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By Cindy, on August 31st, 2010, 11:34 am
It is official, the new LMS for Clark College is Moodle Joule hosted by Moodlerooms. The eLearning staff along with a small pilot group of Clark faculty dedicated their summer months to learning the new LMS. We are now ready to introduce the rest of our campus community to Moodle Joule, beginning with informational sessions at Fall Orientation, workshops for eLearning faculty, and approximately 12 live fall classes taught by the pilot group during fall quarter.
The LMS Migration
Faculty Training Plan
Between fall 2010 and spring 2011, eLearning will present three phases of Moodle workshops in defined stages:
The first stage will take place fall quarter. The fall quarter training is designed for current Clark College online/hybrid faculty. A faculty member who has taught online or hybrid for Clark College using Blackboard prior to winter 2011 and is identified to teach online or hybrid courses for Clark College in the 2010-2011 academic year qualifies as a course migrator. Three phases of Moodle training will be available to migrating faculty during fall quarter.
Phase I: Strategies for Moving from Blackboard to Moodle.
Phase II: Developing Courses in Moodle Joule: hands-on computer workshop emphasizing tool training. Faculty will receive their Moodle course shells and login information during this workshop.
Phase III: Teaching with Moodle Joule: online workshop emphasizing student engagement and retention.
*Each of the phases is approximately 3 hours in length; flexible scheduling is available upon request.
Migrating Faculty can register now for Phase I, II, and III Workshops:
eLearning Faculty – Click here to register for Fall Quarter Moodle Workshops
The second stage will begin winter quarter (January 2011). Winter and spring 2011 training is designed for faculty who are new to online teaching and faculty who use the LMS to enhance their face-to-face courses. Phases I and II are strongly recommended for all users.
Blackboard will remain available throughout the academic year. The migration process will be complete on June 30, 2011.
By Cindy, on August 17th, 2010, 10:30 am
I wanted to pass along this job announcement as a follow up to early announcements about the Open Course Library Project of the Washington State Student Completion Initiative (a.k.a. the Gates Grant) . The project is underway and a project manager is needed. Clark College participants in the project are: Kathy Chatfield in her role of Instructional Designer, and Travis Kibota as course re-designer for Microbiology.
The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) invites applications from qualified individuals for the position of Open Education Project Manager.
SBCTC is seeking a visionary “Open Education Project Manager” to join the SBCTC team. This critical, full-time position will provide active leadership and expertise in managing open education projects. This position is preferably based in Washington State (State Board has office locations in Bellevue, Olympia and Spokane), though qualified out-of-state candidates will be considered and are strongly encouraged to apply. This position is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which will last two years with the possibility of funding extensions thereafter.
The annual compensation for this full-time position is $60,000. Washington State has a generous benefit package (health, dental and life insurance, retirement, and an optional deferred compensation program). This recruitment will be ongoing until the position is filled. First screening of applications will begin on Monday, September 20, 2010. To ensure consideration, return your completed materials by 5 p.m. Friday, September 17, 2010.
For more information about this position and the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, visit http://www.sbctc.ctc.edu, or contact SBCTC’s Human Resource Office at (360) 704-4301.
Please feel free to share this position announcement with anyone who might be interested in an exciting 2 to 3 year eLearning position in the Pacific Northwest.
By Cindy, on June 11th, 2010, 10:50 am
What’s the one tool every faculty member should have in their instructional tool box?
(Here’s a hint: it’s easy-to-use, and highly effective, for course design and review…)
It’s Quality Matters! The eLearning department at Tacoma Community College has created this well-produced 9 minute video about Quality Matters. Grab a cup of coffee and take the time to watch every minute of it!
(click for video) Enjoy the video!
Although QM was designed for review of online courses, the QM review rubric is quite helpful for designing face-to-face courses, as well.
You will learn about:
· QM Faculty Learning Communities
· How individual colleges are using QM
· Why we’re using QM in Washington State’s Open Course Library Project
· What makes QM effective in designing and reviewing online courses
· Using the QM rubric
Everyone in the CTC system may use the one page, condensed, QM rubric, which is posted on the State Board website. Also, each campus has 50 copies of the full length, annotated rubric.
Want to learn more about Quality Matters?
Contact Boyoung Chae, bchae@sbctc.edu or 360.704.1011. Boyoung would be happy to answer any questions and help you use QM!
At Clark College contact Kathy Chatfield, Senior Instructional Designer and QM Master Reviewer, kchatfield@clark.edu.
By Brendan, on March 26th, 2010, 1:19 pm
 Spokane Community College Campus Due to increasing demand for the Open Textbook Workshop in Seattle, there will now be another workshop held at Spokane Community College. The workshop will be on April 22th, starts at 10:00 am until 3:00pm. Lunch will be included.
