Weekly Updates – Feb 24

The following updates are from the DLIT Department for the week ending Feb 24th.

Community

This area includes international, national, regional, state, and local activities.

• Webinar on Bb 9.1 SP8 – DLIT Attended the Blackboard 9.1 Service Pack 8 Virtual Office Hours webinar to prepare for GRCC’s summer pilot of SP8.
• BIE Steering Committee – Eric Kunnen participated in the BIE Steering Committee Meeting to discuss future plans of the steering committee for the next year.  The committee plans to meet face to face at this year’s BbWorld conference in New Orleans.

Department Action Projects & College Action Projects

This area includes accomplishments or milestones regarding Departmental and College Action Project(s).

• Project 1 – Extend DL Program
  • DL Student Survey Results – This survey was cleaned up and prepared for the DL FAB (Faculty Advisory Board).
• Project 2 – Enhance Classroom and Instructional Technologies
  • n/a
• Project 3 – Extend Blackboard Learn, Content, Community
  • Blackboard Team Meeting – Work is ongoing to prepare a server for GRCC’s pilot of SP8 for the summer session.  Live courses will be running during this pilot in preparation for a Fall upgrade.

Other Work within Your Department

This area includes accomplishments, milestones, or comments from within the department.

• n/a

DLIT Staff Reports

This area includes accomplishments, milestones, or comments from DLIT staff that is not included in the work outlined in the Department and College Action Projects area and categories above.

• Eric Kunnen
  • DLIT Department Planning – Finalized and prepared budget requests for DLIT for 12-13.
  • Prepared report with IT for DEANS Council on AGC Minimum Use Standard for Blackboard.
  • Attended the Blackboard 9.1 SP8 Office Hours webinar to prepare for GRCC’s summer pilot of SP8.
  • Spent Vacation in Orlando.
  • Participated in a BIE (Blackboard Idea Exchange) Steering Committee Meeting.
  • Worked with Jose to organize and finalize logistics and need for the Donuts with DLIT day on Feb 22nd.
  • Worked to clean up the negative and specific instructor comments in the DL survey by removing specific names. This survey was cleaned up and prepared for the DL FAB (Faculty Advisory Board).
• Meegan Willi
  • Online Course Developments
    • Met with Winona Hartney on 2/16 to discuss progress on development of DXX 115.
    • I’m seeing more of a variety in course development, even among courses that are part of a fully online degree. Given comments we have had in the past from student surveys, as well as observations made during the HLC visit, as we develop more fully online courses, it would help to have some standard navigation and organization to make the student experience a positive and successful one.
  • Took minutes at the Blackboard Team Meeting on 2/16: http://dlitgroup.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/blackboard-team-meeting-february-16-2012/
  • AGC Clicker Work: Clickers are available in 125 Main this week for faculty to stop by, see the clickers, and give their feedback. http://grcctoday.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/help-choose-our-campus-clicker-standard/
  • OHCC: Attended the final presentations on 2/17. Viewing recorded presentations 2/22 to provide feedback.
  • Attended ISIS Meeting on 2/17

• Jose Mora
  • Attended Donuts & Bagels
  • Reconciled budgets
  • Processed reimbursements
  • Answered student DLIT e-mail
  • Helped walk-in faculty.
• Student Worker
  • Took blackboard survey
  • Helped in processing and managing various documents
  • Helped in moving multimedia from one location to another
  • Added contact hours on MCCVLC site
  • Searched for faculty email addresses from survey while also scanning through the document for feedback.

EOL Faculty Reports

This area includes accomplishments, milestones, or comments from EOL faculty in the department.

• Luann Keizer
  • Assisted faculty and submitted tracking forms to http://www.grcc.edu/.
  • Hosted Blackboard, Bagels, Donuts and Distance Learning.
  • Assisted faculty within CO dept
  • Conducted Collaborate virtual field trip
  • Facilitated Blackboard Basics training and have the bruises to show for it.
  • Registered one, completed one in Blackboard Basics online course.
• Tim Koets
  • n/a
• Garret Brand
  • Assisted faculty and submitted tracking forms to http://www.grcc.edu/tracking.
  • Facilitated Week Five of OHCC and assisted with final presentations.
  • Assisted various faculty who dropped into 125 Main.
  • Participated in Blackboard Team Meeting.
  • Cat conversations increasing again (Eric back from vacation).
  • Assisted faculty within Business Department.
  • Attended e-Learning Conference in Long Beach (blog posts to follow). See http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrydahl/6772869378/in/photostream.
  • Attended Blackboard, Bagels, Donuts and Distance Learning.
  • Attended Webinar on “Building Interactive Articles for Peer-Reviewed Journals with SoftChalk.”
  • Attended ISIS Meeting on Friday, February 22..

