Hit the Ground Running!

We are now 3 weeks into the Fall semester and the Distance Learning Team in working on a variety of professional development initiatives, in addition to making sure all online courses at CCC are meeting the Quality Assurance Standards we established last year. We have cross referenced a sampling of our online courses and I must report it is good to see how all the Blackboard training has paid off and so many of our faculty are implementing more creative and innovative instructional design strategies. Our Title III funding and support has played such an integral part in the progress we’ve made over the past 3 years.

Our fourth DL Pioneer team has been selected and we had our kick-off meeting last Friday. We have an excellent team made up of both faculty and staff and they’ve all made commitments to retool and upgrade their online courses, attend professional development activities in their disciplines and essentially take their knowledge of online learning and distance education to a higher level in the next year all made possible by Title III funds. Our staff members on this team will be exploring and implementing new and creative ways (blogging, Youtube, facebook, twitter) to work with our student in the online environment

As Vice President of the NC3ADL Eastern Region I’m also in the process of coordinating a Regional DL mini-conference/workshop for Friday, November 6th here at CCC. Due to travel restraints across the state it looks like there will be no NC3ADL conference this year so we are doing a series of regional conferences. NC3ADL will pay for lunch and I’m going to look to our DL Pioneers from Phase 1-3 to assist with it and have phase 4 attend. The following is a rough outline for that regional conference/workshop.

Big Picture – TWO Tracks (I am reserving 2 computer labs) November 6, 2009 9:00 – 4:00

2 tracks in the morning 9:30 – 10:30 and 10:45 – 11:45
Lunch 12:00 – 12:45
2 tracks after lunch
1-2 and 2-3 (Optional Track 3-4 on Dl Assessment)

1. Moodle Basics
2. Podcasting for the Technically Challenged
3. Best Practices for Online Teaching
4. Learning Object Repository
5. Social Networking as a Teaching/Learning/ Marketing Tool
6. Blogging for Beginners
7. Incorporating Itunes U and You Tube in your online courses.
8. DL Assessment with Don Staub

My constant goal is to make our online classes every bit as viable, interesting and dynamic as our traditional classroom lectures and labs. Thankfully there are a host of new and powerful communications tools that are making it easier and less time consuming for our faculty to do this. Carteret Community College has a Title III grant resources to help us implement our various professional development initiatives and put these tools in the hands of our faculty so they can take their online teaching to a whole new level of technical and pedagogical excellence.

Fall Semester is Upon Us

It has been a busy summer semester for our DL team at CCC. We conducted a variety of workshops (Moodle training for example) in order to get our faculty prepared for to teach online in the fall, in addition to all the one-on-one training Pre-Ah has done the past few months.

Title III sponsored another well attended Blackboard Boot Camp training workshop on Friday, July 31st in the Wayne West Computer Lab. We had 18 faculty and staff from across the college attend and 2 graduate students from East Carolina University who requested the training without compensation.

The T3 sponsored Blackboard Boot Camp has been a very successful and benificial training program for Carteret Community College. It has prepared and certified all (100+) its online faculty including adjuncts to teach effectively in the online environment.

This is comprehensive “hands-on” professional development that has been supported (funded) by Title III for over 2 years.

East Carolina University Graduate student and photography adjunct instructor Adam Jacono stated that he wished East Carolina University had a certification program for online teachers like our Blackboard Boot Camp.

The Boot Camp is also a catalyst (springboard) for our “one- on-one” training that Instructional Technologist Pre-Ah Hil schedules after new instructors receive their initial training. She assists them with all aspects of course design, retooling and rich media production. Pre-Ah continues to go above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to supporting distance learning at CCC.

Title III support has been extremely valuable to Carteret Community College and its distance learning initiatives. Pre-Ah Hill and I are looking forward to working with faculty throughout the coming school year and offering distance learning training on a regular basis. We also plan on conducting a series of Effective Online Learning workshops for our students in the next month.

Here’s to a great and productive semester at CCC!

Spring / Summer 2009 DL Report

The Distance Learning team have been busy this past year. Blackboard Boot Camp is now totally online. New online adjunct teachers can now take the training on Blackboard if they cannot attend our Blackboard Certification workshops here on campus.

We are also transitioning the Online Tutoring service funded (piloted) by Title III over to Kimberly Johnson and Academic Support. I have conducting training for Kimberly and her tutors so they can tutor students not only in Academic Support but online as well.

