News from the Science Division: NANSLO Project Update

CCCOnline has an exciting Science update this week: news on our participation in NANSLO and the RWSL! Unfamiliar with those acronyms, but intrigued to find out more about science labs in eLearning? Read on for some questions and answers!

Q. What’s the news about remote labs for our Science courses?
A. This semester, CCCOnline’s Science Division unveiled the physics component of the Remote Web-Based Science Laboratory (RWSL) in Physics 111 and 211. The project incorporates online learning using a LabView™ software interface, remote-controlled cameras and equipment, and a robotic interface; this allows students to use their Internet browser to access and control actual lab equipment and perform lab experiments in real time while obtaining real-world data that is every bit as valid as data collected in a traditional laboratory.

Students will analyze the data collected through RWSL in the same way that they would if they had collected it while in a traditional laboratory. The physics student will access an airtrack for studying constant motion, accelerated motion, elastic and inelastic collisions, conservation of momentum, and conservation of energy.

Further, this summer, BIO 111 students will have similar opportunities using a digital microscope and CHE 111 students will participate in spectrophotometry experiments.

Q. May I see images of the physics lab?
A. Yes! To do so, please click here:
https://nanslo.pbworks.com/w/page/50917957/Physics%20-%20RWSL%20at%20Colorado%20Community%20College

Q. What is the RWSL and what is NANSLO?
A. Our project is derived from the Remote Web-Based Science Lab (RWSL) initiative from North Island College in British Columbia, Canada, and is one component of the North American Network of Science Labs Online (NANSLO) project. The NANSLO project combines online learning strategies to support students who are interested in careers in the sciences, but face barriers to persistence and ultimately completion of their degree programs. To learn more about the NANSLO project, please click here: http://www.wiche.edu/nanslo

Finally, CCCOnline’s Science Division would like to thank Dan Branan, CCCS Project/Technical Manager, for his dedication to this project as well as his time and efforts.

CCCS Participates in Complete College America Grant Program

More exciting news from CCCOnline: the Colorado Community College System has received the Complete College America $1M incentive grant award for implementation starting this spring. To that end, CCCOnline is implementing a mentoring program delivered in close coordination with our Online Tutoring Lab (OTL).

Students from selected CCCOnline sections of Mat 090 and Eng 090 (developmental Math and English) are our pilot student group. Each of these students has been assigned to a CCCOnline mentor (academic coach), and the mentors will follow their students for three successive semesters--as long as the students remain in the Colorado Community College System.

For CCCOnline, the grant goals will be to
· Retain students in their current course(s)
· Retain students in the community college system, aid students in achieving their two-year degree or certificate, or help students transfer successfully to a four-year university
· Help students learn skills that will help them to be successful college students
· Assist students by identifying resources, within their online environment or at their home college, that will help them to be successful in their academic goals

Having been in regular contact with students since the beginning of this semester, CCCOnline mentors are positive about the program: Liz Dzabic notes “as a group, our students have expressed appreciation for our weekly conferences and gratefulness for the assistance”; and Lisa Brown-Roberts reports "I enjoy talking to students who are new to online education and watching their confidence increase, week by week!"

CCCOnline Now Offers Journalism Courses

News from our Liberal Arts and Communication Division:

CCCOnline has added journalism courses to its offerings: spring 2 (JOU 241) and JOU 225 & 231 for fall 2012. JOU 241 will likely have at least three sections for its first run! These courses are being collaboratively created upon request from Arapahoe Community College, and a strong partnership has formed. Karla has talked extensively with the state journalism chair and her dean, and more communication with state journalism faculty is planned for this year. Beth Davies, program chair, is looking for more journalism instructors.

For more information, please contact Beth Davies or Karla Schorzman.

Spring Library Webinar Series Starts Next Week

Interested in learning more about CCCOnline’s library services? Come participate in our library webinars with CCCOnline Instructional Librarian Mary Cash! We’re offering one next week (2/16) and others in April and May; mark your calendars!

Next week’s webinar, “Let's get to know our article database better,” is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 16, at 3:00 p.m. Registration closes Feb. 12; see more information here.

Future presentations in the series are

“Evaluating Sources – helping students become better consumers of information” (Thursday, Mar. 15, 3:00 p.m.)

and

“Open Source Journals available on the Web” (Thursday, Apr. 5, 3:00 p.m.)

For more information, please visit the links provided above or our “Professional Development – Upcoming Webinars” page:
http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Professional_Development_-_Upcoming_Webinars

General Reminders for CCCOnline Instructors

Greetings! Today, Terry Reeves, CCCOnline’s Dean of Academic Instruction, has a few reminders for instructors as we begin the semester.

Hello,
I hope this message finds you doing well. As we’re starting spring session 2 soon, here are some “fyi” updates:

· Spring session one enrollment is up about 4% from last spring; spring session two is currently 3% above from last year, but it may pick up a bit more before the second session starts.

