Regular Effective Contact in Online Courses

Title V of the California Education Code requires regular effective contact in online teaching. Federal regulatory requirements (ACCJC) require regular and substantive interaction. Section 55200 of Title V says that “any portion of a course conducted through distance education includes regular effective contact between instructor and students, through group or individual meetings, orientation and  review sessions, supplemental seminar or study sessions, field trips, library workshops, telephone contact, correspondence, voice mail, e-mail, or other activities.” All distance education sections are subject to the same local and state approval standards and procedures and should be considered a “virtual equivalent” to a classroom-based course.

Some approaches to satisfying regular effective contact requirements are:

• Learning activities that foster instructor-student, content-student, and if appropriate to the course, student-student interaction (e.g. e-mail, discussion, phone, online conferences).
• Instructor responsiveness and availability standards (turn-around time for email, grade posting, etc.) are clearly stated and are commensurate to that of face-to-face class (3 hours for 3-unit class).
• Requirements for student interaction are clearly articulated
• Instructor reads online discussions and responds as appropriate.
• The instructor posts weekly announcements that help students navigate the course.
• The instructor provides constructive and timely feedback on assignments.

Please note, a part of demonstrating regular effective contact is ensuring that the interaction is faculty-initiated, as opposed to student-initiated.

For more information see:

• Cuyamaca College Guide to Best Practices in Online Teaching
• Mt. San Jacinto College Regular Effective Contact Policy
• Palomar College Instructor/Student Contact Policy for Distance Learning Courses
• Online Teaching Presence & Reflective Practice Resources

Grading Discussion Board Forums

Navigating from one student to the next has changed a bit when grading a Blackboard Discussion Board forum. In a forum, click on the Grade Discussion Forum button, then click on a student's name to grade them, just as you've always done. The navigation from one student to the next has changed here. See the image below to see how to use these new navigation buttons to go from one student to the next and experiment with them to see how they work.

Perfect Storm

Monday we had a perfect storm converge on our Blackboard system. Three things went wrong in one day, which caused things to go a bit haywire on us.

The first thing that went wrong was an update to the Discussion Board. Unfortunately, this update shouldn't have been installed without installing a different update first, but that information was in the fine print and not as clear as it could have been. The bottom line is that the Discussion Board problems we had yesterday were caused by an honest mistake on our part, not by something Blackboard did to cause us problems. We sincerely apologize for this and will take extra steps in the future to prevent this kind of mistake from happening again.

The second thing to go wrong yesterday was that one of our 5 or 6 Blackboard servers wasn't working correctly. When this happens, things start behaving strangely. One person would have problems submitting an assignment, yet that same assignment would work fine for someone else. When this happens, we often suggest trying another browser because sometimes switching browsers will get you onto a better server, or it may be a browser issue. Assignments were not the only symptom of this rogue server problem. Some instructors had problems accessing the Grade Center, and a number of other strange, non-reproducible things were happening.

The third thing to go wrong was the cloud service that runs the new inline grading feature went down for a short period of time on Monday. Fortunately, since this is a cloud service, it was able to be fixed more quickly than the other two problems.

So that's the trio of storms that hit us Monday to create the perfect storm. Fortunately, following every storm is a clear sunny day and that is where we were on Tuesday with Blackboard. Blackboard performed some magic between midnight and 2am Tuesday morning that fixed the first and second problems, and by all accounts, everything is running smoothly now.

Please remember to take a look at the system announcements in Blackboard when you experience problems. There might be information there that can help you and your students stay informed in situations like this.

Blackboard Innovative Teaching Webinars

The Blackboard Innovative Teaching Series (BITS) will share the top strategies and pedagogy for increasing educator efficiency and improving learning outcomes. BITS is free to Blackboard’s clients and is easy to participate. The program consists of weekly faculty training webinars that are taught by faculty and supported by Blackboard experts.

Learn more and register for the webinars at http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Learn/Resources/Webinars/Events.aspx?categoryType=BITS

Upcoming @ONE Desktop Webinars and Courses

Make your lunch hour productive with free @ONE desktop webinars. These webinars are just one hour long, starting at 12 noon, Pacific time, and are delivered via a web browser.

• GoogleDrive vs Microsoft Office 365 - Let the Competition Begin!
  Tue, 09/10/2013, Noon to 1pm 
• Authenticating Online Students: Practically Speaking
  Tue, 09/17/2013, Noon to 1pm  
• Is my Instructor there for me? A Study of Reflective Practice and Student Perceptions of Online Teaching Presence
  Wed, 09/25/2013, Noon to 1pm 

There is still time to sign up for the Teaching with Blackboard @ONE online course. This course runs from 10/07/2013 - Fri, 11/01/2013. While you're there, check out the other online courses that lead to a certification to teach online.

The @ONE Project makes it easy for California Community College faculty and staff to learn about technology that will enhance student learning and success.