Minimizing Your Workload When Teaching Online

 Tue. Feb. 28, 2012, 2 pm (PT)

With Stephanie Delaney, 
Associate Dean, Seattle Central Community College

Cost: Free!
Location: Online
Register from the web page (link will be sent to you by the morning of the webinar).

Description
One of the common complaints of teaching online is that it takes so much time. However, that does not have to be the case. Through the intentional structuring of your course(s), creative grading strategies and effective use of your LMS, you can save hours every week while improving outcomes for students.

About the Presenter 
Dr. Stephanie Delaney is the Associate Dean of eLearning at Seattle Central Community College. Using her Ph.D. in educational leadership in higher education/distance education earned from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Stephanie guides faculty in eLearning pedagogy and supports students in learning successfully online. She also teaches online courses in law and the global environment, making use of her law degree from the University of San Diego School of Law and a master’s degree in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School.  Stephanie lives in Seattle with her husband and son.

This was a FREE online session sponsored by the NW eLearning Community!

 A recording will be made of this webinar and it will be available from the NWeLearn web site.
Sponsored by NW eLearning Community (NWeLearn).  Watch for the announcement of the 2012 NWeLearn Conference, tentatively planned for mid October 2012.  It’s a great conference at a great price!

 NWeLearn: twitter.com/nwelearn

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Check out the session recordings from NWeLearn 2011 http://www.nwelearn.org/conference/2011/schedule.asp

2012 Assessment, Teaching and Learning Conference

Washington State Higher Education faculty, staff, students, administrators will be convening soon...

2012 Assessment, Teaching and Learning Conference

May 2-4, 2012

Vancouver Convention Center

Hilton Hotel

Vancouver, Washington

Registration is Now Open

Conference sessions include:

•             Institutional and Classroom Assessment

•             Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

•             eLearning and Open Education

•             College Readiness/Precollege Education

•             Students’ Experiences of Learning

•             Global Education/Multicultural Perspectives

The conference has filled to capacity in recent years,

so don’t hesitate if you want to attend this year – register today!

Continuity of Instruction

Here are a few suggestions offered by Tom Brazunias, North Seattle Community College's e-Learning Support Center:

If winter weather challenges a course's regular campus meeting, consider the following:

1.   Alert your students to whether or not you will be able to make it to campus.

2.  Record your class lesson for students to play at home later (for example, during the regular meeting time).

3.  Hold a live "virtual meeting" online instead at the regular campus meeting time.

Here are a few details on each idea:

1.  ALERTING STUDENTS TO WHETHER CLASS WILL MEET:
If you cannot make it to class, your students will appreciate knowing this before trying to make it to class themselves.  Of course, one way to alert students is to email all students and hope they receive the email (it doesn’t bounce or end up filtered to junk mail).

Another way is to set up a system so that students can check for themselves about specific classes (no lost emails) using either your instructor web page or other space on your college web site.

Ideally, you have notified your students ahead of time to check this page, perhaps adding information to your syllabus such as:  “If class needs to be canceled due to weather or other conditions, information will be posted on my instructor web page at (url).  If you are uncertain whether class will meet, please check this link before making a trip to campus.”

 2.  RECORDING A CLASS LESSON TO REPLACE A CAMPUS MEETING

 If your planned class was a lecture, you can record yourself ahead of time and post the link to students.  The lecture can be available for a limited time and then deleted.  Because Washington State Community and Technical Colleges have a system-wide license for a lecture-recording tool called "Tegrity" - this option is available to all WA State faculty.  You'll need a microphone (perhaps as part of a headset) and, optionally, a webcam (if you want students to see your expressions and body language as you deliver your lecture).  We believe that even a "talking head" adds to communication and attention when delivering a 50-minute lesson.

The nice thing about Tegrity is that it has a (relatively) easy learning curve.  You turn it on, record, and then turn it off.  Well, okay, there are a few other steps to know about!  You send the link to your students and they can watch it from anywhere with an internet connection.

3.  HOLD A VIRTUAL CLASS MEETING LIVE ONLINE

 Instead of meeting in the physical classroom, you can meet online with your students using Blackboard Collaborate, an online conferencing tool that is also provided to all Washington State faculty through a system-wide license.  The online meeting can take place at the regular face-to-face meeting time.

Bb Collaborate is a great tool, allowing you to share PowerPoints, websites, documents and text-based or audio-based communication with your students.  All you need is a microphone (and webcam is optional) and all your students need are speakers on their computers (their own microphone is optional).

