering
lecture content. Assessments include quizzes and exams, student posts to forums, a multi-part
research report assignment, and a presentation project, all of which utilize the LMS for
submission and presentation.
8. To illustrate the description in #7, describe what students in this course may do in a typical week of this course.
The coursework is modularized so that a new module is presented each week (or two
modules per week during an eight-week summer session). Every Monday morning the
instructor posts a "weekly kick-off" announcement, which is also sent to students via email.
That announcement introduces the week's work and reminds them to login & study the
'Lessons' area which contains specific step-by-step work for that week. This will almost
always include these student activities/assignments:
A) Reading assignment - Lecture document.
B) Reading assignment - Textbook.
C) Optional viewing of lecture-capture video. These videos are a voice-over recordings
generated solely for V sections of this class; each video presents a virtual, annotated
"lecture" using the lecture document and annotation tools (such as found within Adobe
Acrobat Pro, Microsoft OneNote, etc.). Every lecture document is broken into many small
logical parts, each of which is video-recorded separately for better assimilation than one long
video of an entire lecture document. Through a grant managed by the RCCD's DE
department, these lecture-capture videos are closed-captioned.
D) Active class discussion in that week's forum, in which students have a required minimum
number of posts and replies (as described in a "How to Participate in Forums" document
provided to them at the beginning of the semester).
E) End-of-week quiz to reinforce concepts.
F) Specific assignments within the sequence of the multi-part research report, and
presentation project.
9. Title V mandates “regular and effective” contact between DE students and the instructor. Describe the nature
and frequency of instructor-student interactions in this course.
Weekly discussion forum participation is an essential and required portion of the course; this
key element of the course is worth a substantial portion of the course grade (15% at the time of
this writing). Students are required to post a minimum of two posts during that week (can be two
new topics, or two replies to extant topics, or one of each) which are graded based on a rubric
explained in a document describing "best practices" for these forums. Student participation in
these forums has been robust, engaged, and very constructive. Students interact directly with
one another and with the instructor, who actively monitors and regularly engages in these
forums.
The instructor posts announcements every Monday morning (which are concurrently emailed to
students) encouraging participation. Students can engage the instructor directly either via the
"Questions for the Instructor" forum (ungraded/optional yet monitored closely) or via traditional
means (email or telephone). Instructor has a "regular effective contact" policy in place in the
Curriculum Approval: 01.23.09
Academic Senate Approval: 03.04.09
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syllabus which describes expectations of the instructor (students can expect an answer within 48
hours M-Th or within 72 hours F-Su).
A separate "Exam Review" forum (ungraded/optional yet monitored closely) is provided in
advance of every major exam; here, students can ask questions and receive answers from the
instructor and/or peers.
Instructor informs students of timeline for return of submitted materials (typically 7 calendar days
or less for major assignments and exams; 2 days for quizzes and forums) and posts/emails
announcements when such materials have been returned.
10. Describe the nature and frequency of student-student interactions in this course.
Each week, students are required to discuss lecture-relevant content in that week's
discussion forum by way of either generating a new discussion topic and/or replying to an
existing topic. Past and current practice and experience show that posting several important
instructor-generated topic threads each week elicits enormous amounts of student replies and
student-student interaction. Often, these weekly "ice-breaker" topics spawn substantial
additional new topics by students.
Students frequently expand upon what other students have stated previously, generating
authentic dialogue and meaningful discussion and debate. It is commonplace to observe
camaraderie developing rapidly between the students each semester as they become familiar
with one another and work together collegially in these forums.
A new (as of 2013) presentation project is also designed to elicit group discussion whereby
students' completed presentations are made available to other students in a forum designed for
this purpose. In this forum, students can view and discuss with others their thoughts about each
student's presentation.
11. Describe how you will identify and respond to students experiencing difficulty in this course.
Instructor actively monitors participation in forums and quizzes, notifying (via email) those
who have become non-participatory and encouraging them to re-engage.
Instructor provides thorough feedback on each midterm exam, and in a general announcement
about exam results encourages everyone whose grade fell below a stated threshold to contact
the instructor directly for private consultation and assistance. Past and current practice and
experience show that many "at-risk" students have benefitted directly from this approach.
