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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: No need for a password, just enter your name after you click the link. 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.
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 January 11: Elluminate Recording ================== January 15: Elluminate Recording January 15: ITV in the Clark College Cannell Library 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 Join this Elluminate session* about Open Education Resources hosted by Cindy Foreman
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 SBCTC has secured one large grant covering four separate projects under the heading of Washington State Student Completion Initiative. All four projects are tied together under the heading of Retention and Student Success. From the eLearning perspective we fit into the first project – Online Course Access and Success. The goal is to redesign 80 courses to use Open Educational Resources (OER) to improve affordability, accessibility, and student success. The courses were selected on the basis of High Enrollment and Low Completion, with predominantly young students who are from lower income households. That is who the Gates Foundation is most interested in helping. He has targeted Community Colleges in four different states with similar programs. There is a list of 81 courses, 80 existing courses and 1 proposed course. Money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will fund the first 25 courses, Ford Foundation and State money is being used to add the additional 56 courses. That list may be modified between now and the end of the calendar year. The basics = redesign these 81 courses so that they are taught using digital resources available for little or no cost to the students. Those redesigned courses will then be made available to the world-wide web. Instructors and students from anywhere in the world will be able to access these course materials to use as they see fit. Our own faculty members within the state of Washington will be able to access these course materials and use them as they see fit in online, hybrid or F2F classes. There will be room for instructional designers, librarians, eLearning staff, bookstore administrators and others to participate in the redesign project alongside the faculty members who are chosen. The process for determining who will participate in the grant has not been finalized. There will be a series of informational sessions held via Elluminate over the next month. These sessions are open to whoever is interested in listening and/or participating. (If you have not ever used Elluminate please review the information posted by Scott and take advantage of a little advance training.) Washington State Student Completion Initiative – Course Redesign Project “town hall” meetings:
Elluminate recordings for all meetings: Open Course Library Wiki
Our version, called “Elluminate Live” and provided free through the State of Washington, includes an audio component, a typed chat area, and an interactive whiteboard for drawing, showing images or displaying PowerPoint presentations. You can share your desktop or demonstrate something in a software application, use breakout rooms for collaborative learning, or take advantage of the quiz manager or polling feature. You can also do synchronized web browsing, transfer files, and (for math and science) there’s a graphing calculator and a math symbol library. Although Elluminate has been well established as a virtual meeting and collaboration tool, some of Clark’s own faculty, such as Willy Cushwa, have been experimenting with its use as an online classroom as well. It seems to be a hit with his students. Sally Keely has also remarked on the useful features of this specialty software and her ideas for increasing its usage beyond online office hours. Although the video feature isn’t always recommended for bandwidth reasons, many of the other features seem to captivate and engage most users. Generally, the moderator uses a mic or headset and the whiteboard area while the participants listen, observe, and use the chat area, responding to the moderator by typing or raising their “hands” to ask questions. Though these sessions are conducted synchronously, Elluminate sessions can also be recorded and made available later. For those students or participants with less technical experience, there is a five minute orientation available on the Elluminate website. Elluminate is sophisticated, yet straightforward to use. I encourage all faculty and administrators at Clark to go through the online moderator training and discover this new tool. As a moderator with audio capabilities, a headset may be required, unless your computer is already equipped with a built-in mic and speakers – contact ITS (x2425) to purchase any necessary equipment. The links below should help get you going… After you complete the training, just contact me (scoffie@clark.edu) and I will set you up with your own meeting space or classroom where you may join the ranks of the Elluminati! Check your computer for technical requirements Five minute orientation for student participants or meeting attendees
For meeting or classroom moderator training, sign up for the two live training sessions using the link below. The sessions are:
Sign up for free training and select a time you would like to attend
Once you are comfortable with the basics, you may be interested in some of the more robust features: Additional documents and recordings for advanced training of moderators |
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Here in eLearning, we often consider the possible effects any disaster could have on regularly held classes and the demands it could put on Blackboard and the other software systems we maintain. As Clark’s eLearning Systems Administrator, I have seen the use of Blackboard increase dramatically, as our faculty discover its potential. However, Elluminate has not seen the increase in usage which would reflect its capability, especially with the current budget situation curtailing travel for meetings, our universal drive to conserve fuel and energy, and the latest news focusing attention on a Swine Flu pandemic.