March 2000 - Volume 1, Issue 3

You teach a good class. Students learn the material well. Why should you add an online section to your load? Here’s what 10 of the state’s online learning leaders said:

The Virtual Learning Community has negotiated a reduced price for colleges to buy Blackboard CourseInfo. The software usually costs $5000, but until March 31, colleges can buy a year’s license for $3500. After that date, the cost will be $4000. Colleges willing to sign a commitment can lock in their price for three years.

CourseInfo is the official software for Community classes. Colleges that buy now will have immediate access to versatile, easy-to-use software for development and delivery of online classes. For more information about the software, see our last newsletter or the Blackboard company site, http://company.blackboard.com.

To support CourseInfo, a UNIX (Linux or Solaris) or NT server with 512 MB of RAM and 4GB of hard drive space is needed. Users access the software through a web browser (4.0 versions are needed to access all the features). Purchasing colleges should factor administration time into their decision. Administrative training will be arranged for purchasing colleges.

Now is the time to purchase if your college can support the software. Outsourced hosting possibilities for colleges that cannot or do not want to host the software locally will also be announced soon.

The price covers a 1-year license for unlimited course development by instructors and delivery to students at your college. It includes technical support and any upgrades released in that year. To buy, notify Neil Hollands. He can provide more information or connect you with the sales representative.

On January 21, 90 representatives from all of North Carolina’s community colleges braved the snow to meet at Wake Tech to begin development of the Virtual Learning Community’s first online courses. After five hours of learning and sharing, participants left excited to begin collaboration online.

After welcomes from Dr. Neill McLeod of Wake Tech CC, President Desna Wallin of Forsyth Tech CC, Jim Barber of LearnNC, and Dr. Janyth Fredrickson of the System Office, the developers learned about the course design template and the software involved, CourseInfo. Teams then selected leaders and began course design.

Will Johnson of Montgomery CC noted "The workshop was one of the best I have attended in over 15 years in distance learning. It was well organized. The materials, content and process were set up with an action-oriented outcome in mind."

Development continues in online forums, with completion scheduled for May. When done, courses will be available for any instructor to use at a North Carolina community college. Materials will be complete and exemplary, but instructors can modify any course in CourseInfo before offering it.

Online instruction is rewarding but not effortless. Like any new skill, learning to teach and develop content online takes time for trial and error. Instructors may need encouragement to take the leap. How are colleges providing incentive for instructors to try online teaching? Twenty-one distance learning administrators responded with their colleges’ approaches.

Respondents noted that most of the work has been done and will continue without large incentives, but rewards exist. Most common is course load reduction during course development, which 11 respondents offer. Five colleges give release grants or summer contract extensions to faculty developing courses. Training in online skills (and in some cases, pay for attending) is offered by another five. Similarly, some colleges send online instructors to related conferences. Other incentives used include priority access to better computers and mentoring from experienced online instructors and webmasters.

Some colleges report unique incentives—low-cost practices that are an economical addition to instructor support packages. These include lowering enrollment caps for online courses, reducing committee assignments, allowing more contract time working from home, using online student interns, and offering online instructors a choice in times when scheduling.

Many online instructors put in extra hours and creative energy because they want to try this new form of education. Still, the administrators responding to this survey unanimously desire better rewards for online faculty. They realize that creative institutional thinking and strong instructor support will foster even more success for online learning.

Course design and student preparation also make an enormous difference in the time it takes to teach an online class. The Virtual Learning Community will spread ideas about good course design to instructors. It will assemble student preparation materials to share with all of the colleges. As the Community grows, the work of online instructors will get easier.

Training from the Virtual Learning Community is coming! Twelve regional trainers attended a workshop in Blackboard CourseInfo on February 3 and 4 at Central Piedmont CC.

These trainers, selected by Work Team 4 of the Community, chaired by Dr. Ron Champion of Beaufort County CC, will design training in Blackboard and online learning theory. In April, they will offer this training to two representatives from each college in their respective regions. Those college trainers will complete the final link in the training chain, bringing training and mentoring back to colleagues at their home institutions.

North Carolina continuing educators respond to students with a variety of online offerings, some generated at colleges and others by web sites like Education to Go.

The Virtual Learning Community will aid continuing education. Each team has a continuing education expert to ensure that as curriculum courses are developed, related Master Course List courses are also prepared.

Rob Everett, a continuing education leader from Guilford Tech CC noted, "For continuing education managers who don't have full-time instructors to develop content, modules from the Community will make it easier to participate in online learning."

The Community will serve as a model for development of other continuing education courses. "We were floundering with how to begin when the Community came my way," said Elaine Lockhart of Caldwell CC & TI. "This process gives us the roadmap for developing courses which will be available to all community colleges in the system."

Computers are changing the rules of education. Students are demanding alternatives. We must ask why, for example, students should drive 30 miles to the nearest community college twice a week for 16 weeks to take Business Law or English Literature when they can get the same quality course from another college without leaving the comfort of home.

Treating students as a captive market is no longer viable as we enter the 21^st century. We must recognize this shift and find creative solutions to meet the challenge. There will always be a place for traditional classrooms, but our diverse audience, with nontraditional students like single mothers, swing-shift employees, and special populations, demands flexible learning options.

This shift requires us to rethink how we teach, deliver courses, and offer support services. Faculty, staff, and administrators must master new tools to address the changing needs of our clients. New communication forms are stripping away the regional barriers that divided community colleges and universities.

Education is no longer a seller’s market! We must not stick our heads in the sand and hope students continue to come to our colleges. Technologically sophisticated students are finding educational services, degrees, and certificates via a combination of technologies. The more options we offer, the more competitive our colleges will be in the 21^st century. Instructors and institutions will collaborate to meet the demands of students and lifelong learners in our state and around the country. These new issues demand that we forget about territory and rethink how we conduct instruction.

This shift empowers faculty, staff, and students to incorporate Internet, video, and threaded discussion in what we do best—educate. If we don’t move forward, private sector companies and online universities will fill the void. It’s already happening! We must prepare to play a vital role in the education of student populations whether they come from Beaufort or Bombay.

We must prepare for the challenges ahead. We have no alternative.

For information, contact Neil Hollands, or read previous newsletters online at Virtual Learning Community.