Instructor actively works with students who initiate or follow up on such contact by allocating
time for phone meetings (or FTF meetings where possible and appropriate) to provide direct
assistance. Frequently, exam-taking skills/strategies are discussed.
Instructor can provide direct, private feedback in each forum (with a "private message" tool and
also with a forum grading tool) so that individuals can receive feedback best directed only to
them rather than to a group.
12. Will exam proctoring be required?
No
Yes
If yes, who will proctor exams? A detailed protocol, developed several years ago and reviewed
every semester, provides a method to serve two populations of GEOL-10-V students:
A) Those who can come to an LRC at any CR campus/site/center to take the exam; and
B) Those who are remote (unable to come to a CR site) and must obtain their own proctoring
services (from instructor-approved proctoring locations, such as libraries, testing centers,
etc.). A detailed document describing this process is provided to the students a few days
Curriculum Approval: 01.23.09
Academic Senate Approval: 03.04.09
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before the semester begins. The method has worked successfully for hundreds of GEOL-10-V
students the past 3 years, including one student who took exam #1 in China, exam #2 in
Indonesia, and the final exam in the Philippines. She reported to me that the procedure was
straightforward and manageable, despite logistical challenges apparent in such an extreme
situation. Many others - from other CA counties and also from other U.S. states - have also
navigated this process successfully.
13. Describe how assessments are used in this course to ensure that student work is evaluated effectively and
accurately.
Exams are developed and administered within the 'Tests & Quizzes' tool in the LMS. When
delivered, they are timed and are able to be given with alternative timing for those who have
presented DSPS 'extra-time' accommodations. As previously mentioned, at least one (and up to
all three) major exams are proctored, providing assurance of positive student authentication.
Instructor reviews every completed exam, and hand-grades every open-ended question (e.g.
essay questions). All assignments, quizzes and exams include detailed instructions and grading
rubrics to ensure that students understand the grading basis. Closed-ended, LMS-graded
questions (such as multiple-choice) include instructor-written feedback for both correct and
incorrect responses, allowing students to use these questions as an effective means of reviewing
for the comprehensive final exam.
All assignments have specified due dates. Some assignments are designed to receive student
submissions "inline"; the instructor then reviews student submissions while in the LMS,
providing grading and feedback within the LMS 'Assignments' tool. Other assignments are
designed to receive student submissions as attachments (e.g. document files); the instructor
downloads all student attachments after the due date, grades these offline, writes a
feedback/grading document (in the form of a scoring rubric) and saves it in the PDF format, then
uploads each student's grading/feedback PDF document to the LMS.
14. Describe the equipment and staff resources necessary to support the course for students and instructors.
The LMS platform and the video-capture platform used at the time of this writing ("MyCR" and
"Tegrity", respectively) are District-provided and district-supported.
15. Describe the contingency plan for this course if access to the delivery system is interrupted.
Short-term disruptions (a week or less) can be handled using RCCD's email system to keep
students informed; due dates can be adjusted, and PDF assignment, schedule, and lecture
documents can be emailed to students. Systemic LMS outages in excess of 7 days would
become increasingly problematic, yet past practice and experience in this LMS show that
technical glitches (while common) have been very short-term (hours, not days) and have been
addressed aggressively by the IT staff at CR and by the LMS host.
16. 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.
Curriculum Approval: 01.23.09
Academic Senate Approval: 03.04.09
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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.
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.
Yes No NA Requirement and Purpose
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.
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. 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: Mark Renner
Tel. Ext: 2340
Approvals:
Department Chair:
Dean, Distance Education MaryGrace McGovern
Division Chair/Director: Rachel Anderson
Date: 5/1/2013
Review Date:
Review Date: 5/1/13
Review Date: 5/1/13
CURRICULUM COMMITTEE USE ONLY
Approved by Curriculum Committee: No
Yes
Date: 05.10.13
Academic Senate Approval Date: 05.13.13
Board of Trustees Approval Date: 06.04.13
Curriculum Approval: 01.23.09
Academic Senate Approval: 03.04.09
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