Policy for Technology Services
provided to the COTC Faculty and Students
In order for the Information and Technology Services (ITS) department to adequately support Central Ohio Technical College (COTC) faculty and students in the use of technology, this policy outlines information and guidelines pertaining to the services offered by the ITS department.
Quick Links
01.01. Faculty and students are assigned email accounts. The COTC email addresses will be used by faculty and students for all email correspondence to ensure vital information is received. Benefits include:
01.01.01. The COTC email address will not change throughout the time on campus, unlike personal email addresses which may change frequently.
01.01.02. Campus related email will not be intermingled with personal email thereby minimizing the risk of losing essential email correspondence.
01.01.03. Email can be accessed from any computer with network or internet access on or off campus.
01.01.04. Since COTC email addresses are listed in the Outlook directory, users will be able to locate any needed email addresses.
01.02. Full-time faculty members and students are assigned server space. Full-time faculty members have up to 1 GB of storage and students have up to 100 MB of storage located on the "H" drive. The ITS department will provide training on the proper use of the "H" drive for both faculty and students. All critical files should be saved on the "H" drive server space; however, since part-time instructors are not provided any "H" drive server space it is recommended they use another media storage device for their material, i.e., a USB drive (thumb drive). Benefits include:
01.02.01. Scheduled backups are performed on all servers; data can be restored from these backups thereby minimizing the risk of losing data.
01.02.02. Campus related data will not be intermingled with personal data thereby minimizing the risk of losing essential data.
01.02.03. Data can be accessed from any computer with network or internet access on or off campus by full-time faculty members and students.
01.03. Other media storage, i.e., CD, DVD and USB drives (thumb drives), may be used for portability, emergency backup or long term storage. Thumb drives are the preferred storage media due to campus computer configurations when not using the "H" drive.. The ITS department strongly discourages the use of floppy disks since most computers on campus do not have floppy disk drives.
02.01. The ITS department continually updates information on the website regarding available technology and critical updates pertaining to viruses, new or revised technologies, etc. Faculty should review the ITS Faculty/Staff page, http://www.cotc.edu/its, frequently to ensure they are well-informed users and they are taking full advantage of the available services.
02.02. The ITS department provides an individual faculty website for all faculty members. Faculty members should contact the instructional designer to arrange an appointment for assistance in developing or editing their website. The website should include:
02.02.01. All pertinent contact information.
02.02.02. A recent picture.
02.02.03. Educational background.
02.02.04. Instructional or professional experience.
02.02.05. Courses taught at COTC with their most recent descriptions and syllabi. Links to course pages can be used for additional information.
02.02.06. Scholarly activities.
02.03. The ITS department provides online request forms as a convenience to the faculty for the following: (under development)
02.03.01. Software to request a review of potential software purchases and their use in education. Linked at: http://www.cotc.edu/its/facultyits/software.htm.
02.03.02. Faculty page updates Linked at: http://www.cotc.edu/its/facultyservices/cotcfaculty.htm.
02.03.03. Course page updates (WebCT or course pages) Linked at: http://www.cotc.edu/its/facultyservices/cotccourse.htm.
02.03.04. Program page updates (All program page updates must be reviewed by the program director and approved by the academic director) Linked at: http://www.cotc.edu/its/facultyservices/cotcprogram.htm.
02.04. The TechConnect website, http://www.cotc.edu/techconnect, provides student assistance. Faculty should review it frequently to know what is available for students.
03.01. Pilot projects using educational technology will be coordinated with the instructional designer.
03.02. A well-developed plan defining the scope, purpose and anticipated advantages of the pilot project will be completed and forwarded to the program director for review and then forwarded to the academic director for final approval. No pilot project will be instituted by the ITS department without documentation and approval.
03.03. Whenever possible, an alternative to the pilot project will be used to serve as a control group for comparison purposes, i.e., previous course(s) or ones running concurrently to the pilot without use of the technology.
03.04. A journal entry type log of encountered challenges and successes relating to the pilot project will be maintained by the project coordinator.
