Minutes – 2006 ABE Computing Studies Articulation Meeting
Location:
TRU - Open Learning
Date:
4355 Mathissi Place, Burnaby, BC
March 23 rd – 24 th , 2006
Meeting Participants:

Bryan Richards – Thompson Rivers University (Committee Chair)

Dave McKeever
– Northwest Community College

Catherine Mooney – Northern Lights College

Janet Gibson – University College of the Fraser Valley

Peter Macek - Selkirk College

Martin Buck – Camosun College

Don Bentley – Capilano College

Terry Buker – Okanagan College

Jan Harkess – College of the Rockies

Frank Fornelli – Vancouver Community College

Glenda Hunter – Malaspina University College
1. Welcome by Louis Giguere; Director Thompson Rivers – Open Learning

Reports declining enrolment in ABE

Open Learning will physically move to Kamloops next year
2. The Meeting Agenda was adopted as proposed.
3. The Membership List was updated.
4. Institutional Reports and Discussion : Enrollment in ABE Computing Courses continues to be low. Discussion about how to deal with lower numbers followed:

Camosun: Use or make better use of online courses by partnering with outside groups. For example, partner with First Nations communities where each centre has a facilitator who provides the face to face learning component.

Malaspina: Have developed modules for Advanced and Provincial computing.
Can run three courses in one classroom at the same time. Courses are selfpaced with flexible attendance.

Northwest: Use mixed upper level classes due to decreasing numbers.

Capilano: Have several satellite campuses. Advanced computing is online. Each centre ’s facilitator provides support.

College of the Rockies: Offers computing instruction at the Salvation Army and at the Boys & Girls Club. Advanced Computer Studies is offered face-to-face; however, students can access it online and work from other locations.

UCFV: Computing is strongest at the Fundamental level. It appeals to Seniors and First Nations communities.
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Minutes – 2006 ABE Computing Studies Articulation Meeting
5. Online Courses : The central theme that emerged for dealing with declining enrollment was Online Learning. Issues and discussion arising from online activity:

Fundamental Computing (BCcampus/Camosun) suggested as a prerequisite for all Online Learning. The course provides the basic computing skills necessary to survive in an online environment.

BCcampus courses were seen to be useful in either a mixed-mode or as selfpaced material. Although originally developed for distance learning only,
BCcampus is becoming more open to other learning modes.
 “Creative Commons” and “BC Commons” are collections of Learning Objects and have no copyright issues. Other materials have varying copyright rules that the developer must be aware of and keep track of permissions.
6. Advanced Level BCcampus Course: Frances Rach of VCC presented the online
Advanced course, which she teaches. Bryan Richards of TRU also teaches a (small) section of the course. Walter Behnke of VCC originally developed and initially taught the course. Comments concerning the present state of the course:

The course is basically well written and contains much useful material.
However, it is in great need of being revised.

The user interface in the initial page is confusing and needs to be better organized.

Many of the screen captures need to be updated to reflect a more up-to-date computing environment. For example, show Windows XP rather than Windows
2000 (which was in popular use when the course was first written).

The course uses Star Office/Open Office for Word Processing and
Spreadsheet activity. It was agreed by the committee that Microsoft Office should be included as an option. Although Star/Open Office is free, Microsoft
Word and Excel would be preferable in the majority of cases. Furthermore in computer labs.

Various changes in Computer Technology need to be either updated or added to the existing course material. (e.g. USB Ports)
 Any VCC “brand stamping” needs to be removed from the course to make it easier for other institutes to use.
7. Paul Stacey / BCcampus: Director of Development Paul Stacey kindly attended the meeting to answer questions concerning the present and future direction of
BCcampus.

BCcampus is investigating the future use of Moodle (see http://moodle.org/ ) as an alternative to WebCT .
 WebCT license costs have been increasing
 Moodle is Open Source software and is a free download from the web, but needs some technical support at the other end.
 Integrates Constructivist Pedagogy.
 Is more intuitive to use than WebCT. Its user interface is just like many web pages.
 Malaspina, Douglas, SFU and several other institutes have been already been experimenting with Moodle, including how to customize it and how to translate existing WebCT courses to Moodle. ( http://oahu.mala.bc.ca/ )
 WebCT is not going away any time soon as a great amount of material has already been developed.
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Minutes – 2006 ABE Computing Studies Articulation Meeting

BCcampus has up until now been focused on 100% online usage. It is now considering supporting supplemental material for use in campus classrooms.
 FTEs are no longer “double counted”, but BCcampus intends on implementing some funding scheme for supporting campuses. i.e. the Teaching Institute gets the FTE, but some $$$ goes to the registering institute. The tuition goes to the registering institute.

