Committee Meetings and Minutes

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Distance Education Committee

Meeting Minutes

Current Status of Minutes: Final
Date	February 24, 2017
Time	1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Location	HBC 411

Members Present
No member attendance has been recorded.
Guests Present
No guest attendance has been recorded.

Item # 1:	Call to order and introductions
Presenter
Discussion	Members present: Al Purcell, April Whalen, Erasmus Addae, Carleen Sanchez, Donna Moore, Neelam Noorani, Amy Setter, Rachel Barrera, Carol Townsend, Terry Barksdale, Michelle Escudier, Clark Peterson, Susan Thomason

Item # 2:	Open Issues: Review/Update of Administration Rule 4.01.001 – DL Best Practices
Presenter
Discussion	The current administrative rule is based on SACS 2011. The committee voted favorably to establish a sub-committee to review current SACS policy statement that includes some new federal requirements. The sub-committee will include a faculty and student services pool. Erasmus will work with the sub-committee. It will be formed by March 10.

Item # 3:	Open Issues: Correspondence courses and implications for financial aid
Presenter
Discussion	ACC is not accredited to offer correspondence courses. Financial aid issues can arise if this is not addressed. The main difference in online courses and correspondence is interaction between student and instructor. Technology used must be appropriate and uniform within ACC. Distance Learning courses that do not use appropriate technology or provide for regular and substantive interaction must be brought into compliance.

Item # 4:	Open Issues: Evaluations – Response rate and relevance of current instrument
Presenter
Discussion	The response rate needs to be improved. It is 90% for face-to-face and only 28% for DL. The revised evaluation instrument approved by the DLC in 2012 has still not been implemented. Erasmus and Clark will work with the Faculty Evaluation office and IT to implement the revised evaluation. It was also suggested that Marketing become more involved, and announcements be posted in Blackboard. Susy will talk to Raja about the possibility of putting the evaluations in Blackboard, and invite him to speak at the next meeting.

Item # 5:	Open Issues: Areas of Intervention for Distance Learning students
Presenter
Discussion	April Whalen is asking the DLC to submit data requests for information to her. Dr. Cook formed a student progress committee to bridge faculty/student silos. Ellucian CRM Advise tool can flag students for intervention by advisors, but faculty must enable thetool in Blackboard. April will send more info to the DLC for review. Erasmus will meet with April to discuss further. This will be an agenda item at the next meeting.

Item # 6:	Open Issues: Distance Learning quality assurance task force
Presenter
Discussion	The report from the task force from 3 years ago will be put in the google folder. The DLC voted favorably to form a subcommittee to review the report. The goal is to have a process to assure quality of courses. Quality review is a SACS requirement. This is a time-sensitive matter.

Item # 7:	Open Issues: SARA
Presenter
Discussion	Texas is part of SARA but ACC is not. ACC can process the SARA application while working on compliance. Clark has reviewed the SARA requirements and marked the items that need to be addressed. This will be available in the google folder for review. The DLC voted to move forward updating best practices in the administrative rule to ensure compliance with interregional guidelines.

Item # 8:	Open Issues: Video captioning for DL courses
Presenter
Discussion	ACC offers media captioning services for faculty to meet ADA compliance. There is a two-week turn-around time. VCT will offer 600 minutes of free captioning to all Texas colleges through Rev.com beginning in March. Additional captioning will cost 99 cents a minute.

Item # 9:	Updates: Testing
Presenter
Discussion	The new Distance testing form is online and has streamlined the procedure. Proctor U is available. There are 5 students this spring. Overall, 168 students have signed up. 13 faculty members have used the service.

Item # 10:	Updates: Potential online programs
Presenter
Discussion	There are 18 potentially fully online programs. This includes 8 certificates, 6 AA, 3 AAS and 1 AS. Erasmus will work with the deans to ensure that the programs continue to be available online. Distance Testing must be available.

Item # 11:	Updates: Data review
Presenter
Discussion	The folder will be updated and available to the committee before spring break.

Item # 12:	Updates: Modes in DL
Presenter
Discussion	There are 2 modes in DL. HYD and ONL. Courses that require students to come on campus must be listed as HYD. There will be a further discussion at the next meeting.

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