Approval to Teach on Online Course
Any faculty member wishing to teach a course on the Internet must seek the approval of the Academic Deans. All faculty wishing to use Blackboard as their course management system (CMS) tool must have official training and be certified at the appropriate skill level one (1) week prior to the start of registration. This process will be required prior to the scheduling of the course. Link to Currently Approved Blackboard CE6 faculty
Training Opportunities
Technical Skills and Competencies
Faculty Teaching Online courses should have the following skills:
Computer Skills
- Start up and exit your computer system and peripherals
- Create, identify, use icons, menus, windows
- Begin an application and create a document
- Name, save, find, revise documents
- Understand printing options
- Insert and eject disks
- Initialize, name, and rename disks
- Copy documents from a hard drive to disk and reverse
- Create, name, rename folders/subdirectories
- Open, save, placing documents in folders and subfolders
- Open and work with multiple applications simultaneously
Setting up to Troubleshoot
- Clean, protect and care for disks
- Clean all parts of computer, printer, peripherals
- Prepare back-up copies of key applications and documents
- Utilize self-help resources to correct hardware and printing difficulties
- Install and upgrade applications
- Keep proper operating environment for equipment
- Protect computer from computer viruses
- Get technical assistance and resources from your ISP
Word Processing and other Software Application Skills
- Enter, edit, name, rename, copy and move text
- Copy and move block of text information
- Ability to change document formats/ style: layout, margins, spacing, fonts, tabs
- Correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, word usage
- Insert page numbers, breaks, and lines
Internet Skills
- Connect to the Internet or an on-line service
- Understand and use email... compose, edit, revise, send, read, respond, forward, attach files
- Ability to access and utilize information and resources on the Internet
- Obtain an account for an ISP (Internet Service Provider) or access to the Internet
- Connect a modem and telephone line or cable line (if ISP available) for dial-in access
- Install and configure telecommunications software
- Create and use email address for electronic mail
Hardware and Software Requirements
All faculty members teaching an online course needs access to a computer. The College provides computers to all full-time instructors at their primary location. Each CPI open lab at each PBCC location is available to all faculty (adjunct and full-time). The following are the minimum browser and computer system requirements.
PC System specifications (minimum requirements):
- Processor: 1.0GHZ or higher
- Hard Drive: 40 GB hard drive
- Memory: 512MB (1 GB recommended)
- Windows XP with Service Pack 2
- Dial up modem (56k) or DSL/ Cable broadband connection (recommended)
- Browsers - See Browser Tuneup
Macintosh system specifications
- Processor: 1.0GHZ with G5 with Intel processor
- Memory: 512MB (1 GB recommended)
- Hard Drive: 40GB Hard Drive
- Macintosh OS 10.39
- Dial up modem (56K) or DSL/ Cable broadband connection (recommended)
- Browsers - See Browser Tuneup
Resources for Distance Learning Instruction
The following distance learning resource links will provide information for the experienced online instructor to the novice. If you have another resource you would like to add -- please email the link to Distance Learning.
Online Orientation Guidelines
All online courses require an online orientation with an optional on campus meeting. The web site must be published on the DL web site, printed schedule and listed in Panthernet for student information. During the orientation, some suggested items for discussion are:
- Syllabus
- Course requirements and expectations
- Technical information
- Discussion of successful online students
- Schedule of activities for the term
- Textbook and/or other required materials
- Participation requirements
- Available student support services
- Faculty contact information
- Communication and Feedback
- Grading and evaluation process
Online Course Web Sites
Instructors will provide all course information (including course web site, logon instructions, syllabus and any other pertinent information) on their faculty homepage. This link must be provided to their supervisor to be included in Panthernet/Pantherweb, PBCC class schedule and DL course web pages. The instructor will maintain support and communication for students and notify their supervisor of all course related issues. Adding syllabus to homepage
Blackboard Course Information
All online courses are available to approved faculty based on the loading of courses in Panthernet when using the appropriate special designators. All online courses are available to registered students who have paid the course fees three (3) days before the start of classes. This enables students to have the ability to access the course site and become familiar with the navigation and tools before assignments are due. Online courses are available 24/7 and attendance is just as important as face-to-face courses. Just like face to face instructors keep records of attendance, the Blackboard tracking system keeps records of the times that students access the courses and the pages that are visited.