DLIT Tracking Table

• n/a

Blackboard Team Meeting – February 16, 2012

In attendance: Meegan Wili, Garry Brand, Mark Nordblom

SafeAssign Issues

• One faculty member still having issues. Mark has been in contact with them via email.

Rubric

• If a rubric is attached to an Assignment or SafeAssignment and there is no attempt from a student, then the instructor cannot use the rubric to grade the student’s work.
• Mark will follow up with Blackboard support, submit a ticket. Potentially, we’d like to add this as an enhancement.

File Permission Issue on Production, Test and Development

• Students do not have permission to view files in the course files directory by default.
• Mark will reply to the ticket with Blackboard.

Discussion Boards – Mobile App

• In Garry’s course he has a student who used the Mobile Learn App and post to the discussion board, but her posts never registered. So when grading, etc, there were not posts linked to her to show activity.
• Mark will enroll himself into the course to see if he can replicate the issue.

Accessibility Issue

• Discussion Board and Assessment issues where Jaws is not reading all of the Discussion Board posts, additionally, the screen reader sometimes skips some of the answer options in assessments.

SP8 is available in GA

• We need to install this on Dev.
• Mark wanted to ensure that there is nothing currently on dev that we were working on and didn’t want to be blown away. Garry and Meegan have nothing they need preserved. Eric?

Blackboard Analytics for Learn Summary

• We have the servers we need in place for the data warehouse.
• The building block for Blackboard Analytics still needs to be configured.

Blackboard Collaborate Pilot

• Meegan to work on survey tool for feedback from students and faculty.
• Still waiting to hear back from Peter Campbell n turning on the connection between Blackboard Collaborate and Blackboard IM. Meegan will follow-up.

Twitter Mash-up Tool

• This is currently available in Ocelot.
• Szymon did testing of the mash-up on test, and it seems ready to install in our production environment.
• Mark will reinstall it in test.

 

Weekly Report – February 17

The following updates are from the DLIT Department for the week ending Feb 17th.

Community

This area includes international, national, regional, state, and local activities.

• n/a

Department Action Projects & College Action Projects

This area includes accomplishments or milestones regarding Departmental and College Action Project(s).

Project 1 – Extend DL Program

• n/a

Project 2 – Enhance Classroom and Instructional Technologies

• n/a

Project 3 – Extend Blackboard Learn, Content, Community

• n/a

Other Work within Your Department

This area includes accomplishments, milestones, or comments from within the department.

• n/a

DLIT Staff Reports

This area includes accomplishments, milestones, or comments from DLIT staff that is not included in the work outlined in the Department and College Action Projects area and categories above.

Eric Kunnen

• SP8 Pilot Web Page – Updated: http://cms.grcc.edu/bbupgrade
• Added a Blog Post on MCCVLC Student Success Webinar – “Student Preparedness for Online Learning” See: http://dlitgroup.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/student-success-online-mccvlc-webinar/
• DL CAP Meeting – The DL CAP team participate in DLIT departmental planning as well as review of the HLC visit.
• DEPT Planning – Completed work on the DLIT department plans and budget for 12-13.
• iPad Meeting – Met with Garry Brand, Meegan Willi, and Fiona Hert about the potential to purchase iPad for teaching and learning.
• Bb Analytics Field Trial – Met with 5 Bb Inc staff along with 13 GRCC staff to review features, potential, and capabilities related to data, tracking, monitoring, and reporting with the new Bb Analytics for Learn product that will be released soon.  This is an outstanding product and it will be extremely powerful to provide detailed statistics around the use of Bb from a faculty, staff, and student perspective along with integration with Peoplesoft data provides a rich set of interactive reports and detailed investigation possibilities.

