If At First You Don’t Succeed – Field Day 04.23.15

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Gearing up for a field day
Kite? Check. Helium? Check. It takes quite a bit of gear to execute a proper field day. Professor Jason Pittman arranged a KAP/BAP field day, and we headed up to the wetlands on the north end of campus to meet students around noon. Following a brief safety talk and protocol orientation, one team set out to launch the balloon, while the other team assembled and attempted to launch the kite.

Filling balloon Number 1
Half-full, balloon #1 revealed some pinhole leaks, so we tried to move the gas to a second balloon, which didn’t work at all, and we popped the first one in the process. Fortunately, we were able to get one of the spares filled and in the air.

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The kite team struggled with inconsistent wind. After many heroic attempts, they eventually scrapped the launch and joined the balloon team to walk the wetlands.

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We flew for ~40 minutes, with the camera (iPhone on the picavet, running Timelapse at 10 second intervals), and captured some really good shots.  (Link:  The full set images from 04.24.15 BAP field day.)

BAP!
At 2 o’clock, we headed back to the cars to stow the gear and head out. A few students hung around and had a chance to fly our newest quad.

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All things considered, a successful field day.

Regular Effective Contact Widget

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To create a widget that describes how you maintain Regular Effective Contact in your online and hybrid courses…

Step 1:
Log in to D2L, select a course, then select Edit Course.

Step 1 - Edit Course

Step 2:
Widgets -> Create Widget -> Name it something like “Regular Effective Contact”

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Step 3:
Select the Content tab, and paste something like the text below into the Contents box, then Save and Close:

Per Title 5, Section 2204 and LRCCD Board Policy 7145, this course includes regular effective contact/regular substantive interaction.  In this course, the following tools/methods are used to implement such contact:

-Course Announcements (e.g., videos, weekly summary, weekly review)
-Personalized Feedback
-Discussion Boards (e.g., question and answer forums, VoiceThread)
-Videoconferencing (e.g., Skype, CCC Confer)
-Intelligent Agents
-Collaborative Projects (e.g., group blogs, group discussions, wikis)
-Instructor
-Created Modules
-Lectures (e.g., recorded, streaming, slides with audio narration)
-Podcasts
-Webinars
-Screencasts
-Virtual Office Hours
-Email
-Private Messaging
-Chat
-Other (List)

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Title 5, Section 2204
Any portion of a course conducted through distance education includes regular effective contact between instructor and students, through group or individual meetings, orientation and review sessions, supplemental seminar or study sessions, field trips, library workshops, telephone contact, correspondence, voice mail, e-mail, or other activities.

LRCCD P-7145.3.5
Any portion of a course conducted through distance education shall include regular substantive and effective faculty initiated contact with students. The determination of regular substantive and effective contact is an academic and professional matter. (34 C.F.R. § 602.3; Title 5, § 55204, subd. (a))

Step 4:
Add the widget to your Homepage.

Greg Beyrer (CRC) has created a helpful video detailing the steps to editing your course homepage and adding widgets.

DE Academy – D2L Self-Help

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D2L self-help materials, including video tutorials, are now available to all faculty as part of a new D2L Self-Help course account in D2L.  You should see “FLC DE Academy – D2L Self-Help” in the Training and Development grouping once you change your role to “Student.”  If you don’t see this course account, contact Zack and he’ll get you set up.

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