Fall 2001 Volume 3, Issue 1

Fifty-one more Virtual Learning Community courses are ready, joining ten created last year. All are available for download and use by faculty at colleges in good standing with terms of the VLC Cooperative Agreement. Courses include all those needed to offer online AAS degrees in Information Systems or Business Administration.

Courses include a syllabus, instructional objectives, lecture notes, study guides, a variety of assignments, Internet links, and help documents for both instructors and online students. On the local server, instructor and student accounts must be loaded into the course, and the instructor must insert due dates and point values for assignments. Other elements are in place, but any part of the course can be customized. Materials can be used to teach online or support a face-to-face course.

The available courses include:

To preview any of the courses listed above, visit http://bb.ncccs.cc.nc.us:1677. Click on "Login" or "Course Catalog" then on the resulting screen, click "Preview." Select any course and click "Preview" next to the name of that course. If you want to use a course, your local Blackboard administrator can download and set it up.

We wish to recognize the coordinators, editors, and developers who worked on this year’s courses. Please join us in relaying thanks to the following. They have done a good deed for North Carolina community colleges.

The Community is not stopping with 61 courses! Preparations are well under way to develop 50 more courses and revise most of the existing courses in 2001-2002. These new courses will make it possible for every college in the System to offer an AA college transfer degree online.

Six centers have been chosen to lead development. Although selection and configuration of courses may change based on availability of developers, initial plans are for the following:

ACC 140 Payroll Accounting
ACC 225 Cost Accounting
ECM 168 Electronic Business
EMS 235 EMS Management
FIP 152 Fire Protection Law
HEA 110 Personal Health & Wellness
INT 110 International Business
Business Editing Team

BIO 111 General Biology I
BIO 112 General Biology II
CHM 131 Introduction to Chemistry
CIS 220 Spreadsheets II
CSC 160 Introduction to Internet Programming
ITN 140 Web Development Tools
MAT 140 Survey of Mathematics
Computers Editing Team

BPR 111 Blueprint Reading
CJC 112 Criminology
CJC 131 Criminal Law
CJC 141 Corrections
ISC 112 Industrial Safety
LEX 120 Legal Research Writing I
LEX 130 Civil Injuries
LEX 210 Real Property I
MNT 111 Maintenance Practices
Social Science Editing Team

CUL 110 Sanitation & Safety
HIT 110 Health Information Orientation
HIT 112 Health Law & Ethics
MED 118 Medical Law & Ethics
NUT 110 Nutrition
OST 134 Text Entry & Formatting
OST 164 Text Editing Applications
OST 184 Records Management

ANT 210 General Anthropology
ART 114 Art History Survey I
ENG 231 American Literature I
ENG 261 World Literature I
HIS 131 American History I
HIS 132 American History II
HUM 150 American Women's Studies
PHI 240 Introduction to Ethics
PSY 281 Abnormal Psychology
REL 110 World Religions
SPA 111 Elementary Spanish I
Arts and Humanities Editing Team

Development teams of two to four faculty members are forming now through nominations from colleges. Teams have two face-to-face meetings at their development center, but do the bulk of work online.

Courses are carefully correlated to the Common Course Library description and educational objectives written by the teams. A template is used to both ease development and assure baseline quality in all courses. One important goal is to make courses easily adaptable by potential instructors.

Four editing teams will examine the courses previously developed in business, arts and humanities, social sciences, and computers. They will revise and improve these courses.

If you have a question, would like to participate but were missed in the nomination process, or want to use the Community template to build a course that did not make this year’s list, contact Neil Hollands at hollandsn@ncccs.cc.nc.us.

A Blackboard-based course in how to provide high quality online instruction will be available for instructors by November 15. The course will be designed so that it can be led by an experienced online instructor or taken as a self-paced tutorial. The course will be useful for both novice and experienced online instructors, although some experience with Blackboard will be assumed.

Course materials are being collected from a variety of sources. Topics include how to structure a course site, how to interact successfully with students, how to construct assignments well-suited for the online environment, and how to reduce the time required to teach online. The use of online materials to support face-to-face courses will also be covered. The course will include assignments so that new skills can be practiced.

What is the appropriate number of students for an online class? Should an online class have more, the same number, or fewer students than an on-campus class? These are questions that colleges are trying to answer as student demand for online courses grows. These questions can be controversial because they are closely tied to other important issues such as the quality of online classes and faculty workload.