Meegan Willi

• Bb Analytics: Met with the team from Blackboard on Monday, February 13th for an overview and a session covering Blackboard Outcomes versus Analytics for Learn.
• AGC Clicker Work: Working with Lisa G to schedule times for the campus community to view the clickers and provide the committee feedback during this week and next.
• Online Course Developments:
  • Met with Paul Phifer to discuss the development of CLS 101
  • Met with Doug Wiersma to touch base on the development of ELEC 010, 020, 030, and 040. Doug will be working with the College and MSU on an articulation agreement to bring the curriculum used at MSU to this side of the state.
  • The Online Course Review Committee met and completed 7 course evaluations. With 9 courses on the agenda for this month, we ran out of time, and the final 2 will be completed by the end of the week.
• Blackboard Collaborate Pilot: Emailed pilot participants to gather data on how the tool is being used. Pursuing pilot opportunities in the professional development, training, and meeting realms.
• Watched the recording from Blackboard’s Webinar: “Building Exemplary Courses.”  Presented by Dr. Shirley Waterhouse, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Shannon Field, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Worldwide
• Instructional Technology Council eLearning 2012 Conference – February 18-21 – I will be attending the conference and got the good news today that I was awarded an SSPD Grant which will be used towards this development opportunity.

Jose Mora

• Opened up VLC sections on website
• Capped remaining summer and Fall sections
• Worked on reimbursements for various incidents
• Answered DLIT student e-mails
• Finished conference logistical work
• Attended DL CAP
• Worked with Printing Solutions staff on new project

Student Worker

• Helped a student change her settings on Blackboard.
• Added the new sections of classes in the VLC website for the Summer Semester.

EOL Faculty Reports

This area includes accomplishments, milestones, or comments from EOL faculty in the department.

Luann Keizer

• n/a

Tim Koets

• n/a

Garret Brand

1. Assisted faculty and submitted tracking forms to http://www.grcc.edu/.
2. Facilitated Week Four of OHCC and assisted with campus session.
3. Assisted various faculty who dropped into 125 Main.
4. Participated in Blackboard Team Meeting.
5. Cat conversations decreased due to Blackboard consultations and vacations.
6. Assisted faculty within Business Department.
7. Troubleshooting NBC Video.
8. Participated in Blackboard Analytics and Outcomes meeting.
9. DL CAP meeting on Friday, February 10.
10. Departmental planning meeting on Friday, February 10.
11. Planning and funding meeting re: instructional technology for students (with Dean).
12. Bb Collaborate pilot planning meeting with Meegan.

DLIT Tracking Table

Student Success Online – MCCVLC Webinar

MCCVLC Webinar – “Student Preparedness for Online Learning”

On February 9, DLIT had the opportunity to join a webinar on the topic of student readiness in online learning.

Here are a few notes:

• SmarterMeasure is a vendor in this space.  They have a report available here which highlights some great information and research about students and distance learning.
• Buffalo State College has a student survey of around 40 questions that they are working to validate.
• Some of the topics discussed on the call include:
  • Student readiness is around what drives students to participate, succeed, and complete their online course.
  • Self-efficacy is relevant when couched in a specific performance indicator rather than a general self-efficacy.
  • Learner preferences and style differences govern student satisfaction not necessarily student success.
  • Relationships to technology matter
  • Online learning already addresses multiple-learning styles
  •  Successful students possess sufficient skills to access education, desire, capacity, and also flexibility matters.
  • Readiness index = self concept, experience with DL courses.
  • Technology index = ownership of hardware and skills to operate.
  • Interest index = student orientation and excitement to engage in DL courses.
  • A students ability, comfort with communication in technology, self-direction, desire, goal setting, and learner experiences are all important facets.
  • Factor 1 – comfort with elearning
  • Factor 2 – self directed learning and self management
  • General beliefs about DL include: confidence in pre-req skills, self direction and initiative, and a desire for interaction.
  • Familiarity and mastery of the web, the perception of flexibility of courses, and the perception of quality are also important indicators for success as well as general student abilities such as reading and writing.

Learner Characteristics - Dabbagh (2007)

1. Strong academic self concept
2. Exhibit fluency in use of online technologies
3. Posses interpersonal and communication skills
4. Understand and value interaction and collaborative learning
5. Possess internal locus of control
6. Exhibit self-directed learning skills
7. Exhibit a need for affiliation

Digital Divide – Hsieh, Rai, Keil (2008)

1. Beliefs in efficacy of technology
2. Beliefs that technology will be here tomorrow
3. Peer usage and peer value of technology
4. Hedonic value vs utilitarian outcomes
5. Impact of social norms
6. Government influence
7. Perceived ease of use
8. Self-efficacy
9. Availability

At GRCC we have a student readiness web site to assist students in becoming prepared for online learning.  Check out that site here.

