The mission of Technology Mediated Instruction (TMI) is to encourage the appropriate use of educational technology by faculty, both within the classroom and in DE modalities, to promote student success and enhance access in accordance with the college�s mission and values.
TMI supports all the District�s instructional programs in the use of the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS). This includes enhancing traditional courses with online resources, as well as DE through online courses. TMI is a vital component in the student learning process in its efforts to increase the number and quality of DE offerings and the use of technology in and beyond the classroom. TMI provides comprehensive faculty training the use of the LMS and corresponding Supplemental Tools. TMI also encourages peer mentoring among faculty, and holds monthly and annual campus events focused on the sharing of best practices in the use of educational technologies. TMI offers support to faculty and administration, and specifically the Distance Education Committee (DEC) and Academic Technology Committee (ATC), in helping to promote best practices for achieving student success. TMI implements its program through giving dozens of workshops each semester, geared toward helping participants not only understand the use of the LMS, but also guide them in choosing the appropriate tool for each task being undertaken. In addition, TMI staff meet and hold consultations with individual faculty to ensure that the use of the LMS meet Butte College, state and Federal standards.
Webcams for faculty
Enhancing faculty ability to create multimedia content for online courses. Increased capability for providing instructor presence in online courses. All webcams currently loaned out to faculty developing online courses for a period of three months.
Instructional software
Extended capabilities of District LMS (Canvas), and enhanced production rate of new online courses. Adjust-All, Course Eval HQ, Unicheck, TechSmith Camtasia/Snagit, etc.
Instructional/educational technologies are an essential component of building courses that maximize student success and retention. TMI provides workshops, trainings, and support to faculty as they build courses (both face-to-face and online) that make the most effective use of instructional technologies.
While TMI is focused on helping all faculty use technolgy effectively, the college's DE program is focused on helping faculty build effective online classes. Online classes provide an essential bridge for student completion. Half of students who complete a degree at Butte have taken at least one online class. The flexibility of online classes helps students complete their degree or certiticat in a shorter timeframe; this is especially true for students with complex schedules for work or family. One metric for understanding this student need is that online enrollment continues to grow while our face-to-face enrollment is declining. Online classes have similar rates of success as face-to-face classes. And, while retention is still slightly higher in f2f classes, retention in online classes is steadily increasing and closing the gap.
TMI helps faculty develop courses that improve the information and digital literacy of studnts - priority 1.C.3
TMI helps train faculty to develop courses that maxamize faculty accessibilty to students - priority 1.C.6
TMI and the DE Coordinator are collaborating with groups on campus to help meet priority 1.D.8 - providing comparable support services for online students and students attending off-campus centers
Online course offerings help with priority 1.E.1. - developing a student-centerd schedule that fosters completion of educational goals in a timely and efficient way.
DE itself is a priority 1.E.4 - offering more coherent and robust distance education.
TMI and the DE Coordinator offer robust professional development that helps with priority 2.B.1 - increasing participation in professional development
TMI and the DE Coordinator offer robust professional development that helps with priority 2.D.2 - supporting faculty to effectively access and use technology
Online courses help with priority 2.D.4 - expanding the instructional schedule to provide increased access to programs and services.
Online courses help with priority 4.B.3 - maintaining a focus on meetign established enrollment targets with an emphasis on access and support for underserved populations.
TMI conducts an annual unit plan which serves as its Program Review.
Strategy 1 - Continue to provide LMS training for faculty
Provide traditional and online faculty training sessions, in order to respond to the asynchronous & synchronous needs of instructors use of the District's Learning Management System (LMS), including:
Effectivley trained faculty can best use the school's LMS to ensure course content delivery that encourages student success.
Strategy 2 - Support the use of online course design rubric and standards
Continue to collaborate with the Distance Learning Committee in encouraging the District's online course design rubric and standards (used to review online and hybrid courses) as faculty/designers are now responsible for showing evidence that each criterion has been satisfied.
Documentation of online course reviews will align with the "culture of evidence" mandated by accrediting standards and will encourage faculty/designers to become more actively involved in the review process from start to finish.
Strategy 3 - Continual evaluation of new educational technologies
TMI will continue to facilitate reviews of new educational technologies related to the LMS, by collaborating with the Senate's Academic Technology Committee, and other groups, to set up campus demonstrations and initiate campus-wide discussions.
This strategy helps implement decision-making regarding the review, consideration, and adoption of new technologies for the LMS, and helps ensure a consistent, campus-wide response involving all relevant stakeholders; ultimately students benefit.
Strategy 4 - Professional development opportunities
TMI staff will continue to pursue opportunities for professional development, including conference attendance and memberships in professional organizations, in the area of educational technology.