The statewide budget crunch is impacting everyone and the Community College System is no exception. Carteret Community College may have to pay the Blackboard licensing fees after June, 2011. We are budgeting for this reality and should not have to discontinue using Blackboard as our primary Course Management System any time soon, however Carteret Community College is now a part of the Moodle “open source” CMS consortium developed by the System Office and we are training a cross section of our online faculty this summer on Moodle (thanks to a Title III Professional Development Grant) just to be on the safe side and be proactive regarding this important issue.

Pre-Ah Hill continues to work “one on one” with many of our newer online faculty in assisting them in all aspects of course building and online instructional design. She has also assisted me in developing a comprehensive effective online learning workshop for students. So far over 90 students have attended this training and since then it has been put online with enhanced podasts and screen videos. This initiative was a result of Title III and the next logical step after getting all our faculty trained on Blackboard and online teaching methods. Click Here for Effective Online Learning Workshop

Our DL Intern Shannon Ayers has assisted many of our online faculty produce course orientation videos and video lectures to be embedded into their courses. This past semester the Distance Learning Department also created our own CCC DL YouTube Channel to store all our instructional videos.

Click here to view some of those videos in YouTube.

We have wrapped up the second phase of the Technology Center Grant on Blogging, YouTube and ITunes U for instructional use. These instructional resources can be found by clicking here. Three workshops were conducted on campus as part of this grant and were opened up to faculty from other Community Colleges in our region. Approximately 50 faculty attending these 3 workshops.

The Technology Committee has tasked the Distance Learning Department with developing better policies, procedures and training for our department to work more efficiently and seamlessly with departments that work closely with us such as IT, Academic Support, Enrollment Resources and the Library. We are in the process of fine tuning these policies and coordinating the training.

This summer are conducting Moodle training (train the trainer model) to approximately 9 of our CCC faculty. I have developed a comprehensive Moodle training program on a Moodle platform and will make it available to anyone interested in learning more about Moodle.

We’ve scheduled a Blackboard Boot Camp for Friday, July 31st. There are still a few slots left for this comprehensive Blackboard training. Please contact Pre-Ah Hill to sign-up.

Our Phase III Distance Learning Pioneers have submitted their final reports and they can be seen on the T3 Blog under DL Pioneers Link. I’m so impressed with the quality of instructional design work our online faculty have been doing the past year as far as adding creative “rich media content” to their courses. There is no doubt in my mind that CCC is a leader and innovator in Distance Learning across the state.

Click to Download DL NewsletterSum09

DL End of Year Report

Distance Learning End of Year Report
December 17, 2008

It’s been a productive year for the CCC Dl Team. We’ve conducted 11 distance learning professional development workshops and trained 114 staff and faculty members.

Pre-Ah Hill has also worked one on one with approximately 30 faculty members.

As of  December 17, 2008 my team of online course reviewers have evaluated 85 online (hybrid and total) courses.  This initiative could not have been possible without the financial support of Title III, and dedicated efforts of Pre-Ah Hill and the faculty (content specialists) who assisted in this process. The QAP’s (spread sheets) are currently located on my computer and backed-up by Pre-Ah as well.

Faculty members (courses) who didn’t pass the minimum standard have been meeting with Pre-Ah and I to upgrade their courses in order to meet the QAP standard.  This is an ongoing process, although as of December 16, 2008 we only have 3 more faculty (adjuncts) to meet with in order to get their courses up to speed for Spring. These appointments have been made this week and the week before classes begin in Spring.  There are also approximately 15 online courses (Business and EDU) that are being worked on (developed) over Christmas and Pre-Ah and I will be reviewing them between now and when classes begin Spring 09. We are also in the process of creating a revised QAP for web-enhanced courses that we will begin implementing Spring 2009. This is our next big initiative for 2009 – standardizing the content that must be included in a web enhanced course and move forward evaluating web-enhanced courses as well hybrids and total internet. I truly believe this initiative brought the level of our online course offerings to a higher more standardized level across curriculum’s.

We also were awarded a second NCCCS Technology Center Grant to produce instructional web resources for Blogging, YouTube and ITunes University. Our DL team has produces a script and are in production of an enhanced instructional podcast on the benefits of these web based tools for students and faculty, the equipment (hardware and software) needed for them, and information on where to obtain software needed use them effectively.

The goal is to provide all of the information that a college will need to get started on Blogging, YouTube and ITunes U. Pre-Ah Hill and I also conducted training workshops and materials as part of this Tech Center Grant. The following are the workshops (and the ECU Think-In Technology Showcase) we have conducted and/or participated in as part of this grant project and our T3 sponsored Distance Learning training.

