Committee on eLearning Meeting Minutes for April 23, 2020

The Academic Senate Committee on eLearning met on April 23, 2020 at 3:00PM via WebEx (Online)

Committee Members in Attendance:

In Attendance: Zeynep Akcay (2020), Peter Novick (2020), Lakersha Smith (2021), Svjetlana Bukvich-Nichols (2021),  Zhou Zhou (2022), Susan Lago (2022), Randelle Sasa (2022) and Shiang-Kwei Wang (President’s designee).

Not present: Nina Sarkar (2020), Eugene Desepoli (2021) & Zivah Katz (Steering Committee Designee).

Business:

The meeting was called to order at 3:02PM

Minutes of March 12^th, 2020 – approved by unanimous online WebEx poll.

OET/CETL update and announcements

• Denis presented updates from CETL and OET. There is an academic continuity page for CUNY and new materials are being developed out of needs from faculty. There is also a drop in virtual office open 6 hours a day (9-12 & 2-5) for faculty to get online support with their courses in addition to 1 on 1 online trainings that faculty can schedule. Summer classes will be fully FNET, still waiting to hear about the fall semester. Quality of the courses and the training of faculty is of utmost importance. The QCC e-Learning institute has been cancelled; instead, there is a university wide initiative for online training of summer and fall instructors who are not currently certified to teach online classes.   There will be several cohorts this summer covering the fundamentals of online training. A list of faulty have been submitted to OET from CUNY central. Invitations will be sent soon. Goals include: developing master courses for multi-section classes and align courses with the QM rubric. There will be a stipend for participation, the amount is pending.
• Randelle later asked about proctoring of online exams to maintain academic integrity. Denis reported on the status of “Respondus Monitor” which was piloted last week by QCC and some other campuses. There is a way to “lock down” the browser so students can’t leave the test as well as a “monitor” which will record students, require the QCC ID, and provide red flags if students are looking away from the exam. This brings up even more issues of privacy and requiring students to own a webcam. Final decisions have yet to be made about this topic.
• Academic Development Committee Survey
  • Zeynep will share the survey with us to review
• Tech Fee Committee meeting for Spring 2020
  • No information on the date and time was provided for an online meeting. It is possible that it was cancelled.

 

Old business

• Subcommittee reports/plans/changes/additions:

Marketing of online courses (Eugene Desepoli & Peter Novick)

• (Committee newsletter; design and implement a marketing campaign at QCC for higher recognition of online courses)
  • The information for the Spring newsletter has been collected and is at the final stages of assembly to be published sometime next week. Some of the information includes:
    • Data from the Winter e-learning student survey
    • Interview with Donna Boccio
    • A statement from CETL from Meghmala Tarafdar
    • Links to the guidelines, the new e-Learning webpage and other additional resources available to faculty to help them with the transition

Brown bag lunches for online faculty (Nina & Susan)

• (coordinate, promote, and run informal but informative meetings for QCC faculty who are interested in online education)
  • Cancelled this semester due to the COVID-19 virus. Zeynep indicated that we can still organize a professional development workshop, but it’s probably best to wait until the fall when faculty are less busy.

Policies and Standards for eLearning at QCC (All Members)

• (work with CETL/OET to devise standards/policies for eLearning at QCC to be formally adopted by the Senate)
  • As part of the duties of the committee, all members will review the guidelines. Susan has shared the document through google docs. Zeynep indicated we need to update with new links from OET and the guidelines for peer evaluation as supported by the PSC. Denis will look at the guidelines towards the end of the semester when he has more time.   
• New business
• Student Evaluation Forms for E-Learning
  • There has been no official announcement from Academic Affairs as to the status of student evaluations being conducted online this semester. Some departments have cancelled evaluations (Math), while others have external (Nursing). We will provide the materials that we have collected for the committee to revisit next year.
• Next meeting is scheduled for 3:00pm on May 14^th via WebEx (online). Newly elected members will be invited and an election for Chair and Secretary for the 2020-2021 academic year will be held. The terms for Nina, Peter and Zeynep have expired.
• Meeting was adjourned at 3:46 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Peter A. Novick, Ph.D.
Committee on eLearning, Secretary

Minutes typed on April 24 2020