January 26 Webinar Results

What other Dual Credit topics should we feature? Comments/Suggestions?

Houston Community College: I especially liked knowing what other colleges in Texas are doing in dual credit

San Jacinto College Central Campus: Transferability issues - developing articulations with 4 year universities

Tarrant County College: Some high schools require college faculty to supply or input grades every three weeks. This does not truly provide the high school students with a true college experience.

Vernon College: How payment of a course works at one institution versus another. For example it was said that for Amarillo College it is only $40 a credit hr, how do you make this possible because my students must pay full tuition?

San Jacinto College Central Campus: Registration issues, cheating issues (cell phone use in class, etc.)

Lonestar: Registration process best practices, testing procedures, eligibility requirements

Collin College: Registration processes, grading processes

November 17 Webinar Results

What other Dual Credit topics should we feature? Comments/Suggestions?

El Centro College: using online courses/instructors with ISD students

Howard College: Would like to see some information about moving to an ECHS after establishing a successful dual credit program.

Specific information on how to develop technical/professional partnerships for dual credit classes

Tarrant County College South Campus: Best Practices or Professional Development for Adjunct Instructors who are paid via ISD--But Adjunct

Eastfield College: Best practices on compiling statistical reports

Tarrant County College: TCC NW would like to see a presentation on how to conduct an orientation program at the high schools for students, administrators, and parents.

Houston Community College: How to engage 9th graders in college classes

Tarrant County College Southeast Campus: Issues with parental intervention. How to deal with high school interruptions (the high school culture).

Tarrant County College South Campus: Best Practices or Professional Development for College Faculty.

Weatherford College: More discussion about the admission/registration process.

The Texas Network Wants To Promote Your Dual Credit Program

Dear Colleagues,

As The Texas Network begins a new project year, we are again reminded of the hundreds of high-quality professional development topics collected from partner community colleges and providers. The statewide interest this year is in learning more about successful dual credit education and instruction. THECB has underscored the effectiveness of The Texas Network’s past training work and outreach capabilities and has asked us to develop a suite of training modules focusing on “How To” develop and offer superior Dual Credit programs. 

In response to that, we are seeking acknowledged content experts to develop dual credit training modules and webinars. We are looking for experts who want to make it easy for college faculty, teachers, administrators, advisors, and counselors to sharpen their skills and keep up with the latest developments in dual credit education. 

The Texas Network offers content experts a stipend to help support the development of these training modules. Content experts interested in developing a module or webinar should contact Terry Stewart Mouchayleh (email: tstewart@austincc.edu) for more information. The Texas Network project coordinator, Renee Hernandez (email:  rhernandez@tccta.org) will work closely with content developers to design effective, visually appealing, and interactive modules, and webinars.  Selected modules will be distributed electronically through The Texas Network’s website and be available at no cost to community colleges in Texas.

Click here for more information on The Texas Network’s Dual Credit Project.

We look forward to hearing from you and sharing your success with dual credit!

Training Manager Access

This video explains how to request training manager access as well as how to create a curriculum for your employees or students.

Online Student Support at Every College

The Network has updated and converted a 2008 Perkins project called Online Student Support at Every College in to interactive training modules. These modules focus on how to set up different areas of student support for online college programs.

The Network Users Geographically

As we write the grant application for 2011-12 fiscal year, I was asked to show whether Network users represented all 10 of the THECB's service regions.
Yesterday I found a really cool website that takes GPS data and displays it on an interactive map.
This is what I came up with when I uploaded the zip codes of Network users:

Click here to view map in a new window/tab
You can interact with this map just like a normal Google map [zoom, drag, etc.], if you click on a specific dot you'll see the # of members at that zip code.
[personal information was not linked to zip codes used for this map]

Network Update

We recently updated our homepage to include a featured content slider as well as links to upcoming events and the latest resources. This is the easiest way to show you the most important content and information available on The Network.

Archive: Switching to Google: What Your Institution Should Expect

If you were not able to attend last week's webinar, go to the following link:

http://connect.txpod.org/l15509969/

Make sure you register first:

This free webinar on the ins and outs of migrating to Google Apps features panelists Hab Adkins, Manager of Programming and Support Computing Services at Abilene Christian University & Stan Gunn, Associate Vice President, Information Technology at Austin Community College. They will discuss their institutional experience with this major migration to the new email, calendaring, and collaboration system. Learn from their successes and challenges, so you may avoid some of these speed bumps. Come prepared with questions and comments. This webinar is for faculty and staff involved with Information Technology at their institution.

Related Resources

• EDUCAUSE Live! Moving Faculty and Staff to Google Apps
• Getting Past Google: Perspectives on Information Literacy From the Millennial Mind
• Google Code University
• Google Documents
• Google Power Searching Tips for Students and Universities
• Data Visualization: Basics
• Collaborating Using Google Docs
• Things You Should Know About Google Earth

Switching to Google: What Your Institution Should Expect

As part of its free, live webinar series, the Texas Network for Teaching Excellence (the Network) would like to invite you to a presentation entitled "Switching to Google: What Your Institution Should Expect", scheduled for Wednesday, April 27th from 2:00-3:00pm CST (check for local time).

