The purpose of this index is to provide operational definitions of vocabulary, terms, and phrases that are used throughout the Colorado Online @ project, including but not limited to recommendations, reports, and emails. This index is live and will be updated periodically to reflect new language as it’s being used throughout the project.

A

Academic affairs subcommittee (see also Project Team)

  • One of five Colorado Online @ Project Team subcommittees. Focus on students’ academic experience. Charged with making recommendations related to course scheduling, curriculum & instruction, online programs, and online non-credit offerings.

B

C

Centralized/central/centrally

  • With the introduction of the Colorado Online@ consortial model, instructional design support (keeping the curriculum in the hands of the faculty), online library resources, academic technology, professional development, consortial marketing, and other online academic and student services will operate under a central office, to provide equitable access regardless of home college.

Consortium (also Consortial Model)

  • An agreement among the 13 CCCS colleges, formed to undertake responsibility for the instruction for all fully online courses across the system (adapted from Merriam-Webster)
  • Colorado Online will use a consortial model to coordinate a seamless and consistent experience for online students. This approach is designed to provide greater access and opportunity to students, and to avoid duplication and to ensure efficiency for CCCS institutions. For more details, see the Colorado Online @ Consortial Model Overview (November 2020).

College Scheduler (See Scheduler, College)

College-Assigned sections (formerly College-Specific pooled sections)

  • A type of Teaching section.  College-assigned sections are distributed to each college when its historical enrollment in that course was greater than 14 students but fewer than 25 students at census in the same semester from a previous year.

Colorado Online@

Consortium Scheduler (See Scheduler, Consortium)

Consortium Scheduling Coordinator (See Scheduling Coordinator, Consortium)

Course shells

  • Spaces in the D2L Brightspace learning system that are used to facilitate online courses. Faculty and instructors begin with empty course shells and can either a) import course shells created and shared by other faculty and instructors or b) build a course with their own materials, activities and assessments.

D

Design-Build Team (see also Strategy-Decision Team)

  • Small team charged with supporting the CCCS Vice Chancellor of Academic & Student Affairs with decisions, development of policies and guidelines during the planning stages of the Colorado Online @ project. Members include central and college staff in areas of strategy, finance and technology.

E

F

G

H

Healthy Course Checklist

  • The Healthy Course Checklist (HCC) establishes expectations for online courses delivered through Colorado Online @. The HCC takes a high-level approach to identifying key criteria as well as highlighting examples of strategies that address each criterion. This checklist can be used to identify growth opportunities as instructors develop their courses, referring to Quality Matters (QM+) standards as needed.

Home College

  • The college which has an established relationship with a student—e.g., student has applied and has been accepted.  The home college is where a student registers for Colorado Online courses and provides student support such as advising. 

Home college sections

  • Colorado Online sections that are assigned to individual colleges, assuming that they can be filled completely by students from that same college based on historical enrollment at census (25 students=1 section).  These sections are built in Banner by the College Scheduler.

I

J

K

L

Learning Design Academy (see also Learning Design Process, Healthy Course Checklist)

  • A collaborative, centrally-supported course design experience for discipline representatives to apply the Learning Design Process and Health Course Checklist criteria to curate course materials and to develop course proposal deliverables. Typically, the Learning Design Academy takes 6 weeks to complete.

Learning Design Process (see also Learning Design Academy)

  • The Learning Design Process includes 6 phases: the Learning Design Academy, course planning, design and development, discipline review, Ready-to-Teach course copy, and evaluation and review. For more details, refer to the following link: CO@ Learning Design Process (LDP).pdf

Learning design subcommittee

  • One of five Colorado Online @ Project Team subcommittees. Focus on students’ learning experience. Charged with making recommendations related to online teaching and learning frameworks and elements, training for faculty and adjunct instructors, selecting or adopting course materials, and other learning design issues.

LMS Student Support Model

  • The LMS student support model is a three-tier support model:
    • Tier 1 (the 24×7 Support Desk) acts as the first line of support for students, by providing rudimentary support such as resetting passwords, clearing the browser cache and entry level usage of D2L (e.g., uploading as assignment). To provide consistent student support experience across online and other modalities, colleges should provide students with the 24×7 Support Desk contact information as an entry point to receive help.
    • Tier 2 (Academic Technology) addresses issues that Tier 1 cannot resolve by providing support for system-wide teaching and learning technologies (e.g., D2L, Yuja, etc.). Tier 2 will provide triage of tickets to direct support needed to the appropriate staff with the fewest redirects possible as well as provide support during non-business hours. Extended support will be available during the week, from 5pm – 9pm, and on the weekends, 9am – 5pm. Online learning is intended to provide flexibility to many LMS users who work during evenings and weekends. Students want support during outside business hours.
    • Tier 3 (each college’s local eLearning support staff) handles support issues that Tier 1 and Tier 2 cannot resolve, by supporting college-specific technology tools (e.g., in classroom technology).

