MELA Meeting Minutes 2003 - 2017

IV.

Unfinished Business a. Proposal for New Position at State Board office will be completed in February.

V.

New Business a. (AI) Grading Window. Holly discussed how instructors are still changing grades in the Enrollment Tool after the semester is over. Instructors are not doing what they are asked. So she wants to know if the grading link can become available based on the availability of whether it is a short-term or full-term course. Christian will ask Ive if this is a possibility. b. Start/End Date for Online Courses. Colleges couldn’t agree on a date and so the State Board had to set dates. They try to start on Monday and end a week early from the traditional courses. So that way virtual doesn’t go beyond the traditional classes. It was easier to start later and end earlier. There is not a lot of room without stepping on someone’s toes. c. MSVCC Calendar: Hinds made a motion for this group to create the start/end dates then send it to the Deans Association for approval or send back to us for changes. Audra would like it if the ELC group makes a proposal of the calendar to send to the Deans Association that way we are making the decisions about when we start and end online courses. A calendar committee will be created amongst the ELC group. Audra made the motion to form a calendar sub- committee that will create the calendar for the MSVCC and propose it to the Deans Association. Krista seconded the motion. Motion carried. i. Volunteers to be on the committee: Hinds, NEMCC, Holmes, State Board, and Meridian. Keri Cole from Hinds will be the chair of the committee. Christian would also like to have at least 1 or 2 people from the student support services committee to be part of this committee. d. Building of Summer Courses in ET: When will summer courses be rolled over? Christian will roll the summer courses on Feb. 14 th . Make sure that before you open your courses for registration; clean your Course Catalog. If a course is not being used, you need to archive. MCCB Business a. Smarthinking Usage. $300,000 has already been spent on Smarthinking. 95% usage is the Writing Center. Students (individually) submit up to 10 papers throughout the semester. 30% of those using Smarthinking are traditional students. Christian has sent a proposal to the Presidents asking that we limit the number of papers being submitted by students. He recommends that students are allowed to submit two papers without being charged. If students submit additional papers they will be prompted to pay out of pocket for their submission. This is only when they use the Writing Center. The cost per paper is $30. The Presidents have approved this proposal. There are two options that Christian provided: i. Cut off the services completely ii. Limit the students’ usage The ELC group would like to cut the services for traditional students. But Christian said that by eliminating the traditional students still would not be enough to cut back on the cost of the service. Christian would like for the ELCs to send an email to both online and traditional instructors informing them of this change. b. (AI) Proctored Exams-There has been an increase in the number of non-district students coming to a district proctoring center site. The issue that continues to grow is that the students in the district are being turned away because of the increasing number of non-district students. There

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