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Distance Education Addendum to the Faculty Handbook

The purpose of this handbook is to provide you with relevant information, policies, and procedures for teaching distance education courses for Central Texas College.  For general information relating to administrative organization, employment, professional development, compensation, grades and other student-related matters, curriculum, facilities, and forms, please refer to the Faculty Handbook at http://www.ctcd.edu/f_staff/fac_toc.htm or explore the CTC website.

The Distance Education and Educational Technology (DEET) Division at CTC is charged with developing, delivering, and evaluating courses and providing technical services and support for students, faculty, and staff. Distance Education courses, regardless of delivery method, are developed from the approved departmental syllabi, incorporate the prescribed course materials and content, and impose the expected rigor and standards for student performance.  To learn more about DEET, please visit our website at http://online.ctcd.edu.  We recommend that you view all items at the tabs and the quick links. For questions about courses, email course.support@ctcd.edu.

Content

About Distance Education at CTC

To offer flexibility to its unique student population, CTC offers courses in these formats:

Refer to the Course Information tab at the DEET website for descriptions of these formats.

*Multimedia courses are designed for students who have limited or no Internet connections and are offered primarily through CTC's NCPACE contract and the Pacific Far East Campus. Students must purchase CD or SD cards containing course content along with the standard textbooks. Teaching assignments are by individual student, and you may or may not have contact with the student via email. An authorized person onboard the student's ship will serve as the facilitator, collecting assignments and proctoring exams. The student's packet will be sent to you after the student completes the coursework. Refer to the Navy Campus information at the CTC website (http://www.ctcd.edu/navy/index.htm) or the Navy College Program site at https://www.navycollege.navy.mil/ncp/ncpace.aspx for further information or email navy.campus@ctcd.edu.

CTC uses Blackboard as its Learning Management System (LMS) for online and blended courses. Face-to-face courses began being phased into Blackboard in January 2012, starting with Central Campus in Killeen. Because the majority of the courses utilize this LMS, this document will concentrate on Blackboard. If you cannot find the answer to a question you have, please contact us at course.support@ctcd.edu.

The URL is http://ctc.blackboard.com.  The login screen supplies the format for determining your username and password.  It is repeated here for your convenience.  Please note that students use the last six digits of their SSN while you use only the last four digits of your SSN. Information is encrypted, so there is no security risk in using portions of your SSN.

Current Students

Your User Name is the first letter of your first name,
the first letter of your last name, and the last 6 digits of your social security number.
 
EXAMPLE: Name is John Smith, Social Security Number is 123-56-7890. User Name would be: "js567890"

Your Password is the month, day, and last two digits of the year in which you were born, in numeric form: mmddyy

EXAMPLE: Date of birth is May 10, 1978 Password would be: 051078

Because CTC utilizes an integrated, automated file run system, students and instructors may not change their usernames or passwords.  All sensitive data is transferred via secure systems, preventing unauthorized use of the data.

DEET offers training on using Blackboard and implementing various teaching techniques designed to engage the learner. Check the online Faculty Forum for dates and times.  If you don’t see what you want, submit a training request form. Frequent Professional Development opportunities are also provided.

You can view a Sample Course for Faculty in Blackboard and get help and tips from the Blackboard resources, which include OnDemand videos.  Check out the Faculty Resources and the Tech Support tabs in Blackboard, as well as the box on the My Institution page for details and links.

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Course Development and Revision

Part of DEET’s responsibility is to work with the departments to develop, update, and maintain master courses. The process is outlined below.

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CTC Online Faculty Members

Faculty must meet the same basic requirements for time, resources, and skills as a distant learner. 
Try this quiz to test your readiness: Am I Ready to Teach Distance Education Courses? With the initiative to provide Blackboard access for all courses, it is important that even a face-to-face instructor have some knowledge of Blackboard in order to effectively utilize the various tools to enhance and optimize the learner's experiences.

Please see the Technical Requirements for Distance Education courses.

We recommend that distant learners determine their preferred learning styles so they can use them to their advantage.  As an effective instructor, you should be aware of different learning styles and provide a variety of activities to accommodate them.  Try this brief survey: What's My Learning Style?  Think about how you can adapt your teaching for people with learning styles different from your own.

Distant learners have a number of decisions to make once they decide to register for courses.  See the Course Information page for the types of Distance Education courses offered at CTC.  It would be worth your time to go through the resources on the Student page as well.

If you are interested in joining our distance education faculty, see the CTC main website for employment opportunities.  If you are already a faculty member, check out the Faculty Forum in Blackboard for essential information and training, and refer to it frequently for updates and important announcements. If you don’t yet have Blackboard access, you can check out the Sample Course for Faculty by going to http://ctc.blackboard.com and entering bbfaculty as the username and password.

As a CTC faculty member, you have support when you need it through the Distance Education and Educational Technology (DEET) Department and 24/7 technical support for Blackboard.  Contact course.support@ctcd.edu regarding any questions or concerns about your courses. Explore this CTC Distance Education Addendum to the Faculty Handbook and the CTC/DEET Course Checklist for important information and guidelines.

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Course Management

There are three phases to course management:   preparation, implementation, and wrap up.  These phases are outlined below.

Course Preparation

When a new master is developed, all faculty teaching that particular course receive the new or revised content from this master. Once you have taught the course, your previous content will be copied into your next course to minimize changes and updates you must make.

Attention face-to-face faculty: what you see in Blackboard is based on decisions made by your department. Options range from a minimal shell with instructions for filling in content to a complete course that is based on an online or blended master. Either way, you must decide what you want to provide students online and what you want to present in the classroom. The online component does not replace classroom time/contact hours. Contact your department if you have questions.