Web Tools
There are many tools in Blackboard for instructors to use for teaching, communication and evaluation.
- Syllabus
- Calendar
- Mail
- Discussions
- Student Homepages
- Student Presentations
- My Progress
- Assignments
- Self Tests
- My Grades
- Content Module
- Compile
- Whiteboard
- Quiz
- Course Design Center
Welcome Pages - no username or password is required.
The Welcome Page is your sales pitch which allows you to provide course information to prospective students. You can customize the Welcome Page in Blackboard by adding a banner image, text blocks, and icons representing hyperlinks, a hit counter, and a background image. Visitors can access the Welcome Page by clicking the underlined section on the Course Listing page. You create the Welcome Page within Blackboard, but it is viewed publicly.
How Student Assessment can be handled via Blackboard - Assessment
How can Assessment be handled for Classes on the Web - An example below
Suppose that this is a 16-week Pure Internet political science course offered at the sophomore level course at Palm Beach Community College, that the students have had at least two courses in political science and that the enrollment is limited to 25 or less. It will further be assumed that the course is using the Internet software environment Blackboard (currently being used at PBCC).
Blackboard has features including the following:
- a password system which would permit only authorized entry to the course and a record of this entry and the corresponding activity.
- a welcome page which is outside of the password system where general information about the course including the course syllabus can be posted.
- a course notes system for posting web pages by the instructor which can contain lecture notes and links to outside URLs.
- a course specific chat room system consisting of six chat rooms in four of which the chatting of the students is recorded in a log and the log is viewable by the instructor after the chatting has taken place.
- a course specific email system with the ability to have attachments.
- a bulletin board system with a sub-grouping system whereby only the students assigned to the group by the instructor are able to view the bulletin board postings of the group. The bulletin board system is designed to provide threaded discussions and also has the ability to have attachments posted to a bulletin board message.
- a grade book system in which the students may view their own grades on demand whenever revealed by the instructor.
- a student tracking system in which the instructor may view the quantity of pages viewed by the student and the total time spent.
- a traditional assessment system with a quiz tool and a survey tool (anonymous response possible) where the quiz tool permits multiple choice and fill-in the blank with the option to permit the students to view their answers compared to the correct answers.
- a system to permit the student to view CD-ROMs stored at the student station.
- a system to view graphics and videos as well as hear audio presentations stored in the environment.
- a system for student presentation which contains the ability for the students to create online web page presentations and to view those of the other students.
- a system which permits the students to create personal course notes, to view a course glossary of terms, and to search the course notes for words in the notes.
- a calendar system with the ability for the instructor or the students to place private or public date related information or hyperlinks.
- a system with the ability to create a complex network of interlocking web pages and URLs.
The above Blackboard features are listed because this discussion will specify below how they will be used in the assessment system of the course being designed to address the performance and authentic assessment models and the following requirements listed below.
The major plan for assessment will be that the student analyze in writing, discussion, and debate current issues confronting local, state, and national governments in terms of perennial challenges to democracies, including conflicts between:
- Majority rule and minority rights
- Individual rights and the public interest
- Levels of taxation and the expectation of public services
- State and national authority in a federal system
For the online course, a welcome page can be available that will post a syllabus. In the syllabus, there would be listed the text(s), a general description of the course, a list of course objectives and a list of possible discussion topics. Also listed would be the following four components to the course assessment along with the percentages/points associated with each:
- assessments: quizzes, exams, projects, midterm, final exam, etc,
- a class participation component,
- an active participation grade in discussion component,
- an inactive participation grade if needed
In addition, the assessment values for each of these categories would be listed and what the judgments would be based upon for greater clarification of expectations.
The syllabus would also contain a listing of the course "office hours." There would be two types of office hours listed: online and in the physical office. The online office hours would list when during the week the instructor could be reached for online discussion in the general chat room. The physical office hours would be when the students could visit the instructor's office or call. Of course the instructor would be available by email or bulletin board postings at anytime which would be responded to daily during the work week. The students would be expected to participate in these discussions. The quantity and quality of these discussions would be part of the assessment process in the class participation component.
