2010 Gold winner - Hermes Creative Awards
Awarded to the Office of eLearning & Innovation and Radcom for the What’s the Difference: Blogs, Wikis, and Journals tutorial

This entry represents work tied to the Title III goal to develop quality online courses to train faculty to teach online.

The Hermes Creative Awards is an international competition for creative professionals involved in the concept, writing and design of traditional materials and programs, and emerging technologies.  As part of its mission, AMCP fosters and supports the efforts of creative professionals who contribute their unique talents to public service and charitable organizations.

For more information about the Hermes Creative Awards see http://www.hermesawards.com/.

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2010 Innovation of Year – League for Innovation in the Community College 

Awarded to Danielle Budzick and Sasha Thackaberry of the Office of eLearning & Innovation, Cuyahoga Community College

The Simplicity: A New Course Template for eLearning Classes entry represents work tied to the Title III goal of developing Quality Matters^TM courses.

The entry represents a new course template meeting three of the criteria established by the League for Innovation in the Community College:  Quality,  Replication,  and Creativity.

For more information about the award and the League for Innovation in the Community College, see http://www.league.org/. The League is an international organization dedicated to catalyzing the community college movement in continuing efforts to make a positive difference for students and communities.

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2011 Faculty Innovator Award
Awarded to Donald Gabriel, Jennifer Garnes, Amanda Hanley, Jennifer Kucera, and Susan Nagorney, Cuyahoga Community College

This entry represents work associated with the Title III goal of  developing a sample course using the principles of Quality Matters^TM.

University System of Ohio faculty members were nominated by colleagues or students aware of each professor’s course materials and the impact they had on student savings. The following faculty received awards after a panel of independent reviewers determined their practices were innovative and saved students money. Their work and stories provide the model to support adoption of materials like these across every institution in Ohio.

This team created a developmental math course that provides all resources necessary for students to complete the course without traditional textbooks.  There are also instructor resources, which guide course implementation. As 70% of incoming Tri-C students test into developmental math,  Tri-C offers 16-18 sections of the course each term, which could potentially save each student $172.

For more information about the Faculty Innovator award see http://ohiotextbookhq.ning.com/page/2011-innovator-awards.

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Ohio QM Consortium Activities and Accomplishments 2009-2010 and 2010-11

This work is tied to the Title III goal of designing online courses that meet Quality Matters^TM standards.

Awarded to Cuyahoga Community College for the following courses:

2009-2010

• CCR 1300  Realtime Theory. Faculty: Jen Krueger
• CCR 1600  Court Reporting.  Faculty: Kolleen Barnes
• CCR 1520 Realtime Theory Reinforcement II. Faculty: Kolleen Barnes
• CCR 1400 Speedbuilding – Transcription at 100wpm. Faculty: Kolleen Barnes

See our eLi blog  for more details about the staff and work of the Office of eLearning & Innovation (eLi) at Tri-C.

Here is a summary of  our major initiatives and progress.

e-Advising

The purpose of the e-advising Committee is to develop a timeline for college-wide integration and implementation of e-advising software/technology. The tangible result is students will have access to an e-Advising program.

eAdvising via an online form, email, and Financial Aid TV were developed in Year One and Two. Since June 2009, there have been 12,723 unduplicated students contacts to eAdvising.

Infrastructure & Technology

The purpose of the Infrastructure & Technology Committee is to engage in a course management system (CMS) performance audit for Blackboard (Bb), acquire the Bb Content Management System, and the Bb Community System, and purchase Storage Area Network (SAN) storage drives. The tangible result is a Blackboard performance audit. The findings will be reported to the Project Coordinator.  Students and faculty will have access to an effective and integrated CMS for coursework, academic, and student support services.

A Blackboard Learning Systems performance audit was completed and the Community and Content systems were implemented in Year One. By December 2009, 84 faculty members continue using the  Content system.

Online Student Orientation

The purpose of the Online Student Orientation subcommittee is to review the existing student orientations (i.e., DL student orientation, new student orientation), research other online orientations, and prioritize components to be developed. The tangible result will be the development of an eLearning student orientation, as well as ideas for improving the new college-wide student orientation.

The eLearning Student Orientation was fully designed with the assistance of an instructional designer and Online Orientation Committee in Year One of the grant. In Year Two the orientation was developed and piloted in Blackboard. In Year Three, based on student feedback, the orientation will be developed for the world wide web. The design of eLearning Orientation is driving the re-design of an interactive New Student Orientation Online, which will be accessible on mobile devices.

