What’s Your Teaching Philosophy?

Thank you for your Community responses to last week’s post!

Now that you’ve shared why you love teaching, please feel free to share your philosophy of teaching. Is your online philosophy different than your face-to-face philosophy in fundamental ways, and why?

Please post to the Cultivating Excellence discussion in the Community.

Why Do You Love to Teach Online?

We’d love to hear your answers in the Cultivating Excellence discussion in the Community.

Al Turner, 2009 CCCOnline Faculty of the Year, offers the following to get us started:

“I love teaching online because it is a personal thing for me. I get to know each of my students by our one-on-one interactions. And that means there are no students in the back of my classroom *just taking notes and not engaging.* Also, I have a passion of helping my students develop and fine-tune their critical thinking skills.”

Groundhog Says Spring is Around the Corner

Have you emerged from YOUR burrow to engage with students?

How do you establish presence in courses, and how do you encourage students to come out of their own burrows?

Tell us your favorite strategies in the appropriate discussion in the Community.

Time Savers for Students and Faculty

Last week, we posted about your welcome e-mail to students.  This week, we’d like to extend that spirit of guidance and encouragement as we list below some of CCCOnline’s time savers for students.  Feel free to communicate this information within your course:
1)      Orientation: Students who would like coaching on how to move around in their courses will benefit from the CCCOnline Orientation.  To participate, students need to self-enroll; they should click “Self-Registration” on their CCCOnline Home Page as shown here.

The Orientation is available the entire semester; it is not a credit course, it is not a required course, and it is free of charge to enrolled students.  Further information about the Orientation is here: http://at.ccconline.org/students/wiki/Orientation

2)      CCCOnline Student Wiki:

http://at.ccconline.org/students/wiki/Main_Page

In addition to providing information about the Orientation and technical support (including D2L tips), the wiki provides students with answers to CCCOnline policies.

3)      Research and Writing Toolkit:

http://at.ccconline.org/students/wiki/Academic_Resources_-_Research_and_Writing_Toolkit

Useful for instructors to recommend and for students to browse, this webliography is a set of quick links for brush-up help on research skills, avoiding plagiarism, and writing in general.

4)      The STAR Center:

The CCCOnline STAR (Student Tutoring and Resources) Center offers assistance to students enrolled in developmental courses.  Those students are automatically enrolled in the STAR Center and may visit the Center to work with a tutor, interact with peers, and get additional practice with their lessons.

One last note on time savers: this Friday (Jan. 28), we are offering an exciting new webinar for faculty:

Effective and Efficient Facilitation Online

• When: Friday, January 28, 2011 (1:00 PM - 2:30 PM - Mountain)
• Who: Lisa Marie Johnson
• What: Participants will be able to identify strategies and resources to employ when teaching multiple online courses to teach more effectively and efficiently. Participants will explore how to save time by using staff supports at CCCOnline and why it is effective to encourage learners to use home college resources and supports, the 24/7 Help Desk, and tutoring services to construct a longer lasting and stronger support system for academic success across all the learners' courses.
• Where: Online via Elluminate. Access up to 15 minutes before the start time from:
  https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008363&password=M.BCC4C488D49BCDDD645B92DBAA94D4

Composing Your Welcome E-mail to Students

Part of the Course Readiness process is for faculty to send welcome messages to students both internally, within D2L, and externally, through e-mail.  In light of this, we’d like to know: when you send your welcome messages to students at semester’s beginning, what do you think is critical to convey? 

Below are some suggestions you may include:

-Technical support information, such as tuning up the computer and logging in to the course; Help Desk contact information (888-800-9198); Orientation information
-link to Student Wiki

-checklist of “to-do” student tasks in the first week of class

-instructor’s external contact information (e-mail outside D2L, for instance)

In the CCCOnline Community, we’ve posted an excerpt of a sample welcome letter from Karen Kaemmerling, Interim Coordinator of Training and Professional Development and Social Sciences Division Chair.  Feel free to post your own there, or let us know what you include in your own student welcome message.

Save Yourself the Headache!

At the end of each term Amy Sorenson, who is Profhelp, is inundated with questions about the Grades Tool in D2L. So, in order to avoid future headaches, we asked several faculty and Amy for helpful tips and suggestions.

Here they are:

1. Change your Personal Display options so you can always see the students' grades and the Final Calculated Grade when you enter the gradebook. http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_D2L_-_Grades#Set_Personal_Display_Options.3F

2. Run the Gradebook Wizard before the term starts. Enter fake grades for the Jenny Grade student to verify your grades are totaling correctly and match your Course Syllabus-Grading and Evaluation page.http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_D2L_-_Grades#Run_the_Grades_Setup_Wizard.3F

3. Towards the end of the term don’t forget to release the Final Calculated Grade column to the students so they can see their final grade.http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_D2L_-_Grades#Release_the_Final_Calculated_Grade_to_Students.3F

If you're still struggling with the Grades Tool after using these D2L Tool pages, please use the Profhelp form located in the CCCOnline Portal.

Are you ready to start cleaning up your courses for spring?

At times the process of getting your course "duped" or copied for the upcoming term seems convoluted, but here is a brief description of that process and your role.

Prior to the term, you and your Chair determine which course/s you would like copied and potentially how many is a reasonable amount for you and the department. The Chair then completes a form that requests that course for you and the AT team processes that request. Sometimes while they are processing the dupe request, you may see an empty course shell appear in D2L, but you will know for sure when it is ready for you to look at when you receive an automated email notifying you of the course. (If you are not getting these emails, check your SPAM folder and update your email address through the Portal or Faculty Gateway page.)

After you get the email, you have 72 hours to log into D2L and in order to confirm the content in the course is correct. ***This requires some looking around your course and checking tools like discussions and quizzes, ect to be sure they have the correct settings. Once you have checked the course to be sure it is correct, log into the CCCOnline Portal and go to the Faculty Tab to access the Content Verification Form. If there is a problem with the content in your course, contact your Chair immediately.

Your next step is to get the course ready for students. Use the Course Readiness Checklist to be sure you aren't missing any steps: http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Policies_%26_Procedures_-_Faculty_Handbook_-_Teaching_for_CCCOnline_-_Faculty_Role_in_Course_Development_and_Maintenance_-_Course_Readiness_Checklist

***Don't forget to reset your course home page, update your instructor widget, run the gradebook wizard, and clear your course navigation bar of tools like Rubrics if you aren't using them. Review the Course Readiness Checklist for a comprehensive explanation of what to remove and not to remove. Many faculty are really good house cleaners and are making tools inactive that are really needed like the question library ...so be cautious and thoughtful about this part of the clean up.

The course must be ready for students for first day checks no later than Thursday morning prior to the start of the term (for spring session 1, this is January 20th). When your course is ready to be reviewed, return to the Faculty Tab on the Portal and click Course Readiness Form to acknowledge that the course is ready.

In addition to these required elements, what else do you like to do between terms to improve or prepare your courses for students?