October 9th, Wayne Community College
17 Participants

On Oct 23, 2008:
15 people attended:

On Oct 24, 2008:
8 people attended:

Think-In East Carolina University November 13th
Distance Learning Showcase

The Distance Learning Department at Carteret Community College  hosted a Regional Workshop sponsored by NC3ADL on Blogging, YouTube and iTunes for Instructional Use Workshop on Saturday, December 13 from 10:00-3:00 pm. This was open to all of the community colleges in the region. 15 Participants

Our Online Tutoring Initiative (service) has exceeded all expectations and our tutors have submitted their final reports for the year and recommendations for making the service even more successful here at CCC.

A total of 260 hours and 85 students served by this service between March  – December 1st, 2008.

We invited 5 staff members to participate on this year’s DL Pioneer team. They have been exploring new and innovative ways to offer their student services in the online environment. (See Brenda Long Blog)

We are also in the planning stages of a student centered distance learning / blackboard training initiative for Spring 09.

Eight faculty members will be attending the NCDLA Distance Learning Conference in Raleigh February 15 – 19th. I will also be presenting a workshop on Instructional Podcasting.

Lastly, I co-presented (via Skype) at the Noel-Levitz Conference in Denver in November. Based on the evaluations our presentation was well received and we have been invited to present again in San Antonio in July 2009.

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DL Accomplishments At CCC Fall 2006 – Fall 2008

The Distance Learning Department has made great strides in a variety of key areas over the past two years because of funding and resources made available through Title III Grant. The following is what I consider our major accomplishments. I hope to build on what we have done and start taking Distance Learning to a whole new level in the coming year.

Blackboard Boot Camp

• A comprehensive Professional Development initiative was initiated for all online faculty in both the technical aspects of teaching online and in instructional design strategies and methodology. Every full time and part time adjunct (120 +) have been certified by attending our 6 hour Blackboard Boot Camps over the past 2 years.

Training college faculty in the latest distance learning methodology and instructional technologies has been a huge but imperative undertaking. The demand for online courses is growing annually and students are arriving in these courses with more advanced and sophisticated technological skills (awareness) than ever before due to the cyber / media culture they have grown up in. That is why we initiated a series of Blackboard Boot Camps in order to get all our online faculty trained in online course management systems and instructional design theory.

QAP “Peer Review” Process

• A QAP Online Course “Peer Review” process has been implemented campus wide. Before the QAP was initiated there was a lack of visual and instructional continuity in our online course offerings. Over the past year a team of veteran online faculty and instructional design staff have been in the process of reviewing every online course at Carteret Community College using a comprehensive check-sheet that addresses a variety of technical and instructional design best practices.

The purpose of the QAP peer review process is to establish and maintain ensured quality for all CCC Distances Learning courses. Our goal is to be able to provide a minimum standard of quality for all CCC Distance Education Courses and move our courses into higher standards through a process of continuous improvement. Objective, peer review allows for us to offer online the highest quality, and more “learner friendly” courses in an ever- increasing competitive online teaching environment.

Distance Learning Pioneer’s

We are into the third phase (year) of our Distance Learning Pioneer program. Dl Pioneers represent a cross section of Carteret Community College faculty and staff that have committed to either completely upgrading and retooling their online classes (adding content specific visuals, producing audio instructional podcasts and enhancing course content) they are already teaching or developing new online courses (or innovative online work environments for staff) for the college. These distance learning pioneers are also participating in a variety of professional development activities (paid for by Title III) such as, workshops, conferences and seminars in order to not only upgrade their courses technically, but are upgrading their online teaching methods as well. Twenty faculty have successfully gone through this intense training and we now have 5 staff and 5 faculty participating in this Pioneer project at this time. Those DL Pioneers that have already been through the program mentoring other online faculty who have not.

Online Tutoring Service

We’re blazing into a new realm of student support here at CCC. The power of distance learning at our College is dramatic, and undeniable. As our DL program turns 10 this semester, we have reached some dramatic milestones:
* 169 online (web-based, hybrid, and full) courses are being taught this semester;
* 72% of students enrolled this semester are taking at least one online course;
* 47% of courses offered are being taught online

With this backdrop, it is critical to understand that we MUST provide all of our support services online. We currently have advising online and we have recently implemented an online tutoring service. After reviewing the field of proprietary online tutoring services, we determined that, at this time, it may be more cost-effective (and more effective overall) to develop our own in-house tutoring service. Online tutoring is available for English, Math, Biology and Anatomy & Physiology and as more and more faculty and students learn of the benefits of this service it is beginning to grow and become part of the fabric of the learning process at CCC. The service is in its infancy as we continue to learn what does and does not work, but in the meantime, we continue to move forward with this exciting initiative.