03.05. Pilot projects will be completely developed and approved by the ITS department in conjunction with the faculty member, reviewed by the program director and approved by the academic director prior to the beginning of the project. The approval will include all assessment and evaluation tools used for the project.
03.06. Technology Pilots
03.06.01. Whenever possible, multiple vendor options will be used for technology pilots.
03.06.02. An evaluation tool to evaluate the anticipated and actual use of the technology by the participants, usually students, will be provided by the project coordinator, usually the instructor.
03.06.03. All participants must be properly trained on the technology prior to the beginning of the project.
03.07. Course Pilots
03.07.01. A pre- and post- test assessment tool of the course content and objectives will be administered to assess learning. If the course pilot has been or will be concurrently offered in a traditional classroom format, the same assessment tool used in the traditional classroom format must be used for the course pilot.
03.07.02. The COTC Student Rating of Instruction evaluation tool will be completed for course pilots.
04.01. When planning to use a technology not previously used by the faculty member, the faculty member will contact the Help Desk (ext. 244) at least one month prior to its scheduled use to arrange proper training.
04.02. Not all technologies are available in all classrooms. Before a faculty member plans to use a technology, they must verify in which classroom it is available and plan early enough to request the appropriate classroom. The faculty member must remember that a request is not a guarantee, so until a classroom confirmation is received a backup plan must be in place.
04.02.01. Classroom Descriptions Linked at: http://www.cotc.edu/its/multimedia.htm.
04.02.02. Room Requests Linked at: http://events1.newark.ohio-state.edu/wv3/wv3_servlet/urd/run/wv_main.Start.
04.03. Faculty members should meet with the instructional designer at least once a year to discuss pedagogy to ensure they are taking full advantage of available technology. Teaching needs and technologies change frequently; new uses for technology may be discovered.
05.01. TELCenter The TELCenter is provided to faculty members for projects requiring technology (hardware/software) not available in individual offices or for whenever individualized support is needed for work related projects. The facility is staffed during the day, and faculty ID cards can be programmed for access after hours. To arrange for faculty ID card access contact the instructional designer.
05.02. Student Open Labs
05.02.01. Prior to including technology based assignments, faculty members will confirm its availability in the student computer labs by visiting the TechConnect website, http://www.cotc.edu/techconnect, or by contacting the instructional designer.
05.02.02. Instead of taking valuable time out of faculty schedules for self training or student training, the ITS department offers several options:
05.02.02.01. Arrange for a staff member to provide training during class for an upcoming technology based assignment.
05.02.02.02. Ensure the TechConnect lab monitors are aware of upcoming assignments and how they can support students within the parameters that the faculty member specifies.
05.02.02.03. Develop a tutorial for students in either a handout or a web-based format for specific skills needed to complete the upcoming assignment.
05.02.02.04. Or, any combination of the above.
In order to provide this service it is essential the ITS department be given adequate time to plan. It is recommended that the ITS department be informed at least one month prior to the assignment.
05.03. Academic Labs These computer labs are supportive of particular skill development for students associated with specific academic programs. They are not for general use by faculty or students. Any use or alterations to these labs (classrooms) will be coordinated through the academic office and the ITS department.
06.01. Individual faculty member website Faculty members may post course material on their individual faculty websites. Remember, the websites are public domain so if the access to the material needs to be limited to students only the individual faculty website alternative listed below can be used. To develop or edit a faculty member website, contact the instructional designer. For any material that must be posted by a specific date the instructional designer must be informed at least one month prior to the date. Additionally, faculty members familiar with FrontPage may request editing privileges to their website through the instructional designer.
06.02. Individual faculty member course website alternative Faculty members may prefer not to post course material in the public domain of their websites. The ITS department offers an alternative.
06.02.01. A WebCT course shell will be created to post limited access
material.
