Draft Cheminformatics OLCC Lecturer MOU Outline
The purpose of this outline for the OLCC Memorandum of Understanding is to clarify the roles and obligations of lecturers. Once this is done, we can develop MOUs and contracts. Each year the course will have 12-14 modules and there are around $60,000 that can be spent over 2 years, or around $2,000/module – although I expect some to get more than others. The stipend forum discusses the logic and a framework for this, although the exact dollar amounts may not be accurate.
There are two phases where lecturers need to participate.
Phase 1: Collaborative Curriculum Development – Lecturers work with class facilitators to create course material. There is a “Faculty Workshop” component to this, and the greater part of the budget is dedicated to this aspect of the program. Although this may not seem intuitive, it is the facilitator who is ultimately responsible for student learning and the quality of their education. The lecturer is essentially a guest to their class, who brings expertise and domain knowledge to the class. Our objective is to provide our students with the best possible learning experience, and this is done through collaborative teaching involving lecturers and facilitators. Phase 1 is collaborative curriculum development.
The following functions have been created on the site to enable web 2.0 collaborative curriculum development.
1. Subscribe Comment – embeds comment in emails that also have link back to comment, allowing threaded discussions. This is how Confchems are run, and allow lecturers and facilitators to discuss work.
2. Follow Updates – triggers email indicating who and when a page was updated. Does not hae content of update, but a link back to the page. Allows facilitators to be alerted when lecturers update material
3. View Followers – shows who is subscribed to comments or following updates. This allows discussions where you know who is listening.
4. Email followers – sends an email to anyone/everyone who follows a page. This is a private email (not attached to the page like a comment is) and has a utility for attaching files. You also have the option to send a copy to yourself if you want a copy in your inbox, as this will not appear in your sent mail (it is being sent by the OLCC site, not your email, even though you can give it your return address).
Phase 2: Intercollegiate Curriculum Dissemination – Interact with students through the CCCE website during the scheduled time the module is taught. We use the ConfChem model, where emails are triggered when comments are posted to papers, and a link threads responses below the comments. See following link if you are unfamiliar with Confchem.
See http://confchem.ccce.divched.org/2014FallCCCENLP10
Note: The lecturer does not present live synchronized webinar style lectures to multiple schools or grade any student work. Facilitators meet 3 hours/week with students and grade all work. This is a hybrid flipped classroom/blended learning program.
Module Outline
1. Module Learning Goals – These need to be collaboratively developed with facilitators and may be customized across different classes. They need to be interfaced with the syllabus and will often be correlated to the learning goals of other modules. A lecturer is only responsible for their module, but the student’s experience requires some consistency across modules. This is critical for later modules, which may require competencies from prior ones. So a modules learning goals need to fit into the overall course framework.
2. Short Entrance Survey – This is mostly to learn about our students. Should probably have both attitudinal and competency based elements. Needs to be developed with the OLCC Assessor, as we need the entrance surveys of the different modules to complement each other as they are sequentially given. Part of this is targets the entire course, and part the specific module.
3. Core Module – This is sort of like an eBook chapter, and is hosted on the OLCC website. It should have small TLOs, like embedded videos of 2-8 minutes, and other objects that can be repurposed to other sites and courses. Different classes can use different versions of the history, and concurrently discuss the material. Material can be forked to other pages, with their own discussions. Links to other modules are also encouraged, especially for later modules that may require mastery of prior modules.
Lecturers should post material here in the curriculum development phase, discuss it with facilitators and generate new TLOs as either new pages or embedded into this page. When the class is offered the modules material will be ported to new pages that students will use. Each school will have their own version of the history that their students navigate.
- Like a textbook, this should have problem sets with solutions.
- Each module can have multiple pages.
- Different schools may navigate different pages of the module.
4. Class assessment material – this will not be posted to the general public, and require faculty login permissions to access. These need to be collaboratively developed. Project based learning activities are especially encouraged. Material that can be adapted to other courses are also encouraged.
5. Exit Survey – very small as students will be doing the entrance survey of the next module at the same time. This does not count towards grade, although all students will be required to take it. Should have an open ended question to probe how the module could be improved. This may end up being a standard form across all modules, although individual lecturers should have the option of adding material specific to their modules learning goals.
Lecturer Does:
- Create and post content on CCCE web site
- Agree to be available to discuss material during scheduled time with students over email/comment feature
- Interact with Facilitators in the Spring/Summer 2015 to make small customized TLO’s (Teaching and Learning Objects) like videos and the like, which can be used in a Flipped/blended learning manner.
- Assist organizer/assessor in coming up with course wide survey material (which is not graded)
- Assist facilitators in generating class level assessment material (which is graded)
- Allow open access to all educational material developed, allow any instructor to post material on their own site, and use in any course they wish, even if they did not participate in the Cheminformatics OLCC
Lecturer Does Not:
- Grade student work
- Give online “live” webinar style lecturers
Remember, our objective is to improve undergraduate chemistry education by identifying material that is missing in the traditional curriculum that would be of value to our graduating chemistry majors, and then figuring how to integrate that into the curriculum. Being able to repurpose TLOS to other courses is vital to this goal, as then schools that do not offer this course can benefit from our work. To do this, we need to bring together Cheminformaticians, Chemistry Librarians and Chemical Educators. Everything created in this course is for educational purposes, and must be available for adaption by other schools, free of charge. Even if they do not participate in the OLCC.