Blackboard Team Meeting – February 9th

In attendance: Meegan Willi, Eric Kunnen, Mark Nordblom, Garry Brand

Blackboard Analytics

• Bb Analytics will be run on the test server for now.
• Test is a copy of Production from Monday – 2/6/12
• Blackboard will finish up matching data pieces in Blackboard with PeopleSoft to run analytics.
• For the future: we need to have a brainstorm to determine what data we want to get from analytics. What are the delivered reports available already in analytics and what is the gap analysis between what comes canned and what we want to know/what reports we are looking for. Is it possible for some reports to be sent out automatically during the semester to users we identify?
• February 13 and 14th – Blackboard will be on campus with a team of 5 to jump start the Analytics Field Trial.

SafeAssign

• We need to install the latest version of the building block on Production.
• It is currently installed on our test environment, but there is no real way to test it.
• The current issue is that while paper and reports are being returned to the user, they are not showing up in the Grade Center.
  • Evidently, there is an issue with the certificates, every time a push config command is executed it breaks the certificates. Blackboard had added a fix to this in Service Pack 7.
• Schedule the new building block, get it going, and send a communication to faculty using SafeAssign with wording to also let them know it may be necessary to double-check the tool for submissions which may not have shown up in the Grade Center.
• Eric will type up and email. Mark will provide a point in time to include with communication.

Scheduling so that when faculty stop in to ask Mark a question, we know what to tell them. Such as Mark is in 125 Main on specific days every week. Regardless, we should always tell faculty to contact ITHelp to submit a ticket. Mark will begin integrating and updating his calendar so we can be better informed.

Weekly Report – February 10

The following updates are from the DLIT Department for the week ending Feb 10th.

Community

This area includes international, national, regional, state, and local activities.

• Blackboard Outcomes Conference Call – Hosted conference call with Bb Inc and Katie, Meegan, Garry, Mark on reviewing Outcomes Assessment module and Field Trial of Analytics and SP8 as it relates to program and curriculum review.
• Webinar -  VTBE Limited Field Trial Meeting was held to discuss SP8 evaluation of the new visual text box editor.
• Blackboard Connect Conference Call – Bb Connect conference call was held to discuss roadmap planning and suggestions provided by faculty for the professor notification tool.
• Starfish Demo of Connect – Attended a demo of the Starfish Connect solution with John C, Luanne S, and Mark N.

Department Action Projects & College Action Projects

This area includes accomplishments or milestones regarding Departmental and College Action Project(s).

• Project 1 – Extend DL Program
  • HLC Visit – A successful visit overall with the report expected within 2 weeks.
• Project 2 – Enhance Classroom and Instructional Technologies
  • n/a
• Project 3 – Extend Blackboard Learn, Content, Community
  • Blackboard NBC Learn Use Data – in January there were 1,029 visits, 2,594 minutes total watched, top 5 videos with minutes watched included the following:
    

Other Work within Your Department

This area includes accomplishments, milestones, or comments from within the department.

• n/a

DLIT Staff Reports

This area includes accomplishments, milestones, or comments from DLIT staff that is not included in the work outlined in the Department and College Action Projects area and categories above.

• Eric Kunnen
  • Bb Service Level Agreement – Meeting with David A, Garry B, Kurt M, Meegan W, Fred B, and Mark N to discuss how to collaborate and improve end user communication during system issues.
  • DLIT Blog Starter Post – Created a draft of a post for the DLIT blog for advancing and promoting Camtasia Relay.  Luann K and Tim K to assist in finalizing narrative.
  • Bb Field Trial Meeting -  Meeting with Bb Inc., Jody G, David A, Meegan W, and Mark N to discuss rollout and implementation plans for the field trial for analytics.
  • DL Student Survey – Prepared and delivered DL student survey results to Deans, DL FAB, and the DL CAP team.
  • DL Strategic Plan – Completed research and scanning for content for the DL Strategic Plan “Business Plan”.
  • HLC visit – Assisted in the administration, coordination, and logistics for the HLC site visit.  This was a team effort and special notice and thank you is given to Ric U, Penni W, Jose M, Meegan W, and the faculty that were willing to be interviewed and provide access to their courses for review.
  • Bb Service Pack 8 – Authored the following post on “Ocho”, Blackboard’s latest release now available: See:

    http://dlitgroup.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/highlights-from-project-ocho-aka-bb-9-1-service-pack-8/

