Week's End Report - Dec. 9th

Semester in Review

As we near the end of the semester, here are a few important observations to keep in mind for spring:

• If a student doesn't participate in your course before the NW deadline they must be dropped by submitting the NW via Campus Connect or MyIvy
• If a student doesn't complete an assignment instructors must enter a grade of 0
• The Finalizing Your Course website has a checklist and resources for helping close out your course at the end of the semester

NW/No-show/Non-attendance

What exactly is an NW? According to ASOM 4.8, attendance is defined as "participating in an academic event within the virtual or physical classroom." In a face-to-face course attendance can be the student simply showing up for class. Attendance in an online class is a bit more complicated. In an online class a student can attend by submitting an assignment, taking a quiz, or participating in a discussion board. A student who does not participate in an academic event before the end of the 100% refund period should be dropped as an NW.
 
Why the 100% refund period? If a student doesn't participate in a course, they shouldn't have to pay for it. They also shouldn't have a W, F, or FW on their transcript for a course they didn't actually take. In order to prevent these things from happening, it's our responsibility as faculty to make sure they get dropped as a no-show.

Why does it matter? If our students aren't dropped by the end of the 100% refund period they have to pay for the course. If a student is receiving financial aid, unreported NWs have severe repercussions for both the college and the student. Ivy Tech disburses financial aid to students after the 100% refund deadline. If a student gets financial aid and is later discovered to have been an NW, the student will be required to repay the amount that was disbursed to them for that course. Ultimately this means Ivy Tech won't get reimbursed by the state for the money they disbursed to that student and the student won't be able to sign up for classes again until they've paid back the money they owe to the college. Every year students are hindered in continuing their education and the college loses millions of dollars and many enrollments.

Instructions for submitting NWs can be found here:
Submitting NWs via Campus Connect
Submitting NWs via MyIvy

Entering 0's

Due to a glitch in Blackboard's grade center, if we don't enter 0's for assignments in which the student did not participate that assignment may become invisible to students in the grade center. This could lead to a student believing they have a higher grade than they actually do. Here's what that could look like:

For example: Quiz 1 was due in Session 2. John Student does not complete Quiz 1 and Ann Instructor leaves 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 as it disappears from the Class Session. John's grade center will now look like this:
 

John Student	Instructor 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	Instructor 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

Finalizing Your Course Website

The Finalizing Your Course website, https://sites.google.com/site/ivytechlafayetteidc/finalizing-your-course, contains a checklist for closing out your course along with documents and videos to assist you in the following:

• Archiving email
• Exporting your grade center
• Submitting final grades
• Scanning/saving documents to PDF
• Posting course records to Blackboard

The website is updated every semester and more resources are added as they become available.

Systems Information

Once again Ivy Tech has experienced an increase in spam messages. If you receive a message that you believe is spam, forward the message to abuse@ivytech.edu. DO NOT forward the spam email to ANYONE else. 

If you are unsure of whether a message is spam, do not open it. You may call the Helpdesk at 1-888-IVYLINE and they can help you determine if the message is legitimate. 

For more information about spam, click here to read the April 29th blog.