Online Education Committee

Voting members present: Arien Muzacz, Dave Paoletti, Danielle Safonte, Kayleen Salchenberg
Voting members absent: Nicole von Germeten, Lisa Madsen
Ex-officio members present: Center for Teaching & Learning – Cub Kahn; Ecampus – Elisabeth McBrien

Introductions

Review Of Committee’s Charge in University Shared Governance

• Standing Rules
• Canvas site - historical projects & recommendations (e.g., peer review of online/hybrid teaching guidelines)

Last Year’s Initiatives

• Student access (financial) – focus group of grad and post-baccalaureate students; findings included students’ requests for transparency re: “hidden” program costs and ways to create community among peers (e.g., Discord), frustration with university replacement of Slack with Teams.
• Faculty equity – recommendation to Faculty Senate for Open Educational Resources (OER) curation and co-authorship to be considered in promotion of instructor – and clinical-line faculty.
• Dave asked about anything unfinished; Arien explained Ecampus Faculty Forum panel on QM certification/review was not possible due to timeline of request.

Ecampus’ Initiatives - Let’s Collaborate, Not Duplicate!

• Planned data collection among post-baccalaureate and graduate students.
• Communication with Disability Access Services
• AI guidance – lots of resources!

Goals for this Academic Year

• What can we do as a committee to benefit students?
  • Affordability, accessibility – inclusion of diverse learners in domains beyond disability, e.g., culture, language.
  • Arien summarized the Affordability Matters badging process; members reported not being aware of this designation. We confirmed that courses can be sorted by cost of materials and that free and low-cost materials are specified in the online course catalog.
• Faculty?
  • OERs, course buyouts, information about QM
  • Faculty outside of the tenure track do not have any guarantees of time/compensation for scholarly activities even if OER grant is secured.
  • Members present decided committee goals align with the action steps: affordability, accessibility, and AI.

Shared Information

• Danielle reported that the new QM Standards for 2024 emphasize accessibility even more than in the previous version.
• Elisabeth reported that the Inclusive Excellence Committee at Ecampus is working on various accessibility initiatives.

Action Steps

• Arien will reach out to Marleigh Perez and Stefanie Buck to find out how Affordability Matters is already publicized to students and find out how this committee can help.
• Elisabeth will reach out to Karen Watte about the goals of the Inclusive Excellence Committee and what gaps may exist that we can fill this year.
• Cub Kahn will ask Karen Watte about how this committee can collaborate on AI visibility and guidelines.