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What is eCollege?

eCollege is a Course Management System (CMS), which is used by Hartnell College faculty to host their online classes and materials.  eCollege allows you to communicate with your students, keep track of their grades, post lecture notes and assignments, and promote discussions between students about the course material.  Effectively using eCollege can enhance your course and your students’ learning experience.

 

Getting Started with Online Instruction

New for Summer 2012 and ongoing! All Hartnell College courses (fully online or supplemental to lecture) are currently available in eCollege.(No more course requesting!)

In order to get access to your class, just send a quick email to ecollege@hartnell.edu requesting which section you would like to be added into! That's it! Once you are enrolled just use the "Copy Course Content" under the Course Admin tab to copy over content from previous eCollege courses.

 

The Curriculum Process

All courses must be approved by the curriculum committee to be taught online. There can be no changes to the number of times classes meet in person until the curriculum committee has approved an online version and/or hybrid version of the course. For existing courses, a course revision needs to be filed and approved. For completely new courses, it is a good idea to have both a face-to-face version and on online version approved at the same time.

General

A quality distance education program is driven by solid course content and objectives, trained faculty, and institutional support for all involved constituents (students, staff, and faculty).

While faculty responsibilities are governed by academic and negotiated policies and procedures, faculty can attempt to ensure that all distance education classes they facilitate contribute to a quality learning experience for students by following the best practices suggested in this section and by consulting the Distance Education Faculty Handbook.

Training to Obtain Skill Set to Conduct an Effective Online Class.

Because delivering an online class may require skills outside of a faculty's subject matter, faculty wishing to deliver courses online should have satisfied one or more of the following:

• Completed formal coursework in the teaching and delivery of distance education
• Taken courses online
• Successfully delivered courses in the online environment
  Learning Environment

  The content and objectives of the online course should be equal to the content and objectives of the same course taught in the on-site environment; it is the method of delivery and evaluation that will differ.

  The course outline must identify how the instructor will ensure that equivalent instruction will take place in both environments.

  Availability and Response Time to Students

  Because of the inherent nature of isolation that the online environment produces, online instructors need to inform students of their response time, which should not exceed 48 hours. Faculty should consider a synchronous office hour during which they can be reached.