WebCollege Faculty Advisory Committee
MEETING MINUTES - 09/21/2012
In Attendance: Crystal Swank, Thomas Kearns, Travis Souza, Bronwen Haugland, Paul Davis, Diana McCoy, Craig
Rodrigue, Robin Griffin, Cindy Mortensen, Julie Armbrecht, and Bill Gallegos
Quorum present:
1. Introductions were made – welcome to new committee members!
2. May 11, 2012 minutes - reviewed and approved
3. WebCollege Update (reported by Travis Souza)
• Canvas Migration is about 1/3 complete. There are 2300 students and 300 courses in Canvas so far. Brandy
continues to do faculty training. The goal is for all courses to have some component in Canvas, even as an assist. The
committee expressed concern about the level of staff support that could be provided if that goal is achieved. Two
new resources have been added to Canvas – Smarthinking and NBC Learning Video Library.
• Quality Matters – Cathy House is nearly finished with peer review and is a Team Lead. She is doing some in-house
training with the goal of having some TMCC faculty become peer reviewers.
• The DE Consultants (Katz) were on campus this week and met with faculty and administrators to gather information
about DE at TMCC. WC staff, Crystal Swank, and Thomas Kearns met with the consultants. Issues that were
discussed included the need for additional WC staff, other resource needs, DE fees to support the needs, the concern
that we NOT outsource DE to a third party, and accessibility issues. There are discussions about a possible NSHE
virtual campus, as well as other opportunities to share and collaborate on DE. The consultant’s report is likely going
to be made to the BOR in December. Faculty presence at that meeting may be helpful.
• Shared Online Classes – Travis reported that it may be possible to have shared instances of courses in Canvas and he
is doing some exploring around this issue. The committee had questions about the enrollment and student support
services. Courses may be cross listed between two campuses, but the students’ services and support would need to
remain with the students’ home campus.
• Committee members asked about the WC summer institute, which focused on the summer pilot courses in Canvas.
They also asked for additional opportunities to meet and share ideas, make suggestions for improvements, etc.
• Travis reported that there was a “data breech” in Canvas (not due to anything TMCC did, responsibility was with
Canvas), which resulted in students having instructor rights for a period of time. There were a few instances of
students accessing information that they should not have had, including grades. This was corrected and reported to
our system administrators.
4. Old Business
• Accessibility Work Group – Tom will take the lead on this group and will form a smaller group to begin developing
training on accessibility and ADA for faculty. The idea is to create a self-paced Canvas course with modules that could
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.
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be completed by faculty as part of professional development. The group will work with Brandy to make sure
accessibility issues are included in the ongoing training, and also with the QM work that is under way.
The Student Informed Consent form was embedded in the myTMCC system so that students registering for any DE
class had to click they agreed to it (electronically) before moving forward with registration. It can also be embedded
in courses online by faculty. This process may change next semester so it appears when they log in to the classes as
well.
The Instructor Standards are now official policy. Only one email went out to faculty regarding this and the committee
expressed the need to communicate this more clearly/often to be sure faculty understand they are responsible for
the standards. As far as “enforcement” is concerned, it is being used if there are any complaints or concerns about
faculty not following parts of the policy (such as lack of communication). The committee suggested that faculty
should be asked to “sign off” on these policies, just like students do, when they agree to teach an online class. The
committee further recommended that faculty have more focused training/professional development around how to
comply with the standards (can also be part of communication mentioned below). This relates to the QM goals as
well.
FastTrack – no report
Student Readiness Assessment – no report
5. New Business
• MOOCs were briefly discussed, with a focus on needing more information about this trend and how it might impact
TMCC. The committee acknowledged the connection between the MOOCs and the DE Consultants report back to the
BOR, and encouraged faculty to stay alert to this issue.
• Communication – the committee discussed the desire to have more frequent communication with DE faculty,
especially including best practice, research findings, examples of quality course design, etc. Crystal will discuss this
further with the DE staff. Travis suggested we do a survey of DE faculty to find out what they would like to receive
before proceeding.
• The WC has asked that the WCFAC focus on retention in online courses this year. In order to facilitate that goal, the
committee chair suggested that updates and reports be made via email summaries prior to the meeting so that the
committee can review the information; and that committee meeting time be spent working on the retention issue.
Committee members supported this idea. Crystal will contact the WC staff to facilitate this.
• The committee also asked for additional resources that could be shared with DE faculty. For example, what
conferences, newsletters, etc. are available? The Chair will also work with the WC staff to gather information and
forward to DE faculty. This might include Canvas, ITC, and others.
• 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 Oct.12th. 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.