The Director's Corner

What's New

• The "Issues" Issue
• Summer 2007 Updates
  • Quiz Update
  • Glossary
  • Content
  • Resources and Task Lists
  • Paticipant Expectations/ Schedule
  • Course Navigation Lesson 1

Issues

• Seven Week Rule
  • Criteria
  • Notification
  • Denying Access Too Soon
• Communication Inside WebCT
• Invoice Submissions
• Quizzes and the Post Course Survey
• Facilitator Email Account
• Course Resources
• Literacy Logs
  • Review and Force Grading
  • Comments Column
• Course Closing
  • Report Format
  • FOR-PD's Procedure
• Changes in Lessons

Facilitation Fundamentals

• Monthly Resource
• Professional Development Certificates
• Facilitator Roles and Expectations
  • Early Spring Sections

Housekeeping

• Help Desk Questions
• Tech Help - Giving and Denying Access
• Facilitator Training Course Dates
• Spring Course Schedules and Important Dates
• Summer Schedule
• Contact Us

Up Close

• FOR-PD Staff Member - Catherine Glass
• FOR-PD Facilitator - Laura Frey

Events

• Guest Speaker -
  Dr. Atsusi Hirumi Rescheduled
• Call for Summer Facilitators Ends
• Chat Schedule

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What's New

The "Issues" Issue

This past semester there were changes in policies, procedures, and content. A natural consequence of change is a period of adjustment, where issues arise that need clarification. 

Sometimes, change is not the catalyst. Sometimes an issue has just not been addressed for a long period of time, and a refresher is required.

That is why this issue of the FFF is an “Issues" Issue. Included in this issue are “issues” we would like to address. that have occurred this past semester.

Because we are an ever-evolving project it is important that all stakeholders understand the changes and issues that come up throughout the year. Please keep a copy of this newsletter so that you can use it as a reference.

“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.” Alfred North Whitehead

Summer 2007 Updates

We listened to facilitators and participants, we collected data, we thought, and we planned. Look at what FOR-PD has done to help you and participants succeed.

Quiz Update

• Complete quiz update for quizzes 1-14. Please review quiz questions in advance in order to prepare for any participant questions. Remember to contact our Reading Specialist, Lourdes Smith, if you have questions about the quizzes.
• Also, feedback for each quiz has been modified so that on multiple choice questions, participants are given a specific area of text to investigate in reference to the question. 
• Course Evaluation has been moved to lesson 13. Participants are required to complete the evaluation and the post-course survey, before they gain access to the lesson 14 quiz.

Glossary

• The glossary, which was updated this past fall, is now linked throughout the course to immediately provide participants the ability to find the meaning of literacy specific words that may be unfamiliar.
• Linked glossary terms will be in a light blue, linked format. When clicked, a small pop-up box will provide participants with the definition and term.

Content Update

Updates in the content, lessons 6, 7, 9, 11, 14

• Lesson 6—Addition of high interest/low level texts and how to evaluate hi/lo text.
• Lesson 7—Addition of academic vocabulary and tiered words to content.
  • Lesson 7 assignment – Updated to clarify subject field requirement.
• Lesson 9—Addition of Writing Next findings and restructuring of text. (Please take a look at the new material and the restructuring of the lesson.)
• Lesson 11—Addition of Double the Work findings.
• Lesson 14—Update on structure of lesson with some additions on teacher knowledge and leadership.
• Download Lesson page has been arranged from 01-14.

Update on Resources/Task Lists

• Resources for each lesson have been updated in both the lesson and on the “list of online resources” page.
• Task lists have been removed from the end of the lesson, but are still located on the introduction page of each lesson. Resource link is now located at bottom of Differentiated Instruction page in each lesson.
• Resource list link has been added to light blue, course menu.

Participant Expectations/Schedule

• Both reflect that the course evaluation has been moved to lesson 13. Participants are required to complete the evaluation and the post-course survey before they can gain access to lesson 14 quiz.
• Updated for summer 2007.

Course Navigation in Lesson 1

• We moved the directions on how to navigate the course to the beginning of the lesson to better prepare our participants for maneuvering through the content.

Issues

Seven-Week Rule

New this semester was the policy change regarding participants who fall seven lessons behind in the course.  This change requires facilitators to automatically deny access to a participant who has fallen behind by seven lessons. Previously, facilitators were not required to grade assignments if a participant was that far behind, but they were allowed to do so if they wished.

We made this policy change because clearly the participants have missed the point of the interaction in the course and have missed a great deal of the communication within the discussion board. Plus it puts a hardship on our facilitators who are already working very hard.

However, we had several issues arise this semester and feel the need to clarify the rule and the steps required.

