Ocotillo College Centers' Meeting: Oct 27, 2004

South Mountain Community College
11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Teaching and Learning Center, 2nd Floor of Technology Center (see map)

The Evolving TLC

Amy MacPherson, South Mountain Community College
Amy shared with the group updates from South Mountain's Teaching and Learning Center.

Faculty on their campus had been paid for technical training from a Title V grant. Residential faculty were paid 24 hours per year; Adjunct faculty were paid for 12 hours of training per year. One hundred percent of the residential faculty took advantage of this opportunity and seventy five percent of adjunct faulty did. Now the TLC provides more than just technical training, they are focusing on the scholarship of teaching and learning also.

Dr. Ken Roberts, the Dean of Instruction, fully supports the center and the direction it is going. Amy has begun planning brown bag events for faculty to start thinking of the upcoming accreditation in 2009.

Growth on campus has been tremendous this year. Typically one new faculty is hired per year, next year there will be six new faculty. The center is planning a first year experience for these faculty. In addition with the rollout of the Student Information System, faculty will need training and the center will need more computers to accommodate the need.

The Teaching and Learning Center tracks the number of contacts they have with faculty to show the value of the center.

What's new at your center?

Glendale Community College - 90% of full-time faculty are using Midas. There is a group of dedicated Blackboard users who are asking for new system. The campus is exploring other options for course management software. The campus is also using Camtasia. They find it is easier to record audio and video simultaneously and it is easy to edit.
Phoenix College - WebCT funding for 2005-2006 was finalized. The center had been using macromedia RoboDemo for training modules. The latest version is called Captivate. It includes a timeline. Training modules and resources pages are now available on their website.

There is now a programmer in the LTD to help support the center. They recently provided a demo of WebCT at Glendale Community College. The LTD is hosting open labs for faculty. They are also assessing the training needs of the faculty. It is believed that faculty need an incentive to attend training. Phoenix College is offering open computer lab WebCT testing three days a week. The tests are proctored.
Mesa Community College - The current hot political issue on campus is online testing. The CTL is an umbrella area for faculty/staff technology and innovation.

Recently they opened a satellite CTL at the Red Mountain Campus. They have no additional staff for this center so they are rotating days to provide staff coverage. The center is located in a faculty office area. They have put a white board that they refer to as the "wall talker: for faculty to put down questions as they think of them.

The NCA Self Study report is due next month. The review team comes in March. The CTL has a key role in affecting academic life on campus. They track data that supports the value of the center.

Currently working on redesigning their website. It is important to set aside time for staff members to think about innovation and experimentation. They are exploring the Sakai project, the first part which will be an open source course management system.

Donna Gaudet is working on the open source portfolio system.

MCC has two experimental classrooms available for faculty use. There is a three-tier system to allow faculty to experiment with pedagogy once per week.

New technology on campus is primarily Macromedia. The Breeze Presentation tool was rolled out to faculty this fall. Breeze Live web conferencing was recently made available to faculty also. The CTL is also using Contribute and DreamWeaver to update webpages.
Chandler-Gilbert Community College - Chris Schnick is the new Faculty/Staff Development Coordinator for CGCC. They have made a spring calendar for events. It includes transing schedules. They are offering training on the new Student Information System three times, in the spring, summer, and fall.

Faculty members from CGCC attended the Digital Storytelling Learnshop and now are extremely interested in continuing the work. CCC does not have a Mac lab so they are using a modified PowerPoint with Audacity. It is too large for the CTL to handle.
Estrella Mountain Community College - The center is now offering new programs for employee learning and development including "Lunch & Learn" and Tech Tuesdays.

Spring release time for six faculty per year turned into scholarship of teaching and learning experiences. There are monthly SOTL luncheons. The hybrid focus this year is on getting adjunct faculty up to speed.

Estrella's new faculty experience includes hybrid training from the beginning. There is no student helpdesk on campus so they are looking at what options are available.

The campus also has ten tablet PCs now. There are built-in wireless projectors for the tablets. Roger is working on a WIMBA test server. It can stream audio into Blackboard. Six faculty from each campus can access it for free. They are using Omni Update as an affordable way to manage web pages. It is not robust but it contains easy to use templates. A group from EMCC will be visiting the Goodman's showroom for a tour of their informal learning spaces.
MCLI - The next Learning Grants cycle opens November 1 and remains open until December 3. There is $185,000 available, up to $10,000 per proposal. We are planning an Ocotillo dialogue day in early April with Brian Lamb from the University of British Columbia.

The Ocotillo Action Groups

John Arle, Phoenix College, Ocotillo General Chair
The next Ocotillo Retreat will be held at South Mountain Community College May 17, 2004. It is being planned in a conference style with two confirmed speakers, a showcase of new technologies, poster areas for faculty and breakout sessions to showcase faculty who are innovative in their use of technology and pedagogy. November 19, 2004 there is a tour of Goodman's learning spaces showroom for 8-10 people from 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm. John has invited the Deans of Administrative Services. There was discussion that faculty should also attend so a date for a faculty tour will be planned.

Ocotillo Action Group Central
http://graphite.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/ocotillo/

Ocotillo Action Group Events
http://graphite.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/ocotillo/events.php

Where do we go from here?

Naomi Story from Mesa Community College relayed that a meeting is scheduled on November 15 to define the language related to online faculty accountability in RFP including load, office, etc. It was felt that it should be faculty driven.

The group agreed that they would like to keep meeting as they feel it is valuable to get together. A date for a spring meeting was not discussed.

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