· A great resource is our “Who to Contact” page if you need help within CCCOnline. Please see http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Policies_&_Procedures_-_Who_to_Contact.

· For CCCOnline related business, you must use your CCCS email address; do not use your personal email address. For confidentiality purposes (e.g., FERPA) personal email is not secure.

· CCCOnline is conducting a search for an Executive Director. We hope to have someone on board soon and look forward to sharing that news with you.

· Course Signals is coming soon. Course Signals is software developed by Purdue University as an early alert system using Data from D2L and Banner to allow an instructor to set criteria for early alerts. More information will be forthcoming, but wanted to give you all a heads-up as this will help us to further help our students.

· Maria Schnell recently joined our Training Team as our eLearning Specialist; we’re happy she’s here! If you have questions about training, please contact Maria at maria.schnell@cccs.edu. If you would like to know more about her, please see http://cccoexcellence.blogspot.com/2011/12/introducing-our-new-elearning.html.

Thank you for being a part of CCCOnline and for the teaching expertise you offer our system students. I know many of you also do course development and training work with us. Please know your efforts are noticed and appreciated. I wish you all a smooth-going and successful semester.

Best,
Terry

More Online Learning News

For your reading pleasure, below you will find a few recent Online Learning-related news links. (Our last installment of such links was published last October.) As always, we welcome your comments or additions in the CCCOnline Community . . . and best wishes as you embark upon Spring Semester 2012!


“What works—and what doesn't—in online learning” by William Wade (1/13/12)
Commentary from Community College Times:
http://www.communitycollegetimes.com/Pages/Opinions/What-works-and-what-doesnt-in-online-learning.aspx

“Listing Toward Order” by Steve Kolowich (1/10/12)
From Inside Higher Ed:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/01/10/us-news-world-report-releases-first-ever-online-college-program-rankings

“'U.S. News' Sizes Up Online-Degree Programs, Without Specifying Which Is No. 1” by Nick DeSantis (1/10/12)
From The Chronicle:
http://chronicle.com/article/US-News-Sizes-Up/130274/

“MIT Will Offer Certificates to Outside Students in Online Courses” by Marc Parry (1/1/12)
From The Chronicle:
http://chronicle.com/article/MIT-Will-Offer-Certificates-to/130173/

“The risks and rewards of online learning” by Chris Bustamante (11/16/11)
Commentary from Community College Times:
http://www.communitycollegetimes.com/Pages/Technology/The-risks-and-rewards-of-online-learning.aspx

“Online-Course Enrollments Grow, but at a Slower Pace. Is a Plateau Approaching?” by Marc Parry (11/9/11)
From The Chronicle’s “Wired Campus” blog:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/online-course-enrollments-grow-but-at-a-slower-pace-is-a-plateau-approaching/34150

“Online Grows, Doubts Persist” by Steve Kolowich (11/9/11)
From Inside Higher Ed:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/11/09/survey-shows-online-enrollments-have-boomed-doubts-about-online-quality-persist

Links from The Chronicle’s Special Report “Online Learning 2011”:
http://chronicle.com/section/Online-Learning/491/?inl
“From Homeric Writings to Cellphone Forensics, Some Favorite Online Resources” (11/6/11)
http://chronicle.com/article/Forum-Online-Resources/129614/
“How Technology Can Improve Online Learning—and Learning in General” by Robert W. Mendenhall (11/6/11)
http://chronicle.com/article/How-Technology-Can-Improve/129616/?sid=cr

The Sloan Consortium published their ninth annual survey; this one is titled “Going the Distance - Online Education in the United States, 2011.”
http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/index.asp

*Related reading on Cultivating Excellence: “Community College Headlines” (12/14/11)
http://cccoexcellence.blogspot.com/2011/12/community-college-headlines.html

CCCS Participating in Landmark Analytics Project

This week, we’re excited to share that the Colorado Community College System is one of six academic institutions participating in the groundbreaking PAR (Predictive Analytics Reporting) project. Led by WCET (WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies) and funded by the Gates Foundation, the project aims to help institutions improve students' progression and completion through a better understanding of student success factors.

Jonathan Sherrill, CCCOnline Data Analyst Professional, is a project participant. He says the group is bringing the idea of “big data” to the study of student success; and indeed, the scale of the project is big: “We’ve already brought together 640,000 anonymized student records and three million course records from these six institutions – we can go very fine looking at this because there’s so much data,” reports Jonathan. This multi-institution collaboration is also exciting, he explains, because analyzing such a great number of records from multiple sources invites broadly meaningful conclusions.

The other PAR project participants are Rio Salado College, the University of Illinois at Springfield, the University of Hawaii system, the American Public University system, and the University of Phoenix. As the project continues, additional institutions will join, allowing for even broader analysis. Preliminary results from the proof of concept already are being released, and the next phase likely will conclude in late 2014.

"I believe the hope of the Gates Foundation is for it to ultimately become self-sustaining,” Jonathan concludes, “a valuable service provided to educational institutions long after their direct involvement ends."