WebCollege Faculty Advisory Committee
M E E T I N G M I N U T E S - 1 0 / 1 2 / 2 0 1 2
In Attendance: Crystal Swank, Thomas Kearns, Norma Valasquez-Bryant, Travis Souza, Paul Davis, Diana McCoy, Craig
Rodrigue, Robin Griffin, Cindy Mortensen, Julie Armbrecht, Fred Lokken, Brandy Scarnati, and Ellen House.
Quorum present:
1.
September 21, 2012 minutes - reviewed and approved
2.
WebCollege Report/Update – the WC Report was distributed to the committee with the agenda for the meeting. The committee discussed the following issues:
• Quality Matters – Will the QM Training be offered again? Cathy House indicated it would be offered again in the spring 2013 semester. Fred plans to request funding to support QM from the new RAP process. It needs to be a
“major project” and should have a permanent line item in the budget. (Technology requests now go through the RAP as well.) DE fees may be moving forward and would also be in the RAP. The DE fee would be $10 and could also be used to fund QM. The NFA contract may also be modified to include QM work and/or a stipend. If there is a statewide consortium on QM, there needs to be equity in compensation.
• Evaluation of Online Faculty – The NFA contract says the WC will develop an evaluation for online faculty. The standards will be used as criteria. This needs to be done in a positive way.
3.
Old Business
Project Retention – Fred shared the 2009 WC Retention Strategies document (see attached) and discussed – what’s missing? The WC must match the traditional retention rate by 2015. Fred thinks we can surpass it! Current status:
Not many faculty know what their retention rates are. Web classes are consistently 8% behind. The campus rate is
71%, the DE rate is in the upper 60% and has gone down. TMCC’s DE retention rate is lower than other community colleges in our system. Ideas to address the low retention rates in DE include those already seen as national best practice: QM, required orientation, student readiness, students register but don’t complete the work, need early engagement, lack of student informed consent, aggressive administrative withdrawal policy, faculty must nag students to participate or drop. The WC needs to develop a plan, get buy in but lacks the staff and resources to do this at this time. TMCC also needs to have a solid policy that solves the problem with withdrawals – lock course and only allow adds with instructor permission, add/drop only on Mon and Tues of the first week for all online students. Faculty can add student consent document to syllabus and/or to student agreement online. This would be a good tip to include in communicating with online faculty.
Questions:
Will DE fee generate enough funds to support the plan? Yes, if funding by BoR and not a tech fee.
How realistic is it that we will be able to enforce the standards and student informed consent? The committee saw the new printed version of these documents and how they were being used. They are in hard copy in the WC office, could include in trainings for new faculty, could distribute during faculty meetings. Has the WC communicated that these new print versions are available?
Page 1 of 2; Meeting Minutes - 10/14/2009 Rev.: 1/7/2013
TMCC is an EEO/AA (equal opportunity/affirmative action) institution and does not discriminate on the basis of sex, age, race, color, religion, disability, national origin or sexual orientation in the programs or activities which it operates.

• Engage faculty with regular communication and tips. Suggestions: e-newsletter, blog, email blast, resources on the web in Canvas. Include tips for best practice, how to improve course design, QM, etc. Look at collaboration with other faculty at other institutions (ask Bill Dougherty about this?). Is there a DE Coordinator at sister institutions. o
Do a day-long conference with all colleges? o
Tie strategies to retention data and assessment of online courses o
Spring Awards for Online Faculty – “e-Lizzies” (for the TMCC lizard mascot) o
Include national best practice, ITC o
Identify QM Mentors who could support new faculty in online classes, and evaluate other courses o
Develop video clips that could be distributed to students and faculty
• Crystal reminded the committee that she will be on sabbatical in the spring semester and that someone else will need to chair the committee.
The Committee adjourned at 12:05 pm. The next meeting will be on November 9, 2012. Meeting dates for the rest of the year are listed on the agenda.
Respectfully Submitted,
Crystal Swank, Chair
Page 2 of 2; Meeting Minutes - 10/14/2009 Rev.: 1/7/2013
TMCC is an EEO/AA (equal opportunity/affirmative action) institution and does not discriminate on the basis of sex, age, race, color, religion, disability, national origin or sexual orientation in the programs or activities which it operates.