To register, you must sign up for the Open Textbook Advocates and Trainers Ning, then join the Spokane WA Cohort Group to officially register for this workshop.
By Brendan, on March 15th, 2010, 10:41 am
Be at your computers on March 18, at 3-4:30, there will be an Elluminate session held to study the instructional design tool: Quality Matters.
Here is the Elluminate link. (just type in your name as you do not need a password)
https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/launch/meeting.jnlp?password=M.CB2CB2664979AE8F3065444E874D4E
By Cindy, on March 11th, 2010, 3:08 pm
There has been a slight change in policy here in eLearning, which will affect the date that Blackboard course shells are made available to faculty each quarter. Our team has studied the reasoning behind the original model and the technical aspects involved, and we’ve come to the conclusion that an earlier shell build date would be worth trying since this would greatly benefit our faculty. The goal is to make the upcoming quarter’s shells available to faculty during finals week of the current quarter so that prep work can be done before the quarter break. Students will not be added to the shells until the mid-break enrollments change, as usual. As we assess the process results we may decide to adjust the shell build date policy again. You will see the modification reflected in our Faculty Blackboard Planner page and in Scott Coffie’s Systems Administrator quarterly email announcements as we implement this change, effective immediately.
By Brendan, on March 5th, 2010, 10:01 am
North Seattle College is hosting a Open Textbook Workshop on April 20, 2010, from 10-3, with lunch included. Come and join the effort in making textbooks more affordable. Become an advocate and trainer for Open Textbooks.
This event is sponsored by the Community College Open Textbook Project and The Washington State Board of Community And Technical Colleges (SBCTC) and free for all who want to attend. SBCTC is also offering to pay for mileage of those who are traveling more than 50 Miles to attend the event.
Advocates and Trainers will learn how to:
- Foster interest in open textbooks
- Assist faculty with discovering, selecting, and adopting open textbooks
- Assist students in choosing a format (online, downloaded, printed, bound)
- Work with all the stakeholders on campus including bookstore, print
shop, library, and administration
- Provide feedback to the authors and educational community
- Plan, market, and deliver an adoption workshop
- Find textbook usage and costs on your campus
In addition to travel reimbursement, Advocates and Trainers will receive a $1,500 stipend to assist in their development, as well as to present a faculty workshop about Adopting Open Textbooks at their local college campus.
To register for the Seattle workshop and for information on becoming an Advocate and Trainer, and locations for other workshops please visit http://opentextbookadvocatetrainers.ning.com/.
By Brendan, on March 2nd, 2010, 2:35 pm
Get some practice using the collaborative online web conferencing tool, Elluminate. There is a practice session, hosted by Shoreline Community College, happening on Wednesday, March 3, from 2-3 pm. Connect from your computer by clicking this Elluminate session link:
https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/launch/meeting.jnlp?password=M.CB2CB2664979AE8F3065444E874D4E
No need for a password, just enter your name after you click the link.
By Scott, on February 11th, 2010, 5:27 pm
eLearning has a new resource available on Smart Penguin for students, faculty, and staff. Although Smart Penguin provides the solutions to, or the prevention of, most technical issues that Clark College Blackboard users may experience, things may still go awry. To help students and faculty get back to their online coursework more quickly, the tech support team in the eLearning Department now provides a system called Tech Ticket, which can be used to submit the details of a technical issue. In a series of short questions about their computing environment, online users can quickly convey some of the important keys needed for an accurate diagnosis. Tech Ticket then allows direct communication with eLearning tech support for improved collaboration and information exchange to aid a swift resolution. You can find the link to file a Tech Ticket in the sidebar on Smart Penguin’s main post page, among our links at the bottom of that page, or in the following post on Smart Penguin:
That’s the Ticket!
By Scott, on January 24th, 2010, 9:26 pm
Course Export and Import Tools
The best tools for saving a personal copy of a course are Export and Import. Keep in mind that these tools will not store or restore the students and their work, only the course content and structure. The following are important points to consider:
- Exporting a course creates a downloadable package of the course content (compressed .zip file) that can later be imported into a Blackboard shell
- Because the exported file can be imported as the whole course or as selected parts of the course through Import Package, it’s recommended that you select all areas when exporting a course
- The saved file can only be viewed by being imported into Blackboard
- Importing does not overwrite any existing information in the destination course in the following areas: Content, Discussion Boards, Gradebook Items, Groups, Tests, Surveys, and Pools. Imported information in these areas is added to existing information in the destination course.
- Importing does overwrite Course Settings (if selected) in the destination course (other than the Course ID and Menu Settings).