BCcommons (part of BCcampus) – Copyright License:
 Public Post Secondary Institutes share content
 Copyright rests with the developing institute
 Access through http://www.bccampus.ca/Page95.aspx

BCcampus stays away from Articulation and is merely a service provider.
8. ABE Articulation Steering Committee Report: Glenda Hunter (Malaspina) reported on various accomplishments and activities of the ABE Steering Committee.

A First Nations Working Committee has been newly created.

Fundamental Level program access improved
 Path out of Poverty : “Helping Low Income Adults Upgrade Their
Education ” – S. Butterworth and C. White
 Federation of Post Secondary institutes of BC (FPSE) – doing work on
Developmental Education with two ABE workshops and a proposal
”Opening Doors, Building Confidence: Proposal to Strengthen Adult Basic
Education in British Columbia” sent out to three ministries for targeted funding ( http://www.fpse.ca/ )..

Literacy Challenges
 Premier’s Advisory Council ( http://www2.literacy.bc.ca/ ) : Goal of literacy by 2010, with a possibility of funding.

Online Learning Challenges
 Labs not online, safety issues, comprehension, students don’t have enough experience to go on to the next level.

New formula for FTE counts – changing because of block funding
9. Frank Fornelli and
VCC’s new approach to ABE computing
: Frank explained that after the ABE Computing Department at VCC was dismantled a few years ago he was the only one left and was free to do whatever he liked, resulting in the following series of self-paced booklets.

Introduction to Windows (Intermediate)

Introduction to the Internet (Advanced)

Introduction to Word Processing (Advanced)

Introduction to Spreadsheets (Advanced)

Introduction to Graphics (Advanced – Currently under development)
10. First Nations Technology Council: Sue Hanley of the First Nations Technology
Council ( http://www.fntc.info/ ) gave a PowerPoint presentation outlining the objectives of the council and needs of the First Nations people of our province. The goal of the council is to use technology to improve the quality of life for all First Nations communities in BC. The ABE Computing found the presentation both interesting and relevant. We feel that online learning support would most definitely be of value to First
Nations communities.
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Minutes – 2006 ABE Computing Studies Articulation Meeting
11. Fundamental and Intermediate Level Online Computing : Martin Buck gave the committee a look at both his Fundamental and Intermediate level courses. The group once again was impressed with what Martin has accomplished, the depth of his understanding and commitment to online learning. In particular, the Fundamental course indeed appeared as an excellent “first course” for students to take online and comes highly recommended.

The courses have generally been offered in mixed-mode

The relevance of E-portfolios (see ELGG – Learning Landscape http://elgg.net/ ) was discussed. Martin has students create E-portfolios as a collection of their creations to show potential employers.

Martin also explained the use of Learning Objects. (see http://lwebs.ca/LO/ for
Martin’s Learning Objects)
12. Provincial Level Online Courses: Don Bentley of Capilano gave the committee a look at his Provincial Level courses. One course (Applied Computing) focuses on Web
Page creation, while the follow up course (Computer Science) concerns itself with
JavaScript and is a natural progression from the applied course. The committee enjoyed viewing Don’s work and contrasting the interface and layout with that of the
Advanced course.

Don often incorporates textbooks into his courses and directs the student to certain part of the texts in order to be able to complete projects and assignment. This contrasts with the Advanced level course which has no textbooks and instead uses online content modules.
 Much of Don’s online content consists of projects, assignments and tests which require the student to first complete the related textbook material.

Don developed some of his online courses (he has his own Intermediate and
Advanced online courses) through BCcampus funding, but much of it himself using his PD time.
 University of Victoria’s Hot Potato website http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ is used to create crossword puzzles and quizzes.

Tripod.com ( http://www.tripod.lycos.com/ ) is used by students to store web pages.
13. Approval of Courses for the Articulation Transfer Grid.

No new or existing courses were presented for approval
14. Changes to ABE Articulation Handbook Generic Outlines :

No changes were made to the Articulation Handbook Generic Outlines.
15. Meeting Close

The CS Committee extended its thanks and best wishes to Terry Buker of
Okanagan College and Peter Macek of Selkirk College, both of whom are scheduled for retirement by the end of April/06. Lucky guys! No wonder they were smiling throughout the meeting.

No date was selected for next year ’s meeting. The same location (TRU-OL in
Burnaby) will be used if still available.

Bryan Richards was once again reaffirmed as Committee Dictator, but is willing to have the dictatorship overthrown in the near future.
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