By Stacey L. Hilton
Manager, Teaching & eLearning Support, Yavapai College

The teaching and eLearning support (TeLS) department at Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona was nominated and chosen to receive ITC's 2012 Award for Outstanding Technical Support and Service.  It has been an exciting ride throughout the past decade for many eLearning support departments.  We have gone back and forth under the organizational structure of the information technology and instructional services departments.  The reason this five-person team was nominated for this award was because each member has built a strong rapport with faculty, due to their commitment for offering quality online education at Yavapai College, and because each individual has a rich, diverse background in teaching and learning.  Their creative, innovative, and technical literacy is second to none.

By Garret Brand
Professor, Grand Rapids Community College

Online civility is a big issue! Rude e-mails are common. Students are sometimes unaware of their tone, but instructors also encounter defensiveness or a sense of entitlement—why did you take my points?  Here are some suggestions for navigating questions of online civility.

1. Angry, Aggressive and Challenging Students

a. Engage the student privately and learn about them.

b. Show you are willing to listen.  Be clear and rational in your response.

Resource: McKeachie’s Teaching Tips, 11th Edition, College Teaching Series

 

By James W. Brown, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Science and Former Dean of Science, Engineering, Health Sciences and Human Performance, Ocean County College

Peer coaching is a great opportunity to develop your online course community and encourage collaborative learning. The first time I used this approach was for online research papers at an urban campus, New Jersey City University, where it significantly improved the writing skills of a diverse student body, where students hail from almost every corner of the planet. I found the technique worked equally well in 100- and 200-level courses at Ocean County College, a community college with a more homogeneous student body.

The Instructional Technology Council (ITC) held eLearning 2012, its annual conference for eLearning practitioners, on February 18 - 21, 2012 at the Westin Long Beach, in Long Beach, California.  Coastline Community College served as the host institution for eLearning 2012, which drew 417 attendees, including eLearning administrators and faculty, instructional designers, online media specialists, Web course developers, and other continuing educational professionals.

“We would like to thank all the participants who took the time to share their experiences and strategies for success with others,” said Christine Mullins, ITC's executive director, “and extend a special thank you to Coastline Community College. 

ITC congratulates the winners of its 2012 Awards for Excellence in eLearning.  The judging panels—comprised of the ITC board of directors, ITC members, past award winners, and ITC leadership academy attendees—held the following outstanding distance educators to the highest standards and best practices, as exemplified by previous ITC award winners.  The innovation and diligence demonstrated by each award winner mark them as exemplary members of the distance learning community, and their recognition is extremely well-deserved.

ITC also thanks our wonderful panels of judges, for their careful and thoughtful consideration of each submission, and all of the participants, for the exceptional nominations they shared.  If you would like to submit a nomination for ITC's 2013 Award for Excellence in eLearning, stay tuned to the ITC Web site.  The 2013 nomination forms will be available early in the summer of 2012, and will be due later in the fall.

Deadline: May 3, 2012

Please take a moment to submit a short article for our upcoming summer newsletter issue. We would love to hear how your year is going and learn about the new and exciting things you are doing for eLearning at your college. Feel free to submit a longer article or just a brief short-and-sweet tip, idea or practice which worked at your college, to help your fellow ITC members as they face many of the same challanges as you do.  We encourage you to include photos or graphics with your article.

Please Submit Your Articles Here
before the May 3, 2012 Deadline!

Thank you to ITC’s regional representatives and to everyone who has contributed their time to share their wonderful articles and news items!

ITC has launched a new Facebook page and Twitter account!  We hope you’ll like the Instructional Technology Council on Facebook and follow @ITCeLearning on Twitter to stay up to date on distance learning news, connect with fellow distance learning practicioners, and learn about our upcoming events.  If you have any suggestions or feedback as we get these initiatives under way, please let us know – we want to make sure these resources are as helpful as possible!

Bakersfield College
Bonnie Suderman 
Dean of Learning Resources and Information Technology 
Bakersfield, CA

Barton Community College
Cathie Oshiro
Director of Grants
Great Bend, KS