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OLG Meeting Notes Oct 3, 2003 ...

Ocotillo Online Learning Group
Meeting Oct 3, 2003

Mesa Community College
1:30 - 3:30 PM in the Center for teaching and Learning (CTL)
See campus map (32k PDF)

Faculty Development For Teaching Online- Learn how Mesa prepares their faculty for the online teaching environment.

Learn also how to use a free audio software made for adding sound to your web sites.

Welcome and Introductions (5 minutes)

Alan Levine (MCLI), Polly Miller (Estrella Mountain)
Alan Levine (MCLI) and Polly Miller (Estrella Mountain) welcomed everyone to the meeting. Polly is our new co-faciliatator for the Online Learning Group.

What's New in Online Learning at Our Campus (15 min)

all participants
A round up of who's doing what (briefly!) per site represented.

• Estrella Mountain - they are developing hybrid courses for next semester.
• Scottsdale - Sidne Tate is leading a project to develop a CD on orientation to online learning and it was approved by all divisions. Look for a demo at the December meeting.
• Chandler-Gilbert - visitors from TVI in New Mexico are coming in to look at their wireless technology/
• GateWay - the CTL has been up and running fro 30 days now, very busy so far.
• Mesa - preparing for NCA visit to certify an online degree.
• District - Alan recognized contributions to the Maricopa Learning eXchange, presenting software to winners present, Tom Foster, Debby Kurtz-Weidinger, and Shelley Rodrigo.

Overview of Development of Faculty who Teach Online at Mesa Community College (35 min)

Paul Hietter (Mesa)
Paul Hietter, the MCC Distance Learning Coordinator provided an overview of the MCC Online Faculty Development process.

The Distance Learning Mentoring Group (DLMG) meets weekly with Peggy Johnson (see DLMG resources). They attend workshops in the CTL on WebCT, HTML, etc. The process is designed for people with some computer skills already. Faculty must submit an application to get approved for the program, whihc offers release time. It is availalbe to faculty who have never taught online and will be teaching a fully online course.

Faculty members Richard Felnagle and Emi Ahn shared their experiences with the process and demonstrated the courses the created. Richard showed how he is now impressed with the powers opf WebCT used for his "Ideas and Values in the Humanities" courses, HUM250 and HUM251. He uses a fair amount of streaming video, and provides an online orientation to his courses (viewable outside of WebCT). Emi shared some elements of her online Japanese courses and how she uses audio technology.

Both agreed it was a positive experience. A great deal of credit goes to Peggy Johnson, who started the program and still serves as the mentor. Richard suggested there is a need for better training materials for WebCT. Emi suggested that faculty take an online course as a student to experience what their students are going through.

Upon request, Richard also shared his talent as his web site song for "The Online Blues" available as streaming (singing?) audio.

Break! (10 min)

all
Enjoy some snacks while networking.

Hands on With Audacity (35 min)

Ken Costello (Mesa)
Ken Costello will provide an introduction to Audacity, a free audio capture and editing software that allows for easy insertion of audio (recorded or captured) into your web-based courses.

The software is easy to download and install. Plugins (LAME) are required to encode files into MP3 format. He demonstrated how to combine speech and music into one file and the applications it could have in an online course.

Problem-Solving Corner (10 min)

all
A new adjunct faculty member at Mesa asked where he could go for help in developing an online course. Several suggestions were offered including the Center for Teaching & Learning at Mesa and the Maricopa Learning eXchange.

Door Prizes (5 min)

all
Stick around to see if you win one of the prizes (you must register on the sign in sheet and be present to win).

The prizes for this meeting include these books (even autographed by the authors!):

• Charlene Thiessen won a copy of Macromedia Contribute (MacOSX or Windows) "Allow individuals and teams to update web content while maintaining site integrity... Macromedia Contribute is the easiest way for individuals and teams to update, create, and publish web content to any HTML website" (donated by Macromedia)
• Barbara Ullman won "The Virtual Student" by Rena Paloff and Keith Pratt (speakers for the October 23 and 24, 2003 Dialogue Day on "Teaching Hybrid Courses"
• Anthony Louisiana won "Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace" by Rena Paloff and Keith Pratt (speakers for the October 23 and 24, 2003 Dialogue Day on "Teaching Hybrid Courses"
• Amy MacPherson won an Estrella Mountain Community College coffee cup
• Gerry Perlman won an Estrella Mountain Community College t-shirt
• Debra Calliss won "Learning On the Net" by William A. Draves

We will again make use of the prize patrol tool!

OLG Prize Patrol
by Alan Levine
Get the .swf file to use for yourself or the original Flash MX file to see how it is done.

Next Meeting...

November 7, 2003 at Estrella Mountain Community College.