The following checklists are based on online/blended procedures and should be adapted as appropriate for your situation. You may choose to use some of the tools and recommendations for a face-to-face course.

Prior to course start date

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Course Implementation

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Course Wrap Up

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Resources and References

CTC and DEET websites

Become familiar with both the CTC (http://www.ctcd.edu) and the DEET (http://online.ctcd.edu) websites.  Explore both the faculty and student resources.  This will allow you to answer student questions or refer them to an appropriate area as well as ensuring that you are complying with faculty requirements.

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Blackboard

Check out the My Institution page in Blackboard.   In addition to the list of the courses you are teaching and any organizations in which you participate, you will find

We recommend that you make sure that students are aware of these online resources:

Note the tabs in Blackboard and the information they provide.  As faculty, you have these tabs:

These are the tabs available to the students:

What’s the difference between courses and organizations?  Students are automatically put into courses when they register for them, but they are given access to these courses approximately 72 hours before the start date of the course.  Students (and faculty) can self enroll in organizations by following the steps listed at the My Institution page and at resources within the courses themselves.

A Sample Course for Faculty explains how an online course should be formatted and describes the source for some of the sections.  The Faculty Forum presents policies, procedures and information related to your job and provides opportunities for communication with supervisors and other faculty members.  You should have access to both of these as a faculty member, but if not, you can log into Blackboard using the generic bbfaculty log in as the username and password.  Access the Sample Course for Students by logging into Blackboard using bbuser as the username and password.

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Supervisor

You have an immediate supervisor or “go to” person for any questions or concerns as you teach your class.  This may be an Online Faculty Coordinator (OFC), who is a qualified and experienced faculty member in the area to which he/she is assigned.  If there is not an Online Faculty Coordinator, you would report to the appropriate Department Chairman (DC) or his/her designee.  Points of Contact are listed in this table:

Online Faculty Coordinators or Supervisors
Subject Area Name Email
Behavioral Sciences:  Anthropology, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology Jesse Justice (OFC) Jesse.Justice@ctcd.edu 
Business Administration & Paralegal, Hospitality, and Homeland Security Jack VanDoren (OFC) Garold.Vandoren@ctcd.edu 
Communications Dianne Blomberg (OFC) Dianne.Blomberg@ctcd.edu 
Computer Science Bob Grazinski (DC)
Laszlo Eosze (alternate) 		Bob.Grazinski@ctcd.edu
Laszlo.Eosze@ctcd.edu
Early Childhood Education Jean Lombardi (OFC) Jean.Lombardi@ctcd.edu
Fine Arts Dianne Blomberg (OFC) Dianne.Blomberg@ctcd.edu 
Foreign Languages Dianne Blomberg (OFC) Dianne.Blomberg@ctcd.edu 
Kinesiology Reineer Schelert (Professor) Reineer.Schelert@ctcd.edu 
Mathematics Jennifer Cabaniss (OFC) Jennifer.Cabaniss@ctcd.edu 
Mental Health Dawn Green (DC) Dawn.Green@ctcd.edu 
Nursing Sandra Thomason (DC) Sandra.Thomason@ctcd.edu  
Office Technology Jerrie Cleaver (DC) Jerrie.Cleaver@ctcd.edu 
Protective Services: Criminal Justice and Fire Protection Jon Cella (DC) Jon.Cella@ctcd.edu 
Science Gina Lombardi (OFC) Gina.Lombardi@ctcd.edu 
Social Science: Economics, Government, History Marget Hagen Marget.Hagen@ctcd.edu 

The Online Faculty Coordinators should not be confused with the Online Mentors.  The Online Mentors provide assistance to students, and you may refer students to the Online Mentors (online.mentors@ctcd.edu or X1296) for help on these types of issues:

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Military Acronyms

CTC’s students and instructors are worldwide, and the majority of the students are affiliated with the military in some manner.  If you haven’t been exposed to military personnel, you might not understand some of the jargon, such as PCS, TDY, MOS, etc.  Fortunately, there are several websites that can help you with these acronyms:

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Time Zones and the 24-Hour Clock

Because you may interact with students in various locations, you might want to become familiar with time zones and the 24-hour clock to ensure that deadlines and meeting times are clear to all parties.  Here are a couple of sites to get you started, or you can search for others.

Time zones

24-hour clocks

If this is too complicated, let an online conversion site do the math. 

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Accreditation and Regulation

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools—Commission on Colleges (SACS-COC)

Central Texas College is accredited by SACS.  Some links to SACS publication on distance education are provided below:

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) also offers best practices and other recommendations for distance education (if this link doesn’t work, go to the THECB homepage and search for distance education):  http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/index.cfm?objectid=8CD15E35-FE02-F186-0ECC9484F010B8AC

The course development team uses a Course Development Checklist as each master course is being developed or revised to ensure consistency of format, completeness of content, creation of engaging activities, etc.  This checklist can also guide you as you prepare and teach your course.

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Best Practices for CTC Online Faculty

To ensure that standard and consistent services are provided to all CTC students, online faculty are required to follow Institution policies as outlined in the CTC Catalog, the CTC Faculty Handbook, the online Faculty Forum, and communications from your supervisor and CTC administrators.

To assist you in this effort, the following checklist, pulled from instructional policies, outlines minimal  responsibilities.  This list does not include specific departmental requirements and is not inclusive. 

Prior to course start

During the course

Ending the course

Miscellaneous

Disciplinary Action

Habitual or blatant violation of any of the above mentioned guidelines may result in appropriate disciplinary action as prescribed in CTC policies and procedures.

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