PG & D 10/27/08

Efforts are underway to create a central location for posting of all training opportunities offered by various entities at HACC. Additionally, through the use of “webinars” and recorded training sessions, via podcasts or DVDs, it is hoped that more faculty can take advantage of training opportunities to suit their own schedules.

Presentations and workshops will be forthcoming from the Counseling Department. The focus will be on handling disruptive students, violent situations, and identifying students in need of crisis intervention.

Submitted by Carol Martin

Faculty Council – 10/27/08

Larry Adams briefed the current plan to extend the WebCT contract for a year while forming a Task Force to assess alternatives. In response to questions, he stated that infrastructure and software fixes seem to have addressed the most serious problems experienced at the beginning of the semester. Efforts continue to improve the infrastructure in coordination with ITS.

Jan Moraski briefed her findings and recommendations regarding difficulties students are experiencing in understanding the search and registration process for blended courses. Her research revealed a difference in the course search process, depending upon whether the user was searching with HACC Web or the HACC Website. When using HACC Web, the student does not get a clear indication for a blended course unless they click on the course link to see the expanded description. A number of potential fixes and alternatives were explored, and Ron Young requested an clean copy of her report to circulate with the administrators and staff.

AP 721, Credit for Life Experiences, and AP 828, Moving Assistance for New Employees, were approved and forwarded to Academic Council.

Matt Braswell briefed a recommended approach to assess the advising responsibilities for tenured and tenured-track faculty.

Todd Crawley briefed the status of research to determine if HACC should establish a Behavior Intervention Team and what procedures and policies might be required in order to effectively identify and proactively address potential problems before they expand beyond control.

Ron Young briefed his time line to identify the recommended Department structure by November 5, the Division structure by November 19, and the assignments for administrators by December 3. Kathy Doherty has circulated a request for faculty comments, specified to support this time line.

Dan Moseler

In-Service Resources Available

The following information is now available for everyone in case you missed Dr. Dabbagh’s  excellent presentation on Oct 14th. A site has been setup on the HACC iTunesU link on the sidebar where you can download Dr. Dabbagh’s Power Point presentation as well as the handouts from the Oct. 14th in-service.

The Lancaster media specialist are in the process of copying  the presentation video onto DVDs. The DVDs will be made available through your libraries in the near future.

This link connects you to the Delicious site containg important information discussed in the conference-http://delicious.com/ndabbagh/hacc08

When you get to the iTunes website click on “Enter Public iTunes”, then click on the Lancaster Campus CITE icon. You will see 2 tabs. One is for Dr. Dabbagh’s presentation. You will also find handouts from Jennifer St. Pierre’s  Master Teacher Workshop on “Concept Mapping.”  DVDs will also be available from Professor St. Pierre’s presentation in the future.

Thank You,
Judith Johnson

Adjunct Pro Growth Grants Available – Apply Now

Have you ever wanted to attend a professional conference, take another class in your field, or work on relevant instructional materials, but felt constricted by lack of resources? Here is an opportunity to extend yourself and grow professionally, with some financial support from HACC. Professional Development Grants are available to all adjunct faculty who have been teaching at HACC for at least 2 semesters (except those who received this same grant during the previous year).

The maximum grant amount for any one person is $500. To be considered, you must complete the appropriate application – a separate document. The application requires a description of the proposed activity, how the activity relates to your professional goals and HACC’s strategic plan and an itemized list of projected expenses. Also, you will need to submit additional documentation as appropriate (e.g., conference/workshop registration brochures, course fee brochures).

Adjunct Grant Announcement.

Adjunct Grant Application.

Upcoming HACC Software Changes

HACC will be transitioning to Microsoft Office 2007 in all offices and labs during the fall semester. Professional Growth will be coordinating training for those who wish; watch for announcements. Like any other software you use at HACC, you can obtain Office 2007 for personal use through the folks in Stabler. One feature of Office 2007 that will be different is the dropping of Front Page, a matter of particular interest for those teaching Virtual and Blended courses..

Front Page will no longer be available under license after January. For those seeking replacement, there are two Microsoft products, which may be available through the Academic Alliance, and an Adobe alternative at higher cost for you to consider:

• Microsoft SharePoint Designer – developed by Microsoft as the Front Page replacement. The interface should look familiar to those experienced with Front Page.
• Microsoft Expression Web – developed by Microsoft as part of the Expression Studio suite, with similar functionality to SharePoint Designer and the Adobe alternatives. Like SharePoint Designer, the interface should look familiar to those experienced with Front Page. This family of products is capable but does not match the full functionality of the more expensive Adobe products.
• Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Dreamweaver CS4 – developed by Macromedia and recently purchased and updated by Adobe as part of the CS4 Creative Suite of products. This is available as a standalone or as part of a very powerful suite of products that ranges in cost from expensive to very expensive.

Each of these are available from the company sites for download and evaluation before purchase, and are available from various sites offering Academic pricing. The Microsoft products presently have a 180-day evaluation period. The Adobe products are normally available for a 30-day evaluation period. All files created during the evaluation period retain their full functionality at the end of the evaluation/trial period.

There are other commercial and open source products available, but HACC has not yet identified at this posting what product(s) will be made available to faculty.

Dan Moseler

P,G,&D Committee Mtg. 10/08/08

The committee finalized plans for the upcoming faculty retreat on Tuesday. At the retreat, faculty will have the opportunity to take a survey on issues that they feel are important to faculty. The PG&D committee will pick the top results as areas to focus on  for the coming year.

We learned that the IT deparment is working on having all training opportunities available in one place electronically. Carol Martin and Judi Ungar reminded the committee that the Intranet would not be a good location because it cannot be accessed off-campus.

Judi Ungar