Online Tutoring

The purpose of the Online Tutoring Committee is to acquire licenses for the Smarthinking online tutoring system, develop a timeline for college-wide integration, and implement the SMARTHINKING online tutoring program. The tangible result is students will have access to an online tutoring program.

The Sub-Committee reported that since June 2009, 4,483 students have logged into the online tutoring system, resulting in a total of 3,308 sessions. In Year Two, the data shows that the average GPA of these students increased from 3.19 to 3.24, and average credits completed increased from 20 to 34.

Quality & Course Design

The purpose of the Quality & Course Design Committee is to design an instrument to evaluate the quality of distance learning courses utilizing Quality Matters™ standards for course design and develop online assessments.  The Committee will research other institutions’ practices, obtain a Quality Matters™ subscription, develop a test instrument, identify course modules to be developed, develop curriculum, review existing assessment tools and student usage, and identify baseline data. The tangible result includes identification and design of a course design instrument to measure quality, which includes a faculty peer-review process that meets Quality Matters™ standards.

The Tri-C Indicators of Quality tool was developed in Year One. Eight faculty new to online teaching volunteered to have their courses peer reviewed. In Year Two, nine faculty members became Quality Matters ™certified peer course reviewers. By Year Three, 11 faculty had their courses peer reviewed, and 24 faculty are Quality Matters ™ trained and certified.

Sample Course

The purpose of the Sample Course Committee is to design and develop a sample course in developmental mathematics and English. The Committee will identify the courses to be developed and create the curriculum. The tangible result will be developmental master online courses available for mathematics and English that meets Quality Matters™ standards.

The Sub-Committee identified two developmental education courses to create. In Year Two, Math 0980 Intensified Beginning Algebra and English 0990 Language Fundamentals II were designed and developed with Math and English faculty across the College in collaboration with eLi staff as sample courses. In Year Two and Three, six sections of the Math Sample Hybrid 0980 course were taught, and two sections of the English 0990 course.

Teaching for Online Learning

The purpose of the Teaching for Online Learning Committee is to plan and design a beginner, intermediate, and advanced online faculty training program for faculty teaching distance courses and also courses utilizing a Blackboard site. The Committee will develop curriculum, research other institutions’ best practices, and storyboard each level of the online faculty training program. The tangible result will be a new faculty training curriculum in a new delivery format.

The three levels of the online training modules were designed in Year One. In Year Two, the beginner and intermediate level modules were built by faculty. Five online workshops of the Level One training were developed in Year Two and piloted with 24 faculty. In Year Three, the May Technology Training Institute (TTI), was held, where the Level One training was taught face-to-face (f2f) and online. Thirty new distance learning faculty completed the five workshops: one day of two f2f workshops and nine days of three online workshops. To date, 56 faculty members have completed the Level One training.

 Virtual Front Door (VFD)

The purpose of the Virtual “Front Door” Committee is to review available access points to the College’s online support services and research other institutions’ virtual “front doors”.  The Committee will identify gaps and expertise needed, and design the initial “front door”. The tangible result will be the creation of a virtual “one-stop” site for all Tri-C student and faculty needs.

The VFD was designed and partially developed in Year One. In Year Two, development was completed, and usability testing with students, faculty, and administrators was completed. The VFD replaced the College Credit and Degree Page based on student feedback, and it was launched with the new College Website.  There have been over 70,000 average page views since it launched in July 2010. Please click this link to view the page http://www.tri-c.edu/credit/Pages.

• e-Advising
• Infrastructure & Technology
• Master Course
• Online Student Orientation
• Online Tutoring
• Quality & Course Design
• Teaching for Online Learning
• Virtual Front Door

See the latest monthly status report  and archive of status reports for updated information about our progress and achievements. 

See our eLi blog  for more details about the staff and work of the Office of eLearning & Innovation (eLi) at Tri-C.

Here is a summary of  our major initiatives and progress.

e-Advising

The purpose of the e-advising Committee is to develop a timeline for college-wide integration and implementation of e-advising software/technology. The tangible result is students will have access to an e-Advising program.

eAdvising via an online form and email were developed in Year One. Since June 2009, there have been 1,270 unduplicated student contacts to eAdvising.

Infrastructure & Technology

The purpose of the Infrastructure & Technology Committee is to engage in a course management system (CMS) performance audit for Blackboard (Bb), acquire the Bb Content Management System, and the Bb Community System, and purchase Storage Area Network (SAN) storage drives. The tangible result is a Blackboard performance audit. The findings will be reported to the Project Coordinator.  Students and faculty will have access to an effective and integrated CMS for coursework, academic, and student support services.