06.02.02. A generic course WebCT ID (one) will be provided for all
students in the course, only the students in that course who have received the generic course WebCT ID and password from the faculty member will have access to the material. This procedure frees up seats in WebCT for faculty that are using the interactive features of WebCT by not requiring individual WebCT IDs for each student while still meeting the needs of the faculty. The WebCT ID will be based on the course number, section and quarter, i.e., 4151 A Radiographic Seminar I offered in the summer of 2005 would have a generic course WebCT ID of 4154asu05. The initial password will be set as the same, but can be changed by the instructor following the initial setup or at any time during the quarter if students share it with an outside user.
06.02.03. The instructor must meet with the instructional designer and
request this service by mid-quarter preceding the course offering.
06.03. Publisher web courses (web-enhanced and web-based)
06.03.01. Faculty must meet with the instructional designer by mid-quarter preceding the course offering to discuss the use of a publisher web course.
06.03.02. The instructional designer will be added to the course as a designer/instructor so support can be provided in the absence of the faculty.
06.03.03. When a COTC Student Ratings of Instruction is required and whenever anonymous evaluation tools can be developed in a publisher web course, an anonymous version of the COTC Student Ratings of Instruction evaluation tool will be included in the course. The summative results will be printed by the instructor and hand delivered to the academic office.
06.03.04. Publisher web courses will be reviewed one month prior to the course offering by another faculty member and the program director with final approval provided by the academic director with input from the instructional designer.
06.03.05. A course introduction that includes the instructor's contact information, textbook requirements, hardware/software requirements, access instructions, and the first week assignments will be sent to the instructional designer one month prior to the course offering. This information will be uploaded to the COTC About Online Learning website located at http://www.cotc.edu/cotc/online. Additionally, an email correspondence will be sent to all online students from Student Records within one week of the beginning of the online course. The correspondence will include the web address for the COTC About Online Learning website and the access instructions for the READI assessment.
06.03.06. There is always the potential of losing the connection to the internet or other problems relating to online testing. As a result, an online testing error procedure has been established and posted on the COTC About Online Learning website at http://www.cotc.edu/cotc/online. Student must be informed of the policy and a link provided to minimize any confusion later during the course.
06.04. WebCT courses (web-enhanced and web-based)
06.04.01. WebCT will be used to develop a web course only if the instructor is using features unavailable through other online delivery methods, with the exception of WebCT being used for the individual faculty course website alternative as described above (06.02).
06.04.02. WebCT courses must have consistent and easy to follow navigation.
06.04.03. A request to the instructional designer for restoration of previously developed WebCT courses will be made by mid-quarter preceding the course offering.
06.04.04. A backup and deactivation of all WebCT courses will be performed one week following the course offering. If a course needs to remain active after this date prior approval must be obtained from the academic director and the instructional designer must be informed before this date.
06.04.05. WebCT IDs will be created using a naming convention. The convention will be the users COTC email address without the domain, i.e., jones-101@cotc.edu would be jones-101. The initial password will be set as the same. Users are encouraged to change the password during the initial log in to WebCT for security reasons. It is recommended it be changed to the same as the users email account so there will be only one username and password to remember.
06.04.06. A generic testing WebCT ID has been created and can be added to any WebCT course. Please contact the instructional designer for the username and password. The generic testing WebCT ID can be used to view what a student will see in a course.
06.04.07. A WebCT tutorial for instructors and designers is available. To access it, go to http://courses7.webct.com and input the generic instructor/designer tutorial WebCT ID and password to log in. Please contact the instructional designer for the generic instructor/designer tutorial WebCT ID and password.
06.04.08. A WebCT tutorial for students is available. To access it, go to http://courses7.webct.com and input the generic student tutorial WebCT ID and password to log in. Please contact the instructional designer for the generic student tutorial WebCT ID and password.
06.04.09. Each student and faculty member will have only one WebCT ID. No additional WebCT IDs will be created except the generic instructor/designer tutorial ID, the generic student tutorial ID, the generic course IDs and the generic testing ID, which were created for specific support reasons and should be sufficient. If you need to use one of the generic IDs or if a special case does arise and an additional one is needed, contact the instructional designer.