The course content and online lectures would be divided into four modules representing each of the discussion topics. The online lectures would include web pages, audio lectures, links to supporting sources, online self-grading quizzes and surveys, supporting charts, graphs and videos. The first two modules would be presented as support for the mid-term projects and midterm test and the remaining two would be presented as support for the final projects and the course final test.
The mid-term and the final tests would be designed as traditional assessment instruments. (While current educational theory recommends not using traditional assessment instruments, the designer strongly believes that this type of assessment should be a part of any course assessment model. As noted in Bloom's taxonomy these assessment instruments do measure a type of learning. Further the designer considers these assessment instruments as a form of "writing and discussion"). These traditional assessment instruments would cover the online lectures and the assigned readings from the text(s). The types of questions would be multiple choice, fill in the blank, matching and short discussion questions.
These instruments would be administered after the respective discussion periods were over. They would be given at one of the College's testing centers or at a secure site approved by the instructor one week after the beginning of the term. By the end of the second week these instruments would be sent to the students' selected sites. The students would have the opportunity of taking these tests anytime during a week interval when they could come to the testing center. The College's testing centers are open during some evenings. The syllabus would list the general topics in the online lectures and the text(s) which would be measured by these instruments. The individual student results of grading of the mid-term and the final tests would be viewable in the online grade book system. The course grade would be viewable after all assessments had been completed. This way the students would have faster notification of their individual progress.
The mid-term and final assessments would be more objective than the discussion assessments. The value assigned to these assessments would be in terms of the students' ability to demonstrate knowledge of the material presented by the instructor's lectures, the text and from the course debates.
The class participation component would include measurements of the level of active participation by the student in the course. This component would be determined by the numbers which are revealed by the course tracking system as to the total time spent online, the total number of pages read, the online self-grading tests taken, the number of emails and bulletin board messages sent and read as well as the amount of chatting each student participated in. The online quizzes would be complements to the traditional assessment components by providing sample questions which would be similar to those used in the traditional assessment components. These would include: multiple choice, fill in the blank, matching, short discussion questions. The grading of this component would be viewable in the online tracking system automatically.
To help students develop time management skills, a timeline is created in the calendar system which would list the big picture dates as to when each of the assessments must be accomplished. As part of the assessment process, each student would be required to create a private individual timeline that would contain the dates by which they will accomplish each of the above and when they will do the research, the note taking, the drafts and complete each of these assessment requirements. As part of the class participation component of the course, these personal calendars would be sent as an email attachment to the instructor at the end of each of these project periods.
The assessment of the class participation component is the most objective of the assessments. This would only be a translation of raw numbers into the assessment values.
Each student would be required to actively participate in two of the four discussion topics and inactively participate in the discussion on the other two. During the first week of class, the students would be given the opportunity to pick which of these four topics they would like to actively participate in and whether they would like to take the pro or the con position and why. They would do this by sending an email to the instructor by the beginning of the second week of the course. This email would contain a listing of their preferences of the four topics arranged in a 1 high to 4 low ordered list and whether they want to take the pro or con position on the respective topics and why. Following these requests the instructor would then assign each student as active participants in two of these four groups in such a way as to evenly distribute the class members into these groups. Anyone who did not send such an email would be assigned arbitrarily by the instructor. They would be notified by email immediately after receiving their requests and the email would contain a reminder of the dates on which the project must be completed. The detailed process of how each project was to be conducted would be posted as an attachment to a bulletin board posting. The posting would be stored in RTF format. In this way the students could download the instructions and print them out regardless of the system they were using.
The active participants would be divided into either the pro or the con position of the topic. Their goal would be to convince the inactive class members of their sides' position and why their sides' leadership on the issue should be followed. The inactive participants would be required to study each topic in the notes and text to a level so that they could actively participate in the topic's discussion. The inactive participants would then read the postings of each side and participate in a bulletin board discussion on the issues during the specified week of discussion. The result of the debate would consist of an online survey of the class participants. Each participant in the side with the most votes would receive additional assessment points in this category.
