Minutes for April 24, 2008 CTL Workroom, 3:15 P.M.- 4:45 P.M. AS192

In attendance at the DLMG meeting: Alex Cheroske, Scott Gustafson, Laura Kobar, Georgianna Anderson, Sharon McLaughlin, Linda Evans, Shabana Kausar, Misa Vening, Biray Alsac, Marianne Arini, and Peggy Johnson. Absent: .

Marianne, Laura, and Linda showed the online courses they have developed.

MARIANNE

Marianne 's Writing Memoir class (CRW242AA) has an artistically-crafted banner and very six attractive icons on the homepage. One icon, a cartoon character of Marianne (created using http://www.weeme.com) identifies the folder with information about Marianne. Other folders include Start Here, Syllabus, WebCT Tutorials, Class Schedule, and Lessons.

Marianne has the MCC bookstore working on getting copyright permission for the readings she wants her students to purchase. The course involves a series of readings. Students write five papers, which they peer review using the Discussion tool in WebCT.

After editing the draft papers, students submit their final paper to Marianne.

Students are also assigned to a group and asked to create a magazine, using the articles they've written. They construct a cover, Table of Contents, create advertisements, insert photos, etc. Marianne provides an impressive sample magazine that students in her ENG 102 class at ASU created. The articles are formatted into two columns and it looks like a real magazine.

Marianne found out that using Google docs for the group to work on their magazine was not a good option. Students could not upload their documents (they had to cut and paste them), and lost all their formatting. They were unable to get the articles into the proper magazine format. Marianne will try using Ezine or a Wiki for this task.

The Start Here icon leads to a welcome, with an overview of how the course will be conducted and tools that are needed for the course (supplies, hardware, software). The Class Schedule has detailed directions for each week's activities.

A sample week would include students reading three pieces of creative non-fiction. They would then write their own piece (on childhood, surviving crisis, culture, happiness or the lack thereof, or their own topic).

Marianne is providing short textual lesson on topics such as the difference between autobiography and memoir, description, dialog, and voice.

A typical lesson contains some history on the topic under review, photographs of important writers, links to a memoir, and perhaps an audio clip of a writer.

LAURA

Laura's eight-week Drug Abuse and Substance Addiction course contains three icons on the course homepage: Start Here, Syllabus, and Start the Course. In addition, Laura added some Eee-catching, humorous clip art and/or photographs.

Laura plans to send her students a welcome email and/or letter before the course begins. Laura is asking her students to create a gmail account and email her from it. Using Google docs (spreadsheet and forms), Laura has students fill in a form with the student's name, current address, current phone number, whether or not this is their first online class, expectations they have for the course, etc. Through Google apps. this information will be automatically uploaded into a spread sheet. For more information on these tools, see http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2008/02/stop-sharing-spreadsheets-start.html

Laura has created an excellent orientation video that students access through the Start Here icon. The video covers such items as the course syllabus, how late work will be handled, how to contact the instructor, and some background about the instructor.

Laura used her home Macintosh computer, which comes with a built-in camera and microphone. This was her first video and took her about seven hours to make. Macintosh software (iPhotoBooth, iMovie) allowed her to easily add music, a flashy title screen, and transitions.

Students will introduce themselves on a discussion board, using the Truth and Lies scenario we discussed in an earlier meeting.

Laura provides her students with a link to the MCC Distance Learning site so they can access the WebCT tutorials there.

Laura used SoftChalk to create her syllabus. She's got a link to a humorous South Park video on You Tube that says drugs are bad. She also has a link to the article on Becoming a Top Online Student.

Students are alerted the first week as to the required hardware and software for the course (hi-speed internet connection, Quick Time player, Real Player).

Students post to the Discussion board by Friday of each week and then reply to a classmate's posting by Sunday. Laura is using a grading form to make grading of postings quicker and provide students with more feedback on why they earned the grade they did.

Students will write a research paper and post it on Google docs. Laura created a Jing video with directions on how to do this procedure.

Quizzes are available each Friday through Sunday. Students can take each timed quiz twice. The questions are pulled from a database provided by the publisher E-pack, so it unlikely students will receive the same questions on each attempt. There is also a Powerpoint presentation for each chapter, an audio chapter summary, flash cards, and essay questions for the students to answer.

LINDA

Linda's Canadian Literature course (ENH 207) is new to the district, so Linda has created the course competencies and is working on getting it accepted for transfer to ASU.

The homepage is very welcoming. Photos of Linda's Canadian home in the fall and environs add interest.

Linda is available to her students online each weekday evening from 9 to 10 P.M. In addition, she is available for an online chat for two hours per week for each of her online classes.

Assignments are staggered. One class has due dates each Monday, another due dates each Tuesday, etc. This helps with grading.

Linda was careful to keep time-sensitive information to a minimum in the units. Due dates are described in the course schedule (available as a pdf for printing). This makes for fewer changes in subsequent semester revisions.

Expectations for the instructor and the student are detailed in the introductory course materials. When students know what to expect, you have fewer problems.

Students have a scavenger hunt the first week that covers the syllabus and how details on course procedures, such as Linda's absolutely no late work accepted policy. The quiz includes a question about plagiarism and what the consequence for plagiarism will be. The rest of the course materials are conditional on successfully completing the scavenger hunt.

Linda used SoftChalk to create her attractive lessons. She's included a lot of fun activities on the sidebars of her lessons (videos, interesting sites) to get her students more familiar with Canada's history and culture.

The end of each unit includes a preview of coming attractions to generate interest.

Linda fosters a sense of community by having some optional Discussions that are just for fun, not for credit. She poses questions such as what great movies have you seen lately, or what things beside people do you love (around Valentine's Day).

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Shabana, Georgiana, and Biray will show their courses at our last DLMG meeting on May 1. Faculty are asked to provide feedback on what went well for them in DLMG and what they would change.