Distance Learning Advisory Committee Meetings
Agenda / Minutes
Distance Learning Advisory Committee
Date of Agenda Posting: 11/26/2013
12/6/2013
Meeting Date:
2:00 PM
Meeting Start Time:
2:00 PM
Meeting Actual Start
Time:
Knight 0028
Meeting Location:
Beth Anish
Meeting Secretary :
Member Attendance
Committee Member Name
Title
Present
Jim Glickman
Elizabeth Morais
Bill Pellicio
David Alfano
Cindy Hansen
Sara Cichon
Jen Hurrell
Martha Vigneault
Tony Basilico
ENGL
Y
N
Y
Y
N
N
Y
N
Y
Francine Luizzi Bench
Marla Wallace
LANG
HMNS
PSYC
BIOL
OFTD
Rehab
REHAB
COMI
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Dean Maureen McGarry
Becky Sheldon
MaryAdele Combe
Beth Anish
Karen Allen
Ben Leveillee
Helen Ducharme
Allied Health--Dental
Library
DL Coordinator
Assessment Coordinator
Academic Affairs
Coordinator
Dean HARS
IT
IT
ENGL
COMI
IT
Disabsility Services
Jude Tomasino
OES
Y
Guest: Cathy Tessier
OES
Maggie Burke
Jeanne Mullaney
Donna Mesolella
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Notes
Agenda
Agenda Item 1
 Approval of last meeting's
minutes
Agenda Item 2
 Enrollment Services/Verification
of Enrollment
Notes on Discussion
Tony B motioned to approve; Jeanne M seconded.
Minutes from 10/30 approved.
Notes on Discussion
Verification of attendance poses a problem for the
online students. Problem for them to come into
campus to fill out form if they are dropped. Can
we have them do something online? Cathy
Tessier from Enrollment Services said : we will
have to think what the alternate process would be
and ask questions of the Bursar. Could it be as
simple as them sending form back to instructor
electronically (perhaps by scan or fax with
signature)? Instructor would have to get form
back to OES. Perhaps it can be done in same way
as we electronically do an override. MaryAdele
asked: is this a FERPA issue? Should it be done
through Banner vs. e-mail? Cathy T said no
because it is only directory information on the
form. She will look into the financial piece of
handling VoE the way we do electronic overrides.
Another OES issue: students don’t realize
sometimes that they are in hybrid courses. They
go by color code of the campus on course
schedule. Cathy T. said perhaps some sort of
note could be attached to registration, but color
coding is an IT issue. Becky S: IT can do anything
to schedule, but what will student notice?
Hybrid courses tied to the campus where the face
to face instruction happens on schedule. Becky:
we could look at other colleges and see how they
are differentiating these different types of courses
on their schedules. Karen A.: we could have a
pop up that stops students before they register for
hybrid. Becky will look into it.
Agenda Item 3
 Subcommittee for quality rubric
Notes on Discussion
Quality Matters is a lengthy process and costly. It
is voluntary. We could probably come up with
some way to ensure DL course quality as a
committee. Maggie asked if we would like a
subcommittee to work on this.
Currently our faculty are required to have training
on Learning Management System and complete
online pedagogy course.
Discussion moved to why DL is being asked to
come up with quality rubric when face-to-face
classes do not. Perhaps we need to ask
Academic Affairs what the reasoning is behind
asking this of DL. Jeanne M. suggested DL could be
leaders in considering course quality. Jen H.
mentioned skepticism of perceived quality of
online courses as possible reason we’re being
asked to do this. Maggie: another reason is DL
numbers for course completion are not as good as
face to face.
Jen H. talked about the Rehab dept.’s extensive
evaluation system. Rehab does faculty
development plans based on course evaluations.
Students also evaluate course on every objective
listed on syllabus.
We discussed the idea of duplicating efforts.
MaryAdele said QM has a great product. Tony
thought we are already doing the SRI online. Is
more necessary? We’re going to spend time and
money to do voluntary evaluations of courses that
are probably the best courses online anyway (the
thinking is those who will volunteer to have their
courses evaluated are probably the strongest
instructors anyway).
David A. says directive to assess quality should
come from Chairs. MaryAdele says from
VP—either way the thought is this should be
something that comes from above (rather than
from our committee).
Bill P.: this is a faculty development issue.
Karen: hard to base it all on student evaluations
when some students aren’t prepared for the
online course environment. Discussion was then
around how we ensure that students are
computer proficient enough to successfully take
online courses. Marla W. suggested an interactive
“are online courses right for you?” form, where
students have to download a file, etc. Bill
suggested having student mentors.
Maggie: online student support module will be
piloted for Computer Studies in 2014, possibly
with students serving as mentors for other
students. The format for the module has not
been determined yet. This will provide help with
Blackboard, Pearson products for Computer
Studies.
Jen H. suggested a video with former DL students:
what did it take to be successful online, share tips,
etc. MaryAdele concurs: have orientation
module uploaded into every course (for instructors
who want it). David A. does a required
face-to-face orientation for his courses (1.5 hours
at beginning of semester).
Maggie: Would anyone like to work on this
subcommittee on quality assurance in DL courses?