“One on One” Distance Learning Training

Any faculty member at CCC can contact the Distance Learning Lab and make an appointment with our Instructional Technologist Pre-Ah Hill or a distance learning intern for one on one intensive and focused course specific training. This begins with an initial consultation that identifies the types of technical and/or instructional design upgrades that the faculty member wants to make to his or her online course. This also includes training our faculty in all aspects of Blackboard (CMS) and new software such as audacity and movie maker in order to produce innovative instructional podcasts, enhanced podcasts and videos to be uploaded into the faculty members blackboard.

Distance Learning Campus Wide DL Forum

Carteret Community College held its first Distance Learning forum moderated by Dr. Abbie Brown and Dr. Bill Sugar both Professors in the Instructional Technology Graduate Program at East Carolina University. It was an extremely productive event, and I believe will be a catalyst for some of the initiatives we implement in the coming year. One thing continues to be very evident and was brought out by many participants in the forum. Education is evolving and changing rapidly. The tools, techniques, methods and environments are changing. However, good teaching is still good teaching, whether it’s done in the online environment or the traditional classroom environment. It goes back to the “Human Element”. The personal touch – the connection between the teacher and student. If that connection isn’t made (and nurtured) the teaching / learning, journey will be an uphill climb. The issues brought out and identified at this forum using the SWOT approach (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) will continue to be addressed as we develop and structure new professional development activities for our faculty and staff at CCC.

Applying and Receiving other Grants

Due to the great strides our Distance Learning Department have made in the areas of professional development and instructional media production over the past 2 years thanks to the funding and resources made available through Title III. We’ve been recognized at the state level for our work and in turn have applied for and received additional state grants to produce online instructional design resources for the state Community College System. Last year we received $7,400 to produce a comprehensive training package on all aspects of Podcasting and this year we were granted $10,700 to produce instructor resources for Blogging, YouTube and ITunes University. (See Below)

Technical Grant I

General information will be provided giving a description of podcasting, some of the benefits for students, the equipment (hardware and software) needed for podcasting, and information on where to obtain software.

The project participants will tell the benefits of using Podcasting, including some statistical information that relates to student retention in classes where podcasting is available. The list of resources will include names to contact for assistance as well as web sites where software can be downloaded, along with directions on how to proceed. The goal is to provide all of the information that a college will need to get started on podcasting.

Tech Grant #2

General information will be provided giving a description of instructional uses for Blogging, YouTube and ITunes University. Our team will describe some of the benefits of these web based tools for students, the equipment (hardware and software) needed for them, and information on where to obtain software needed use them effectively.

The project participants will tell the benefits of using Blogging, YouTube and ITunes U including some statistical information that relates to student retention in classes where these tools are available. They will also produce new instructional content in a variety of discipline areas as examples of these tools can be applied to any online course. The list of resources will include names to contact for assistance as well as web sites where software can be downloaded, along with directions on how to proceed. The goal is to provide all of the information that a college will need to get started on Blogging, YouTube and ITunes U.

Assessment

All of these initiatives are at different phases of progress and implementation at CCC. We plan to continue building on our success (and efforts) in these various areas and hopefully will be able to start gathering viable data as to how these campus wide initiatives are effecting and impacting student success and retention at Carteret Community College. Title III has been a primary catalyst for faculty and staff upgrading, online course evaluations, generating additional grant funding, self study through our forums and adding new services like online tutoring for our students.

Distance Learning Status Report – January 29, 2008

The DL Team are moving forward with a variety of exciting and important initiatives. These projects are at different stages of completion.

1. Phase II of our QAP “Peer Review” Process is in full swing. Content Specialists and Instructional Designers have been identified and contacted to evaluate 25 online classes in the next 6 weeks. A special thanks to Laurie Freshwater and Mary Walton who are assisting us with both content and instructional design in a few of the courses being evaluated. They both have expertise in both areas and their assistance is crucial to moving this process forward in a timely manner. Title III is supporting the online course review process by giving $50 stipends to our content specialists.