In spring 2001, an informal survey of 16 North Carolina community colleges revealed that all were grappling with the question of online class size. The reported maximum enrollment ranged from 8 to 40 students. Half of the colleges (eight) reported that they do not impose a single cap on all online courses. At these colleges, maximums vary depending on factors such as the type of course, department offering the course, or in some cases, faculty preference.

The remaining eight colleges have established one cap for all online classes, usually either 20 or 25 students. Most of the colleges report that caps for online courses are lower than those of comparable on-campus classes. Many colleges also apply a lower cap the first time an instructor teaches online—usually 10 to 15 students.

Eight colleges were evaluating current caps and writing or revising related policies. Groups such as faculty councils and distance learning com-mites were studying the issue. Some indicated that they expected to lower the maximums for online classes.

Distance learning literature offers advice but no exact formula for defining reasonable caps. An article in the August 1998 issue of Syllabus recommends capping classes for first-time online instructors at 10-14 students. The same article warns, "habits and strategies of teaching and learning that work well with small groups do not scale up very well." Transitioning to teach more students may require significant changes in methodology for the instructor.

Neither the survey of NC community colleges nor the literature on distance learning provides an easy answer or exact formula for determining the "right" size for an online class. But they do provide some important points for educators and administrators to consider as they formulate—and revise—distance learning policies.

A survey shows that use of the first ten Virtual Learning Community courses and course tem-plate is widespread in North Carolina community colleges. Of 52 responding colleges, 50 are using at least one of the courses. In all, colleges are offering or preparing to offer 216 courses based on the first ten titles and on-line template. That’s an average use of over four courses out of ten for each reporting college.

The courses have been especially useful for colleges that were slower to adopt online learning, allowing them to catch up by quickly increasing available online offerings.

Although statistics on use of the 51 courses developed in 2000-2001 will not be complete for another year, initial demand and download of these courses has also been heavy.

Without care, online students succumb to two related problems: isolation and apathy. Working alone, students can become confused and frustrated, feeling they don’t have the resources to succeed. When this happens, they drop courses and avoid future online opportunities.

In other cases, students stay in the course, but end up grinding unhappily through repetitive, uninteresting assignments. They emerge with a substandard education and a negative attitude toward both online learning and the subject.

The solution to these problems is found in an active, enthusiastic approach to online education that emphasizes communication among all of a class’s members. Online educators and distance learning literature suggest seven answers.

The format and length of messages can make email feel abrupt and joyless to readers. Instructors must overcome this, or students will avoid communication. Try to convey excitement about the subject matter, students, and practice of on-line learning in messages to the class.

Techniques for raising the energy level in email include using more punctuation and "emoticons" (symbols like happy faces made with type figures.) Describe your mood at the start of messages. Try not to be "all business." At the start of a new course or unit, let students know why the content is important or interesting.

Finally, let students know a little about you. Students become more dedicated to a course as they grow to appreciate the instructor as a per-son, so show some personality in your writing.

Every subject has controversies, and forming opinions about these is often the way that learners become engaged in the subject. When instructors encourage debate and discussion about these issues without taking sides, they motivate student interest.

What issues face professionals working in this field? What topics are debated in academic circles? What are some of the common problems and proposed solutions? Even when controversies aren’t central to the curriculum of the particular course, skilled instructors use them to engage students.

Online courses require a great deal of reading to replace the spoken communication of the class-room. Reading in this setting is not optional. Without it, students cannot complete the course.

To motivate reading, many top online instructors give students extra-credit questions associated with readings. These focus student attention on important concepts and encourage completion of the reading. Submitting an answer requires an email exchange with the instructor, encouraging students to ask follow-up questions.

Learning at a distance and working with computers can be frustrating. A few laughs will help students cope and keep them logging into the course. Free cartoon clip art is readily available on the Internet and easy to paste into course materials. Humorous anecdotes, especially from the instructor’s own experience, will lighten the course and increase your approachability.

The Internet is also a good source of subject-related humor. Try a web search for humor appropriate to the curriculum area. Here are two education humor sites to get you started:

A common mistake is to assume that everything is going well when students are quiet. Good on-line instructors send the first message, not just the reply. Send email when:

This might sound like a great deal of work, but proactive communication actually prevents problems that take more time later on.

Involvement and personal investment motivate students to succeed, and an online course is the perfect setting for such participation. Encourage students to collect and post helpful links. Have them take turns outlining course topics and pos-ting these summaries for others. Assign teams to design curriculum and teach some topics.