Collaborate does have a bit of a learning curve (for you,  as the moderator, not your students).  It's worth setting aside 20 minutes to get in and "play" with Collaborate before you use it in a live meeting.  If you have a chance to attend someone else's online webinar or meeting in Collaborate, take it. It's helpful to experience being a participant in a Collaborate meeting before moderating a Collaborate meeting.

CWU Launches Dual Admission Program for Community College Students

January 31, 2012

 ELLENSBURG, Wash. — Central Washington University today announced a dual admission program that will reduce the time and expense college students commit to completing a bachelor's degree. The dual admission program allows qualified students to be admitted to CWU when they are admitted to a community college anywhere in the state. The new program will streamline the admissions, advising, and transfer processes.

 “Students who participate in the program are considered fully admitted to the community college and conditionally admitted to CWU,” said Margaret Badgley, CWU assistant vice president of University Centers. “They benefit from access to resources at both institutions during their community college career, they’re better prepared to transition into their baccalaureate program, and the $50 application fee to Central is waived.”

CWU has piloted the concept for more than a year and has already signed up more than 120 students. Through the program, students receive personalized academic plans that outline all the courses they need to complete at the community college in order to transfer smoothly into a bachelor's degree program at any of CWU's eight campuses in western and eastern Washington.

“Students can take advantage of lower tuition for their first two years at the community college, and know they’re on track academically,” said Badgley, adding that CWU faculty members will meet with students about specific degree programs. “Academic advising also will be available to dually admitted students—it really gives these students a leg up.”

The dual admission program is available now at CWU campuses co-located with Big Bend Community College, Edmonds Community College, Everett Community College, Green River Community College in Kent Campus, Highline Community College, Pierce College in Ft. Steilacoom, Wenatchee Valley College, and Yakima Valley Community College.

 By spring quarter, however, the program will be available to students at all thirty-four community and technical colleges, Badgley said. 

“The program encourages students to complete that first objective of an associate degree at that community college,” she pointed out. “That’s an important aspect of our partnership with the community colleges. This type program will become increasingly popular as four-year universities partner with community colleges—something we’ve done since 1974.” 

Badgley says a spin-off benefit for the program is increased collaboration between CWU faculty and their community college peers. 

“That’s what sets Central apart from all other baccalaureate institutions—our partnerships with the community colleges. It’s just phenomenal,” she added. “This will help to strengthen them even further.” 

 More information about the program is available at www.cwu.edu under “Campuses” locations.

President Obama and Digital Textbooks

From Tom Caswell, SBCTC Policy Associate for Open Education:

Interesting article that made me wonder how we can prepare for students who soon enter our colleges expecting the same eTextbook options they will have in K-12. (This also represents a huge window of opportunity for open educational resources.)

Later today, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will join Education Secretary Arne Duncan to unveil the Obama Administration's "Digital Textbook Playbook" to accelerate the K-12 transition to digital textbooks. USA Today has the scoop:

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will recommend today at a summit of industry and education officials that states modify the textbook adoption process, allowing K-12 schools to use taxpayer funding once reserved for printed books on iPads, Kindles and the like — as well as software.

They'll begin pushing publishers, computer tablet makers and Internet service providers to work together and lower costs if they want to sell their products to the nation's 50 million school kids.

Administration officials say Web-connected instructional materials help students learn more efficiently and give teachers real-time information on how well kids understand material. "We spend $7 billion a year on textbooks, and for many students around the country, they're out of date," Genachowski says. In five years, he predicts, "we could be spending less as a society on textbooks and getting more for it."

Among the challenges the Obama Administration has identified: state textbook procurement rules, device and content interoperability, connectivity costs and managing the transition.

Full USA Today article "Obama wants schools to speed digital transition" at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2012-01-31/schools-e-textbooks/52907492/1

Carnegie Pathways - Statway and Quantway

Sent to me by Bill Moore, SBCTC Policy Associate for Assessment, Teaching and Learning: If you’re interested in an update and overview of the Carnegie Pathways work in math (Statway and Quantway) and missed this webinar when it ran live last week, here’s the link to the archived recording and the slides…webinar page       Key Links Dev. math webinar page Learn more about Carnegie's work in developmental mathematics Read the Pathways blog Join the Pathways mailing list

Legislative News (WA State Higher Ed-related legislation)

Keep up with news and happenings related to Washington’s community and technical colleges during the 2012 session with SBCTC Legislative News.

If you see last week’s edition, refresh your browser [F5].