Course Copy Tool
Although the Course Copy tool doesn’t provide a personal copy of each course, which could later be moved to another Blackboard installation or reimported, it is the most common method for transferring courses from quarter to quarter or section to section. This wizard based tool won’t overwrite any existing content, so it’s easy to unintentionally duplicate items, unless copying into an empty shell. Use of the Recycle tool can help clean out excess content when necessary. To help with this process, here is a short video about how to use the Course Copy tool:
Course Copy Process
Download Gradebook Tool
There is an important distinction to make regarding the separate nature of student enrollments and Blackboard course content. It’s easy to assume that copying a course also copies the enrolled students and their coursework, however that is not the case. If the students are no longer registered at Clark, they will fail to reappear when the course is restored, no matter how you save the course. This is because the enrollment database is in a constant state of flux, with only currently registered students accessible each quarter, while the Blackboard content database is more constant, only changing when faculty make adjustments to their courses. You could think of course shells as virtual classrooms which you can build, maintain, or change as you see fit. The students, however, will come and go – just as they do in the face-to-face environment… Your only record of them is what you store or have recorded in IBC. This is why it’s important to save your Gradebooks from Blackboard using the Download Gradebook tool at the end of each quarter, before I run our snapshot process and the student enrollment files change. The date that this will occur is posted in our Faculty Blackboard Planner page, as well as my end of term email announcement.
I hope that explains the options available for saving courses… Please feel free to comment or contact me in eLearning for more information.
By Cindy, on January 7th, 2010, 1:49 pm
The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) is pleased to announce the Student Completion Initiative.
Washington state community and technical colleges may submit grant proposals in one or all of the three of the following project areas: Open Course Library; Re-Thinking Pre-College Math; and I-BEST Model Expansion. All Clark College faculty members, full and part-time, are encouraged to: review the RFP, listen in on one of the Bidder’s Conferences, and explore the opportunity to participate in this important initiative.
Grant awards will be made based on a competitive process.
- Grant applications became available on January 4, 2010. Faculty Course Designer Grant
- Grant proposals are due on February 17, 2010.
- Grant awards will be made by March 18, 2010.
The number of grant awards and the grant award amounts can be found in the Student Completion Initiative Overview on the SBCTC website.
Colleges are encouraged to participate in one or more of the Bidder’s Conferences scheduled for January 11 and January 15. Both ITV and Elluminate sessions will be scheduled on both days.
Clark College ITV group session will be held in the Cannell Library Monday January 11th at 9 AM and Friday January 15th at 1:30 PM.
To participate in an Elluminate session, you will need to be at a computer with speakers and a microphone. Elluminate sessions will be recorded and can be accessed on the Student Completion Initiative web site after the live sessions.
Bidder’s Conference Schedule:
January 11: ITV in the Clark College Cannell Library
9:00 am Introductions and Purpose
9:15 am Open Course Library: Cable Green
10:15 am Break
10:30 am Re-Thinking Pre-College Math: Bill Moore
11:15 am Break
11:30 am I-BEST Model Expansion: Tina Bloomer
12:15 pm Conclusion
January 11: Elluminate Recording
1:30 pm Introductions and Purpose
1:45 pm Open Course Library: Cable Green
2:45 pm Break
3:00 pm Re-Thinking Pre-College Math: Bill Moore
3:45 pm Break
4:00 pm I-BEST Model Expansion: Tina Bloomer
4:45 pm Conclusion
==================
January 15: Elluminate Recording
9:00 am Introductions and Purpose
9:15 am Open Course Library: Cable Green
10:15 am Break
10:30 am Re-Thinking Pre-College Math: Bill Moore
11:15 am Break
11:30 am I-BEST Model Expansion: Tina Bloomer
12:15 pm Conclusion
January 15: ITV in the Clark College Cannell Library
1:30 pm Introductions and Purpose
1:45 pm Open Course Library: Cable Green
2:45 pm Break
3:00 pm Re-Thinking Pre-College Math: Bill Moore
3:45 pm Break
4:00 pm I-BEST Model Expansion: Tina Bloomer
4:45 pm Conclusion
Please consider becoming involved in this major state-wide initiative! Additional grant documents are linked to this page under the heading Documents. Feel free to contact me in eLearning if you have questions or need assistance, if I don’t have the answers I will put you in touch with the people at SBCTC who do.
Cynthia Foreman, Associate Director of eLearning
By Scott, on January 3rd, 2010, 5:14 pm
 Faculty, please note that Clark College no longer sends paper mail to students and will now send correspondence to their Clark Gmail accounts instead. Since this includes important college information for students (registration notices, wait list information, financial aid notifications, etc.) it’s important to let them know. You can help spread the word to students and be sure they understand that these accounts must be activated to work. Also, you should know that Blackboard has these Gmail addresses entered by default (appearing with suffix @students.clark.edu, not @gmail.com) and Gmail will NOT send bounce receipts from inactivated accounts back to the sender. I’ve recently posted about this to students on the Smart Penguin Tech Blog, including the option to set up forwarding in the Clark Gmail account to their preferred email address. You may refer your students to the specific Gmail post on Smart Penguin, the Student Services Gmail website, or just send them directly to the Clark Gmail sign up page. Clark Gmail support for students can be reached at 922-2010 or gmailhelp @ students.clark.edu. If you have any general questions about the Clark Gmail accounts, please contact IT Services.