The active participants would be placed into a bulletin board subgroup so that their preliminary postings and group discussions would not be viewable by the other students. The instructor would also have access to these discussions to assess individual participation. The students could also use course emails which are not viewable by others in the course. Eight in-course web sites would be created by the student, one for each of the four topics: one for the pro and one for the con position. The instructions for these projects would recommend that at the end of each discussion the participants should print a copy of their work for their personal portfolio.
Each group after initial online email or bulletin board discussion would pick a leader for the discussion within one week. The leader would notify the instructor of this appointment. If the group does not complete this appointment by the required date, the instructor will make an arbitrary appointment.
Each group will:
- do research both on the Internet and in libraries from resources on their relative position creating a bibliography which would be posted on their web site.
- construct a survey to determine the students' positions on the topic. The survey would be submitted via email to the instructor half way through the allotted time period for the project. The survey would be placed online for all students to comment on. In addition the survey would be administered by the group to get "real" public opinion by contacting at least 100 citizens about their position on the topic without prior discussion. The survey results would then be posted on the web sites and used in the position discussions.
- construct a web site which would discuss the group's position and their arguments as to why their position should be followed. The web site must posted one week prior to the deadline. The web site could be continually updated until the final participation using additional research or countering the positions of their opponent's web site.
- post times whereby some of their members will be available in one of the chat rooms to discuss the group's position. These times will be approved by the instructor. To facilitate this process each class member will specify times when they could be available for this chatting and inform the instructor of these times.
- post documents to the general bulletin board of the group's position on the topic which would be read by active and non-active participants and commented on. These would develop threaded discussions on specific parts of the general topic.
- each committee member will submit documents which contain the personal notes used in preparation for the debate.
The assessment grading of the discussions is a highly subjective part of the assessment but will be based on active and non-active rubrics similar to the example listed above. Students who are active members in the discussion will receive a participants' value while the non-active members will receive a non-participants' value. For this assessment, the assessment will be based on how the students demonstrate a knowledge of the subject; the quality of their research; the appropriateness their positions to current events at the local, state and federal level; a knowledge of previous related course work; the ability to convince others of the reasonableness of a position; the ability to view other's positions and determine the strengths and weaknesses of their argument; the ability to complete assignments in a timely manner; the ability to work in groups; and the ability to use technology for research and debate. The instruments for the measurement of this assessment will be copies of emails and any attachments sent to the instructor; the chat room logs; the bulletin board discussions and attachments; and the web sites. The active participants will be evaluated on the quantity and quality of their recorded participation in the bulletin board discussion and the web page construction. The non-active participants will be evaluated on the quality of their participation in these discussions as well.
In all of the assessment components the students will be graded on the correct use of the English language as a means of communication. A significant reduction in grade will be made for spelling errors/typos and there will be a reduction for grammatical errors when found.
Modification of Design for Traditional Class with Internet Component
If this course was offered under a F2F (face-to-face) model, few if any modification to the course's assessment instruments or the course content in general would be made. At PBCC we call this model of teaching: a Traditional Course with an Internet Component. Only two modifications to the course are recommended in this mode. First the lectures and discussions would be presented in the classroom in addition to that which is online. Second, the four topic debates would be held in the classroom during the same debate time frame. All other course components would be the same including all aspects of the course assessment. The students would still be required to participate in the online activity in the manner described above. It is the designer's belief that in general there should be little if any difference between the results of these two methods of instruction. The only difference should be where the course is taught and not what is taught, nor the assessment instruments nor the assessment results.
Handling Publisher e-packs
e-Learning Resource Packs (e-Packs) are customizable online course materials developed and formatted for use by leading publishers in the education field. Designers can use an e-Pack as a stand-alone course or as a foundation to which they add resources. When a designer adopts an e-Pack for their course, students may require an Access Code to enter the course, which may or may not incur an additional expense to the students. Many faculty will choose to import the publisher content to their WebCT PBCC course site.
Help Sites to share with students using Blackboard
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