  • FPD CAP – Attended the faculty professional development CAP.  Topics discussed included: HLC visit feedback, adequate staffing, 3 Year faculty review related to professional development, more faculty involvement in the DL faculty advisory board, the DL course review committee, and connecting FPD to online course quality initiatives.  Also mentioned was the need to unbundle the dlit@grcc.edu email address for faculty support away from Eric’s inbox along with the model for faculty support related to on demand, drop in, phone, weekend support, and the role of the IT Help Desk.
  • DLIT Department Visit – Eric K, and Meegan W visited the Music Department to provide information about instructional design, distance learning, and instructional technologies.
  • Bb Analytics Visit – Working with Jody G on the Bb Inc. Analytics Team visit.  Blackboard will be sending 5 staff to work with our IT team to implement the Bb Field Trial for Analytics for Learn.
  • Community College Journal – Provided commentary on an interview by a reporter from the publication about GRCC’s Digital Initiative.
• Meegan Willi
  • Clicker Committee Work: Worked with co-facilitator Lisa G to get short video recordings from two vendors to show to all interested parties campus wide as early as next week. Finalized agenda for meeting on February 9th with entire clicker committee where we will be recapping vendor visits from January, previewing videos for the College from the vendors, developing short evaluation forms for faculty, staff, and students to complete after viewing vendor videos to aid in the final clicker vendor selection.
  • OHCC – Supporting during optional Friday sessions
  • Online Course Development:
    • Evaluating courses for the review team’s February meeting. The team will be evaluating nine courses on February 14th including one which is a resubmission.
    • Held an initial meeting with Colette S who will be developing a new online course in Dental Assisting.
    • February 9th, follow-up meeting scheduled with Winona H who is currently developing a new online course in Dental Hygiene.
  • Blackboard Collaborate Pilot: Scheduled meeting with Garry B to continue work on website and plan for piloting the tool for professional development webinars.
  • DL CAP: Working on fleshing out the tasks for the Curriculum & Instruction Theme which I am leading into a working document to provide more detail and identify specific tasks for each item in DL CAP worksheet.

• Jose Mora
  • Worked on HLC logistics and Gift Basket
    Assisted in hosting of HLC reviewers
    Created new online sections for Summer 2012 and Fall 2012 semester
    Capped sections for VLC students in peoplesoft
    Edited another auto-emailer script for Online Course creation google docs
    Answered DLIT student e-mails
    Completed logistical work for ITC conference; hotel and flight are completed.
• Student Worker
  • Created sections in MCCVLC site in preparation to be offered when open enrollment begins for the Summer semester.
     Worked on filtering student retention data
     Attended lunch with HLC reviewers

EOL Faculty Reports

This area includes accomplishments, milestones, or comments from EOL faculty in the department.

• Luann Keizer
  • Evaluated seven of nine new online courses in preparation for approval meeting 2/14.
    Assisted faculty with OHCC discussions and course design questions
    Followed up with faculty on weighted grade assignment design
    Enrolled two faculty members in BB Basics Online and had two faculty complete requirements.
    Assisted faculty with custom grade column setup
    Reviewed online lab course
• Tim Koets
  •  1. Conducted blackboard Mashup session.
    2.  Facilitated OHCC session
    3.  Interviewed with HLC committee
    4.  Submitted two new courses for online approval (co273 and co274)
    5.  Scheduled additional blackboard Mashup session for march
• Garret Brand
  • 1.   Assisted faculty and submitted tracking forms to http://www.grcc.edu/tracking .
    2.   Facilitated Week Three of OHCC and assisted with campus session.
    3.   Attended Camtasia Relay Webinar.
    4.   Sending daily professional development updates to GRCC Today.
    5.   Assisted various faculty who dropped into 125 Main.
    6.   Participated in Blackboard Team Meeting.
    7.   The conversations about cats never stops!
    8.   Assisted faculty within Business Department.
    9.   Attended Faculty Professional Development CAP meeting.
    10.  Participated in Blackboard Use Agreement Meeting
    11.  Assisted in HLC Visit preparations and attended exit summary.
    12.  Participated in HLC faculty interview.
    13.  Volunteered course for HLC observation.
    14.  Joined Outcomes discussion in DLIT.
    15.  Attended Product Advisory Council meeting.
    16.  Troubleshooting student permission and needs grading issues.

