OXNARD COLLEGE DISTANCE ED COMMITTEE 
MINUTES FROM MEETING OF THURSDAY, December 2, 2010

Members Present:  Teresa Bonham, Bret Black, Diane Eberhardy, Ishita Edwards, Bola King-Rushing, Kitty Merrill, Chris Mainzer and Dean Marji Price

I  The meeting was called to order at 2:35pm

II  Additions to the Agenda:  NONE

III  New Business
•	Teresa informed everyone that the presentation and review of the revised DL Appendix Form and the Faculty DE Authorization Form at the last Curriculum meeting went very smoothly.  Curriculum only questioned the section on authorized signatures, who should be able to approve the form?  Dean Marji asked if either a Department Chair or Division Dean signature should be included on the form.  Diane mentioned that rather than add more signatures, the authorization form can be kept on a data base and a report be sent to the Division Deans so that they are kept in the loop.  Teresa asked about what is the protocol with the approval process, would it be necessary to include initialing by Department Chairs and/or Deans?  The original idea of leaving the management signatures off the form was to be able to facilitate processing and eliminate having to search down the additional signatures.  It was also discussed how can we use the form in the “approval” process of eligible faculty if there is a hiring of online faculty from the outside or a distance location.  It was agreed that the forms could be posted at the DE web site under Technology (shared governance committee).  Teresa asked if we as a committee have the right to say that we have the authority to decide if a faculty does or does not qualify to teach an online course after going through the DE process.
•	Committee members present made a suggested change to the title of the DL Authorization Form, it should say:  “Faculty DE Authorization Form”   For the FAQ sheet the following changes were also made:  
-	Under “1.” Add another sentence to read:  “The completion of the form is not a guarantee of assignment for an online class.”
-	In “2.” The word “Technologist” would replace the word “Designer”.  Add a link here which asks for OC Ed Tech.
-	Add item “6.”: “E-mail the revised form to DEC chair and cc to respective Department.  Upon receipt the DEC chair will send approval with confirmation to the Department Chair and Division Dean.”
A list of those faculty who are qualified to teach online will be created. 
The forms will be approved at the December 8th Curriculum meeting. 
•	Teresa congratulated the committee on achieving 3 of the 6 DE committee goals for the academic school year so far:  1)revised and streamlined DE Appendix Form; 2)completed and submitted “Oxnard College Online Classes Blurb” which has been inserted into the Banner program of “Schedule of Classes” for the spring semester; 3)established protocol for individual DE forms (time frame & who needs to be involved); and 4)tech reviewed all the DE appendices that were assigned to the committee during the semester.  This fall semester reflected a high volume of processing of DE appendices submitted.
•	There was discussion on whether the DE committee should create a mentorship for the new instructors teaching online.  A form of partnership would be established to assist the new online faculty.  Teresa suggested that the DE committee start a monthly “High Tea” (HI T) which would bring newbies together to share in “best practices” of the new version of D2L.  A proposed schedule was created for spring 2011:
JANUARY – “How to Compose Discussions” by Teresa
FEBRUARY – “How to Test, Especially for Math Classes” by Bret
MARCH –  “How to Meet the EAC Requirements for Students with Special Needs”  by Chris and a rep from EAC?
APRIL - “How to Create Add-On Videos for Your Web Class” by Kitty
We are hoping that other committee members may also volunteer to present other topics that should be covered.  This would be an ongoing project for fall 2011.
•	Teresa mentioned that we have no technical support for students taking online courses in our district.  She was informed by the District D2L committee that faculty teaching online are the first stop for student technical support.  The purported “Help Desk” is really only designed to assist faculty and staff for navigating the VCCCD portal  There was discussion about the existing “Tutorial Assistance” for D2L students.  Kitty has a video of Teresa’s workshop that she had conducted in the library last year, an orientation for D2L students.  Teresa had also created a PowerPoint for it.  There’s a potential for putting this information on “YouTube”.  It may need revising to reflect the updated D2L web management system that is starting in the spring.  Discussion continued on how we could create tutorials for students taking online classes.
•	Bola announced that there will be a one-day training for faculty on the new updated D2L system.  There is a limited seating for the workshop which will be held on campus January 7, 2011.  For those attending faculty, it is understood that they will share with others teaching online the new features with D2L LearningEnvironment 9.1. 
•	Bola has created a document which initiates a list of “Best Practices” for online instruction.  Send your good ideas to Bola.  Bola also announced that “GOOGLE WEB SITES” will replace the existing “OMNI” sites to set up faculty web pages.
•	Teresa discussed developing the spring goals for the DE committee:  “OC Experience”
-	Develop and provide more online classes (take inventory) that provide the GE requirements for the 2-year degree and/or IGETC.
-	Provide training for creating faculty web sites
-	Produce videos for D2L student orientation
-	Research the district policy for unannounced observers (primarily management access) in an online class
-	Computer crashes
-	Policy for cheating in online classes
-	Create a list of those faculty who qualify to teach online classes
              The list can be more developed for the spring 2011 semester
•	Teresa had some discussion with the STEM director, Cynthia Herrera who is thinking of adding a second instructional technologist to the next STEM grant.  Teresa suggested to Cynthia that if she is able to hire a second IT person, it would be nice if that person could focus on student support.  According to Cynthia, Title V might also be able to help support students with technology, but most likely, more discussions will be needed. 
 
IV. Meeting was adjourned at 4:25pm

Minutes from meeting submitted by Chris Mainzer