February 26, 2024 - District Senate Meeting

Welcome and Introductions

Kathryn Maurer, FHDA (District) Academic Senate President, welcomed the Foothill and the De Anza Senates to the special joint meeting. Introductions around the room and those attending online.

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Public Comments

Mary Donahue: Voter turnout is really low for this election, especially among students. She reminded everyone to encourage students to vote.

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Establishing a District Academic Senate position on Regular & Substantive Interaction (RSI) and other Online Education Requirements

Context setting (AP 4105) and goals for the meeting

Kathryn Maurer explained that AP4105 has been approved by both Senates. Both colleges have been discussing and working on implementation plans in their respective senates and online education teams. The colleges are meeting jointly to discuss and propose a district wide position that will identify items for FA negotiation.

AP4105 is a legally required policy that addresses compliance with federal regulations for Distance Education and Correspondence Education.According to the policy: All distance education is subject to the requirements of Title 5 and to the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The policy states that online classes be reviewed and certified to meet the required RSI (Regular and Substantive Interaction) and Accessibility standards.

AP4105 has been a challenge as well as opportunity for both colleges to understand and define the requirements. They have been working with their respective online teams to develop training, certification, and evaluation for compliance and implementation.

Voltaire Villanueva and Erik Woodbury, Senate Presidents for Foothill and DeAnza, expressed their appreciation for all the discussion so far on the subject. They asked for tolerance for ambiguity as well as flexibility in working together to review and discuss the proposed models to be presented by both colleges.

Models for faculty training & preparation in RSI & Accessibility

Allison Lenkeit Meezan (Foothill)  and James Capurso (De Anza) presented the following powerpoint RSI Crosswalk-FHDA Discussion

On RSI

…an instructor is responsible for promptly and proactively engaging in substantive interaction with the student 

The district shall provide training and ensure that faculty teaching distance education courses shall be adequately prepared.

…instructors assigned to teach a distance education course section should be prepared to teach online in accordance with college procedures for obtaining agreed upon training. Prior to assigning a distance education course, the division dean shall verify the faculty have received current and sufficient training.

On Accessibility

Each section of a course in which the instructional time is conducted in part or in whole through distance education will comply with all applicable accessibility requirements outlined in state and federal regulations

Four Documentation Items Required by AP 4105

1. Course complies with accessibility requirements set out in state and federal regulations
2. Sufficient training for the faculty member
3. How RSI will take place
4. Ensuring that RSI is taking place

Allison and James presented the respective Foothill and De Anza proposals for training and documentation. The Foothill proposal focused on RSI and Accessibility. The De Anza proposal included Course Design and Assessment Training. See slides for details on the proposals and plans.

The goal of the discussion was to come to some agreements on how to meet the AP4015 requirements.

Foothill and De Anza have identified different training outcomes.

Format

There were discussions, agreement, and a motion on the training format.

Mary Donahue motioned that the training should be available to faculty in the district in both modalities, synchronous and asynchronous. Seconded by Erik Woodbury. No objections. Motion approved by both Senates. 

Provide sufficient training

The district shall provide training and ensure that faculty teaching

distance education courses shall be adequately prepared.

Foothill and De Anza have different training, documentation, and certification plans. See slides.

There was much discussion and clarification on what is required at both colleges for the first time and continuing online faculty. 

What was the requirement before? 

What are the new requirements?

What does someone need to do to teach online for the first time? 

What does online faculty need to do to continue teaching online? 

What is the timeline for fulfilling the requirements?

What is the minimum requirement?

What ongoing training is required?

Kate Jordahl in chat: Rather than asking what is the least we can do perhaps we should ask what faculty need to succeed.

Carolyn Holcroft in chat: We have minimum qualifications to teach in a discipline. Our standards there are pretty high. I'm thinking about this discussion as determining the minimum qualifications to teach online (at FHDA) and I hope our standards will be high for those, too. It sort of seems like our min quals for a discipline is a master's or PhD but we may be considering min quals to teach online akin to a short survey-level course. 

There were agreements and reactions to both statements in the room and online.

However, there is a need to define minimum, since anything over the minimum would require compensation.

Kathryn Maurer: The desired outcome for this meeting was to reach some commonality between the two colleges. The district is at risk of losing funding if it is out of compliance with AP4105. Therefore, the colleges and the district must implement plans to ensure accessibility and RSI.

Foothill has developed a model for Online Certification, one being developed at De Anza. At De Anza the Canvas Certification is separate from Online Certification.

What is sufficient training?

There's a difference between teaching people the concepts and then actually supporting them as they apply those concepts.Have in place a way to check the accessibility of an entire course. Provide support to faculty who are trying to make it accessible. It could be something that goes on over an entire quarter as they teach to provide the support that faculty need to create the ideal course.

Discussion on Certification and Ongoing Certification

Ongoing training and further development in online education

What do faculty need to know?

Cheryl Balm motioned “In order for faculty to teach online at the district one must be trained in accessibility, interaction, course design, and assessment”

Mary Pape seconded. No objections. Motion approved by both Senates.

Thanks to Allison and James for presenting and leading the discussion.

Related Documents:

AP 4105

RSI Crosswalk-FHDA Discussion

Foothill Amendment to RSI Documentation Model

De Anza Online Training Certification Proposa

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Next Steps

It was recommended that the Senate meet again to continue the discussion.

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Adjournment

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Attendance

De Anza

In person

Erik Woodbury, Patty Guitron, So Kam Lee

Cheryl Balm, Sam Bliss*, Catie Cadge-Moore, Mary Donahue, Cecilia Hui, Elsa Jimenez-Samayoa, Shagun Kaur,  Lisa Mesh, Anna Nguyen, Liliana Rivera, Mary Pape, Christian Rodriguez, Jayanti Roy, Lakshmikanta "LK" Sengupta, Ravjeet Singh, Li Wei Sun, James Tallent, Felisa Vilaubi, Catherina Wong,*Lydia Wong

Online

Kevin Glapion, Lauren Gordon, Lydia Hearn*, Mark Landefeld, Sherwin Mendoza

Absent

Mirsaeid Abolghasemi, *Deborah Armstrong, Sheldon Fields, Vernon Gallegos, Rusty Johnson, Glynn Wallis

Foothill

In person

Voltaire Villanueva, Ben Kaupp, Robert Cormia

Michael Chang, Tracee Cunningham, Brian Evans, Stacy Gleixner, Robert Hartwell, Julie Jenkins, Allison Lenkeit Meezan, Mona Rawal, Eric Reed, Leticia Serna, 

Online

Rocio Giraldez Betron, Stephanie Chan, Sara Cooper, Carolyn Holcroft, Julie Jenkins, Kate Jordahl, Patrick Morriss, Rita O'Loughlin, Katy Ripp, Kerri Ryer, Destiny Rivera, Stephan Schnell, Adiel Velasquez 

Absent

Joshua Agupugo, Ajani Byrd, Rachelle Campbell, Roxanne Cnudde, Ana Maravilla, Frank Niccoli