Criteria

The following criteria apply to the seven-week rule:

• The participant has not posted seven weeks worth of discussion postings. Why just discussion postings? Several reasons. Facilitators do not grade, but review quizzes; Literacy Logs, while reviewed weekly, are issued only one grade; The discussion board is where much of the interaction and learning within the course takes place.
• Lessons do not have to be sequential. For example, if after the due date for the assignment of Week 11 a participant has not posted discussions for Weeks 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, and 11, then they are seven weeks behind.

 

Notification

If at any time throughout the semester a participant lags seven discussion postings behind, you must notify those participants that they will be denied access to the course. Hopefully, you have been communicating with your participants regularly and reminding them of the Participant's Expectations Document. Facilitators should email the participant by course mail and outside email if the participant is in jeopardy of being denied access. It is not enough to simply deny them access.

This is the wording in the Participant’s Expectations document: If any participant falls behind by seven or more lessons, the facilitator will notify the participant and the FOR-PD office. The participant will be denied access to the course and given the option to enroll in FOR-PD in a future semester.

There were cases this semester, when the participants “pushed back” because the facilitator did not notify the participant before denying access. The participants felt that if they were held to a standard, then the facilitators should be also.

The steps required to apply the rule when a participant falls seven weeks behind in their discussion postings are as follows:

• Communicate regularly with participants about their status in the course.
• If they reach the seven-week cut off, notify the participant.
• Request that they take it another semester.
• Notify the FOR-PD office.
• Deny the participant access.

Denying Access Too Soon

Often facilitators have participants who lag behind and are unresponsive to attempted communication.  Sometimes there are those who post work that does not meet the rubric and they do not go back to correct the posting.

We do understand how this can be frustrating. In these situations it may be tempting to deny access to the participant, prior to them reaching the seven-week cut off in order to “prod them along.”

Please understand, this is not acceptable practice. The only time you may deny access to a participant prior to the seven-week cut off is if they have requested to be dropped from the course.

Communication Inside WebCT

Several times this semester, an issue with a participant arose and we were unable to determine what actually transpired between the facilitator and the participant. Because the communication was not documented inside Web CT, in some cases the facilitator was unable to show evidence of communication.

Please remember the importance of documenting communication with participants, inside the course, particularly if it is regarding assignments that are late or incomplete.

If we can see what has transpired, often we can respond to a participant immediately and not ask the facilitator for a history of communication.  It may take an extra minute or two to send an email in two locations, but in the long run it may save you time, particularly if there is a dispute with a participant regarding notification of their being denied access.

Invoice Submissions

It seems that every semester we have issues with invoices arriving in a timely manner. These dates change each semester due to budgetary requirements. When we set a date, it is imperative that you have your invoice in not later than that date.  We cannot guarantee timely payment if the due date is not met. Please watch the FFF, discussion board, and your email for the invoice due date each semester.

Quizzes and the Post Course Survey

This semester we had some question if the Post Course Survey also had to have a score of 80%, like the quizzes. The answer is no. There is no requirement regarding the score on this survey. The only requirement is that it be taken before Quiz 14 is released to the participant. 

The Post Course Survey contains the same questions as the Pre Course Survey, and the score received does not affect a participant’s completion. This is just one of the ways FOR-PD collects data to indicate a change in knowledge regarding the content on the part of the participants.

Facilitator Email Account

As a reminder, keep in mind that there is a difference between the FOR-PD Project email account and the FORPD Facilitator email account.

FOR-PD Project email account: forpd@mail.ucf.edu
The project account receives not only email sent to that account from outside email addresses, but also any email that is sent to FOR-PD from inside all of the currently open courses. While facilitators are welcome to use this account, keep in mind that it may take longer to get routed to the correct party because it is mixed with emails from participants as well.

FOR-PD Facilitator email account: forpdfac@mail.ucf.edu 
If it is a facilitator issue, you will likely receive a quick response, if you send mail directly to the Facilitator email account.  This is not always true, but normally. Of course you are always welcome to contact the party you need directly. See the “Contact Us” section of the newsletter.

Resources

This semester we had several participant inquiries regarding how to access the resources contained within the course after the course closes. There are two ways this can be done.

First, they can use the Resource database linked to the FOR-PD website. http://forpd.ucf.edu/resources/
We update this database regularly with the resources included in the course.

Secondly, they can bookmark the resource page included in each lesson. On the bottom of the Introduction page of each lesson is a link to a page that is located outside of WebCT, which contains a list of resources for that lesson. For example, this is the page for Lesson: http://www.forpd.ucf.edu/content/resources/lesson1_resources.html

FOR-PD has done this so that if a link is unavailable at sometime during the course we could update it easily. When a course is in session, the information inside WebCT cannot be updated or corrected.

