Embedding Success

Primary Presenter: April Menzies

Organization: Front Range Community College

Role: Online Chair

Track: General Presentation

Topic: Educators Connecting/Collaborating Locally & Globally

Level: For Mere Mortals

Abstract: Front Range Community College is piloting a learning community concept to embed student success instruction in targeted courses. The pilot – to begin in Fall 2013 – pairs a 1-credit student success course with HIS 101 – Western Civilization: Antiquity to 1650 – Guaranteed Transfer, a 3-credit course. This presentation will focus on the logistics of creating the curriculum, designing the course, preparing for co-teaching, and pulling it all together in the online environment.

Bio: Dr. April Menzies’ interests have included a life-long passion for teaching and learning. Although originally trained as an anthropologist, a conversation with Jane Goodall helped clarify how her interests in primate language, personality, and intelligence, and how teacher/student communication and interacting contribute to learning converge in classrooms. She finds discovering what “works” in a classroom - what characteristics, habits, or practices engage students better than others - to be utterly fascinating. Dr. Menzies has ten years’ experience teaching face-to-face, hybrid, and online courses and presently serves as chair for all online courses in the Business, Computer & Social Science department at FRCC.

Description: Effectively addressing the student success gap in online courses is a priority of the Online Learning Department at Front Range Community College which dovetails with the mission of a college-wide task force assigned to examine the prospect of implementing a college-wide student success course. The presenter, an experienced curriculum developer for student success initiatives and online chair with experience teaching online, will share her journey working with fellow faculty to coordinate, develop curriculum, and design the course. The presentation will focus on the theoretical considerations and practical steps for creating an online learning community. Topics include determining scope and sequence of student success components, assessment – from individual assignments to broader impact of pilot, and details such as how to share a “virtual” classroom and gradebook.