Committee on eLearning Meeting Minutes for March 12, 2020

The Academic Senate Committee on eLearning met on March 12, 2020 at 3:00PM via Zoom (Online)

Committee Members in Attendance:

In Attendance: Zeynep Akcay (2020), Peter Novick (2020), Eugene Desepoli (2021), Lakersha Smith (2021), Svjetlana Bukvich-Nichols (2021),  Zhou Zhou (2022), Susan Lago (2022) and Zivah Katz (Steering Committee Designee) and Shiang-Kwei Wang (President’s designee).

Not present: Nina Sarkar (2020) & Randelle Sasa (2022).

Business:

The meeting was called to order at 3:00PM

Minutes of February 13^th, 2020 – approved by unanimous vote.

OET/CETL update and announcements

• Denis was not available as he is very busy helping QCC transition to online teaching. He has been in contact with the faculty at QCC and holding daily workshops on e-Learning platforms and techniques. He has also sent out a doodle poll requesting help from our committee.

• Academic continuity plans in case of a school closing
  • On 3/11, it was announced that there would be an academic recess from 3/12 to 3/18. On the 19^th of March, classes will resume fully online for the rest of the semester. Campus and facilities are to remain open during this time. A discussion ensued after Zeynep posed the question, “What can we do to help?”  Susan mentioned a survey to see if we can find out who needs help with the adjustment.  Keisha and Zivah talked about a “buddy system” pairing up faculty experienced in distance learning with faculty who are not within their own departments. There has been so many emails distributed in the past 24 hours that it has become exhausting and overwhelming.  Keisha wanted to know the volume of questions and problems at current. Would less be more? Another discussion on exam proctoring occurred.  Online exam proctoring costs money which is currently not in our budget.  It is however in the budget of the grant submitted by QCC.  The status of the grant will be unknown until August.  Svetlana talked about different ways to grade including students self-grading assignments. 
  • Concerns were also raised about peer and student evaluations. The committee wanted to know about the hierarchy in determining how this will work this semester. Ideas were suggested on how this will work in classes that are not recording lectures. We decided that it was too early to know any of the semantics and will discuss again at the next meeting.
• Tech Fee Committee meeting for Spring 2020 will be March 17^th at 3:00. Randelle has agreed to attend for our committee. We are awaiting the news as to if/how the meeting will be conducted.

 

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)
  • We revisited the ideas for the Spring newsletter:
    • Peter has contacted Dean Wang and has some great data from the e-learning student survey
    • Donna Boccio has agreed to be interviewed. Zeynep will follow up on the email.
    • Peter has contacted Meghmala Tarafdar who has agreed to provide a statement.
    • Links to the guidelines and the new e-Learning webpage
    • We will contact Denis for information regarding this new transition as well as additional training sessions that can be advertised.
    • Eugene has been in contact with David Moretti and now has the access and ability to make the newsletter entirely html.

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 and switch to online teaching.

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 and few members have had the ability to review. Zeynep noticed there is no guideline on grading.  We need to come up with a guideline on what percentage of the grade can be from online assignments in PNET courses. Is there a precedent for this at QCC or other colleges?  
• New business
• Student Evaluation Forms for E-Learning
  • As a committee we will come up with a template of student evaluations for PNET courses. Again, members need more time to review the documents which will be shared again with the committee and discussed at our next meeting.
• Next meeting is scheduled for 3:00pm on April 23rd via Zoom (online)
• Remaining meetings for the Spring semester: May 14^th
• Meeting was adjourned at 3:48 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

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

Minutes typed on March 12th 2020