Monday, October 24, 2011

View IP Address Used to Submit Assignments

Curious what computer a student used to submit an assignment? An IP address may be found for all items submitted to the grade center by accessing the grade center>click reports/view grade center>total entries (show all)>click download. You will be able to download a spreadsheet that contains all IP addresses for anything submitted or altered to the grade center.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Posting Documents for Students to View

This training video includes directions on how to upload documents to AdvisorTrac.  *Important* only documents uploaded as "Student Documents" will be visible to the student.  In the Document tab, click "Type" and select "Student Documents".  See picture below.  Also: content placed in the "History" is only available to advisors--students cannot view it.

Monday, October 10, 2011

AdvisorTrac: Advising At a Distance

One aspect of the new advising model is that prioritizes pairing students with an advisor with experise in their program of study versus an advisor located on their campus.  This means that we must all be prepared to work with students at a distance.

Email and telephone allow us to do this.  Here are some suggestions for working with students at-a-distance:

AdvisorTrac: Student is outside my advising area

Many of us will encounter students with program plans outside our advising areas.  There are a number of reasons why could have occurred.  Some students may have changed their program plans after data was pulled from PeopleSoft.  It is also possible that some advisors have been assigned outside their areas of expertise.

SHORT TERM SOLUTION

Advise the the student as best you can by doing the following:

  1. Provide the student with a program checklist from the BCTC Program of Study page.  The UK-BCTC Pathways are a great resource for transfer students.  
  2. Lift students' advising holds.
  3. Refer the students to the program Web site for additional information.  
  4. Refer the student to a program coordinator.  Note: some programs like nursing have pre-admissions advising counselors who can assist students.  The AA and AS pages also provide contacts for students.  All these details appear on the Program of Studies page. 

This email exchange offers an example how to provide this kind of assistance efficiently.

LONG TERM SOLUTION

The long term solution is to have students update their program plans in PeopleSoft. The Program Change Form form is located on the college Web site.  Students can fill out that document and return it to the campus registrar OR put the information contained on that form in a KCTCS email and send to bl_studentrecords@kctcs.edu.  Note: students must send the information using their official KCTCS email.

It is also possible that entire classes of students have been misassigned on the Advising Crosswalk.  The Crosswalk lists every possible program offered by the system and then organizes those programs into broad advising areas.  For example, there are nearly a dozen different programs that studenta can select to indicate they are a nurse.  If you see errors in the Crosswalk, share them with your AD.

    Friday, October 7, 2011

    September KCTCS Distance Learning Peer Team Meeting

    The KCTCS Distance Learning Peer Team met September 31 to discuss a number of issues.  Topics included:



    • Sandy Cook announced a new Service Center for Learn on Demand is in the works.  It will  includes assistance with advising, registration, IT troubleshooting, and more.
    • Pearson, who makes the MyLab suite of programs, offered a number of updates.
    • Future Blackboard updates were discussed.  KCTCS currently uses SP3.  SP7 is available.  We move to SP 7 at the start of the summer semester.  
    • The Proctored Exam database of passwords and exam information will be moving to The Point.  This will solve reliability problems with the old database.
    • Learn on Demand Developmental modules for Math are now available.  Writing goes online soon with Reading to follow later this semester.

    September KCTCS Distance Learning Peer Team Meeting

    The KCTCS Distance Learning Peer Team met September 31 to discuss a number of issues.  Topics included:



    • Sandy Cook announced a new Service Center for Learn on Demand is in the works.  It will  includes assistance with advising, registration, IT troubleshooting, and more.
    • Pearson, who makes the MyLab suite of programs, offered a number of updates.
    • Future Blackboard updates were discussed.  KCTCS currently uses SP3.  SP7 is available.  We move to SP 7 at the start of the summer semester.  
    • The Proctored Exam database of passwords and exam information will be moving to The Point.  This will solve reliability problems with the old database.
    • Learn on Demand Developmental modules for Math are now available.  Writing goes online soon with Reading to follow later this semester.