Committee on eLearning Meeting Minutes for September 12, 2019

The Academic Senate Committee on eLearning met on September 12, 2019 at 3:10PM in Science 312

Committee Members in Attendance:

Meeting called to order at 3:10 P.M.

In Attendance: Zeynep Akcay (2020), Peter Novick (2020), Nina Sarkar (2020), Joseph Goldenberg (2021), Randelle Sasa (2022), Susan Lago (Steering Committee Designee), and Shiang-Kwei Wang (President’s designee).

Not present: Eugene Desepoli (2021), Lakersha Smith (2021), Zhou Zhou (2022) and Zivah Katz (2022).

Business:

The meeting was called to order at 3:10PM

Minutes of May 9^th, 2019 – approved by unanimous vote.

Introduction of new members

• ACC/CETL update and announcements (Kathleen Landy and Denis Bejar):
  • Kathleen was at a meeting and Denis was not on the meeting reminder email. They will both be invited next meeting.

• Survey for faculty who teach PNET and FNET courses results:
  • >50% of the faculty would consider converting their PNET course to an FNET course.
  • >50% of respondents also agreed they would like to receive additional training.
  • 2 of the 45 respondents indicated that they had not received training for teaching online courses through either QCC, CUNY or another university.
  • >70% have not had the online component of their course observed by department members.
  • >65% were not involved in course assessment.
  • We then had a discussion on online courses and how we currently do not have the infrastructure for an “online campus.” We need to revisit the guidelines. We discussed that faculty should have experience in teaching PNET courses before teaching an FNET course.
  • Shiang-Kwei recommended the use of an app called “Zoom” which allows for easy face to face communication remotely which worked very well at a former institution which had fully online degree programs. Introducing more online courses can potentially increase QCC’s enrollment.

• Tech Fee Committee Meeting will be October 29^th, 2019 at 3:00 in A502. 
  • Randelle will attend for our committee. 

Old business

• Subcommittee reports/plans/changes/additions:

Marketing of online courses (Eugene Desepoli &????)

• (Committee newsletter; design and implement a marketing campaign at QCC for higher recognition of online courses)
  • Eugene is currently maintaining the newsletter as Meg is no longer on the committee.  We will look for an assistant to help him with this commitment. Shiang-Kwei recommended that we include success stories with an interview from faculty who have had success with e-Learning in their courses.  Peter indicated that he would put together a summary of the survey for Eugene to post in the newsletter.

Brown bag lunches for online faculty (Nina & ?????)

• (coordinate, promote, and run informal but informative meetings for QCC faculty who are interested in online education)
  • Nina reported that the last professional development seminar the committee planned had low attendance and that we should make the seminar interesting to both online and traditional courses.  The last event was run by McGraw-Hill on “Connect” and Nina will reach out to Pearson and Wiley to see if they are willing to do a similar event.  In the past, fun in class technology like Kahoot! and Powtoons have been seminar topics. Zeynep recommended that we hold a workshop similar to these for all faculty so that we can advertise the online tools and potentially recruit new e-Learning faculty.

Policies and Standards for eLearning at QCC (Peter Novick & ?????)

• (work with CETL/OET to devise standards/policies for eLearning at QCC to be formally adopted by the Senate)
  • Guidelines are in place for the Fall.  As a committee, we will continue to review and revise them.  These will be sent again by Zeynep to the new members of the committee and the chairs of the departments.  Shiang-Kwei and Nina suggested for additional feedback from chairs to see if these guidelines are being used. These guidelines will also be advertised in the newsletter.

New business

• Assessment of online courses (???? & ????)
  • Work with the assessment committee on a policy for course evaluation and observation.
    • Revise course evaluation forms that are not tailored for PNET and FNET courses.
    • Peter recommended 2 surveys for a PNET course, one for the in class component and one for the online component. Nina recommended one evaluation for both with add on questions for PNET courses. Susan said this could lead to confusion for students if they are on all course evaluation forms. Zeynep recommended that there be a form for traditional courses, one form for PNET courses, and one form for FNET courses.
    • October 23^rd is the academic development committee meeting from 12-2. Zeynep will email us a course evaluation form with “complaints” from a faculty member for us to give our feedback.
    • Shiang-Kwei posed the question, “what should be our first fully online program at QCC?”  A discussion followed indicating that courses with labs would not be a good choice.  The top three ideas were liberal arts, business/management and computer science.

• Next meeting is scheduled for 3:00pm on October 17^th in Science 312.
• Meeting was adjourned at 4:01 pm.

Sincerely,

Respectfully submitted,

Peter A. Novick, Ph.D.
Committee on eLearning, Secretary