SDCCD Online Learning Pathways Steering Committee
Minutes for
Monday, November 13, 2006
12:00pm-1:00pm
Miramar College, W-248
Attendees:
Andrea Henne, Henry Ingle, Mary Kingsley, Pete Miles, Susan Schwarz, Roger Gee, Jim Wales, Gwyn
Enright, Mary Meiners, Rose Lamurglia, Mary Lewis, Sandra Pesce, Joe Mc Gerald, Wahid Hamidy, Hank
Beaver, and Karen Owen
Minutes
The minutes for the October 16, 2006 SDCCD Online Learning Pathways Steering Committee meeting
were reviewed for approval. Jim Wales noted an omission in the minutes regarding possible annual growth
goal setting by colleges in number of courses offered online. Jim will provide wording to be added to
minutes. Aside forthcoming addition, Joe McGerald moved to approve the minutes, Pete Miles seconded.
Minutes can be accessed at www.sdccdonline.net/handbook.
Updates:
Online Faculty Mentors
Andrea continues to meet with campus mentors to discuss goals, successes, challenges, and strategies.
Rose reports regular attendance at her workshops offered twice weekly at City College. Workshops are
held Thursdays and Fridays from 10:00am-12:00pm and cover a range of topics spanning 12 weeks of the
Fall semester. Online and on-campus instructors are encouraged to attend workshops. Rose has also
planned upcoming workshops for Prospective Online Faculty, Pedagogy of Online Instruction, and Issues
Affecting Experienced Instructors Teaching Online. Wahid reports that he has been most successful
working one-on-one with Miramar faculty. Wahid has held two workshops for Prospective Online faculty
in October and plans to hold workshops on the Pedagogy of Online Instruction November 17. Wahid
advertises his workshops on Flex calendars, by email, and by campus flyers. Although the workshops have
been successful, Wahid has received feedback that the one-to-one sessions are most desired due to
scheduling difficulties. Hank has been conducting panel workshops to entice prospective online faculty.
These workshops have been both well received and attended. At request these workshops will continue
throughout the Fall semester. This Friday Hank will be hosting a training/brownbag session following the
Breeze workshop. Hank will discuss methods of choosing quality e-packs for course delivery. Hank also
provides a First Steps workshops which strive to peak the interest of on-campus instructors into using
WebCT to post syllabus, discussion, or quiz tools. Pete encourages these workshops recognizing that they
provide a gradual step into the newer technologies. Hank reports a slight decrease in interest for WebCT
training and notes a possible cause may be the shift from CE to Vista. Pete adds that another reason may
be the lack of downtime for instructors with the addition of both intersession and early summer sessions.
Continuing Education
Joe McGerald reports the Continuing Education is shifting interests towards online and online enhanced
courses, citing success in the past with online offerings. Valerie Edinger plans to start offering online
courses in Spring of 2007; Joe and Karen McDonald will both offer courses starting in March. Joe also
reports that the counseling department is interested in what Horizon Wimba can bring to online. Vista 4
student tracking reports will help offerings with the need for stringent attendance regulations. The plan will
be to have a mandatory on-campus orientation where students will register and login to the course; this will
exclude non-eligible non-California residents from attending. Andrea notes that auto-population would not
presently take place for Continuing Education courses as Continuing Education students are not issued
CSIDs and recommended that CE collaborate to develop a semi-automated system or at least a standard
login protocol for CE students. Andrea will also need to work with IT and Helpdesk to assure that
Continuing Education faculty and students are well served. Joe would like to see evening trainings for
instructors as most would not be able to attend 8-5 trainings.
Library Shelf for Teaching Online
Andrea is scheduling meetings at each college library to establish resources for online faculty. Andrea will
assess resource needs, provide material resources and announce when ready.
Course Information Template Revised
Currently the website provides students access to Course Information Page authored by individual
instructors. Intersession 2007 information pages have been built and are ready for posting. The original
template has been modified to include course delivery mode.
24/7/365 Helpdesk
Work has continued towards launching the Online Learning Pathways student and faculty Helpdesk. The
helpdesk service must be operational by Intersession. This will be a major topic of discussion at the next
Steering Committee Meeting held via Horizon Wimba in December.
