Thursday, December 13, 2012

December Ad Hoc Technology Plan Team Meeting

The KCTCS Technology Plan Ad Hoc Team met Thursday, December 13.  The agenda, which also contains some of Ben's notes, is linked below.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6f7rxom5ob8v7kt/Technology%20Plan%20Ad%20Hoc%20Team%20Agenda%20December%202012.docx

December Peer Team Meeting

The KCTCS Distance Learning Peer Team met on Tuesday, December 11.  The agenda is linked below.  Key talking points were the Bb SP 10 roll out, which is proceeding as planned.  More info in the agenda.  Ask Ben if you have questions.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/taj3ya7prv9k8xe/DL%20Peer%20Team%20December%2012%202012%20Topics.docx

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Incomplete Grades


Issuing an incomplete grade for online students does present a few challenges.  Key points about are listed in this link:


BB ACCESS

After the end of each term, all official student enrollments for that term will be made unavailable. This will make the courses disappear from the students’ course list. If there is a student with an incomplete grade in a class after the end of the term, you will need to make that student’s enrollment available again to continue to allow them access to the Blackboard course (Control Panel> Users and Groups >Users. Click the “Properties” button next to the student who needs access to the course and set the availability to “Yes”). 

COLLEGE POLICIES

The incomplete grade should only be given if. . . 
  • There is a reasonable expectation that the student can complete the missing assignments.
  • The student has completed at least 50% of the coursework (preferably more).
  • The instructor, student and an academic dean sign a form lists the assignments the student must complete and the due dates for those assignments.

For example, an incomplete might be given to a student who, because of hospitalization is unable to complete a final course assignment.  

Instructors should check that the student has all the resources available to him or her in order to complete the remaining assignment(s) and that the student fully understands what work is due and when.  E.g. you might require that a student submit a document via KCTCS email on a certain date.  If an exam is involved, you could contact the Distance Learning Office to schedule that exam.






Friday, December 7, 2012

Master Course Shells

Bluegrass is starting an initiative to place commonly used courseshells in Blackboard such that can be shared with instructors who wish to use them.  Some of the details of this initiative:

  • Courses will be placed in Bb as development courses.
  • Common naming template:  bl_8888_dev_eng_101_master
  • Distance Learning will keep an inventory of these courseshells
  • Connie R. and my office will assist with course copy into instructors' shells
  • There is potential for on ground use as well.  E.g. An area might want to have commonly used links, files, and other information uploaded into all shells for a specific area.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Popcorn

It's not just a movie snack . . .

When you’ve got 5 minutes, take a look at this Ted Talks presenting a linkfree web tool (Popcorn Maker) that allows you to add dynamic and interactive web content directly to your video…giving you a dynamic interactive video.