Literacy Logs

This semester there were two main issues regarding the Literacy Log. The first was lack of proper documentation that the literacy log had been reviewed. The second was the need for numerous log entries to be Force Graded. Below is some important information regarding each of those issues.

Review and Force Grading

Sometimes when a participant submits a Literacy Log entry it will not "grade" correctly. This means that in the grade book, you will see only – instead of a 0 for a grade. You will not be aware that a log has been submitted unless you view the Submissions. Once on the Submissions screen you can see if any logs have been submitted or if they have not been graded correctly by WebCT.  You can tell this because it says "Not Graded" beside the submission.

When you review a log, enter feedback, and click 'Update Grade" it will grade the logs. Or you can Force Grade several logs at once. If you do not know how to Force Grade, please watch the facilitator tutorial on the subject.

At the end of the semester, all logs should have been reviewed and grades updated. If you have logs that did not grade correctly in WebCT, make sure you force grade them prior to sending your course closing.

Why is this important?  When we review the grade book to confirm the status listed on your reports, we look to see if all Literacy Logs have been submitted properly into WebCT. This also helps us check the accuracy of the Literacy Log grade you provide. It is the facilitator's responsibility to make sure all grades are entered correctly and all Literacy Logs show as submitted.

 

Comments

For the spring 2007 semester, FOR-PD added columns in the grade book where facilitators were asked to enter specific wording that would indicate the status of each Literacy Log entry. 

The information entered in these columns is visible to the participants when they click "My Grades."

These changes were made for two reasons:

1. Facilitators regularly had to explain to concerned participants why their grade was 0 on the Lit Log entries.
2. Facilitators regularly expressed concern that they could not easily tell online which logs they had already reviewed without opening the log to see their feedback.

While closing courses, it has come to our attention that many facilitators either did not use these columns, or they entered something other than the language FOR-PD has requested.

Use of this column is a requirement, as is the specific language we requested in order to insure consistency among the sections. If some other language is used and we have a question from a participant questioning their Lit Log grades, we may not know what a facilitator's code means. For example, in some cases we have seen an R in the column. Does that mean Review or Revise?

Here is the language that FOR-PD requested. Please use this in the future.

• Lit Log Reviewed - this means the log has been reviewed, feedback has been inserted and is acceptable.
• Revise - this means that some portion(s) of the log needs to be revised.
• Incomplete - this means the log has sections that were not complete.

Remember that facilitators still need to provide specific feedback to the participant, particularly in the case of logs that need revision or are incomplete. The best place to do this is within the Literacy Log entry itself.

Course Closing

When courses close, we request that facilitators send us a report in a specific format to a particular location. While the report format normally does not change, we may ask for additional information.

We may also have a new address where we need the report to be sent. Currently we ask that the report be sent to this address:

forpdfac@mail.ucf.edu

Remember to read the FFF and the Announcements section of the discussion board when you are creating your report to make sure you are up to date.

Report Format

While we appreciate your talents in creating a variety of reports, we would appreciate more consistency as we work to close numerous sections in a timely manner. Please follow the format requested and copy and paste the information into the body of an email. Also include your section number in the Subject line of the E-mail, so if there is a question, it will be easy to locate.

 This is the format requested for spring 2007:

FOR-PD's Procedure

What happens when the course closing report is received? First, receipt of the closing report is documented in the same file with receipt of the invoice, so we can be sure we have all information needed to close courses and pay facilitators. Next, the person that is actually closing the courses begins that process. Grades are verified and completion information is entered into the database for participants in preparation for sending certificates. Once all courses are closed, certificates are sent. 

FOR-PD understands that it can be confusing when we make changes. Know that when we make changes, we are attempting to increase our efficiency and enable better support for you and our participants. As most of you know, we are a relatively small team running a large project.  We ask for all course closing reports to be sent only to the facilitator email account: forpdfac@mail.ucf.edu. This will help the documentation process. Thanks for your help.

 

Changes in Lessons

As an ever-evolving project, we review content of the lessons, quizzes, and assignments each semester. Sometimes changes are large, sometimes more subtle. Always changes are based on a need that comes from either new information in the field or feedback from facilitators and participants.

It is critical for facilitators to do two things:

1. Keep up with the information on course changes offered in the discussions, chats, and the FFF.
2. Review the lessons and assignments carefully at the start of a new semester.

