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Hi and welcome to Distance Ed, where we teach from the beach.
This is the first installment of our DES Update, a video blog for the MCC faculty focusing
on our online programs. You will be able to find regularly posted
updates here on the Blackboard Welcome page.
Now most of you have seen the DES worker bees from time to time,
or recognize our names from the emails you delete.
Today we want to introduce ourselves and give you a better idea of what we do,
so you know who to call when and for what.
Let’s start with David.
Thank you, Deanna, and good day. My name is David Curtis and I am the Blackboard
Systems Manager for MCC. My humble, but comfortable office is located
at Penn Valley Community College. You can reach me via Outlook Email or
through the phone at 604-4716. My primary focus is on the day-to-day support
of Blackboard for faculty and students. I can deal with many issue of support,
but if your needs are more “technical” in nature
I am your link to the Level II Blackboard Support personnel
that work behind the scenes to “fix” problems that are “above my pay grade!”
My background is a mixed bag, heavily laden with lots of Sociology and enough
Instructional Design experience to have a Masters Degree in Instructional
Design so I can collaborate with Joel and Kathryn
in the Distance Ed Department to provide all the support necessary
to help faculty develop and deliver quality online and hybrid courses.
I have been teaching online classes, Introduction to Sociology,
at MCC for over five years and I think my experience both as a Designer
and an online instructor provides me a solid foundation
to support your course design needs and Blackboard needs.
I have been deeply involved in Quality Matters for the last five years
which means I often act as the “initial reviewer” of your course
to help you get ready for an official QM Review. I am a Quality Matters Master Reviewer and
a Master Trainer. You might say I have “mastered” Quality
Matters. Well, you might not say that, but I just did
– I can’t resist a bad pun – sorry!
I have been with MCC nearly 18 years and if my plans hold, I will retire
one day after my 18 year anniversary at or near October 1, 2010 –
avoiding the potentially annoying and embarrassing In-Service 20 Year song and dance,
because I don’t dance, and don’t sing very well.
So, if I can be of any service to you, please don’t hesitate to contact me,
or any of my colleagues whose introductions you have or will see shortly.
Be Seeing You …
Hi, I’m Kathryn Barker, and I’m an instructional designer at MCC.
My passion is great course design: intuitive, engaging, and accessible.
I advocate/proselytize for online instruction that capitalizes on the unique qualities of
digital media and what it can bring to education.
I came to instructional design through a combination of graphic design and education.
I have an undergraduate degree in Art Education, I have a masters in Liberal Arts,
I have completed programs of study in letterpress printing,
web design and applications. For more than ten years I’ve been doing
instruction design and faculty training. I enjoy public speaking and
I’ve presented at a couple of the Colleague to Colleague conferences locally,
and at the nationally Blackboard conference. If you need assistance making the transition
from onground to online teaching I would love to work with you.
While we can’t, and don’t want to try and re-create an onground experience in an
online class, we can take those same learning objectives
and investigate a variety of new ways to accomplish them.
If you want to incorporate some online elements into your onground class,
or if you’re interested in exploring some of the amazing
new media that are coming online… talk to me!
I keep a repository of links and software tools.
Whether it’s creating one object or activity, or designing an entire class,
I would love to work with you.
I’m Deanna Poudel. I am a member of the Longview physics faculty,
assigned to the District and housed at Penn Valley.
This can cause confusion, but it comes in handy during in-service, convocation
and commencement days. My office is in the LR building of Penn Valley
on the 3rd floor in the Distance Ed area.
Right now my role in Distance Ed Is to work with faculty to complete their
training in Blackboard and online teaching,
and to get their new online and hybrid courses through the approval process.
I also coordinate the Quality Matters program of peer course reviews for our online courses.
If you have any questions about training, the workshop schedule,
requirements for getting your first online course scheduled
or other Blackboard support issues, you can call or email me for help.
My instructional background is in physics and math,
but I also have a background in faculty development and in-service training,
and have a degree in curriculum and instructional technology.
I have been teaching online at MCC for several years.
Prior to coming to Kansas City, I taught on the Iowa Communications Network
through Iowa State University in the very early days of “distance” education.
“Distance” education. I put the quotes in there for David.
I do enjoy teaching online, especially newly developed courses.
In spite of my background, and unlike David, Kathryn and Joel,
new technology does intimidate me initially, and it takes seeing it in action or being
forced to use it before I learn a new piece of technology.
This video blog is a case in point. But, I am hoping that the Video Blog format
will provide a convenient and useful way of providing a
learning experience for MCC faculty.
You can usually find me in my office 9 to 5,
Reach me by phone or email. Drop in whenever you want—I can always put
the coffee on! And the 2:00 dance is also an option.
Thanks.
Hello. I’m Joel Shaw. I’m new to Distance Education Services.
I am an Instructional Design Trainee with past experience in visual communications
and graphic design. I’m attending the University of Missouri
for instructional systems design and I currently provide services in the evenings
until eight and on Sundays. I’m excited to be part of the team
and look forward to developing online learning with Metropolitan Community College.
Well, that wraps it up. Thanks for viewing our first installment of
the DES update. You can find us this week about right here
in a little tiny cabin that we use for our own in-service.
Thanks so much and we look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks.