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E-Learning Faculty Guidelines
 

Distance Education is defined as the acquisition of knowledge and skills via selected media in an environment where the instructor and learner are geographically separated this includes our web based, video, and two way interactive courses. Gulf Coast Community College offers an extensive distance education program of AA, AAS, and PSAV courses.

Students who are unable to meet the rigors of traditional class schedules due to work, family commitment, or other circumstances, or who simply prefer the distance mode of delivery may enroll in distance education courses.

Course Development

Faculty or adjuncts interested in designing a course to be taught online, or re-designing courses currently taught online, begin with the steps below:

     1) Inform your Academic Department Chair that you will be submitting a proposal to develop or re-design an E-Learning/Online course. (You must be currently employed by GCCC or have Division Chair approval to submit a request.)

     2) Click below to download the GCCC E-Learning Course Development Proposal form.  Complete this form and e-mail it to sdunnivant@gulfcoast.edu or fax it to the attention of Dr. Steve Dunnivant at 850-873-3592. 

        GCCC E-Learning Course Development Proposal (MS Word .doc)
        GCCC E-Learning Course Development Proposal (Adobe Acrobat .pdf)

     3)  Once your form is received you will be notified.  From there, E-Learning will contact you and work with Academic Council and Division Chairs to determine a proposed compensation amount based on college guidelines for online course development.  Your submission will then be presented to the GCCC E-Learning Advisory Group.  That group will recommend course proposals submitted  based on benefit to the college, the E-Campus program, and budget availability.  Courses recommended for development will be sent to Faculty Council for final approval.

All faculty teaching DE courses must have access to a computer and have e-mail. Faculty must use the GCCC on-line course management system to communicate with students using e-mail, chat rooms, or quizzes. ^Top^

Communicating with Students

Since distance learning students do not attend regular classroom sessions, it is extremely important to make them feel that someone cares about their progress.

Faculty should e-mail the students a welcome message within the first several days of class and post an initial announcement on ANGEL to ensure that students are recognized as part of the class. In addition it is suggested that you communicate at least every two weeks via e-mail or telephone and respond to student e-mails within one week. This will ensure that the student stays on task and knows you are available. If you are out on travel or otherwise unavailable please notify your students in advance.

A course syllabus MUST be provided to the student via your ANGEL web site. The course syllabus must include the name, e-mail address and phone number of the faculty, orientation dates, testing dates, and a list of course materials such as text books, web sites, and or DVD’s. The faculty’s expectations should be explicit as students in these courses come with varying expectations such as possibly doing all their work at the end of the semester or never having to come to campus at all.

The Distance Education web site will provide a brief course outline describing the course including assessment techniques (i.e. tests, writing assignments, portfolios). ^Top^

Orientations

During the first week of classes an orientation session for students should be held. (The distance education office will book the classroom). Information about time and location of the orientation will be available on the course outline and on the DE web page. Students are encouraged to attend these sessions. At the orientation the faculty member is responsible for describing the course, and relating the anticipated expectations and outcomes, the grading scale and presentation of the complete course syllabus.

In some instances students will have two or more orientations scheduled at the same time. It is their responsibility to notify the instructor of the conflicts and arrange for a private orientation either in person or by telephone. Many of our DE students live outside Bay County. In those cases where a student is simply not able to come to the college or a long distance telephone call would be required to communicate with them e-mail should be used.  ^Top^

Testing

The testing policy should be clearly stated in the course outline. Faculty should schedule class testing according to the course format. The DE office will reserve the primary testing rooms. Testing times and locations will be available on the course outline and on the DE web page. Instructors should have at least one alternate testing date. The alternative time and place are the responsibility of the faculty member, and is usually an office or small conference room.

If the student is in a remote site they may request a proctor. The student should contact the DE office to arrange the location and receive approval of a proctor. The DE office will then inform the faculty member and request copies of the exam for these students, distribute the exams to the proctors and return the exam to the faculty member. All proctors must be professional staff at an educational institution or library.

Students in Gulf and Franklin Counties may take tests at the Gulf/Franklin Center in Port St. Joe (227-9670 or 227-9671). They must contact the Distance Education Office (850-769-1551, ext. 5807 or by e-mail: vcampus@mail.gulfcoast.edu ) at least two weeks prior to each exam date.

