Do You Have WebCT "Work in Progress"?

Are you using WebCT this semester as a place to store your syllabus and other documents for your face-to-face course? If so, please note that unless you have specifically asked that students be blocked from accessing the course, they are free to log in and see your "work in progress." The course creation form that you submitted in order to get a WebCT shell specified that the course would be available to students on the first day of class (unless you checked other options). Some of you may not yet be ready to have students access your WebCT course. If you'd like to block them from doing so, please contact Chris Palmarini (895-2988) or Dave Stephens (895-2964). They'll change the settings so students can only access your course when suitable course materials are available to them. Thanks so much for your understanding, and your patience. We are serving thousands of students through WebCT and more than a hundred faculty and we want to make your experience with the new version a good one!

What is CETC?

Imagine it's your birthday. The food has been delicious and now the festive spirit is giving way to a sense of anticipation. There before you is a big box, wrapped with care, light as a feather. You know what's inside but that doesn't lessen the excitement. Off comes the paper and those around you ooh and ahh as you reach inside the box to reveal ... Now here's where your imagination has to go into overdrive. Imagine what's inside are tools--not socket wrenches or electric potato peelers or gardening snips--but electronic tools. Tools that can enrich your teaching, help you make better contact with your students, give you a better understanding of some of the new technologies being deloved all around us. Imagine all these tools are easy to learn and free to use. You've just imagined CETC, the California Educational Technology Collaborative. As its name suggests, it brings together a number of technologies freely available from the California Community College Chancellor's Office. And to make sense of it all, on many campuses CETC Ambassadors are available as resource guides and brainstorming partners. I'm the CETC Ambassador here at Butte College and I invite you to join the fun in thinking about if (and how) some of these tools might work for you. Clicking on the title of this post will take you to the CETC project page, lovingly designed by our own Sandoval Chagoya here at Butte. Here's a brief sampling: CCCConfer offers you a quick and easy way to set up phone conference calls with your students and is entirely free to them. Last semester I used the system to hold informal half-hour chats with students during evening times. I wandered through the house, relaxed and with my phone headset on, while I talked with students who were in Chico, the Bay Area, and Atlanta. Cool! What can we do that's cool for you? Write me by clicking here and we can chat!

Interested in Creating and Teaching an Online Course?

Our campus has adopted a new version of WebCT which simplifies course design and enhances student access. If you're not familiar with the new features of WebCT Campus Edition 6 (such as discussion grading and easier grade book navigation), you may want to explore some of the demos on the WebCT site here.

Before you begin the process, please consult with your entire department. It is important that any curricular changes be discussed within the department since such changes often have implications beyond an individual instructor.

What's the difference between a fully online and a hybrid course? A fully online course replaces 100% of the regular classroom seat time with work on the Internet; a hybrid course also replaces some of the regular classroom seat time, but less than 100%. (Note that face-to-face classes that may sometimes meet in computer labs are not considered online courses.)

THREE STEPS

It's expected that the following three steps will be completed before you will be able to teach your online course. The steps can be completed in any order.

1. Approval by the Curriculum Committee of the new Course Outline or modification of an existing Course Outline to take into account Internet modalities. The Curriculum Committee looks very favorably upon applications in which Steps 2 and 3 are already being pursued. For Curriculum Committee dates and procedures, click here.

2. Completion of the Certified Online Instructor Training (COIT) offered through the WebCT Learning Institute. You'll be able to work on creating your course as part of the training. Click here to sign up.

3. Authorization by the Distance Education Committee that your individudal course meets Technical Approval Standards dealing with accessibility, communication, assessment, navigation, and design. The DE Committee does not evaluate you as an instructor or the content of your course. Instead, the Committee will ask you to provide a 30-minute demonstration of the course you have built to ensure that it contains appropriate communication, navigation, and information resources (such as a syllabus, a list of assignments and due dates, and a link to the WebCT Support Desk).

TIMING

Since each of the three steps is independent of the other two, you can pursue them in any order. But certification training, course development, and securing the appropriate approvals can become a somewhat lengthy process. Give yourself at least a semester (preferably two) before the course is scheduled the first time. Work closely with the Curriculum Committee, the Distance Education Committee, and your department chair to develop a timeline for completion of the three steps.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

• I've taught online courses for other schools. Is it still expected that I complete the Certified Online Instructor Training?
• Answer: Yes.