06.04.10. To develop a consistent system of support for students in WebCT courses, the following are to be including in all courses.
06.04.10.01. A link to the official syllabus so students and anyone providing support to them will have immediate access to vital course information.
06.04.10.02. If the chat and/or discussion board features are used, a clarification of appropriate use of these features, i.e., chat etiquette and abbreviations, as well as, a description of if and how the instructor(s) will use these features in grade calculations, i.e., a grading rubric.
06.04.10.03. If the mail feature is used, an explanation on how the mail feature in WebCT is contained within the course and does not support emailing in or out of the course. This will minimize confusion and frustration among students and instructors. This feature is discouraged unless the instructor is committed to using it exclusively and routinely for all course related email correspondence; otherwise, vital email correspondence may be lost or response time may be affected.
06.04.10.04. Instructions to access the WebCT tutorial for students.
06.04.10.05. A link to the COTC email address and a phone number for the teaching faculty in case students encounter problems during the course. Even if the WebCT mail feature is being used within the course the email address and phone number still need to be provided in case of an emergency and the student cannot use the mail feature within the course.
06.04.10.06. A link to TechConnect, http://www.cotc.edu/techconnect, for students in case they encounter technical problems during the course.
06.04.10.07. Instructions on how to change a WebCT password.
06.04.10.08. Instructions on how to make a computer WebCT compatible.
06.04.10.09. Instructions on how to access WebCT Frequently Asked Questions for Students.
06.04.10.10. A link to Did I ? http://www.cotc.edu/cotc/online/didi.asp, which contains some standard suggestions for students in the online learning environment.
06.04.10.11. A link to READI, the online readiness assessment tool. READI is located at http://cotc.readi.info.
06.04.11. When the COTC Student Ratings of Instruction evaluation tool is required, it will be included in the course. The summative results will be printed by the instructor and hand delivered to the academic office.
06.04.12. Whenever applicable, all student assessment and evaluation tools, not related to the online environment or technology, will be correlated with the evaluation tools of the traditional classroom offering of the same course to assist in the evaluating of the effectiveness of the online course.
06.04.13. WebCT web courses will be reviewed one month prior to the course offering by another faculty member and the program director with final approval provided by the academic director with input from the instructional designer.
06.04.14. A course introduction will be provided on the COTC About Online Learning website located at http://www.cotc.edu/cotc/online. The introduction will include the instructor's contact information, textbook requirements, hardware/software requirements, access instructions, and the first week assignments. This information will be sent to the instructional designer one month prior to the course offering. It will then be uploaded to the COTC About Online Learning website. Additionally, an email correspondence will be sent to all online students from Student Records within one week of the beginning of the online course. The correspondence will include the web address for the COTC About Online Learning website and the access instructions for the READI assessment.
06.04.15. There is always the potential of losing the connection to the internet or other problems relating to online testing. As a result, an online testing error procedure has been established and posted on the COTC About Online Learning website at http://www.cotc.edu/cotc/online. Student must be informed of the policy and a link provided to minimize any confusion later during the course.
06.04.16. WebCT web-enhanced courses only
06.04.16.01. Faculty will request the WebCT course shell by mid-quarter preceding the course offering.
06.04.16.02. Faculty will meet with the instructional designer by mid-quarter preceding the course offering to discuss the use of WebCT.
06.04.17. WebCT web-based courses only
06.04.17.01. Faculty will request the WebCT course shell by the beginning of the quarter preceding the course offering.
06.04.17.02. Faculty will meet with the instructional designer by the beginning of the quarter preceding the course offering to discuss the use of WebCT.
07.01. Web-enhanced course a course taught in the traditional classroom format while incorporating some online component(s).
07.02. Web-based course a course taught in the online format exclusively.
07.03. Assessment pertaining to content and course objectives learned.
07.04. Evaluation pertaining to instructional methods and/or technology.
08. Contact Information If you have any questions about the policy, please contact your academic director for clarification.
