Conference Committee Planning

We’re in the planning stages of this year’s CCCOnline Annual Conference!

If you have comments or suggestions for the committee, please feel free to drop us a line in the CCCOnline Community (Cultivating Excellence thread), or you may email Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu or Elizabeth.dzabic@cccs.edu.

The conference will be held at Arapahoe Community College on Friday, Sept. 21.

New OER Links for Instructors

If you’re interested in finding more quality material to support your classes, check out our new Open Educational Resources page (at the CCCOnline Wiki -- path: Teaching Resources/Library Resources/Instructor Resources). It has something for instructors of all disciplines!

http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Teaching_Resources_-_Library_Resources_-_Instructor_Resources

Many thanks to Mary Cash, our Instructional Online Librarian, for compiling the page.

Save the Date: Something’s Cooking at CCCOnline!

What’s cooking at CCCOnline? It’s our Annual Conference, and we invite you to SAVE THE DATE: Friday, Sept. 21, 2012!

More information and call for proposals to follow within the next few weeks!

If you have questions or comments about the CCCOnline Annual Conference, please contact Karen Kaemmerling or Liz Dzabic (Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu or Elizabeth.dzabic@cccs.edu).

Developmental Education Task Force at CCCS

Below, more news from our Academic Team! This important task force’s official mission, goals, and contact information are below:

The Developmental Education Task Force (DETF) has been charged with reviewing developmental education practices throughout the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) and making recommendations about what steps the system will take to become the premier purveyor of developmental education in more streamlined and efficient ways, resulting in greater student success.

Through data and research, the DETF will holistically examine the role that developmental education plays in overall student success. The DETF will:

1. Review and clarify the purpose of developmental education and analyze implications for policy and practice resulting from a clarified purpose.
2. Review current system policies and practices related to developmental education and propose revisions that will promote greater student success in alignment with sound academic principles and practice.
3. Investigate and analyze measures of success, data reports and studies on success of developmental education students.
4. Examine structures for developmental education, highlighting innovative and successful strategies, improving the student experience and identifying barriers to success.
5. On the basis of a comprehensive review, recommend broad strategies and specific initiatives related to developmental education that should be pursued by Colorado's Community College System Colleges, leading to enhanced outcomes for student learning and success.

The DETF is led by Dr. Casey Sacks, Interim Dean of Developmental Education for CCCS, and has 30+ members from across the state. CCCOnline is represented by Heidi Barrett, who serves on the Online Learning Subcommittee.

To learn more about the DETF and its current research, visit http://www.cccs.edu/developmental-education/index.html. If you have questions or comments, please contact Heidi Barrett at Heidi.oberle-barrett@cccs.edu.

Immersive Learning Faculty Challenge Grant

More news from our Academic Team:

Are you using scenario based learning or games in your classes? Do you have ideas to create educational games that support student success in your classes but haven’t had the time to really develop something? Now is the time to advertise and expand on what you are already doing or to collaborate with peers at CCCOnline and in the CCCS system to create something that will engage students in immersive activities. We encourage you to reach out not only within CCCOnline, but across disciplines and across institutions to develop these “lighthouse programs.” For example, the history instructors from multiple institutions teaching Colorado history might collaborate to create a pioneer settlement game, or history, geography, and political science instructors might get together to create a geography activity that would meet competencies in all three areas.

Karen Kaemmerling, Associate Dean of Social Sciences, is the CCCOnline representative on the Immersive Learning Advisory Group; this group created the request for proposals to all faculty and staff in the CCCS system to address the growing interest and use of game-based and immersive learning in our classes. The Faculty Challenge Grant program expects the submissions to identify a need, focus on improving student success and engagement, and provide sustainable, collaborative solutions. The activities created as part of the grants will be available to all faculty and staff in the CCCS system under the Creative Commons attribution license.

Please see the Request for Proposals and related documents at this page: http://cccs.edu/EdServices/Educators.html

Be creative, have fun, and please contact Karen Kaemmerling at Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu with questions.

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!"