District Distance Education Committee Meeting Minutes

October 5, 2006

Attended by: Pamela Atkinson (LACC), Michael Cooperman (LAPC), Linda Delzeit (LATT), Eric Ichon (WLAC), David Jordan (LAMC), Mark Lampert (LAVC), Paul McKenna (ITV), Bob Richards (LAHC) and Richard Skidmore (LAPC)

Add Permit Process for Online Students

Some colleges are having difficulty providing add slips to students who live outside their service area. This is even more difficult when an instructor also lives outside their service area. The Admissions Offices at several colleges (ITV, LATT and WLAC) allow faxed authorization from students who want to add online classes, but some still require an original signature. Some colleges outside of our District use an electronic process to add students with instructors providing students they are willing to add with a password. The following motion will be voted on at our next meeting:

“The District Distance Education Committee work in conjunction with the District wide Admissions and Records committee to develop an electronic Add system for students in distance education classes.”

NG Passwords

A suggestion was made that we eliminate student ability to modify their passwords. We decided against this in order to maintain security and because students need to learn to maintain their passwords. We will ask Vivie to enlarge the font for the reset passwords link and to use a different color for greater contrast.

Moodle @ Pierce College

Pierce is using Moodle for 20 – 30 sections of online and hybrid courses this semester hosted by Remotelearner.net which also provides 24/7 tech support for instructors. Some advantages are that the Distance Education Coordinator has complete control of passwords and new account creation. District is currently funding this and it is estimated that otherwise the cost to Pierce would have been $4,500.00. Michael encouraged us to do an Internet search for “Moodle vs. NG” for additional information and pointed out that Moodle is the number one course management system worldwide. We reviewed Michael’s Multimedia 200 course (Photoshop) at http://www.piercecollege.edu using “guest” to login. Moodle seems to meet accessibility requirements (section 508) although more extensive testing needs to be done. Of greater concern are potential problems with external content. Multiple choice, fill in the blank and essay testing are supported as is a grade book. Students create their own Moodle accounts and self enroll in classes with instructor provided passwords. Auto importation may be possible in the future if enough colleges are interested. Moodle is open source software, accounts are created by the Distance Education Coordinator for specific terms and/or a development term.

Moodle Training @ Pierce College

Pierce College hosts an on-campus orientation for their online students. For additional information visit http://www.piercecollege.edu, click on Students and then Distance Education – On-campus Orientation. They have a PDF repository with login information, navigation instructions and self paced 1 – 2 minute automated tutorials including How to Create a Moodle Account. Michael will be conducting face to face training for instructors. His first workshop will focus on getting started and essentials with later workshops focusing on message boards, etc. Instructors from other colleges in the District are welcome to attend

LACDD Media Exchange

Michael is creating a repository of learning objects starting with items he will upload from Pierce College. These resources can be used for either online or on-campus courses and will include interactive tutorials, PowerPoint presentations, etc.

Motivation and Barriers to Teaching Online

In Summer 2006 Pierce conducted a research study which we would like to extend to include all colleges in the District. This could be followed up by an annual LACCD Summit on Online Teaching.

ETUDES Classic Update

For Spring 2007 LACC, LAHC, LAMC, LAPC and WLAC will still be using Classic.

ETUDES NG Update & Timeline for Winter/Spring 2007

For Spring 2007 LACC, LAHC, LAMC, LAPC and WLAC will be using ETUDES NG. We may want to coordinate our section number information with one liaison to District IT, Bob Richards was suggested. All new NG course requests need to go to Vivie by 11/27/05 for Winter and 1/8/07 for Spring.

Learner Preparedness for Success

Since some students do not have the computer proficiency necessary for success in online classes Pierce College is going to develop a four week online lab requirement for online students. They will also provide phone support for these students and an academic advisor will be assigned to the lab.

Pierce is also interested in developing an online writing lab so students can have their papers evaluated, get advice regarding APA format and effective writing. WLAC does offer a one unit Online Grammar and Writing Lab.

A suggestion was made that Personal Development instructors could be encouraged to include a section pertaining to online learning in their courses. WLAC offers several Personal Development classes online.

Pierce would also like to develop an interactive online orientation including information about the Internet, email, message boards, online courses and resources such as tips for success. Flash files could be revised for use by other colleges.

There is also a need for online counseling. Foothill College and Rio Hondo have offered online counseling for years, LACCD is behind in this area. Videoconferencing software is available free of charge and can be used for this purpose. Abode Breeze is better, but costs more.

Cost Sharing for Programming to Export ETUDES Classic Tests to other CMS besides NG

Linda received a $10,000.00 quote from a programmer to create a tool to convert course content from NG. Other colleges that are interested in developing such a tool and are willing to share the cost should contact her.

Podcasting @ LATT

LATT is now recording class lectures for the following courses:

Chemistry 54

English 28

Fashion Design 125

History 43

Physics 11

Political Science 1

Guest lecturers in various disciplines

Staff Development workshops

They expect to add Astronomy, ESL, another Physics class, Theater and a few other classes in the near future. LATT has only two appliances and needs more already. Linda is checking into a grant opportunity that we may be able to collectively apply for to podcast from all our campuses. The grant is to examine the impact of technology. We could collect audio of lectures from all campuses and share them so that students could listen to teachers from any campus.

For additional information about Webcast in a Box visit http://webcastinabox.com/

November 2006 Meeting

Our next meeting will be held at LATT at 11 a.m. on 11/16/2006. Please submit agenda items for our next meeting to Eric Ichon at ichone@wlac.edu. Our December meeting has not been scheduled yet, but will be held via CCCConfer.