Distance Learning Report - November 21, 2006

Lots of exciting things have been happening on the distance learning front here at CCC since my last report October 25th. My work study student Cameron Lockey and I presented some DL Best Practices for “Hands-On” courses at the East Carolina Think-In on November 8th.

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I have continued working with our teachers in upgrading their online courses. Last month I conducted a 2 hour basic DL Workshop for the Nursing Faculty in addition to moving forward with our Title III DL Grant Initiative.

I am in the process of recruiting eight faculty members representing a cross section of curriculums for the first phase of our online course upgrades and new online course development.

Online faculty members chosen for this exciting distance learning initiative will be given access to a laptop computer, Ipod with audio recording capability, digital camera and technical assistance throughout the project. Funds for adjuncts (and professional development) are also available to all who participate in this online course creation/retooling endeavor.

 Participating faculty will also be creating instructional content (audio podcasts and video clips) to be uploading into CCC’s Itunes University instructional web site.

John Green and I are working on the Apple ITunes U interface for the college - I hope to be able to be adding instructional media content to the Educational Server for Itunes in the next few weeks once we complete the authentication process and design our CCC Gateway page into ITunes.

I am also writing purchase orders for both Mac and Dell laptops, audio recording equipment for producing Podcasts, three digital cameras and some IPods to check out to the faculty who are participating in the initial phase of this Title III grant.

Cameron Lockey also created a professional development request form for faculty to submit specific requests for dl training.

We are getting ready to enter a new era in Distance Learning here at CCC. The Title III grant will help take our Distance Learning Program to a higher level with the outcome being higher enrollment and retention in all our online offerings.

Teaching with Technology 2006 - ECU

Think-In Web Cast

I am presenting at the Think-In being held at East Carolina University on Thursday, November 9th. Larolyn S. Zylicz, Ed.D. Chair of the Department of Distance Learning at Cape Fear Community College will be co-presenting with me on Best Practices in Distance Learning.

The Think-In will highlight the following three tracks:

• Social use of Technology – Developing learning communities in online classes.
• Effective/Efficient use of Technology – Achieving successful learning objectives and/or
increasing efficiency.
• Innovative use of Technology – Using new technologies to achieve learning objectives.

I plan on sharing my instructional methodology and strategies for teaching Hands-On courses in an online environment in addition to talking about our latest Distance learning Initiatives at Carteret Community College - Extreme Blackboard Course MakeOvers.

We also plan to document the event as it unfolds here on the Blog and produce (and upload) some Podcasts as well.

Carteret Community College is now moving forward into Phase 2 of it’s Distance Learning Initiative - Our goal is to get every online faculty member to create an introductory audio Podcast that can be attached to the welcome announcement of their classes in addition to creating / designing a gateway to I Apple ITunes. CCC is the second Community College in NC to be accepted and approved as an ITunes U College.

Both CCC and Cape Fear are implementing college wide professional development initiatives in all aspects of online instructional delivery methods to include both technical and pedagogical approaches to online learning.

The Think-in has been going on for over two hours and lots of folks have stopped by our booth to learn more about teaching Photography and Art Courses online in addition to some creative teaching techniques for teaching “hands-on” courses as hybrids in Blackboard. The following are some photos we have taken of this event.

 

 

The time flew by because so many folks visited our presentation booth and asked questions and were able to view a few of my courses in action. Seems like I blinked and the Think-In was over and we were packing up. Lisa Lee, Dr. Emory and I came away from the event with lots of new and useful ideas for incorporating innovative techniques and technologies into our distance learning courses. It also made me feel good that I was doing some things in my online courses that many educators wanted to try to incorporate into their classes, so the feedback for the most part was very positive.