OCCDLA Proposals for the 2017-2019 Biennium

Author: OCCDLA Membership Collaboration

As we approach the end of the 2015-2017 biennium, the OCCDLA membership is finishing off our planning process to take us into the next biennium. Here are the initiatives we propose to provide for Oregon community colleges.

Every two years OCCDLA authors a set of strategic directions decided upon by the membership with the goal of supporting distance learning in Oregon. These strategic directions are supported by workgroups who identify how to serve the needs of Oregon community college distance learning students at each of the 17 distance learning programs.

Listed below are the initiatives that the OCCDLA workgroups propose for the 2017-2019 biennium.

Web/Video Conferencing: Blackboard Collaborate and Zoom

Oregon community colleges have had the benefit of a statewide license for Blackboard Collaborate since 2010 (when it was Elluminate). Collaborate allows for synchronous web meetings tailored to online instruction and supplementing traditional, web-enhanced instruction. We are continuing that license for students, staff and administrators across the state to maintain their access to this tool. This proposal is for a one-year license, but the intent is not to sunset the Collaborate licenses across the state. Institutions continuing a Collaborate license beyond the first year will do so with their own funding. $ (Additional funds may be required from institutions.)

Zoom is another web/video conferencing solution that OCCDLA and OCCA have come to embrace. Zoom’s native applications give viewers very good HD quality audio and video, even on less than optimal connections. It was this quality, combined with an intuitive interface, ease of scheduling and lower cost that prompted our membership to investigate how schools might adopt this system. While Zoom is a less expensive system, it doesn’t feature the same integration to learning management systems like Collaborate features.

Our two proposals are requesting 2 licenses in the coming biennium: one year of Collaborate, and a 2-year license for Zoom.

Online Accessible Classroom Initiative (OACI)

In order to meet current and revised federal compliance standards, all information and communication technologies (ICT) within online classes must be accessible to students.

The Accessible Online Classroom Initiative, in alignment with all of the Online Accessible Classroom Initiative (OACI) agenda items, removes learning barriers for people of all abilities and strives to meet federal compliance standards by:

Captioning Video – continuing the “Closed Captioning Service for Oregon Community Colleges” (IGRA 0818) under the umbrella of the AOCI with additional funding for approximately 200 hours of captioning / transcription services provided by Automated Sync Technologies.
Exploring Solutions for Accessible ICT – researching and developing accessibility checking, scanning, remediating, and reporting tools, platforms and services, for adoption across OCCDLA institutions.
Providing Training for Online Instructors – collaborating with the OCCDLA membership & OATI to create training programs on accessibility, similar to the Texas Distance Learning Association (TxDLA) Accessibility Certification.

Project goals:

Goal #1 – Remove learning barriers for people of all abilities by exploring solutions accessible media beyond video captions for OCCDLA members.
Goal #2 – Gather and disseminate research on accessible content for informed decision and policy making; both OCCDLA and individual institution level.
Goal #3 – Highlight common trends in research to produce focused training materials.
Goal #4 – Create a strategy/policy template for institutions to periodically perform accessibility audits in online classrooms.
Goal #5 – Produce a case study/review on implementing automated accessibility checking tools.

Kaltura – Video Streaming

The Kaltura Video Streaming Platform for education gives several tools for institutions needing a robust set of video creation tools and a highly available server platform. Distance education has increasingly come to rely on video in education to communicate and monitor what students access. Kaltura gives educators a powerful set of tools to develop rich content for their courses.

Kaltura allows us to:

Enrich classroom experiences and increase student engagement.
Create video-based curriculum items, assignments, and submissions, directly within the Learning Management System.
Use powerful video tools like webcasting for remote learning, MOOCs, flipped classrooms, social learning, and more.
More accurately measure student engagement with video-based analytics.

Our Kaltura licensing agreement is a renewal of an opt-in agreement for nine Oregon community colleges that provides cost savings that, if not available, would make Kaltura cost-prohibitive for most, if not all, of the participating institutions. $ (Additional funds may be required from institutions.)

OCCDLA Operations

The successes of OCCDLA in recent years can in large part be attributed to the full-time administrative support that ensures smooth operations of the meetings and coordination of the workgroups. This proposal renews funds used to continue full-time administrative support plus materials and services for OCCDLA operations and the organization’s strategic initiatives. This position is critical in ensuring all 17 community colleges are effectively engaged in OCCDLA, that all membership meetings and training are efficiently planned, notifications are communicated, meeting minutes transcribed, and organization business is documented.

OCCDLA administrative support interacts with staff, faculty, students, and state distance education and technology professionals at all 17 community colleges, as well as staff at the Community College and Workforce Department, and the Higher Education Coordinating Commission in Salem. The administrative assistant and the operations office provide OCCDLA a solid foundation upon which to achieve organizational goals. Continuation of administrative support will help ensure all seven OCCDLA strategic initiatives are met.