Smart online instructors save time, improve the course site, and raise student interest at the same time by involving students. Students with communication skills can facilitate discussion groups. Students with technical or artistic skills can improve the design of the web site.

If students send more email to the instructor than to other students, then the course isn’t functioning as well as it should. When students interact, they begin to answer each other’s questions instead of sending every question to the instructor. Students who are shy around authorities find this outlet especially important. Inter-action is equally critical for social learners.

Use a buddy system, pairing students up at the start of a semester. Form study groups for complex topics. Give team assignments to reduce the grading load and spark interaction. Give your best students extra credit for tutoring or helping those who are having problems.

You can build a course where students are excited to learn and nobody is left out!

Bob Gora Catawba Valley CC
Marlowe Mager Stanly CC
Phillis Ostheim James Sprunt CC

As online enrollments grow, the servers that host courses become precious resources for colleges. The people who keep the servers running must be empowered to succeed. New tools are being introduced to the Community to support Blackboard administrators.

At some colleges, thousands of students are enrolled in both online courses and face-to-face courses that use the web for support. At any given time, dozens of instructors may be working to create or improve courses. Users are added, old courses recycled, security protected, and data backups regularly performed. Hundreds are at work on the server and dependent on its consistent function for success.

To aid mission-critical server administration, two new tools have been created. The distribution list "CC_Blackboard Administrators" is available on the system GroupWise email network. Con-tact your GroupWise administrator to be added.

In addition, a Blackboard site called BBAD (short for Black-board Administrators) is now available in "Support Courses for Online Educators" at http://bb.ncccs.cc.nc.us:1677. This will serve as a collaboration point for information sharing among those whose jobs include administration or sup-port of Blackboard servers.

BBAD includes folders on topics such as bugs and fixes, techniques for creating and managing student accounts, security, maximizing server processes, server technical requirements, and advice for interaction with Blackboard technical support. Participants will be able to post information in these folders. Discussion forums are available for questions and answers.

To get started, each college is encouraged to post information about the type of server and version of Blackboard they are running on BBAD. This will allow Blackboard administrators to find those at other colleges who are running a server in equivalent circumstances.

To get access to BBAD, contact Neil Hollands.

A variety of content is key to online instruction. Diversity of content makes the course more entertaining and engages different learning styles and multiple intelligences. The course becomes more durable because a single point of failure, like the loss of a key web site or new edition of the text can no longer eliminate all the content.

But many educators express concern about the quality of information on the web. Since anyone can post content on the Internet, how can we be sure that students aren’t confused or misled by a new site? Online publishing standards are often lower than those of print, so care is needed. Educators should practice site evaluation. Here is a list of 10 questions to ask about a new site.

Skim a part of the site with content you know well for factual or grammatical errors. If you find problems here, the site probably has more.

Good content turns bad when it isn’t updated. Track a site over time to make sure it is kept current before sharing it with students. Re-check old favorites before beginning the new semester.

Links not only makes a site more interesting, they show that the author is aware of other ideas in their field. An obvious bias will often show in the links a site’s author chooses to maintain.

Sites that hide the names, qualifications, and affiliations of authors are questionable. When an individual or organization is listed, they can also be contacted with follow-up questions.

The best content in the world will go unread if it is designed in an ugly or boring way. If site design is only average, use questions or activities to help students engage with content.

Can students easily return to the course site from the link? Can they find the portion of content you want them to read in the larger web site? Will they be distracted by less educational portions of the site?

Does the site load slowly? Does it require extra plug-in software like QuickTime, Adobe Acrobat, Flash, or the Real Player? Think twice before making content that some students cannot access necessary for the course.

A good site can be ruined by pop-up ads or blinking banners. Your course should not be associated with mediocre or faulty products that students might be tempted to buy.

If a good site has a strong bias, consider leaving it out or balancing it with another site that leans in the opposite way.

College students may be insulted if sent to a site that is obviously intended for youngsters. Other content may be too complex for an introductory course. Instructors should find sites that will benefit their students as well as themselves.

As an instructor, don’t stop with learning to evaluate web sites yourself. Teach the skill to students. Site evaluation is a versatile base for online assignments that encourages students to think about what they are reading. Critique of a web site is also a good discussion activity. Incorporating this kind of critical thinking into instruction will allow you to take advantage of sites that have some very strong content mixed with other material that is mediocre or fallacious.