DLIT Tracking Table

• n/a

Highlights from project “Ocho” aka Bb 9.1 – Service Pack 8

Introducing "Ocho"...

The next release of Blackboard is nearly here!  It’s internal code name is “Ocho” and it represents a significant step forward in the future of Blackboard from enhancements in the user interface through major new features and function.  There are new reporting tools, goals and standards features, course merging, course themes, and many improvements to the user interface.

Blackboard continues it’s ongoing improvements in support, openness, transparency and quality with Service Pack 8.

“Ocho” is essentially Service Pack 8 (SP8) for release 9.1.  This release focuses on major enhancements to the user interface to streamline and simplify the user experience.  Quality in interface design and innovative user experiences is now the default and is expected when working in web based systems.  SP8 provides excitement in a clean, streamlined, and more contemporary design.

Overall, based on the demonstration, there are many instructor efficiency enhancements coupled with a modernized and simplified interface.  This is a trend and commitment toward the future as additional features are planned for the roadmap in Service Pack 9 and beyond.

The following is a photo essay of sorts that provide a glimpse at the improvements coming soon to a Blackboard near you:

Blackboard Version 8

Blackboard Version 8

Blackboard Version 9

Blackboard Version 9

Introducing… Blackboard Version 9 SP8 “Ocho”

Blackboard Version 9.1 SP8

Here are a few more screen shots highlighting just a few of the advancements, modern interface, and features that will be available in “Ohco” – Service Pack 8.

Opening Course Home Page

Welcome audio with Bb Voice Tools

Needs Grading and Quick Change Course Navigation

Send Students Text Message Reminders with Bb Connect

Bb Team Meeting

Present: Garry Brand, Eric Kunnen, Meegan Willi, Mark Nordblom

Topics:

• Photo Roster – Photos have been updated.  Working to automate in the future.
• Bb Transact – Steve W and Bill F are going to the conference next week.
• Building Blocks
  • Turn off Google Scholar
  • Turn off Blackboard Scholar
  • Turn off default Softchalk
  • Turn ON by default the Professor Notification Tool
  • SafeAssign upgrade is in progress
• SP8
  • Need to fix My Courses Plus
  • Pilot for Summer for Fall Launch
    • Test Features/Functionality
    • Test VTBE
    • Test Building Blocks
    • Prepare Bb Upgrade Page and Punch List
    • The plan is to copy production to dev and run through the installation process with the GA version of SP8 – we will also run the live pilot courses on test.
    • Identify training needs
    • Identify use of Goals/Objectives
    • CSS development – Evaluate options for look and feel, consider colors with themes in course
    • Select users for pilot
  • Oracle Patches – They have been applied to dev and test.  Oracle patches are required.  Mark will check with Bb support to ensure the database environment changes are  supported.
  • Communication Circuit – Identification of issues and communicating them to end users.  With system down issues through instructor reported issues.  Increasing internal communications between help desk, IT, DLIT.  Weekend support.
  • Course Copy file replication issues need to be investigated.
  • Automation – investigation of automation for enhancements both for users and courses and also for organizations.

Weekly Updates – February 3

The following updates are from the DLIT Department for the week ending Feb 3rd.

Community

This area includes international, national, regional, state, and local activities.

• Webinar – DLIT attended: “The Importance of Communication in Online Learning & the Campus Experience” which provided insights on leveraging the Bb Connect tool in courses.
• Webinar – DLIT attended: “Sneak Peek: Service Pack 8 for Blackboard Learn 9.1″ which provided excellent information which will guide our pilot of SP8 in the summer.

Department Action Projects & College Action Projects

This area includes accomplishments or milestones regarding Departmental and College Action Project(s).

• Project 1 – Extend DL Program
  • DL CAP – Sub-teams met to finalize work on the project list and table.
• Project 2 – Enhance Classroom and Instructional Technologies
  • n/a
• Project 3 – Extend Blackboard Learn, Content, Community
  • n/a

Other Work within Your Department

This area includes accomplishments, milestones, or comments from within the department.

• n/a

DLIT Staff Reports

This area includes accomplishments, milestones, or comments from DLIT staff that is not included in the work outlined in the Department and College Action Projects area and categories above.

