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Motlow State Community College
Action Plan & Outcome Assessment Report for Institutional Effectiveness
Planning Year: July 1, 2014 – June 30, 2015
Assessing Year: July 1, 2013 – June 30, 2014
Unit: Social Sciences
Related Strategic Goal:
3.1 Monitor and improve the effectiveness of educational programs and services.
Action Plan #: SOSC-01
Action Plan Title: Social Sciences D2L Training
Desired Outcome: The Department of Social Sciences will comply with the college’s mission
of increasing the integrity of distance learning and promoting online success by completing all
necessary trainings. All (100%) Full-time Social Sciences Faculty members who are
developing a web/hybrid course, maintaining a web/hybrid course, or utilizing D2L to
facilitate instruction in a web/hybrid course will complete the appropriate D2L trainings. This
plan will go into effect during the 2013-2014 academic calendar year.
Description of Action Plan and Related Activities:
The Motlow College Strategic Plan 2010-2015 Access Priority 3.1 states that “Motlow State
Community College will monitor and improve the effectiveness of educational programs and
services.” In compliance with this goal, the Department of Social Science will complete all
D2L trainings deemed necessary by the college.
The Department of Social Sciences currently offers the following courses in online/hybrid
format:
1. PSYC 1030 General Psychology
2. PSYC 1040 Abnormal Psychology
3. PSYC 2014 Psychology of Human Sexuality
4. PSYC 2120 Social Psychology
5. PSYC 2130 Life Span Psychology
6. CRMJ 1010 Introduction to Criminal Justice
7. POLS 1030 American Government
8. CRMJ 2020 Introduction to Corrections
9. HIST 2010 Survey of American History I
10. HIST 2030 Tennessee History
11. HIST 2020 Survey of American History II
Team Members:
Social Sciences faculty who develop, maintain, or utilize D2L for online/hybrid courses.
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David Bowlby, Jared Bratten, Scott Cook, Lucy Craig, Dayron Deaton-Owens, Tabbatha
Edwards, Stephen Guerin, Pamela Harris, Heather Koller, John Selman, Bryan Thomas.
Timeline: 2013-2014 academic calendar year (implementation)
Est. Cost: $0 (unless travel funded)
Budgeted: Included in current budget
Evidence of Success: The Department Chair of Social Sciences will identify all Social Sciences
Faculty who develop, maintain, or utilize D2L for online/hybrid course instruction and notify
them of the required trainings. The Department Chair will then collaborate with the director
of the Center of Emphasis for Academic Technologies, Dr. Shelley McCoy, to confirm and
assess the participation rates. A percentage of faculty will be calculated to determine if we
met our goal of 100% participation.
Current Status: Completed
Describe Progress: The goal of training all (100%) full-time Social Sciences faculty who utilize
D2L in any manner was accomplished. Professor Moneda Grimes was omitted because she
does not utilize D2L for any aspect of instruction. New full-time temporary instructor, Jared
Bratten, has completed his training as well. His certificate is not included in the documented
evidence because the training was completed recently and his temporary teaching contract
has not officially started. The Department of Social Sciences has successfully contributed to
the college’s mission of increasing the integrity of distance learning and promoting online
success by completing all necessary trainings.
Fall 2013-Spring 2014
The current Institutional Effectiveness Plans (IEP) for the Social Sciences Department involves
proper Desire 2 Learn (D2L) training provided by a technological specialist. According to this
plan, all members of the Social Sciences Department who utilize D2L in any way must receive
annual training in one of the three categories: developer, maintainer, and refresher. The
developer title refers to an instructor who has agreed and been assigned to develop a D2L
course “from scratch.” Before the instructor begins the course development process, he or
she must complete an intense course developer training session. Other experienced course
developers from the program serve as mentors to the new developers. Once the course is
developed, the department chairperson completes a quality assurance survey in order to
ensure that the course is ready for publication and student enrollment. This course will serve
as the Master Copy for the developer and other instructors who may be called on to teach
the course. The maintainer title refers to an instructor who has developed a fully-online
course and teaches this course on a regular, semester-by-semester schedule. This training
involves keeping the course current for quality purposes as textbook adoptions, available
technologies, and educational/political initiatives change. This training ensures that any
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instructor, including the developer, using the Master Copy, will have an updated version of
the web course. Proper maintenance of online courses is key to online course quality. The
refresher title refers to any instructor who uses any aspect of online learning to facilitate
learning in that particular course. In the future, the department plans to require that all
instructors, even those who do not teach fully-online courses, receive refresher training,
demonstrating the department’s effort to meet student demand and educational/political
initiatives.
Describe Needed Changes: The desired outcome was achieved and no changes are
necessary.
List of Supporting Documentation:
PDf scanned file containing all D2L certificates of completion.
Date Last Updated: 6/15/2014