Distance Learning Advisory Committee Meetings

Agenda / Minutes

Distance Learning Advisory Committee
Date of Agenda Posting: / 11/26/2013
Meeting Date: / 12/6/2013
Meeting Start Time: / 2:00 PM
Meeting Actual Start Time: / 2:00 PM
Meeting Location: / Knight 0028
Meeting Secretary : / Beth Anish

Member Attendance

Committee Member Name / Title / Present / Notes
Jim Glickman / ENGL / Y
Elizabeth Morais / LANG / N
Bill Pellicio / HMNS / Y
David Alfano / PSYC / Y
Cindy Hansen / BIOL / N
Sara Cichon / OFTD / N
Jen Hurrell / Rehab / Y
Martha Vigneault / REHAB / N
Tony Basilico / COMI / Y
Francine Luizzi Bench / Allied Health--Dental / N
Marla Wallace / Library / Y
Maggie Burke / DL Coordinator / Y
Jeanne Mullaney / Assessment Coordinator / Y
Donna Mesolella / Academic Affairs Coordinator / Y
Dean Maureen McGarry / Dean HARS / Y
Becky Sheldon / IT / Y
MaryAdeleCombe / IT / Y
Beth Anish / ENGL / Y
Karen Allen / COMI / Y
Ben Leveillee / IT / Y
Helen Ducharme / Disabsility Services / Y
Jude Tomasino / OES / Y
Guest: Cathy Tessier / OES

