Week's End Report - Oct. 28th

Tip of the Week

Would you like to check student work for plagiarism? Then consider using the SafeAssign tool in Blackboard!

SafeAssign is integrated into assignments in Blackboard, therefore it can be incorporated by simply clicking a checkbox in your assignment options. If your assignment does not have SafeAssign enabled you can use the Direct Submit feature to submit a document to SafeAssign for plagiarism checking.

To learn more, visit the SafeAssign page on the Blackboard Help website:
https://en-us.help.blackboard.com/Learn/Instructor/Assignments/060_SafeAssign

Other Learning Management Systems integrate with Turnitin, which is another plagiarism checking tool.

If you're interested in learning more about Turnitin, see their website at:
http://turnitin.com/   
 

Systems Information

Cengage experienced an outage on Thursday, Oct. 27th beginning at 9:40 pm and lasting until 11:39 pm. During that time, students were unable to log in to the Cengage systems. If you had due dates the occurred during that time frame, please work with your students to accommodate this outage.

LMS selection update: The review deadline for LMS proposals has passed and the committee is now preparing for the next phase. LMS demos provided by the applicants will be held in mid-November. These demos are only open to committee members, however they will be similar to what was presented at the regions during the LMS tour that took place in the spring.

Week's End Report - Oct. 21st

Tip of the Week!

Now that midterms are passed we have a lot of students inquiring about their grades. ASOM policy 7.5 dictates that instructors must provide feedback on student work within 7 days of the due date for assignments. This includes entering 0's for all those assignments for which your students did not earn any points. 
 
Entering 0's is particularly important due to a glitch in the grade center in Blackboard, which can cause assignments to become invisible to the students if 0's are not entered. This leads students to believe that their score is higher than it really is.

For example: Quiz 1 was due in Session 2. John Student does not complete Quiz 1 and Ann Instructor does not enter a 0, leaving the Quiz 1 score blank. After the due date, the quiz is made unavailable to students. Because John Student doesn't have a score for Quiz 1, the column disappears from his grade center when it is made unavailable in the Class Session. John's grade center will now look like this:

John Student's Grade Center	Instructor's Grade Center
Intro Discussion = 10/10 Assignment 1= 10/10 Discussion 2 = 10/10 Quiz 2 = 10/10 Total = 40/40     100%	Intro Discussion= 10 points Quiz 1= 10 points Assignment 1= 10 points Discussion 2= 10 points Quiz 2= 10 points Total= 50 points

John now thinks he has a score of 40/40, or 100%. Without an extensive review of the course calendar and syllabus, John would have no indication that his score is actually 40/50, or 80%.

If a 0 is entered for Quiz 1 for John Student he would then be able to see the Quiz in the grade center (as shown below). This will give students accurate and complete information with which to calculate their true grade.

John Student's Grade Center	Instructor's Grade Center
Intro Discussion = 10/10 Quiz 1= 0/10 Assignment 1= 10/10 Discussion 2 = 10/10 Quiz 2 = 10/10 Total = 40/50     80%	Intro Discussion= 10 points Quiz 1= 10 points Assignment 1= 10 points Discussion 2= 10 points Quiz 2= 10 points Total= 50 points

Systems Information

Reminder: This past Saturday, October 15th, Blackboard courses from Summer 2014 through Spring 2015 were temporarily taken offline while the Blackboard system is moved to a new Blackboard environment. 

All of these courses will become available again at the end of December when the new environment goes live.

Week's End Report - Oct. 14th

Tip of the Week!

Second 8-week courses begin on Monday, Oct. 17th. When setting up your course please remember to use the Getting Started website: http://bit.ly/idcgettingstarted

When you get to the website you'll see a header: Looking for Course Set-Up Checklists?

Below that header is a question: What type of course are you teaching?

Click on the link corresponding to your course type: Face-to-face or Online/Hybrid

The first link on the following page is the course set-up checklist for Fall 2016. These checklists contain information and dates for 16-week, 12-week, and 8-week courses. Every semester the checklists will be updated, in the spring you'll follow the same steps to access the spring course set-up checklists. 

Students already have access to the second 8-week courses so your courses should already be set up. if not please be sure to set them up as soon as possible. Course checks will begin on Monday, October 17th. 
 

Systems Information

This coming Saturday, October 15th, Blackboard courses from the following terms will be temporarily taken offline while the Blackboard system is moved to a new Blackboard environment:

• 201530
• 201520
• 201510
• 201430
• 201420
• 201410

All of these courses will become available again at the end of December when the new environment goes live.

Week's End Report - Oct. 7th

Tip of the Week!

National Distance Learning Week (NDLW) is coming up! Join Berkeley and Pearson Nov. 7-11 in celebrating distance education. There will be a series of webinars available free of charge to anyone who is interested in attending. 

Presentations available for registration include:

• Align and Redesign, presented by Dr. Roseann Torsiello and Prof. Barbara Monaghan, Berkeley College
• Snapchat 101: Engaging Students Online, presented by Dr. Wendy Tietz, Kent State University
• Using Blogging to Contribute Expertise to Your Field, presented by Janine Lim, PhD, Andrews University

To register for these or other available sessions, visit the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) website at: https://www.usdla.org/events/ndlw/ndlw-2016-webinars/

Archived recordings from previous NDLWs can be found here: https://www.usdla.org/events/ndlw/

Proposals are being accepted for presenters for the 2017 USDLA Annual Conference April 30 - May 3, 2017, hosted in Indianapolis. If you're interested in applying, visit the conference website: https://www.usdla.org/events/2017-national-conference/usdla-2017-call-for-proposals/

Friendly Reminders

We're currently working on reviewing regional online courses scheduled to be offered in the spring. If you are a program chair, department chair, or regional course mentor you will be receiving an e-mail from us in regards to your regional course(s). Please respond as soon as possible! Remember classes end on Dec. 17th and the college will be closed between Christmas and New Years, therefore our preparation time will be cut somewhat short this year.

Second 8-week courses begin Monday, October 17th, they will become available to the students in the morning on Friday, October 14th.