Web Based Learning for the Adult Credit Diploma Program
Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
Hartford Adult Education ,Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Attendees: Rich Tariff, Fred Shiffer, Sandy Callahan, Adina O’Connor, Karen O’Connell, Beverly LeConche, Ajit Gopalakrishnan, Marc Potish, Gretchen Hayden, Ed Klonoski
· Hartford’s Interim Director, Hose Colon-Rivas stopped in to introduce himself. He was unable to stay for the meeting but looks forward to attending Advisory Board meetings in the future.
· The VHS Symposium is coming up and according to their RFP promise, there will be several attendees from Hartford, New London and Vernon going. The CTDLC will be sending Marc Potish, their Project Liaison as well as Ajit.
· Facilitator/ Mentor Training Debrief
The Facilitator Training was well attended and went well. There were some initial misimpressions that this training would help teachers with the facilitation of the Online Orientation Course. The purpose of the training was to clarify the facilitator/mentor role and to review and the differences in this role from that of the instructor. Focuses on the concepts of a remote teacher, whose integrity must be supported by the facilitator as well as the differences in the facilitation of a synchronous, on-ground course were discussed.
· Orientation Course
The Online Orientation Course is in heavy use. Too much revision now would not be effective. We are gathering notes and will collect survey data prior to the next revision. There are some requests to create an asynchronous experience and some more interactive activities. Hartford had six dropouts from their class of 21 students. Boredom was an issue. There general impression right now is that the course is too easy.
The CTDLC has created a “Module 4” as a Discussion Board for teachers and Mentor/Facilitators to share ideas. Participants will be enrolled in this discussion board by the CTDLC and the discussion will be moderated by the CTDLC.
· Edgardo Ramirez stopped in to introduce himself. He happy to be teaching the Physical Science class in January.
· Presentation at CAACE Conference
It is time to begin to disseminate the project process and results. The CAACE Conference on March 18-19 will be our stage. CTDLC will have a large presence. Ed will give a keynote address. We will have more than one presentation and we will advertise in the conference program. Presentation considerations include 1) the Online Orientation Course 2) the four Courses 3) the project logistics.
We must be mindful that new people asking about the program do not know what has been going on. Updates for the community are very important.
Next meetings: October 29th (Vernon’s new lab at Rockville High School) 26th.