Presented by Stan Gunn, Associate Vice President, Information Technology at Austin Community College and Hab Adkins at Abilene Christian University.

IT has begun the wide scale conversion of the Austin Community College District to the new email, calendaring, and collaboration system.

Not registered? Click here to get started.

Otherwise, on the day of the webinar go to this link: Google Apps

For instructions on requirements and navigation of the webinar application, go to this page: Webinar Info

Hope you can join us!

Related Resources

• EDUCAUSE Live! Moving Faculty and Staff to Google Apps
• Getting Past Google: Perspectives on Information Literacy From the Millennial Mind
• Google Code University
• Google Documents
• Google Power Searching Tips for Students and Universities
• Data Visualization: Basics
• Collaborating Using Google Docs
• Things You Should Know About Google Earth

Message From TCCTA’s Executive Director

I recently sat down with the Texas Community College Teachers Association (TCCTA) and the Foundation for Professional Excellence in the Community College's (FPECC) Executive Director, Richard Moore, to discuss The Texas Network and a new project called the Career Pathways Project.

Lone Star College-Online’s Distance Learning Module Series

As THECB-Perkins funded projects, the Network has partnered with Lone Star College-Online to distribute the Faculty Development Modules for Online Teaching.

From Lone Star College-Online's site:

"The Faculty Development Modules for Online Teaching Grant is funded by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in conjunction with the Lone Star College System.  Project partners include Spring ISD and Sam Houston State University.

The project goal is to create 12 stand-alone modules of instruction designed to improve the effectiveness of an online or hybrid class."

As a Texas Network user, you can access the modules and have them counted in your professional development curriculum.

Click on the name of each module to access it (log-in here):

Module 1: Introduction to Online Learning (transcript)

Module 2: Flexibility and Time Management (transcript)

Module 3: Learning Styles (transcript)

Module 4: Classroom Management and Communication (transcript)

Module 5: Cultural and Global Considerations (transcript)

Module 6: Legal Issues (transcript)

Module 7: Collaboration and Community Building (transcript)

Module 8: Trends in Online Learning (transcript)

Module 9: Assessment (transcript)

Module 10: Web Literacy (transcript)

Module 11: Vertical and Horizontal Alignment (transcript)

Module 12: Student Retention and Faculty Development (transcript)

Engaging Your Students: A Few Simple Ideas

As part of its free, live webinar series, the Texas Network for Teaching Excellence (the Network) would like to invite you to a presentation entitled "Engaging Your Students: A Few Simple Ideas", scheduled for Wednesday, March 2nd from 2:00-3:00pm CST (check for local time).

Presented by Dr. Terry Stewart Mouchayleh, Director of Professional Development & Evaluation at Austin Community College and Project Director of the Network.

Most faculty would agree that getting all materials and information completed in one class period and one semester is almost impossible.  There is little or no time to teach students how to be successful college students in addition to teaching them important course content. However, taking simple steps before the class begins and few minutes per class period to give your students a “heads up” about the institution, their roles as students, and the support services available to them can make a huge difference in their personal and academic success.  This workshop will focus on the easiest and least distracting ways to remind students of things they already know (but have forgotten) or never even knew about.

Archived Recording of this Session

http://connect.txpod.org/l55579243/

Not registered? Click here to get started.

Related Resources:

• The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Working with Generational Issues in our Student
• Engaging Students More Effectively
• Engaging Students in Learning
• Engage Students Through Assignments

the Network @ the 64th Annual TCCTA Convention

Hello friends!

We must apologize for the lag in blogging here at the Network.

Tons of new stuff going on has got us super busy.

In a couple of weeks the Network staff, Renee, Kat, Brian & myself will be heading down to the San Antonio Riverwalk for the 2011 TCCTA Convention.

The Network newbies, Kat & Brian will be presenting their progress on the Career & Pathways project, which started this past September, at the beginning of our fiscal year. They will also be making the rounds and picking brains about course transfer, Dual Credit, career clusters and the like. If you see them wandering around aimlessly, please make sure you say hi to them.

Renee and myself, for the second time will be recording a handful of sessions.

We will be running around all over the place, but hope to see some of you in San Antonio.

Happy & prosperous 2011!

Interactive Training Module Layout

The Network uses Adobe Presenter to create our interactive training modules. In this video we demonstrate the layout of one of our modules.

Free Webinar Series: Working with Generational Issues in our Students

Were you unable to attend our Generational Webinar in July?

Due to this topic's popularity we are pleased to offer you another opportunity to attend!

Join us Thursday, September 30 at 2:00 pm CST (check local time) for The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Working with Generational Issues in our Students, presented by Dr. Terry Stewart Mouchayleh, Director of Professional Development & Evaluation at Austin Community College.

This free webinar takes place in the The Network's Adobe Connect Seminar room at http://connect.txpod.org/newgenerationofstudents. This session will be recorded and the archive posted here within 24 hours.

If you have never attended a Connect Pro meeting before click here to get started.

Archived Recording of this Session

http://connect.txpod.org/l32232176/

Not registered? Click here to get started.

Related Resources:

• The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Working with Generational Issues in our Student
• Generational Students
• 2010 EOS Screening Room: Recruiting and Retaining New Generations of Faculty
• New Standards for the New Student?