• Eric Kunnen
  • Starfish Issue Meeting – Attended Starfish meeting to resolve issues with Lynnae.
  • MCCVLC State Wide Update Meeting – Attended meeting and provided an update regarding GRCC’s upcoming site visit for HLC.
  • DL CAP Update – Finalized project list for the student success, infrastructure, and data themes in the DL Project List.
  • Consolidate DL Data – Collected data from Jose and Heath to create the beginnings of a course data set for DL information.
  • HLC Visit – Planning, coordination, content development, and scheduling work for the HLC visit.
  • Digital Learning Day – Created a blog post for DL Day.  See: http://dlitgroup.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/national-distance-learning-day-february-1st/
    - started a blog post on relay and fuse.
  • ITC Award – Created a blog post to recognize Garry Brand and his award as well as to share the press release.  See: http://dlitgroup.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/congratulations-to-professor-garry-brand-2012-itc-outstanding-elearning-faculty-award/
  • Analytics for Learn – Coordinated with Jody Graves for the planned orientation date in February for the Bb Analytics team who is visiting campus.
  • Starfish Early Alert – Met with Lynnae and John about a Starfish Integration Project that is intended to provide integration with PS, AdvisorTrac and TutorTrac.
  • Bb Bug Squad Post – Created a blog post to highlight DLIT’s work and participation in the Bb Bug Squad as well as to highlight Eric recognition as the top 6 voters of 2011. See:  http://dlitgroup.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/grcc-participates-in-the-blackboard-bug-squad/
  • IT/DLIT – Met with David Anderson to discuss DLIT, Bb, DL CAP, HLC work and intersects.
  • Draft Blog Post – Created a draft blog post to highlight Camtasia Relay.  Tim Koets and Luann Keizer will be finalizing the draft.
• Meegan Willi
  • n/a – out sick at time of report

• Jose Mora
  • Attended a Service Learning Conference.
  • HLC site visit preparation and coordination work.
  • Isaac working on MCCVLC coordination.
  • Opened up sections for online courses.
• Student Worker
  • Prepared report for DL CAP and HLC visit on faculty teaching online. (Full time vs Adjunct)
  • Discovery of student success rates work and scanning.

EOL Faculty Reports

This area includes accomplishments, milestones, or comments from EOL faculty in the department.

• Luann Keizer
  • n/a
• Tim Koets
  • n/a
• Garret Brand
  •         1.   Assisted faculty and submitted tracking forms to http://www.grcc.edu/tracking .2.   Prepared Blackboard Training and logistics for Mashup session (Tim to cover).

    3.   Facilitated Week Three of OHCC and assisted with campus session.

    4.   Attended Blackboard Mobile Collaborate Webinar.

    5.   Sending daily professional development updates to GRCC Today.

    6.   Assisted various faculty who dropped into 125 Main.

    7.   Attended Blackboard Collaborate Session Creation Workshop

    8.   Participated in Blackboard Team Meeting.

    9.   Still more conversations about cats!

    10.  Added resources to DLIT Facebook site and GRCC webpage.

    11.  Assisted faculty within Business Department.

    12.  Facilitated DL CAP worksession with Julie Hess and Meegan Willi.

    13.  Attended Curriculum meeting re: distance learning.

    14.  Attended webinar on Blackboard Drive as part of pilot.

DLIT Tracking Table

• n/a

GRCC participates in the Blackboard Bug Squad

Bb Client Email Letter Update

The DLIT group has participated in the Blackboard Bug Squad throughout 2011 with the goal to work with Blackboard Inc. to improve the quality of the product.

This Bug Squad is comprised of a wide array of users from several colleges and universities.  In 2011 this project included the following stats:

• 322 Bugs were voted on
• 11,720 votes were cast by the Bug Squad
• 166 Bugs are being fixed in 9.1 SP8 or sooner
• 45 Bugs are already targeted for SP9 or SP10

Also, through the process, Eric Kunnen was recognized in the top 6 voters. The following Blackboard clients were recognized:

• Rene Aube, College Communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick
• Jerry Todd, Central Michigan University
• Amanda Carter, Central Carolina Community College
• Janna Kruckenberg, University of North Dakota
• Eric Kunnen, Grand Rapids Community College
• Dale Weaver, Wake Technical Community College

DLIT is looking forward to continuing on the Blackboard Bug Squad in 2012. More information is available here: www.blackboard.com/bugsquad.

Here is to a great Bug Squashing 2012!