During the spring semester review of our courses, we saw instances where facilitators have not kept up with the changes in content. Here are some of many possible examples:

• Lesson 7: The Lit Log entry and the discussion posting are not the same.  For the Literacy Log, the 10 most important words are words that the participant feels are important to the lesson content, Strengthening Vocabulary Development.  In the discussion assignment, the words will be different. Participants are asked to share how they would use this strategy in relation to a topic in their own classroom, share the words, and provide a rationale for their importance.
• Lesson 9: In the discussion posting, the participant is not required to use all elements of the SCAMPER strategy. The directions say, "You may choose to include any, some, or all of the SCAMPER elements to support the change in your instruction."

With the changes mentioned in "What's New" coming for summer as well, it is imperative that facilitators keep current with the course.

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Facilitation Fundamentals

Monthly Resource

 

This month the resource is Dr. Atsusi (2c) Hirumi's article, Get a life: Six tactics for reducing time spent online. The article discusses the following tactics that help to optimize the time a facilitator spends online:

1. Align and Publish Objectives and Assessments
2. Align Instructional Events to Support Objectives and Assessments
3. Analyze and Balance Interactions
4. Create Feedback Templates
5. Establish Telecommunication Protocols
6. Generate Prototypes to Formatively Evaluate Materials

In reading this article, you will see that some of these tactics are beyond the facilitators' control, but they are in the hands of FOR-PD when designing the course. Examples are the alignment and publishing of objectives and assessments; however, not all sections are speaking to the design. Facilitators will find the sections that discuss grouping and feedback particularly interesting.

For example, Dr. Hirumi reminds us of the four primary components that should be included in all effective feedback:

1. Assessment criteria,
2. confirmatory feedback,
3. corrective feedback, and
4. personalized messages.

You may download this resource from the Announcements section of the For Facilitators Only discussion board. When reading, ask yourself the following questions:

• How does FOR-PD specifically address some of these tactics?
• How could they do better?
• As a FOR-PD facilitator, how do I attempt to optimize my time spent online?
• Does my feedback include the primary components?

After reading, please post your thoughts in the FFF Discussion section of the For Facilitators Only discussion board.

References:

Hirumi, A. (2003). Get a life: Six tactics for reducing time spent online. Computers in Schools, 20(3), 73-101.
Hirumi, A. (2003). Get a life: Six tactics for reducing time spent online. In M. Corry & C. H. Tu (eds.). Distance Education: What Works Well. New York, NY: The Haworth Press, Inc.

Professional Development Certificates

Certificates of completion have been sent to those who successfully completed the four-week course.

If you chose to respond on the discussion board to the resources in the FFF, your responses are being reviewed and certificates will go out shortly.

Facilitator Roles and Expectations

Later Spring Sections:

For those whose sections began on March 12, 2007, this is the tenth week of the course.  These are the roles and expectations for the next few weeks:

Tenth Week of Class

At this point, your course will generally be running smoothly. If you utilized those community-building techniques, participants should be responding to you and to each other. Discussions should be going very well. You need to transition your role to participant evaluator. In addition to your normal weekly responsibilities, you will need to do the following:

• Review each participant's work up to week 9. Make sure your grades are up-to-date. You will probably have had some participants post work past the lesson due dates. Make sure you have graded that work. One easy way to accomplish this task is to send each participant a progress report. Go to the gradebook and copy down the grades. Send a private email to each participant with a copy of the grades. Ask them to review and make sure everything is on target with what they have done. If some participants have postings graded below a 16, let them know they will have to redo that assignment to get an 80% or better in order to complete the course.
• Encourage the class! Let them know how close they are to the finish line! The course only has another few weeks, and they will be finished with Competency 2, receive 60 inservice points, and be on their way to earning the reading endorsement!
• Monitor where the class is in terms of the course schedule. Begin to look ahead. Remind participants of the course schedule and help any who are lagging behind work out a schedule for catching up.

Last Few Weeks of Class

The facilitator role is similar to the previous weeks in that the motivational role is critical now. Participant evaluation is still very important and there are several tasks associated with these roles that should be completed during this time.

• Continue monitoring discussions and probe postings as necessary.
• Respond to questions in a timely manner.
• Grade weekly.
• Praise the participants!
• Encourage the participants!
• Send a progress report to participants. During the last few weeks of the course, send a progress report letting each participant know where s/he stands in terms of finishing the course. Are there any discussions that need to be re-posted? Are all quiz grades appropriate? This is just a friendly reminder of the course expectations and where each participant stands in terms of these expectations.
• During the last week of class, remind participants to review their grades and post any missing assignments. Let them know they will no longer have access to the class after the last day, so they must turn in all assignments prior to the end of class.
• Remind participants to copy their grades. Remind participants to copy any discussions they may want to refer to later as they will be denied access to the course immediately after the course closing date.