Agenda

Agenda Item 1 / Notes on Discussion
  • Approval of last meeting's minutes
/ Tony B motioned to approve; Jeanne M seconded. Minutes from 10/30 approved.
Agenda Item 2 / Notes on Discussion
  • Enrollment Services/Verification of Enrollment
/ Verification of attendance poses a problem for the online students. Problem for them to come into campus to fill out form if they are dropped. Can we have them do something online? Cathy Tessier from Enrollment Servicessaid :we will have to think what the alternate process would be and ask questions of the Bursar. Could it be as simple as them sending form back to instructor electronically (perhaps by scan or fax with signature)? Instructor would have to get form back to OES. Perhaps it can be done in same way as we electronically do an override. MaryAdele asked: is this a FERPA issue? Should it be done through Banner vs. e-mail? Cathy T said no because it is only directory information on the form. She will look into the financial piece of handling VoE the way we do electronic overrides.
Another OES issue: students don’t realize sometimes that they are in hybrid courses. They go by color code of the campus on course schedule. Cathy T. said perhaps some sort of note could be attached to registration, but color coding is an IT issue. Becky S: IT can do anything to schedule, but what will student notice? Hybrid courses tied to the campus where the face to face instruction happens on schedule. Becky: we could look at other colleges and see how they are differentiating these different types of courses on their schedules. Karen A.: we could have a pop up that stops students before they register for hybrid. Becky will look into it.
Agenda Item 3 / Notes on Discussion
  • Subcommittee for quality rubric
/ Quality Matters is a lengthy process and costly. It is voluntary. We could probably come up with some way to ensure DL course quality as a committee. Maggie asked if we would like a subcommittee to work on this.
Currently our faculty are required to have training on Learning Management System and complete online pedagogy course.
Discussion moved to why DL is being asked to come up with quality rubric when face-to-face classes do not. Perhaps we need to ask Academic Affairs what the reasoning is behind asking this of DL. Jeanne M. suggested DL could be leaders in considering course quality. Jen H. mentioned skepticism of perceived quality of online courses as possible reason we’re being asked to do this. Maggie: another reason is DL numbers for course completion are not as good as face to face.
Jen H. talked about the Rehab dept.’s extensive evaluation system. Rehab does faculty development plans based on course evaluations. Students also evaluate course on every objective listed on syllabus.
We discussed the idea of duplicating efforts. MaryAdele said QM has a great product. Tony thought we are already doing the SRI online. Is more necessary? We’re going to spend time and money to do voluntary evaluations of courses that are probably the best courses online anyway (the thinking is those who will volunteer to have their courses evaluated are probably the strongest instructors anyway).
David A. says directive to assess quality should come from Chairs. MaryAdele says from VP—either way the thought is this should be something that comes from above (rather than from our committee).
Bill P.: this is a faculty development issue.
Karen: hard to base it all on student evaluations when some students aren’t prepared for the online course environment. Discussion was then around how we ensure that students are computer proficient enough to successfully take online courses. Marla W. suggested an interactive “are online courses right for you?” form, where students have to download a file, etc. Bill suggested having student mentors.
Maggie: online student support module will be piloted for Computer Studies in 2014, possibly with students serving as mentors for other students. The format for the module has not been determined yet. This will provide help with Blackboard, Pearson products for Computer Studies.
Jen H. suggested a video with former DL students: what did it take to be successful online, share tips, etc. MaryAdele concurs: have orientation module uploaded into every course (for instructors who want it). David A. does a required face-to-face orientation for his courses (1.5 hours at beginning of semester).
Maggie: Would anyone like to work on this subcommittee on quality assurance in DL courses? MaryAdele, Jeanne, Maggie, Bill, and Jen volunteered.
Agenda Item 4 / Notes on Discussion
  • New DL for Students Website
/ Survey completed by 13 students who visited the page. They are looking for orientation materials (1/3 of them): how online learning works at CCRI; they are also looking to enroll in online courses. Maggie showed a template of what website will be like: simplified menu, three main options highlighted: orientation materials, enrolling in online courses, support services (how to get to library, etc.). What we still need is a Frequently Asked Questions page. Volunteers for subcommittee? Maggie has already pulled FAQ’s off of other DL websites of colleges in the region.
Beth, Marla and Karen volunteered to work on FAQ’s. MaryAdele will also ask Yan Huang (who fields Blackboard helpdesk questions), if he wants to join this subcommittee.
Agenda Item 5 / Notes on Discussion
- Code of Conduct for Online Courses / Code of Conduct is spelled out in student handbook for the college as a whole, but we need to look at it and see how it applies to DL. Come up with something to put into all of our courses, reminder that Code of Conduct applies in DL environment, including discussion board. Are there any special issues that apply to DL? David A. will serve on committee to look into this as works on Student Discipline committee. Michael Cunningham will work with David and Maggie on this. Committee will work on statement that all DL faculty could include in their courses. MaryAdele: appropriate use of technology is also involved in this and covers electronic communications; she will serve as a resource to this committee. Include in recommendations: set it so students cannot delete their own posts.
Agenda Item 6 / Notes on Discussion
- SRI Instruments for DL and Hybrid Courses / Committee to revisit the DL SRI, come up with recommendations for both DL and hybrid form. We don’t have a hybrid form at all, and we decided in the spring that DL one could be improved. David A., Tony and Maggie will work on this committee. Maggie will ask Jeanne if she also wants to serve. Peter Woodberry would have to evaluate SRI; Maggie told Peter we would be happy to go through validation process if we could get a new instrument.
New online version of SRI is customizable up to a certain number of questions. We can’t remove questions. We shouldn’t have more than 20 questions. In creating new form, we should try to eliminate redundant questions and add custom questions to get at whether course met objectives (suggestion is to either customize by course or by department).
Agenda Item 7 / Notes on Discussion
- Request for Accommodations form / It would violate FERPA to send accommodations form through e-mail, so could we put it on MyCCRI? That page would only be accessible by the student, the Disability Svcs person, and the faculty member involved. Faculty would need to be able to edit accommodations as necessary. Helen: we would have to somehow guarantee the student’s confidentiality. Space Mountain is note/comment software used by DSS office, a subset of Banner; perhaps we could use this. Becky: will look into Banner’s possibilities around this issue.
Agenda Item 8 / Notes on Discussion
- Governance as Relates to DL / Is there a way to get people back on the committee whom we lost, who were working on sub-committee projects or were active members? We don’t have representatives from Business, Nursing, etc. Donna M: they are elected positions. Some divisions maxed out on number of members they can have. Maggie will send an e-mail to people to see if they want to come back for subcommittee work. MaryAdele: anyone can come to meetings; they just can’t vote. Maggie: governance will be reevaluated in the Spring. Can we form subcommittee to get our voices heard on concerns over how governance committees are formed? Jim G, MaryAdele and possibly Jeanne will be on this subcommittee (Maggie will ask Jeanne); will gather people’s impressions on what works and what might need to be changed.
Agenda Item 9 / Notes on Discussion
- Reviewing Research Articles / Suggestion of Dean McGarry that we stay up on current research in DL. We could do it as a reading club. People could volunteer to read articles and report back to full committee. Ben would like to be involved in this or take a lead on it. He could put materials on a WordPress site, research and popular articles on DL. Others could contribute. David A. will ask Ray Kilduff, who has researched this recently. Does this overlap with Faculty Forum? DL committee members could take turns posting on Faculty Forum and starting discussion there. Dean McGarry: we are hybrid by meeting in person, too. We could discuss these at our meetings in person. Maggie: if you see something related to DL you would like to share, post it on Forum. Write to Maggie if you would like to do an article for the next meetings (February, April).

Meeting Action Items

Action / Assigned To / Deadline
Ask VP Lamontagne what quality issues are of concern to administration? Would our recommendation have support at institutional level? / Maggie
Create FAQ for new DL student website / Subcommittee (Beth, Marla, Karen and possibly Yan from IT)
Ask Yan if he wants to join FAQ subcommittee / MaryAdele
Bring IT related issues to ATAC on Friday / Maggie
Look into Banner’s options for Verification of Enrollment form and for coding Hybrid courses (pending approval by ATAC) / Becky
Ask Jeanne M. if she would like to be on SRI and governance committees / Maggie
Write to Maggie if you would like to read and report on a DL article for next semester’s meetings (February, April) / Anyone interested

Meeting End

Meeting Schedule End: / 4:00
Meeting Actual End: / 4:00
Next Meeting Date: / TBD
Next Meeting Time: / TBD
Next Meeting Location: / TBD