2. I am very excited about the Online Tutoring service we’re developing. Lisa Taylor Galezia (CCC English/Photography Adjunct and online veteran) is working with me in creating (designing) an interactive blackboard to act as a communications hub for online tutoring. This service will be available to both traditional students and our online / hybrid students. Last week (January 24th) we had our first kick-off meeting for potential tutors. We had eleven highly qualified applicants attend this first information session representing the disciplines of Math, Biology, Anatomy & Physiology and English. They came with lots of good ideas to incorporate into our plans for tutoring students in the online environment. Pre-Ah and Lisa have researched and incorporated some very viable communication tools into the Blackboard such as Instant Messenger, Skype, Virtual Chat and a Whiteboard for doing Math equations. We are still in the early stages of developing this service and are now evaluating the resumes left by those who attended the information session. We plan to begin incrementally offering this service to our students on a limited basis by end of February. Once we get Online Tutoring up and running at CCC I hope to hand it over to the tutoring wing of Academic Support. This would not be made possible without the support and funding of Title III. I believe we will see a positive impact on retention once this service is in full swing.

3. In the last 2 weeks we’ve had 2 Distance Learning Pioneer meetings with our DL Phase I and II online faculty. We discussed the QAP and also identified some professional development needs of the group that the Pre-Ah and I plan on addressing in the next two months. I was excited to hear all the innovative and creative things our DL Pioneers are doing with their online classes, both technically and in their instructional design strategies. They are incorporating the things they learned in BB Boot Camp (graphics, podcasts, video, camtasia) into their classes and even going beyond and researching dynamic new ways to communicate and assess their course content. I believe our “train the trainer” model for the DL component of the T3 Grant is working effectively and is creating a cadre of DL mentors across our campus. Pre-Ah is also working “one on one” with our pioneers to assist them with their course retooling, especially in adding rich media content such as audio and video lectures and teaching them new software that will help them do this.

4. We received word (today) from the NCCCS staff that our proposal to collaborate with FTCC the NCCCS Technology Center was recommended to the State Board for approval and funding. I was suppose to attend a kick-off meeting in Fayetteville today however word never filtered down to me and I sent my thoughts concerning our role in the Technology Center to Bob Irvin (Project Director for the Grant) at FTCC.

5. I was tasked by Dr. Emory to implement a viable process that insures we are collecting “institutional data” from all (dl and classroom) our student evaluations. The following are thoughts (paraphrased) by my conversations with Don and Jennifer concerning this issue.

” In order to conduct a comparative analysis, we should try to decrease all possible variables. For this reason, we should work toward incorporating the same wording on all relevant questions/statements.

In order to ensure that we are gathering institutional data (from these course-level evaluations), we should develop a system for aggregating responses on the specific questions we have identified as relevant. Once the responses are entered, via the Remark survey software, we can conduct aggregate analyses on any items we choose.

We may need to clarify what we mean by “institutional data.” Is it simply taking all the course-level surveys and aggregating the data so that we have an institution-wide picture, or is it something requiring a variety of data sources?”

A final step in the process would be follow-up to make sure that issues/concerns are addressed then documented, and necessary changes take place.

The following are my recommendations for these evaluations once they are sent to the Division Directors and Curriculum Coordinators. I see this as the accountability piece.

1. If the evaluation is fine with no problematic issues the Curriculum Coordinator signs it and gives to the instructor and files a copy for his/herself.

2. If there are issues (concerns) that need to be addressed the Curriculum Coordinator schedules an appointment with the instructor and reviews the evaluation pointing out problem areas and requests clarification about what may have been the problem from the instructors point of view. Once the issue is clarified then Curriculum Coordinator and Instructor create (write) an action plan that specifically addresses the issue of concern and plans for a solution. Both sign the action plan.

3. Both instructor and CC keep a copy of the evaluation and action plan.

4. After the next student evaluation of the instructor (following semester) the latest evaluation is checked against the previous one to see if improvements were made in that area of concern. If they were CC signs off on it and gives to the instructor and keeps a copy for him/herself.

5. If significant improvements were not made in the second evaluation the situation is handed over to Division Director of that area for review.

Title III Project Director Don Staub and I have followed up with Dr.’s Abbie Brown and William Sugar, Program Directors of the Instructional Technology Program at East Carolina University from our initial distance learning brainstorming session held for our DL Pioneers last month. We have discussed doing a Distance Learning Forum in Joslyn Hall sometime possibly in April with Dr. Brown and/or Sugar moderating that forum that will address the key issues and concerns our faculty, staff and students have concerning the pro’s and con’s of distance education.

For the next 6 weeks I will be assisting Pre-Ah and our QAP content specialists in getting these 25 online courses evaluated and all the data entered electronically into a data base. Yes…it’s going to be a busy Spring Semester. I am also teaching 3 Photography classes in-between all these initiatives. Wheew!