TMI staff need to stay abreast of changing industry trends in the area of the LMS, online collaboration, video conferencing, and other educational technologies.
Strategy 5 - Support the district's goals for Distance Education
Priority 1.E.4 for the District's Strategic Direction is "Offering more coherent and robust distance education"
TMI staff and the Distance Education Coordinator will coordinate with the DE Dean and VPI to help meet the district goals for DE courses.
New DE courses must pass the review process prior to being scheduled. This process helps ensure quality courses at Butte. The review team coordinates with the DE Committee and administration to ensure that the review process meets the needs of the district.
OER Grant, CVC-OEI Grant, CCCCO Online Course Development Grant
Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
1 | TMI / Distance Education | Operating Expenses | $0.00 | $34,300.00 | ||
Software Licences | Essential software licenses that are vital components of the institution's commitment to provide both equitable and quality instruction/student services for all course modalities. Critical for maintaining strategic growth in the competitive DE market. 1. Unicheck: Plagiarism detection service for Canvas (renewal - $6,500) 2. Proctorio: Security and authentication service for Canvas ($18,000 - no longer funded by CVC-OEI) 3. CourseEval HQ: Provides SFF's via Canvas (renewal - $1,200) 4. Adjust-All HQ: Date management utility for Canvas (renewal - $3,500) 5. Camtasia/Snagit: Video creation tools (renewal - $3,500) 6. ProHelp: Integrated Canvas support for students and faculty (new - $1,600) **OPTION** Proctorio (#2 above) can be renewed for a multi-year discount for a %10 and %14 cost savings (2020-21: $15,000, 2021-22: $13,500, 2022-23: $12,900). Includes 24/7 support, unlimited usage for 1,000 DE students. |
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2 | TMI / Distance Education | Personnel | $0.00 | $20,000.00 | ||
Increase reasign time for DE Coordinator from 25% to 50% | The responsibilities of the DE Coordinator as listed in the contract require over 20 hours per week. This includes course reviews; meeting with faculty and chairs; development of trainings; attending and presenting at statewide webinars and conferences; implementing plans for improving Distance Education at Butte, and attending meetings with TMI, the DEC, the ATC, the Tech Council, CVC-OEI, DECO, and others. Additionally this role is tasked with ensuring compliance with state and federal codes which require both careful scrutiny of our courses as well as attending trainings to ensure I have the necessary information. And, the district needs to develop a local Peer Online Course Review Process. This additional task will require a large input of time and energy. |
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3 | TMI, DE | Operating Expenses | $100,000.00 | $20,000.00 | ||
Online Course Alignment to meet CCC system standards | California Community college must establish a Local Peer Online Course Review (POCR) process in order to continue receive CVC-OEI Consortium benefits at reduced charge. Without this state-wide support, the cost to the district will be $125,000. Funding will be used to develop the process as well as to implement training and compensation for reviewers and instructors. The cost estimate is based on a pilot of 30 course approvals. This will help us meet our goal for aligning 20% of our online courses (another requirement of the support). In addition to meeting the requirements for Consortium membership, the POCR process is an exceptional professional development opportunity for faculty. And state-wide data shows that classes that have gone through the POCR process have increased success and retention. Individual departments that are interested in being part of our pilot local POCR process have put this augmentation in their individual unit plans as well. |
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4 | TMI, DE | Equipment | $1,600.00 | $0.00 | ||
New computer for DE Coordinator | The DE Coordinator's computer is slow and unable to run the programs needed for effective job performance. The computer is running Windows 7 which is no longer supported. The DE coordinator has purchased an external hard-drive to shore up the computer's abilities but this workaround is become unsustainable. |
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5 | TMI | Operating Expenses | $10,000.00 | $0.00 | ||
LMS Related ProDev | TMI staff have an annual need to stay aware of the dynamic nature of Canvas. The LMS is a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform and as such is in a continual state of change (updated monthly). Attending specific pro dev events are instrumental in staff determining all aspects of the LMS' configuration, such as: SIS data flows, reporting data, integrations LTI, best practices in use of core LMS tools, and innovation in online teaching. Funding request includes two Instructional Technology Specialists, the Dean over TMI, the Distance Education Coordinator, and two faculty attendees. |
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6 | DE | Personnel | $0.00 | $0.00 | ||
Full-TIme Chico Center/Print and e-Resources Librarian | Online classes require focused support for digital and information literacy. The DE librarian would collaborate with faculty on embedded support for our online classes, as well as assistance in creating discipline-specific assignments that develop information literacy skills in students. This librarian position would also help build common understanding of Information Literacy Outcomes across our DE program. Additionally, this librarian could also help faculty find resources (including OER) for their online classes. |
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