Distance Learning E-News

 

Monthly Newsletter from CNM's Distance Learning Department               April 2007

DL Leadership Team

 


Xeturah Woodley
Director

 

 

Brian Ditmer
Distance Learning Specialist

 

Rafael Martinez
Distance Learning Specialist

 

 

  Contact Information:
Distance Learning Dept.
525 Buena Vista SE
Albuquerque, NM 87106
(505) 224-3317 – office
(505) 224 – 3321 – fax
http://www.cnm.edu/depts/dl

 

What's Happening

Be sure to register early for the Summer 2007 semester.  Classes will fill quickly and you don't want to be left out.  www.cnm.edu/depts/dl/.

 

Welcome to our Newest Distance Learning Faculty Members For Summer 2007:

 Amy Arcaro
Annalisa Di Nola-Sbarge
 Jeannie Luther
 Karen McCue
  Lori Mehl
 Calvin Motley
Colin Olson
Mary Jane Zimmerman

Help!

 

During the Fall 2006 and continuing with the Spring 2007 semesters we began the term with “Introduction to WebCT” sessions in the computer labs during the first week of classes.  Those students that came to the sessions really received the help they needed to get started in their online classes.  So even though the participation numbers were small (just over 100), we’d like to again offer the sessions to support students getting started with the new BlackBoard CE6 courses. 

I’m looking for faculty members that are interested in assisting us by facilitating the sessions during the Summer Semester.  I will be giving participation agreements to faculty members that agree to facilitate sessions.  During the sessions, you are asked to assist students in doing the following:

  1. Logging into Passport.

  2. Locating their course instructions on the DL Homepage.

  3. Creating their CE6 ID.

  4. Logging into CE6: http://elearnig.cnm.edu.

  5. Self-registering into their CE6 course.

  6. Briefly showing them how to navigate through the course.

  7. Encouraging them to print off their syllabus and other relevant course materials.

  8. Answering any questions they may have and providing them with helpful hints on how to be successful online students, e.g., login multiple times during the week, email your professor with questions, etc.

The sessions follow a drop-in lab format so you just help students as they come to the labs.  On average, it took us less than 10 minutes per student to get them off to a good start in their classes.   The sessions for Summer 2007 are scheduled as follows:

05/14/07

Main Campus - Room MS 103

9:00am - 12:00pm

05/14/07

Main Campus - Room MS 103

2:00pm - 5:00pm

05/15/07

Main Campus - Room MS 103

5:30pm - 7:30pm

05/16/07

Main Campus - Room MS 103

9:00am - 11:00am

05/16/07

Montoya Campus - Room K 107

5:00pm - 8:00pm

05/17/07

Main Campus - Room MS 103

2:00pm - 5:00pm

05/18/07

South Valley Campus -  SV22

10:00am- 1:00pm

05/19/07

Montoya Campus - Room K107

11:00am- 2:00pm

Please begin let your students know about these sessions.  This will help the students feel comfortable with their online course.

Thanks.  Xeturah Woodley

 

 
New Department Website

Ø      Check out our new web site!  Our new address is:  www.cms.edu/depts/dl .  Remember to update your bookmarks with the new address and let your students know of the change. 

Faculty Spotlights

 

Ken Lindemann., MBA

Ken Lindemann is a faculty member at CNM who teaches online courses BA 133 - Principles of Management, BA 251 - Retail Management, and IB 202 - International Management.    He shares that at one time wanted to develop BA 113 - Introduction to Business as a hybrid course but have not done it yet.

Read the interview questions and Ken's answers below and also click on the link to read the rest of the interview.

Question:

 1.     What do you like to do when you’re not teaching?

  Answer:

 When I’m not teaching, my major hobby is that I am a New Mexico High School Basketball Referee.

Question:

 2.     Knowing what you now know about online instruction, what advice would you give to brand new instructors?

  Answer: 

 For new online instructors I would advise them to 1) be online often and and respond quickly to questions, grading and return of assignments, and other student inquiries, and 2) be creative in finding ways to relate to student's prior experiences to the content area.  Students tend to learn better when they can see the relevance of the concepts to their own experiences.

*    Ken Lindemann's Complete Interview

 Each month we will shine our spotlight on distance learning faculty members at CNM.  If you would like your course considered for inclusion in a future faculty spotlight, please email Rafael Martinez at martiner@cnm.edu.  Faculty spotlight members are selected and contacted for an interview monthly by the Director of Distance Learning.

 

  Announcements

Growth

DL now has expanded office space in the South Valley campus.  Our office is located in room SV16B.  We also have a Distance Learning Lab located in SV22.

Teaching Tips

What Online Students Want to Tell Faculty

  • Design a course that is clear and well organized.  Make sure we know what is expected and when.  Clear deadlines are important to students.  "Course outlines should better outline all the assignments that must be completed.  That way it would be easier to gauge your time.”

  • Designing your course to promote quality interaction between faculty and students and among students is essential.  Consider emphasizing the course conference by making it a part of your class assessment possibly as a substitute for test, paper, or project.

  • Be patient and available.  Remember some of us are first time online learners and are still trying to figure out this method of teaching and learning.

  • Facilitate student access to other students by helping them share email and phone numbers so they can communicate among each other easily.

  • If you use testing for assessment, clarify what material is most important and would be emphasized on tests.

  • Be accessible.  "Professor X sent emails of concern.”  "Quick response to my questions.”  "You could email at any time with a question or comment.”

  • If you are going to assign group projects, do so with the knowledge that we signed up for these courses due to their time flexibility.

  • Put yourself into the class.  "The professor was always available, encouraging and even made the lessons humorous by adding personal tidbits.”  "She gave us constant feedback and encouragement.”

  • Think about your role in the discussion.  Students want you to be present.  "The instructor responded to almost all postings, he gave very good feedback and insight.”  But students also want to hear each other’s voices.  " She let us discuss topics amongst ourselves and added her feedback.”

  • Make sure students have the ability to communicate with you alone, outside of the course conferences.  "Online your questions to the instructor are posted so the whole classroom can see them.  Sometimes it has made me feel stupid to ask a question that everybody in the classroom already knew.”

  • Give frequent feedback on assignments so students have a sense of what they have mastered and where they need to focus attention.

  • Your presence in the class is important.  These courses should not be seen by the student as "self-taught."

(The Connecticut Learning Consortium, http://www.ctdlc.org/Faculty/TeachingTips/tellfaculty.html)

This online teaching tip was provided by Brian Ditmer, published by the The Connecticut Learning Consortium. 

If you have a tip you would like to share in an upcoming issue of the DL E-News, please send it to Rafael Martinez at martiner@cnm.edu  We will select one or two tips per issue.

                                                                                      

http://www.cnm.edu/depts/dl

We'd love to hear your feedback about our newsletter.  Please send comments to dl@cnm.edu.