LMS Support Model for Faculty & Instructors

  • The technology subcommittee recommended that for faculty and instructor LMS support, 1) the college’s eLearning department may choose to be the first line of support for instructors and faculty. In this scenario, CCCOnline’s Academic Technology support team would be the second line of support for situations where there is an overload with support requests, missing key support staff due to unavailability, annual leave or vacancy; 2) colleges may decide to use CCCOnline’s Academic Technology support team for first line of support and the college for second line of support. In this situation, the college will still use their local support e-mail and phone number that will route the faculty or instructor to CCCOnline. For this situation where CCCOnline can’t handle the support request, it will be routed to the local eLearning staff; 3) CCCOnline’s Academic Technology support team will provide assistance during evenings, from 5pm – 9pm, and weekends, from 9am – 5pm, for all colleges; 4) CCCOnline’s Academic Technology support team will provide support for system-wide applications and services. College-specific technologies will be escalated to the college; 5) CCCOnline’s Academic Technology support team is an extension of the college’s support and may be utilized as much as needed; 6) the colleges will have access to their faculty and instructor support history in a ticketing system. Additionally, ticketing system can send notification to local eLearning staff about support activity.

Learning resources subcommittee

  • One of five Colorado Online @ Project Team subcommittees. Focus on faculty members and students’ experiences with learning materials and resources. Charged with making recommendations related to library services, open educational resources (OER), third-party vendor learning resources, and other issues related to courses materials.

M

N

O

Online Discipline Coordinator (ODC)

  • The Online Discipline Coordinator (ODC) is a discipline faculty member shepherding one or more courses through the full learning design process. This individual invites and guides discipline members through the Colorado Online @ Learning Design Academy (Phase 1) to curate course prospects or other content that will meet the Colorado Online @ quality standards. The ODC continues work in Phases 2, 3, and 4 with the Colorado Online @ Learning Design Team and Subject Matter Experts as the project team designs and develops fully accessible, aligned Ready to Teach course shells that meet Colorado Online @ quality standards.

Online Faculty and Instructor Advisory Committee (OFIAC)

  • Advisory body designed to represent and provide a voice for online faculty and instructors from across the Colorado Community College System as we work to implement the new Colorado Online @ Consortial Model.  Advisory committee members will communicate accurate updates to peers, SFAC, and supervisors at their local colleges; voice questions and concerns during committee meetings; and give advice to the Colorado Online @ Strategic Plan Project Team and its subcommittees by sharing their professional experience.

Online Success Liaison

  • Recommended by the student support services subcommittee, Online Success Liaisons are positions that serve as a resource for students, as well as faculty and staff who may need help navigating across colleges to better serve online students.

Online Success Liaison Coordinator

  • Recommended by the student support services subcommittee, this role would help train Colorado Online @ Success Liaisons, coordinate regular Colorado Online @ Success Liaison meetings, share best practices, and serve as the receiver of the required data provided from Colorado Online @ Success Liaisons.

Open Education Resource (OER)

  • “Teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse, without charge” (oercommons.org). Depending on permissions associated with an OER, users may be able to edit or remix the resource before using or sharing with others.

P

Project Team (see also Academic Affairs Subcommittee, Learning Design Subcommittee, Learning Resources Subcommittee, Student Support Services Subcommittee, and Technology Subcommittee)

  • A group of diverse CCCS stakeholders tasked with guiding the implementation of the Colorado Online Strategic Plan. Representing all colleges and a number of functional groups, this group reviews business processes and makes recommendations related to the project. The Project Team also has five subcommittees focused on core: Academic Affairs, Learning Design, Learning Resources, Student Support Services, and Technology.