By Scott, on December 8th, 2009, 5:46 pm
We now have a new page on The eLog called, “Faculty Blackboard Planner.” …You’ll find it in the page links above. It’s a Blackboard activities calendar where you can see what dates we have planned for various events such as quarter shell availability, when to use the Blackboard Gradebook tool to safely store your grades before the snapshot process removes that information, and many other timely events, most of which I will also make reference to in the usual email notifications. I will be posting dates in this planner as soon as they become known to us here in eLearning and I hope you find it useful. As always, be sure to let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions.
By Scott, on December 2nd, 2009, 11:09 am
I often get questions from faculty about the various user roles available in Blackboard. The differences among them are mainly in the Course Control Panel accessibility. Privileges range from that of Instructor with full access, to that of Student with no Control Panel at all. Instructors have the unique ability to make courses available to students, whereas students can only participate in courses that have been made available to them and that they are enrolled in. Besides that of Instructor and Student, there are other useful roles such as Mock Student, Temporary Student, Teacher’s Assistant, Course Builder, and various organization roles.
A Mock Student is a fictitious user with a student role whose login credentials are assigned to an instructor. This can be useful for an instructor who wants to see exactly what the student sees and experiences. Once the Mock Student role is in place, it will remain throughout the course.
A Temporary or Generic Student is a temporary account I can set up for wait-listed students, by faculty request. In this role, students must be instructed by faculty to observe only and not participate, much like a wait-listed student in a face-to-face class. Several potential students may use this same account to access the course syllabus and view the assignments. After the wait-listed students have been officially added to the course, with their own accounts and associated ID’s, their class participation may begin and I will then automatically remove these temporary accounts.
The Teacher’s Assistant role has access to many of the same areas as the Instructor role… Both have full access to the Control Panel, however only the Instructor will be shown under the students’ Courses tab or through Course Search. Teacher’s Assistants also cannot change the course settings, do a course copy, or modify a course name and description. If the course is unavailable to students, they may still access the course, just as the Instructor role can.
The Course Builder role has access to most areas of the Course Control Panel, except for student grades and outcomes. It is intended for those faculty who wish to share course content with each other or for providing cohesion within departments. Course Builders can copy course content, modify settings, or change the course name and description. If the course is unavailable to students, they may still access the course.
In Blackboard Organization shells there are corresponding roles available such as Leader (which has similar privileges to the Instructor role), Organization Builder (which is comparable to the Course Builder), and Participant (which is equivalent to the Student role).
Faculty may contact me directly to request specific roles; however, to enter a class taught by someone else, you must have permission from the Course Instructor before I can proceed. The instructor can provide me with the specific information and permission by email or by phone.
By Naomi, on November 12th, 2009, 3:55 pm
Join this Elluminate session* about Open Education Resources hosted by Cindy Foreman
- Date: 11-18-09 (Wednesday)
- Time: 3:00pm (Please plan to arrive 10 minutes early)
- Location: Library Room 103 (will be via Elluminate)
- Contact Info: Brendan Pust, x2012 or bpust at clark.edu
Part 1: “Open Textbooks from an Author’s Perspective” (30 min)
Bio: Robert Beezer is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. He joined the faculty there in 1984 after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. Besides advocating for open textbooks, he is also a developer for Sage, a comprehensive open-source program for mathematics.
What motivates someone to write an open textbook? How much of the editorial and production process is within reach of an individual? How is the experience different from writing a traditional textbook? What is different about teaching from an open textbook? I will answer these questions with examples from my experiences writing and publishing a mathematics textbook, “A First Course in Linear Algebra.”
Part 2: “Another Perspective on Authoring an Open Textbook” (30 min)
Bio: David Lippman is a professor of mathematics at Pierce College Ft Steilacoom, a community college in Lakewood, WA, where he has been teaching since 2000. He is best known in the Washington community college math circle as the guy who created WAMAP.org (aka IMathAS), a free, open-source online course management and math assessment system.
I’ll discuss my journey of writing an open textbook “Math in Society,” including my motivation, how existing open textbooks guided my decisions, using my students as guinea pigs, and my experience with the bookstore. I’ll share some general thoughts on openness and collaboration in textbooks that need consistency and accuracy, and some thoughts about license selection.
*Note: For those who missed it, you may view the recording…
Webinar: Perspectives on Open Textbooks from Two WA Faculty Authors
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