Committee on eLearning Meeting Minutes for November 14, 2019

The Academic Senate Committee on eLearning met on November 14, 2019 at 3:10PM in Science 312

Committee Members in Attendance:

In Attendance: Zeynep Akcay (2020), Peter Novick (2020), Susan Lago (Steering Committee Designee), Eugene Desepoli (2021), Lakersha Smith (2021), Zhou Zhou (2022) and Zivah Katz (2022).

Not present: Nina Sarkar (2020), Joseph Goldenberg (2021), Randelle Sasa (2022), and Shiang-Kwei Wang (President’s designee).

Business:

The meeting was called to order at 3:10PM

Minutes of October 17^th, 2019 – approved by unanimous vote.

• ACC/CETL update and announcements (Denis Bejar):
  • Update from Denis of OET: Blackboard will be down for an update at the end of December for 24-48 hours so it is important that instructors post grades ahead of time. Last week was the deadline to propose new Spring 2020 PNET courses; 9 applications were received. QCC has very high standards for structure and quality of our PNET courses. Although the courses don’t have to be approved by a committee to run, chairs tend to look for recommendations before offering the course.  Zeynep clarified with Denis that faculty can participate in the institute and not teach a PNET upon completion.  CETL is in a transition as Kathleen Landy has left QCC.
  • A new e-Learning page has been developed and Denis asked our committee to review the draft and make recommendations on what can be added. There is also a sample blackboard e-Learning course for students and faculty to self-enroll.  Outfitted with sample content, discussion boards and tests, faculty and students can navigate how a PNET course would work. Once published online, our committee can promote the site as well as have marketing place a link on the QCC homepage.  Zeynep will send us a link.  It was recommended that the Spring 2020 PNET and FNET courses get listed on the site and students oftentimes struggle identifying which courses/sections are online.  A discussion also arose about standardizing the terminology for e-Learning courses.  Words like “hybrid, blended and partially online” cause confusion.
• Tech Fee Committee Meeting was not attended by a member of our committee due to time changes.

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 newsletter is currently under construction. Peter and Gene interviewed two of our own committee members: Susan and Kersha. The abstracts for the faculty development event will be added along with the narrative on the e-Learning survey results from Summer 2019.

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)
  • Our professional development event on November 27^th including Polleverywhere (Susan Lago) and r-markdown (Fei Ye) in the CETL office. Kersha made a point of the need to advertise now as it is the day before Thanksgiving break. Offering food always increases attendance.  Zeynep will add “refreshments will be available” until she hears back if there is money for food.

Policies and Standards for eLearning at QCC (Denis, Zeynep, and Peter)

• (work with CETL/OET to devise standards/policies for eLearning at QCC to be formally adopted by the Senate)
  • Zeynep will contact chairs to see how the guidelines are being implemented and this can be reported on the new website.
• New business
• Assessment of online courses (Zivah)
  • Zivah reported that the college assessment committee works with departments working on their own assessments. There doesn’t appear to be a college wide assessment.  She will get into contact with Ian Beckford on this matter.
• Student Evaluation Forms for E-Learning
  • Zeynep made a new for which incorporated questions from traditional face-to-face courses and PNET courses. A discussion ensued from the document about which questions need to be included.  Some members agreed that there needs to be two separate forms for the evaluation of each part of the PNET course.  Denis is going to get in touch with BMCC and/or other schools to see if they have an evaluation form that we can view.
• Charges and email from Jannette concerning HIPs and e-Learning
  • Kersha discussed how the charge weighs heavily on the Common Read. As we no longer have CETL, we don’t know how we can get data on if the Common Read has been used in PNET courses.  Data will somehow be looked for using the section numbers that have been used in the Common Read in past years.  Peter recommended recording the Common Read events so that they can be accessed online for PNET and FNET courses.

 

• Next meeting is scheduled for 3:00pm on December 14^th in Science 312.
• Meeting was adjourned at 4:06 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

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

Minutes typed on November 18th 2019