MaryAdele, Jeanne, Maggie, Bill, and Jen
volunteered.
Agenda Item 4
 New DL for Students Website
Notes on Discussion
Survey completed by 13 students who visited the
page. They are looking for orientation materials
(1/3 of them): how online learning works at CCRI;
they are also looking to enroll in online courses.
Maggie showed a template of what website will be
like: simplified menu, three main options
highlighted: orientation materials, enrolling in
online courses, support services (how to get to
library, etc.). What we still need is a Frequently
Asked Questions page. Volunteers for
subcommittee? Maggie has already pulled FAQ’s
off of other DL websites of colleges in the region.
Beth, Marla and Karen volunteered to work on
FAQ’s. MaryAdele will also ask Yan Huang (who
fields Blackboard helpdesk questions), if he wants
to join this subcommittee.
Agenda Item 5
- Code of Conduct for Online Courses
Agenda Item 6
- SRI Instruments for DL and Hybrid Courses
Notes on Discussion
Code of Conduct is spelled out in student
handbook for the college as a whole, but we need
to look at it and see how it applies to DL. Come
up with something to put into all of our courses,
reminder that Code of Conduct applies in DL
environment, including discussion board. Are
there any special issues that apply to DL? David
A. will serve on committee to look into this as
works on Student Discipline committee.
Michael Cunningham will work with David and
Maggie on this. Committee will work on
statement that all DL faculty could include in their
courses. MaryAdele: appropriate use of
technology is also involved in this and covers
electronic communications; she will serve as a
resource to this committee. Include in
recommendations: set it so students cannot delete
their own posts.
Notes on Discussion
Committee to revisit the DL SRI, come up with
recommendations for both DL and hybrid form.
We don’t have a hybrid form at all, and we
decided in the spring that DL one could be
improved. David A., Tony and Maggie will work
on this committee. Maggie will ask Jeanne if
she also wants to serve. Peter Woodberry would
have to evaluate SRI; Maggie told Peter we would
be happy to go through validation process if we
could get a new instrument.
New online version of SRI is customizable up to a
certain number of questions. We can’t remove
questions. We shouldn’t have more than 20
questions. In creating new form, we should try
to eliminate redundant questions and add custom
questions to get at whether course met objectives
(suggestion is to either customize by course or by
department).
Agenda Item 7
- Request for Accommodations form
Notes on Discussion
It would violate FERPA to send accommodations
form through e-mail, so could we put it on
MyCCRI? That page would only be accessible by
the student, the Disability Svcs person, and the
faculty member involved. Faculty would need to
be able to edit accommodations as necessary.
Helen: we would have to somehow guarantee the
student’s confidentiality. Space Mountain is
note/comment software used by DSS office, a
subset of Banner; perhaps we could use this.
Becky: will look into Banner’s possibilities around
this issue.
Agenda Item 8
- Governance as Relates to DL
Agenda Item 9
- Reviewing Research Articles
Notes on Discussion
Is there a way to get people back on the
committee whom we lost, who were working on
sub-committee projects or were active members?
We don’t have representatives from Business,
Nursing, etc. Donna M: they are elected
positions. Some divisions maxed out on number
of members they can have. Maggie will send an
e-mail to people to see if they want to come back
for subcommittee work. MaryAdele: anyone can
come to meetings; they just can’t vote. Maggie:
governance will be reevaluated in the Spring.
Can we form subcommittee to get our voices
heard on concerns over how governance
committees are formed? Jim G, MaryAdele and
possibly Jeanne will be on this subcommittee
(Maggie will ask Jeanne); will gather people’s
impressions on what works and what might need
to be changed.
Notes on Discussion
Suggestion of Dean McGarry that we stay up on
current research in DL. We could do it as a
reading club. People could volunteer to read
articles and report back to full committee. Ben
would like to be involved in this or take a lead on
it. He could put materials on a WordPress site,
research and popular articles on DL. Others
could contribute. David A. will ask Ray Kilduff,
who has researched this recently. Does this
overlap with Faculty Forum? DL committee
members could take turns posting on Faculty
Forum and starting discussion there. Dean
McGarry: we are hybrid by meeting in person, too.
We could discuss these at our meetings in person.
Maggie: if you see something related to DL you
would like to share, post it on Forum. Write to
Maggie if you would like to do an article for the
next meetings (February, April).
Meeting Action Items
Action
Assigned To
Ask VP Lamontagne what quality
issues are of concern to
administration? Would our
recommendation have support
at institutional level?
Create FAQ for new DL student
website
Ask Yan if he wants to join FAQ
subcommittee
Bring IT related issues to ATAC
on Friday
Look into Banner’s options for
Verification of Enrollment form
and for coding Hybrid courses
(pending approval by ATAC)
Ask Jeanne M. if she would like
to be on SRI and governance
committees
Write to Maggie if you would like
to read and report on a DL article
for next semester’s meetings
(February, April)
Maggie
Subcommittee (Beth, Marla,
Karen and possibly Yan from IT)
MaryAdele
Maggie
Becky
Maggie
Anyone interested
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