• I've completed the Cerro Coso Online Teaching Certificate (or equivalent at another school). Am I still expected to complete COIT?
• Answer: It depends. If you are not familiar with WebCT 6, you may also need to take the Authorized User and Tool Specialist workshops. Please contact a member of the Distance Education Committee.

• When does the Distance Education Committee meet?
• Answer: The DEC meets on an as-needed basis in an effort to coordinate with the work of the Curriculum Committee.

• What if I can't come to campus to complete the certification training? Do you offer an online version?
• Answer: The 22-hour Project-Oriented Pedagogy workshop is offered online, but the four Tool Specialist workshops (each 3 hours) and the Authorized User Sessions I & II (each 2 hours) are only offered on campus.

• I already teach a fully online course, and I'm developing a new one. Am I expected to take the training?
• Answer: According to the DEC bylaws, all current online instructors are expected to have completed the Certified Online Instructor Training within the next two years. Since part of the training involves work on your online course, it would be an ideal time to complete COIT.

Mid-August Report from WLI

The WebCT Learning Institute (WLI) at Butte College would like to commend those who took advantage of the suite of training workshops first offered at the end of last semester. By mid-August, 105 had completed both Authorized User Sessons I & II. To date, four 3-hour Tool Specialist workshops (given multiple times throughout the summer) have also been offered, and we are grateful to those who have completed them:

• Course Management - 54
• Communications Tools - 43
• Assessments - 45
• Assignments - 32
• Completed all - 23

Thank you all for your participation, especially during the busy vacation time! If you haven't yet taken any WLI training, or you want to sign up for future Tool Specialist workshops, please click on the headline link to go to the WLI signup page. We'd love to hear from you!

Planning for a Plagiarized Future

The link in the headline leads to a fairly elaborate tutorial, from the University of South Florida, on the difference between plagiarism and paraphrasing, and the long-term consequences of what the site calls "the fraud of plagiarism." (Warning: the site features some rather loud background music which can be muted once the page has loaded.) Butte College's own Center for Academic Success has workshops on avoiding plagiarism, and an article in the e-journal "Innovate" links to other anti-plagiarism tutorials. At the beginning of a new semester there is something else that we faculty might want to consider. We already know that some plagiarized sentences in student papers can be found with a simple Google search, but what about those students who use the work of others who have taken the class previously or who are in another section? Here's a suggestion.

• First, install free desktop search software. For example, the Copernic desktop search software is free to use (there are also paid versions) and quick to download. Once installed, it indexes all the documents in your Documents folder, including the text contained in Word and PDF documents.
• Next, create a folder on your hard drive called, for examples, "Papers." Create subfolders for each semester and then, at the start of the semester, resolve to keep an electronic copy of all student-submitted papers in the appropriate folders. Even those instructors who like to grade printed copies can also ask students to turn in electronic versions. These papers form the database that the desktop search software will index.

If you suspect a phrase has been lifted from an earlier paper, simply type it in the search window. Within half a second all such word strings will show up in the search results and you can go right to the older paper with just a click. If you're faithful in keeping the database of papers over time, you'll also be able to see how your assignments have changed (or not changed), and how your present and past students have addressed the issues you've presented. It's a great process to stimulate self-reflection.

Put Warranty Expiration Dates into Outlook Calendar

Add this to the "why didn't I think of that?" list. The free Woody's Office Watch newsletter (the link in the heading takes you to the general info page) quotes a correspondent who says when he buys an electronic device or appliance he enters the warranty expiration date into the Outlook calendar. Of course, you could do this with any calendar program. That way, he says, he is sure not to pay for repairs within the warranty. You can do a simple search to find the product name and its warranty expiration date, and even set a warning in most calendar programs to alert you days or weeks in advance. Neat!

TMI Symposium

An invitation to the Butte College community! Please accept our invitation to join us for the TMI Symposium from 8:00 a.m. till Noon this Friday, August 11, in AHPS 131. There'll be refreshments and valuable prizes awarded to attendees! If you can't stay for the whole time, feel free to drop in on sessions that interest you.

