The eLog

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 15^th 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

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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

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.

Executive Summary

Full text of Grant

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.

Redesign Courses

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:

• Wednesday, November 4: 3:00 – 4:30pm
• Monday, November 9: 10:00 – 11:30am
• Tuesday, November 17: 1:00 – 2:30pm
• Friday, December 4: 2:00 – 3:30pm

Elluminate recordings for all meetings:  Open Course Library Wiki