Pooled section (see also Teaching section)

  • Where students register for a Colorado Online @ course, by choice or when their colleges do not offer Home College sections of that course. Pooled sections are built in each college’s Banner environment by a Consortial Scheduler.  Enrollments in these pooled sections are combined across all 13 colleges. Students are then placed into specific Teaching CO@ sections in D2L before classes begin. Pooled sections will have section numbers that start with the letter Z (e.g., Z11, Z21, Z41 or Z51). 

Q

Quality Matters (see also Healthy Course Checklist)

  • An organization dedicated to improving course design through professional development, a set of rubrics, and a course peer review process. A Quality Matters rubric informed the creation of the CCCS Healthy Course Checklist.

R

Ready-to-Teach

  • Description of D2L course shells that are or were developed during a Learning Design Academy. Ready-to-Teach course shells are optional for use by faculty or instructors assigned to teach Colorado Online course sections.

S

Scheduler, College

  • Staff member at a college who performs enrollment related activities (e.g., create or edit Home College section and Teaching section records in Banner) and prepares a variety of documents and reports (e.g., class schedule).

Scheduler, Consortium

  • Central staff member who performs enrollment related activities (e.g., create or edit Pooled section records in Banner for all colleges) and prepares a variety of system-wide documents and reports (e.g., class schedule).

Scheduling Coordinator, Consortium

  • Central staff member who performs system-wide strategic enrollment management activities (e.g., create section distribution that assigns Colorado Online sections to colleges), manages the Consortium Scheduler, and prepares a variety of system-wide documents and reports.

Steering Committee

  • Committee of executive stakeholders charged with helping CCCS leadership make high level decisions related to Colorado Online (e.g., large budget implications, major system-wide policy changes). Comprised of the Chancellor, 4 Vice Chancellors and 6 college presidents.

Strategy-Decision Team (see also Design-Build Team)

  • Small team charged with supporting the CCCS Vice Chancellor of Academic & Student Affairs with decisions, development of policies and guidelines during the implementation stages of the Colorado Online @ project. Members include central and college staff in areas of strategy, finance and technology.

Student support services subcommittee

  • One of five Colorado Online @ Project Team subcommittees. Focus on students’ experience with academic and non-academic support. Charged with making recommendations related to registration experience, financial aid process, grading and transcripts, advising, tutoring services, accessibility services, and other student support services issues.

Syllabus Management Tool

  • Software designed for faculty, staff and administrators to build and manage class syllabi across the Colorado Online @ Consortium. Features foster consistency and support compliance.

Subject matter expert (SME)

  • Academy members are discipline-specific faculty peers invited together from different colleges to curate materials and complete a course proposal for a Ready to Teach (RtT) course. They meet with each other and the team of learning designers, determine the course goal, curate instructional materials, and create a stellar course proposal that represents the overall flow of the course, which will be designed in subsequent phases. Simultaneously, the Academy topics inform participants about design thinking, quality course design, and the Colorado Online @ quality standards.

T

Technology subcommittee

  • One of five Colorado Online @ Project Team subcommittees. Focus on technologies used to support all aspects of Colorado Online. Charged with making recommendations related to online course registration technologies, online teaching and learning technologies, technology support services and other technology-related issues.

Teaching College

  • The college in charge of instruction for a section of a Colorado Online course, where enrollment comes from Pooled sections.

Teaching Section (see also Pooled section)

  • Students who register for Colorado Online @ Pooled sections are moved to Teaching Sections before each term begins. A matching section is automatically created in D2L, where students will complete the coursework. Teaching sections are built in Banner by a College Scheduler at the college responsible for assigning the instructor. Teaching sections will have section numbers that start with the letter X (e.g., X00, X01, X02,…X40, X41, X42). 

U

V

W

Wild Card section (see also Wild Card section distribution)

  • A type of Colorado Online @ Teaching section. Wild Card sections provide additional capacity for aggregating enrollment when no single college had a historical enrollment of more than 14 students at census after distribution of home college and college-assigned pooled sections. 

Wild card section distribution (see also Wild Card section)

  • To streamline the wild card selection process, colleges with historic enrollment of 13 or 14 students are pre-selected for a wild card section.  The remaining wild card sections are distributed in round robin order based on priorities submitted in advance by each college.  Rural college sections are distributed first, then metro schools (>50 online FTE).  Sections are distributed starting with lowest overall online enrollment in the term.

X

Y

Z

ZTC (zero textbook cost)

  • Designation signifying that students will incur no costs for purchasing course materials. During the registration process, students can search for classes using “ZTC” as a filter.