Patrick Keough
Director of Distance Learning

Hitting the Ground Running!

The Distance Learning team hit the ground running this short week before the Spring semester kicks in. We have a great deal on our plate for Spring 08. Two of our biggest projects will be peer evaluating every online class offered at CCC in the next 12 months and setting up an online tutoring service for our students. We have evaluated 12 online courses to date and learned a great deal during that initial peer review process. Now that most of our faculty have been trained (Blackboard Boot Camp) in online teaching methods it’s time to take a good hard look at the courses (technically and for sound instructional design) they are teaching. This is a SACS requirement and at the top of our priority list.

I’m also recruiting some adjunct teachers to participate in our distance learning tutoring initiative. One of our veteran online adjunct instructors Lisa Taylor has agreed to assist me in getting this service off the ground. Brad Nicolajsen is working with me on the technical end. We are planning on using MS Instant Messenger and Blackboard discussion boards to tutor our students in Math, English and possibly Science and History. I hope to begin training our tutors be the end of January and begin offering a scaled down online tutoring service for selective courses by Mid- February. This is a service that we hope will grow incrementally as we market it and get faculty and students aware that it is available to them.

Meetings have been scheduled with our CCC DL Pioneers. One major goal I’m asking both teams to accomplish is to produce a minimum of 2 new podcasts and/or videos this semester. These can either be course orientations, lessons and/or demonstrations. Many of the Phase II team were given new laptops and digital recorders thanks to the Title III Grant and it’s important that we continue incorporating viable rich media content into our online classes and show that we are putting this new equipment to good use.

Pre-Ah and I are planning some new distance learning workshops for Spring. 08. Some of the topics will be producing Jing videos, advanced instructional design techniques, producing enhanced podcasts and using Instant Messenger in online courses for office hours.

There are also two Distance Learning Conferences coming up in the months ahead. One in Durham next month, and the other in New Bern in April. I plan to present at both conferences and will be bringing many of our DL Pioneers to at least one of these conferences.

September DL Report

• Distance Learning Phase II Pioneers

We had a meeting of all Phase I and II DL Pioneers on Friday August 31st and discusses the parameters for their commitment to the online course development / retooling initiatives. Each Phase II Pioneer identified the courses they would be developing and/or upgrading in addition to letting me know their professional development needs. Letters went out to all Phase II online faculty outlining their individual goals and objectives for course upgrades and also summarizing what each person committed to. Phase II DL Pioneers have been asked to document all work done for this project and send my monthly status reports that will be posted to the Title III Blog. First status reports are due by October 5th. Shannon Cotnam, Mary Walton (Phase I) and Buddy Miller have requested funds to attend distance learning conferences (workshops) and are being subsidized for this professional development training.

• Distance Learning & online services (e.g. counseling services, tutoring services)

A sub-committee of the The Distance Learning Advisory Team met last month and brainstormed innovative ways we could enhance our online student services. Mark Johnson designed a counseling web page that we added to our Distance Learning pages. We also added the Bookstore, Academic Support Services, Student Handbook, CCC Library, Course catalog and Class Schedules, TRIO and student e-mail information and linked all these to the main page (portal) of Blackboard so our online student have a direct link to all CCC student services that have a web presence. Don, Fran and I have been researching an online tutoring service called SMARTHINKING and after hearing very good things from a variety of colleges we had a meeting on September 24th with David Cashwell the VP for SMARTHINKING and he gave us all the details and pricing information for implementing online tutoring at CCC. This initiative is on hold until we can identify viable funding options.

• A Quality Assurance Plan (Standards) for online delivery

Now that the DL Team have trained our online faculty through the BB Boot Camps the next step for CCC is to move forward with a Peer Review process in order to insure ALL our online courses are not only technically sound and using effective instructional design methods, but are teaching appropriate course content. This will be the job of the content specialists identified for each curriculum area. I have collected some Quality Assurance Plans (Standards) for Online learning from other schools and am in the process of creating one for CCC. We hope to incrementally begin reviewing our online course offerings soon after I get a plan approved by Dr. Emory and I would imagine the Academic Division Directors. The goal here is to insure all online course content, requirements and quality are comparable to traditional classroom courses.

We are also conducting a Survey of all our online students to gather information concerning why student may be taking online courses over day and evening classes and requesting a range of feedback on our online courses in general.

Surveying DL students (Fran) 77 online students have taken this survey so far.

Patrick Keough
Director of Distance Learning