THATCamp Community College 2017: Accessibility & Design Issues In Distance Learning Courses

Our first session at THATCampCC 2017 was about Accessibility & Design Issues In Distance Learning Courses. The session was moderated by Walter Huttner in combination with some ideas I also proposed for a session.

  • Simplicity is important…keep things on one page…
  • Need to have specific directions…click here first…
  • Could create video tutorials
  • Perhaps a Blackboard shell to discuss various CMS issues for faculty?
  • Colleges need to have a list for students of what they need to ACCESS (skills wise) a distance learning course
  • Which is also an ADA/504 accessibility issue…for example, making sure you have a script for videos
  • Weekly versus modular scheduling
  • Discussion of making sure distance students get the same “first five minutes” info

What I Am UpTo Summer 2017

Summer classes begin the Monday after graduation, so my five week composition course is already half done. This summer I am teaching my normal assortment of composition courses plus CIN109 American Cinema and, for the first time, LIT203 Masterpieces of World Literature.

During the summer I do not have official office hours, but I am anxiously awaiting the completion of our new, permanent, offices in Laurel Hall. They will be done in time for the fall semester.

News about the 2017 version of THATCamp Community College will be coming nearer to the fall.

I am now chairing our honors initiative here at RCBC. I am really proud of the work we have done to get the first batch of courses off the ground and look forward to what comes next. I have some plans I would like to set in motion.

Otherwise I am hard at work on archival work and podcasting. I will have some posts up during the summer detailing some of my activities during the school year. Stay tuned.

What I Am Up To Spring 2017

  • After a productive winter break, I am glad to be back teaching.
  • This semester I am teaching my normal assortment of composition courses, but also teaching our honors section of composition II again. I posted syllabi for it a few days ago. I am also teaching American Cinema again as well.
  • My spring office hours are all 1000-1100 on Tuesday-Friday
  • News about the 2017 version of THATCamp Community College will be coming soon. We soft launched a date, but it needs to be changed because RCBC is now closed on Friday during the summer. More information will be announced once the committee meets during the spring.
  • I sent proposals in for two upcoming conferences, but have not heard back about them yet.
  • Our honors college committee will meet a few times during the semester. More information about that will be coming soon hopefully.

THATCamp Community College 2015 Notes

Here are my notes from the day. We had a small group for THATCampCC, so instead of sessions we had a longer conversation where we bounced around discussing the proposals campers had made in the morning. We did something like that last year as well and I believe this might be something we continue in the future.

  • We began by discussing doing peer review outside the classroom.
    • Can we do meaningful peer review outside the classroom?
    • Building student bonds outside of class.
    • Students need to learn good criticism skills to be better peer reviewers.
    • Chris Gazzara suggested having students review a paper like they would a film or book.
    • Collaborate is a Blackboard tool for peer review.
    • VoiceThread is an app for leaving comments.
    • SHOULD statements important during peer review.
  • We then discussed prior formative non-stressful learning assessments.
    • Differences between scaffolding and expectations.
    • Can visuals help with assessing prior knowledge?
    • How women use Instagram to bypass the male gaze and invent safe spaces to present themselves.
    • How information literacy is taught at different schools in the room.
    • I discussed cutting down on secondary source requirements.
  • We then discussed annotating silent films, which led to a wide ranging discussion.