The OCCDLA administrative assistant has proven invaluable to the growth and success of the statewide organization. The position oversees the day-to-day functions of the OCCDLA operations office and provides operational support to the membership as well as the executive branch of the organization. Administrative support assists in carrying out the work of the organization in meeting the strategic goals of the membership.

Digital Media – Films on Demand

OCCDLA has a long history of supporting student success through consortial licensing for digital media. The Digital Media project has existed since 2009 and funded a statewide license for digital content from Intelecom. In 2015, a joint group of members from OCCDLA and OCCLA did a full vendor review and determined that Films On Demand (Infobase Learning) provided a better quality product.

This project proposal would support the continuation of statewide, consortial licensing of streaming media collection(s) that would allow ALL of the community colleges in Oregon to have access to rich content that is informative and engaging to students, and appropriate as primary or supplementary course material. It is overseen through a collaborative partnership with members from both OCCDLA and librarians from OCCLA.

Quality Matters Statewide Subscription

This proposal is a renewal of the statewide subscription to Quality Matters (QM) for the 2017-2019 biennium. The subscription allows the community colleges to use the QM rubrics and peer review data tracking tools provided by QM. The QM rubric is a research-based tool consisting of 8 general standards and 43 specific standards that describe best practices in online course design. The QM tool supports a rigorous peer-led course review process that the community colleges use to ensure high levels of quality in online course design. The rubric and associated annotations are based on best practices that promote student learning and instructional design principles that are part of effective course design. The rubric is supported by a thorough review of the literature and is updated every three years to reflect new techniques and technologies that have become available.

The QM subscription fee covers the following benefits:

Access to the automated, web-based QM management tools, including the fully annotated Higher Education rubric.
Quality Matters services including professional development, materials, QA resources, and use of QM’s peer review system, all at subscriber discounted prices.
Ability to participate in Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) training delivered by Subscriber’s QM certified trainers.
Discounts for Oregon community college educators on QM conferences.
QM Coordinator training for the coordinator at every college.
QM Success Stories webinars.
Use of the “My Custom Review” tool.
Custom reports tracking membership activities and achievements of all individuals and colleges within the system.
License to facilitate APPQMR.
Option for an Improving Your Online Course (IYOC) license.
Option to conduct official subscriber managed course reviews.
Discounts on QM-Managed course reviews.
MyQM & Course Review Management System.

Statewide OER Adoption

This is a set of initiatives that continue the Statewide Coordinator for Open Education Resources (OER) position and provides funding for grant proposals that implement high-impact, collaborative projects in support of open education and reduced textbook costs for students.

The Statewide Coordinator for Open Education Resources works closely with distance learning departments, libraries, and other relevant partners at Oregon community colleges to develop services, programs, and processes that reduce textbook costs for students and promote the adoption of open educational resources.

Funding for grant opportunities allows the Statewide Coordinator for Open Education Resources to offer and manage project funding to promote adoption of open educational resources (OER) at all community college campuses and tracks student savings related to projects.

Emergent Technology Research & Development Fund

This initiative renews the research & development fund that enables the Emergent Technology work group to access and license technology as identified by the greater group to pilot test for possible shared implementation.

As emergent technology tools and services are identified as possible viable candidates for consortium level sharing, the Emergent Technology work group uses these R&D funds to gain access for systematic documented evaluation.

Distance Learning Completion Conferences

Online teaching and learning can be as effective as traditional/face-to-face instruction, yet completion and retention lag behind the results seen in the traditional classroom.

This new proposal seeks resources to allow OCCDLA to host two distance learning completion conferences focusing on strategies to increase distance learning completion.

The “deliverables” will be two conferences; one in spring 2018, the other in spring 2019. Focus areas in the conferences would include, but not be limited to:

Learning analytics, using data in distance learning, identification of at-risk behaviors.
Interventions and strategies that increase completion.

OCCDLA goals with these conferences are to identify and share completion strategies being used by community colleges.

Professional Development for Distance Learning Faculty and Support Staff

This proposal supports attendance and participation of Oregon faculty to attend professional development opportunities at local, regional, and national conferences. Attendance would focus on the regional NW eLearning Conference which is available to both community college and university faculty from Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. The funding will also support participation in the ITC Leadership Academy as well as other selected eLearning conferences. For example, the national ITC conference, the national or regional Quality Matters conference, or the national Online Learning Consortium conference. Professional development assistance may include payment of registration fees, travel, and lodging costs.

Our goals are as follow:

Promote higher quality design and delivery of online courses throughout the Oregon community college system.
Provide professional development opportunities related to quality course design for interested online faculty across Oregon.

Providing professional development opportunities for all faculty across the state supports a larger goal of increasing the overall quality of online instruction to Oregon students. Improved quality supports the statewide Achievement Compact goals by expanding access to quality online instruction. Attending a regional eLearning conference will benefit faculty and allow OCCDLA to have some common, statewide conversations about enhancing quality online course design.

$ – The dollar symbol indicates additional funds may be required from institutions.