Welcome to Our New Dean of Academic Instruction!

We at CCCOnline are very pleased to introduce our new Dean of Academic Instruction, Terry Reeves. Terry has been with CCCOnline since last fall as interim Dean of Academic Instruction, and when given the opportunity to stay with us, she was excited to accept.

Terry has an extensive teaching and leadership background with the Colorado Community College System; she was Math faculty at Red Rocks Community College for 18 years, mentored adjunct Math faculty for 10 years, served as Department Chair for five years, and was faculty adviser for RRCC’s Transfer Program to the Colorado School of Mines. Terry also served as state discipline Chair, representing Math for all system colleges, and in addition, served a four-year tenure as Co-Chair for RRCC’s HLC Accreditation Committee. Her faculty experience includes teaching with CCCOnline for several years before RRCC created its own online Math department.

At CCCOnline, “the quality is so high and the standards so high,” she says, “much higher than people realize.” She adds CCCOnline, beyond being devoted to online education, is devoted to all-around academic excellence, and teaching for us is an active, dynamic, and professionally rewarding experience.

Terry looks forward to collaborating with our state community colleges, impacting the quality of online courses system-wide. In her role as Academic Dean, she continues to strengthen this partnership, representing and advocating CCCOnline as a valuable resource to the entire community college system.

Terry earned her Bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University and her Master’s in Applied Math from the University of Colorado. She and her family are huge Denver Broncos fans.

Your Photo Here

Karla Schorzman, Arts & Humanities Division Chair, is guest speaker this week.

In addition to Karen’s thoughts about student photos, what about instructor photos?

We’re all taught in Getting Started and D2LE that our picture, or a photo of something that represents us or our interests, goes into our instructor widget/profile. Would there ever be reasons for you to NOT post a personal picture? What are the ramifications of forgetting to post or update a photo on overall student experience with your course? Does posting a photo have any benefits in online learning or the overall student experience? How so/why not?

-Karla Schorzman

Student Profile Images

Karen Kaemmerling, Social Science Division Chair, is guest speaker again this week. 

Is this your student?

Many of our students want to feel a connection to their fellow classmates and instructor.  One way to build a sense of community among your students is to include a profile image of yourself that will appear in the Discussions and Classlist, and to encourage your students to include images in their own profiles.  Here is the link from the student wiki to help students set up their Profile Pictures: http://at.ccconline.org/students/wiki/How_do_I_change_my_Profile_picture%3F

Eventually, you may have a student use a picture that is inappropriate.  When you contact that student, refer him or her to the Student Handbook Mutual Respect Policy at http://at.ccconline.org/students/wiki/Student_Handbook#Student_Handbook_-_Inside_the_Classroom. In such a case, you should also communicate with your Program Lead and Division Chair.

-Karen Kaemmerling

Quality Time: Do You Accept Late Work?

Karen Kaemmerling, Social Science Division Chair, is guest speaker this week.  Please feel free to join the conversation in the companion Community thread!

Each semester this is a question that we are all likely to get from a student.  Early on I decided the personal decision for me would be “yes,” because I wasn’t comfortable hearing all the life issues that come up for students.  I did not want to be responsible for deciding between a family facing a sick child in the hospital crisis and a dying parent and whether a student should get an extension. 

For me, I accept all written assignments up to one week late with no questions or explanations needed.  This takes care of all technical issues, personal problems, and “stuff” that our adult learners face.  After the one week, each assignment loses a certain number of points for lateness, but I still accept all work up to the final day of class.

However, I do lock discussions on the close date and bar any additional participation.  To me these are participation grades and essential for the collaboration/communication piece between students with each other and me about the content of the course.

While I’ve had this policy for my classes in place for numerous semesters, last spring I received a lot of feedback from a variety of students who commented things like “Even though I didn’t take advantage of the late assignment grace period, it was a relief knowing I could be a day late if my child didn’t get better.” Or “I really appreciated the grace period and feel it helped me ultimately be successful in this course and learn what I was supposed to.”

In some cumulative courses like Math, a late policy like this could be very troublesome.  However, each CCCOnline instructor might have a slight variation to what I’ve described, and no matter what your policy is, it should be outlined in the syllabus and advertised especially at the beginning of the course with students.  In the Cultivating Excellence Discussion in the CCCOnline Community, please share your late policy, how it works for you, and what your experiences with late work and students have been, and any other ideas you have on this topic.

-Karen Kaemmerling

Quality Time is a series of posts concerning course quality issues, best practices, and/or CCCOnline policy.

Course Readiness for Summer

*Below is a reminder from our Faculty News Blog.*

As you prepare your Summer courses, please remember to follow the Course Readiness Checklist.

 

Note the Checklist now reflects the requirement that all faculty use their cccs.edu email addresses for student contact outside of D2L. (Please remember to update your email address in both your Syllabus and your Instructor Widget.) Thanks!