Wednesday, May 28, 2008

LBCC CMS Trial Scheduled for Fall 08

The Technology Initiatives sub-committee of ITEC (the committee formerly known as DEIT) is looking for a few adventurous / curious / noble faculty who would be interested in teaching with a new course management system (CMS) during the Fall 2008 term.

We’re looking at three possible alternatives to Blackboard Basic (our current CMS), and ideally we’d like to have 4-5 faculty testing each one: 2-3 teaching online, 2-3 using it as a supplement to a regular course. Here are the alternatives we’re looking at:


Details:
1. We anticipate that we will be able to relatively automatically migrate your current Blackboard course to the new environment you want to test.

2. We’d like you to teach your online course or supplement your regular course using only this new environment for Fall term 2008. We don’t want to confuse students by having faculty switch back and forth between two CMS’s during the term. But we would strongly recommend backing your course up on LBCC’s Blackboard system every few days as a precaution.

3. We also anticipate that you’ll need to spend some time this summer acquainting yourself with the CMS and its new features and potentials.

4. At the end of the term, we’d have both you and your students complete a survey to help us see what your “real-world” experience was.

5. We’ll have a fund you can apply to for a $250 curriculum development grant as a “thank you” for participating, knowing full well that your participation comes from your generous commitment to teaching and that $250 won’t nearly cover your time (see attached application).
 
How to volunteer:
If you’re interested, please download the application form (PDF) and return to Vickie Keith in IA232A by June 13th.
 
The following information will be asked on the form:
1. Which CMS environment you’re interested in trying (if you want to look at Angel or Moodle before deciding, please email Paul Hagood for a Moodle demo and Susan Clark for an Angel demo).

2. Which online course you’d like to teach using this CMS, or which regular course you’d like to provide supplemental materials and activities for. (We’re looking for courses that are currently fully developed on Blackboard, not new classes.)
 
Thank you so much for your interest!

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