Provost’s Task Force – January 5, 2011
Present: C Carter, M Hallett, M Jaffee, M Kucsak, E Largo-Wight, J Michelman, K Paulsen, R Powell, L
Roberson, M Workman
Mark reminded the group that we have been invited to present to the Board of Trustees at its 1/18
meeting. The presentation times will be 2-3 and 3:15-4. We expect these presentations to be about
distance learning, technology, course redesign.
Erin presented an overview of her online undergraduate course which has been recently approved as a
general education course offering. This course typically has 4-5 sections face-to-face and 2 sections
online. Each section has about 40 students enrolled. Erin discussed her four modules and indicated she
uses a mix of publisher created materials as well as her self-developed materials for this course.
Jeff also presented his online course and walked us through the varied tools and resources he uses with
his students. He indicated that online education should be thought of programmatically and not be
developed ad-hoc. He also stressed how developing an online course has changed the way he teaches;
online teaching requires one to be organized; he develops materials using a “chunking” method; he has
developed multiple types of assessment.
Michael questioned what the Library’s role should be in facilitating student research in distance
learning courses. The group believes that integrating the Library into online courses and documentation
that the Library could provide to students would be very beneficial.
Regarding the BOT presentation – Mark believes we should begin with Mick giving an introduction of the
broader aspects of distance learning and then we could follow with specific examples of courses much
the same as we did in the meeting with Erin and Jeff.
Jeff raised the problem of how we approach this conversation with the BOT who have very little
knowledge or background in distance learning; how do we balance the macro and micro level?
Mark suggested that this was our opportunity to develop an agenda and our pursuit to support a broad
range of models. We will need to be explicit about how we don’t’ yet have an inventory of these
different strategies but that know our priorities: student learning (first) closely followed by costeffectiveness. He agreed that the BOT doesn’t have the background on distance learning but for that
same reason they would not presume to dictate how the curriculum should be redesigned. On the
contrary, it is our responsibility to demonstrate that what we are doing is thoughtful, purposeful, and
strategic.
The group then discussed the NCAT conference and possible spring retreat with an invitation to
someone affiliated with NCAT such as Carolyn Jarmon. Mick thought she would be a good choice as he
has seen her presentations and believes she would be a good match for a UNF administrative retreat.
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, 1/12 at 3:00 in the AACR so that we might prepare for
the BOT meeting on 1/18. Marianne will distribute Mick’s draft of his presentation/overview.