TMI stands for "Technology Mediated Instruction" and includes not just distance education (online and telecourses) but smart classrooms, iTunes U (more about that in a moment) and all uses of WebCT.

We're planning for a fun and relaxed time as we meet person-to-person to show you what the campus has to offer. I think it's safe to say that if you stay the whole time you'll come away with some fresh ideas and some really usable and helpful information.

Here's the schedule:

TMI Symposium - a personal look at learning technologies now available from Butte College

Friday, 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM, AHPS 131

Refreshments!

8:00 - 9:00 AM - WebCT Campus Edition 6

Hosted by Dave Stephens and Chris Palmarini (WebCT Learning Institute).

An overview of some powerful new features now available, WebCT training to match your need, and some surprises even for those familiar with the new version of WebCT!

9:00 - 10:00 AM - iTunes U

Hosted by Jerry Garcia (Technology Training Center) with special guest Jarrod Wyrick from Apple Computer.

This week Butte College officially became an iTunes U school, along with UC Berkeley and Stanford, giving us the ability to distribute class lectures, campus walking tours, sports highlights, documentaries and other information through the popular iTunes application, downloadable to any computer and playable on portable mp3 devices (such as Apple's iPod). Think of iTunes U as another way to give students access to vital information about your class or the school. Jerry and Jarrod will show how simple it is to create materials for iTunes U.

10:00 - 11:00 AM - Broadcast and Electronic Services

Hosted by Jack Lemley (Director of B&ES).

Learn about smart classrooms, video production, interactive television, and television services from the people making it happen. You'll find ways to enhance your classroom teaching and meet some very helpful folks.

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM - Web 2.0

Hosted by Dan Barnett (TMI Coordinator)

A revolution is happening on the Internet. The Web is not just for searching anymore, but it now offers word processors, spreadsheets, calendars and lots more within your browser. You'll see some of the most interesting free tools that you and your students can use right now. Plus, for setting just the right background mood for grading papers, you'll see how to set up a free radio station playing only the music you like.

Please plan to join us this Friday morning! If you'd like to guarantee a seat, contact Melissa Ward (WardMe@butte.edu) and she'll make a reservation.

Cheerily,

Dan Barnett

Jack Lemley

Wikipedia Butte College

Wikipedia hasn't yet become a verb as "google" has, but maybe it won't be long. An article in the July 31, 2006 issue of The New Yorker (not, alas, available online) tells the story of this strange encyclopedia put together by a community where thousands of Wikipedians around the world have contributed more than a million entries. A "wiki" is a collaborative Website where just about anyone can add or edit material. The Wikipedia, for better or worse, is more and more often the first stop for student researchers. There is plenty of reason to be wary of its offerings; writer Stacy Schiff calls it "a lumpy work in progress." Nevertheless, when Schiff "showed the Harvard philosopher Hilary Putnam his entry, he was surprised to find it as good as the one in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. He was flabbergasted when he learned how Wikipedia worked. 'Obviously, this was the work of experts,' he said." It turns out that Butte College has a short entry in the Wikipedia, but it's just a sentence. Perhaps we need someone (like you?) who knows the history of the school to enrich the article. After all, a Wikipedia worth its salt, with articles on (again quoting Schiff) "the Boston molasses disaster, the Rhinoceros Party of Canada, Bill Gates's house, the forty-five-minute Anglo-Zanzibar War, or Islam in Iceland," ought to do justice to Butte College. Click on the title of this post (if you haven't already) and it will take you to the Wikipedia entry for the school. Setting up free access is easy. It's the writing that will seem strange. At any moment someone may come along and edit what you've said. But then you can edit what that person writes. Be brave.

What is TMI?

"TMI" is short for "Technology Mediated Instruction." It includes technology related to distance education, of course, but also the tools that, when properly used, can enrich our classroom instruction. For some of us, "TMI" also stands for "too much information!" So rather than send frequent announcements about TMI through the campus e-mail system, we've developed this blog. You can bookmark the site or even choose to be notified when there are new postings. We'd be grateful if you checked back every once in awhile. You might find something helpful here!