Students living in Bay County must test at the scheduled time and place. If there is a significant reason why this is not possible the student must first contact the instructor for approval and the instructor will then notify the distance education office. The GCCC library will proctor exams for these students at the following times:

Monday – Thursday 8:00 am-7:00pm
Friday 8:00am-11:00am
Saturday and Sunday 1:00pm -3:00pm ^Top^

Student No Shows & Withdrawals

Students should be withdrawn if they have not contacted the faculty member by the end of the second week of class. This contact may be by an e-mail, attending the orientation, or responding to a discussion board, quiz or agreeing to a course policy or responsibilities statement. (samples of these are in the appendix of this document). If the student misses a scheduled exam or does not take the exam within the testing window they should be withdrawn unless they have contacted the faculty member within one week.  ^Top^

Course Evaluations

Each fall semester all DE courses will be evaluated. This evaluation is on-line and the URL will be sent to you the week before the evaluation window. Instructors should send an e-mail containing the URL or place it on the ANGEL page. Responses to the evaluations will be sent to vcampus@gulfcoast.edu and forwarded to the appropriate chair. ^Top^

Grades

Grades may be mailed to the students or posted on ANGEL. If mailing the grades you may use the grade forms of your own choice. When written work is required graded papers are returned by mail. The DE office has envelopes for this purpose and will supply them upon request.

The Distance Education office will NOT discuss grades with students. ^Top^
 

Office Hours

If a distance education course is part of the regular workload for a full-time faculty member, the faculty member should schedule three hours for the class during the 35 hour work week. If the distance education course is an overload for full-time faculty or taught by adjunct faculty the hours may be completed in the faculty office or at home. This will allow overload distance education course office hours and adjunct distance education course office hours to be completed at home via e-mail and ANGEL options rather than requiring the instructor to be on campus.  ^Top^

Academic Honesty Policy:

As a participant in this course you are required to adhere to the following Academic Honesty Policy:
*You will at all times do your own work.
*You will not use any unauthorized materials such as the course textbook, notebook, formula lists, notes or crib sheets, including those stored in a calculator, during an exam other than those materials specified by your Professor. [This excludes quizzes - you are allowed to refer to your textbook and notes during the taking of any "quiz".]
*You will not use the results of another students quiz or exam to assist on your own quiz/exam.
*You will not collaborate with any other person by giving or receiving information during an exam. [Note: You are permitted to help one another on any particular quiz as long as that help is not simply supplying answers but is more collaborative in nature.]
Having read this brief Academic Honesty Policy you are to select from the two choices below.
If found to violate this policy you can and will receive a grade of 'F' for this course and not be permitted to repeat this course via the Internet.

• I agree to adhere to this academic honesty policy.

• I do not agree to adhere to this academic honesty policy. ^Top^

Student Responsibilities:

As a student in this Internet course you have your share of responsibilities.

(1) Always adhere to the Academic Honesty Policy for this course. You are being entrusted with a huge responsibility and being asked to make your own guarantee that the integrity of this course, as well as your own personal integrity, is not compromised.

(2) You are responsible for giving yourself ample time with the course material and to be prepared to take the practice tests for the purpose of testing your strength of knowledge of that material. These practice tests have been designed to help you before you have to take the actual test.

(3) You are responsible for taking your tests as scheduled. You are given a large window of opportunity in which to take your tests plus the luxury of taking them online. Failure to take a test as scheduled results in a grade of zero for that test.

(4) You are responsible for completing your quizzes with passing scores by their assigned due dates. Failure to complete the quiz sets by their due dates will result in a grade of zero for each undone quiz, plus you will have 10% deducted from the associated chapter test. Note it is expected that you achieve a passing score on each quiz (minimum 3 out of 5). Scores of 0, 1, or 2 will be treated as if you did not complete that quiz. All described penalties above will then apply.

(5) You are responsible for making sure your quiz scores are accurately recorded on ANGEL. It is suggested you print completed quizzes just in case ANGEL fails to show the proper score. These can used to replace a 'locked' symbol with your properly earned score.

(6) You are responsible to make sure your computer meets the minimum requirements for using GCCC's ANGEL system. These requirements can be viewed on ANGEL or by following the link http://cms.gulfcoast.edu/systemrequirements.htm

(7) You are responsible for putting yourself in a secure testing environment. That is, in a place where you don't get "knocked off line" or distracted in any way. If you do not have such an environment at home you are welcome to come to main campus and use the computers in our Library. [Note: A student is only permitted one reset of a test for the entire semester.]

(8) You are responsible for beginning your test with ample time to spare. Starting the test 1 or 2 hours before the deadline can be a grievous mistake. If you happen to get knocked off line or somehow disconnected you may not have enough time for you to email me to reset your test. It is highly recommended you do not wait until the last few hours to take your test.

(9) You are responsible for withdrawing yourself from this course. I am not in the habit of withdrawing students who decide they no longer wish to participate in this course. If you need to withdraw, or simply desire to withdraw, that is fine, but you are responsible for doing the paperwork on that.

• I understand my responsibilities as a student in this course.

• I do not understand my responsibilities as a student in this course.  ^Top^