New Position – Contract Instructional Design Coordinator
Andrea met with Hays Analyst and position has been posted. Deadline for application submittal is
December 5. This position is even more crucial with the addition of hybrid and Continuing Education
courses being added to our responsibilities. Interviews will be held early next year with position start date
in Spring. Annual cost ~$76k. A position of Digital Media Specialists may be pursued in the future..
2007 Online Showcase & Expo Planning
The planning team for the 2007 Online Showcase and Exposition will hold its kickoff meeting immediately
following today’s Steering Committee meeting. Andrea asked for volunteers to serve. The team’s next
meeting will be held in January.
Vista 4 Pilot Project Status Report
Pete provided the group with a handout delineating progress and plans for Vista 4 trainings throughout the
Spring. Current goal is to train up to 190 faculty from October 2006 to August 2007 which could represent
over 400 courses being offered through Vista 4 in Fall 2007. Instructors from each College and
Continuing Education are participating in training groups 1-3 and will have completed training by
December. All courses running in Vista for Spring 2007 must be ready by December as the Vista server
will be down for maintenance in January. Maintenance will start January 1 and be completed by January
15. Vista server maintenance will have no impact on Campus Edition courses. Instructors wishing course
shells in Vista 4 must note such in the comments section of the Course Shell Request form.
Faculty FAQ’s
Faculty FAQs can be found on our website at http://www.sdccdonline.net/faculty/faqs.htm. Information on
frequently asked questions will help load our Helpdesk knowledge base. Andrea asked the group to please
review at their convenience and provide feedback directly to her.
League for Innovations CIT Conference Highlights
Andrea represented SDCCD Online Learning Pathways at the October 22-25 League for Innovations CIT
Conference held in Charlotte, North Carolina. Information regarding the League and the conference can be
located at http://www.league.org/2006cit/ . Andrea provided handouts of articles she received at
conference. She shared information of the many resources currently available to students. Andrea shared
information on the possibilities of technology-driven enhancements that were demonstrated and presented
at conference; futuristic 3-d holograms, security for online tests and exams with video and audio. HT
shared of the new wave of Virtual vendors he had witnessed when recently visiting the College Board
Conference.
Macromedia Breeze Training
Mary Lewis has arranged a training session on Macromedia Breeze this Friday, November 17, 2006,
11:00am-12:00pm at Mesa College’s LRC 229. Mary reminds group that if the tool is not used correctly it
could be problematic for both instructors and students. More training is expected throughout the year.
2007 Breakfast of Champions
The group was asked to Save-the-Date for the second annual Breakfast of Champions sponsored by
SDCCD Online Learning Pathways event slated for January 17, 2007, from 7:30-9:00 am at Mesa College
LRC 435. Andrea released a prototype of the invitation postcard that will be distributed to Online Faculty,
Chancellor’s Cabinet, College Vice Presidents, and School Deans. Last year’s event was very successful in
promoting our gratitude for the hard work and dedication of our pioneering online faculty. This year the
Vista 4 pilot faculty will be recognized for their efforts at helping us develop our current training efforts.
The event consists of a healthy breakfast of cereal and fruit and is held “drop-in” to provide for ease of
attendance for all. A save-the-date invitation will be sent out shortly.
Open Forum
Anti-plagiarism software was discussed. Sandra reported that while serving as interim Dean to SDCCD
Online a district-wide Turnitin software license was purchased. The Turnitin software was used
infrequently and by only two instructors in an entire semester, it was decided not to renew the license for
‘05-’06 weighing use and costs. HT reminded the group that software of this sort not be limited to the use
of online instructors, but should include on-campus instructors as well. The Academic Senates at each
college should make decision on purchase.
Andrea and the group discussed the downsides and benefits of server timeout settings. After much
discussion it was decided that setting a 90 minute default timeout would be optimal. Individual courses
may have their settings changed by course instructor.
Next Meeting
Next meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 11, 12-1:30pm, to be held virtually. Details TBA.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Kingsley