A Blackboard Learning Systems performance audit was completed and the Community and Content systems were implemented in Year One. By December 2009, 37 faculty had used the Content system.

Online Student Orientation

The purpose of the Online Student Orientation subcommittee is to review the existing student orientations (i.e., DL student orientation, new student orientation), research other online orientations, and prioritize components to be developed. The tangible result will be the development of an eLearning student orientation, as well as ideas for improving the new college-wide student orientation.

The eLearning Student Orientation was fully designed with the assistance of an instructional designer in Year One of the grant. In Year Two, Phase 1 development is underway, led by the Course Production Specialist in the Office of eLearning & Innovation (eLi).

Online Tutoring

The purpose of the Online Tutoring Committee is to acquire licenses for the Smarthinking online tutoring system, develop a timeline for college-wide integration, and implement the SMARTHINKING online tutoring program. The tangible result is students will have access to an online tutoring program.

The Sub-Committee reported that since June 2009, 769 students have logged into the online tutoring system, resulting in a total of 941 sessions. The required Year Three grant performance indicator has been exceeded. A SMARTHINKING survey was conducted with all students completing at least one tutoring session in the Fall 2009 semester. Grades for students completing SMARTHINKING.com sessions will be extracted where possible and analyzed. The Sub-Committee will begin to identify a cohort of students to track grades, course completion rates, and persistence.

Quality & Course Design

The purpose of the Quality & Course Design Committee is to design an instrument to evaluate the quality of distance learning courses utilizing Quality Matters™ standards for course design, and develop online assessments.  The Committee will research other institutions’ practices, obtain a Quality Matters™ subscription, develop a test instrument, identify course modules to be developed, develop curriculum, review existing assessment tools and student usage, and identify baseline data. The tangible result includes identification and design of a course design instrument to measure quality, which includes a faculty peer-review process that meets Quality Matters™ standards.

The Tri-C Indicators of Quality tool was developed in Year One. Eight faculty new to online teaching volunteered to have their courses peer reviewed. In Year Two, nine faculty members became Quality Matters ™certified peer course reviewers. A tool was developed for the Tri-C Indicators of Quality instrument within Blackboard, to conduct the peer course reviews. Four courses were peer reviewed.

Sample Course

The purpose of the Sample Course Committee is to design and develop a sample course in developmental mathematics and English. The Committee will identify the courses to be developed and create the curriculum. The tangible result will be developmental master online courses available for mathematics and English that meets Quality Matters™ standards.

The Sub-Committee identified two developmental education courses to create. Math 0980 Intensified Beginning Algebra and English 0990 Language Fundamentals II will be developed as sample courses. Math faculty was identified to design the course with an instructional designer in Year One. In Year Two, four modules of the developmental math course were designed by math faculty working with an instructional designer. Also, the College English faculty have volunteered to design and build the English 0990 course.

 Teaching for Online Learning

 The purpose of the Teaching for Online Learning Committee is to plan and design a beginner, intermediate, and advanced online faculty training program for faculty teaching distance courses and also courses utilizing a Blackboard site. The Committee will develop curriculum, research other institutions’ best practices, and storyboard each level of the online faculty training program. The tangible result will be a new faculty training curriculum in a new delivery format.

 The three levels of the online training modules were designed in Year One. In Year Two, the beginner and intermediate level modules are being built by faculty. The Sub-Committee has made formal recommendations for course facilitators of the online training that address qualifications and the selection process.

 Virtual Front Door (VFD)

 The purpose of the Virtual “Front Door” Committee is to review available access points to the College’s online support services and research other institutions’ virtual “front doors”.  The Committee will identify gaps and expertise needed, and design the initial “front door”. The tangible result will be the creation of a virtual “one-stop” site for all Tri-C student and faculty needs.

 The VFD was designed and partially developed in Year One. In Year Two, usability testing with students, faculty, and administrators was completed and the website development is now complete.

• Teaching for Online Learning
• Quality & Course Design
• Online Tutoring
• Master Course
• Online Student Orientation
• Virtual Front Door
• Online Tutoring
• Infrastructure & Technology
• e-Advising

See the latest monthly status report  and archive of status reports for updated information about our progress and achievements. 

See our eLi blog  for more details about the staff and work of the Office of eLearning & Innovation (eLi) at Tri-C.