DE at GCC – Reboot!
By Alexa Schumacher and Julie Gamberg
Distance Education (DE) at GCC has come a long way in the last couple of years. But building on the work of Fabiola Torres, the tides are turning and great things are happening in DE at GCC! We are clear that access to online education is an equity issue, and for GCC to engage in best practices in equity, we must engage in best practices in online education. There is a lot for many of us to learn in this relatively new field, and we look forward to helping shepherd the flow ideas, information, practice, and review that we can engage in as a campus.
So, are you interested in
teaching in DE at GCC or want to
continue to teach in DE at GCC?
The new DE Team – Julie and Alexa – can help you!
To be eligible to teach fully online/hybrid courses at GCC, instructors must be both DE Certified and DE Instruction Eligible. DE Certification means that the instructor is not only competent in using the institution’s chosen learning management system (LMS), but also understands online pedagogy and effective course design.
DE Instruction Eligibility is maintained through Recertification – the completion of six (6) Glendale Annual DE Recertification (GADER) hours for full-timers, and three (3) GADER hours for adjunct faculty. Eligibility lapses if the annual DE Recertification training requirement is not completed by a firm deadline of May 15 each year.
Owl, alligators, recertification, flex…why so many names and which do I need? Great question! First the mascot. We used to use an adorable owl to indicate all things DE (Distance Education). Now we have only one mascot, and the mascot is only for continuing education, or recertification. That mascot is an adorable alligator, and its acronym is GADER, Glendale Annual Distance Education Recertification.
Next, the name. Flex is the professional development that we do in exchange for the week we get paid, yet have no classes. DE Recertification is the specific professional development we do to stay current in the rapidly changing field of online and hybrid teaching, and to maintain our certification to teach online and hybrid courses at GCC. To help make that distinction, we will use GADER to refer to that annual DE recertification. Although you can always use GADER hours toward your Flex requirement, you cannot use all Flex hours toward GADER – they must be GADER approved activities.
Okay, I get it, it’s called GADER! And I need to do GADER every year after I’m initially DE certified. But how much do I need? Once we are certified to teach online/hybrid, we need to maintain that certification through advanced professional development training. The minimum requirement of GADER hours is six hours annually for full-time faculty and three hours annually for adjunct faculty.
Community of Practice, Canvas workshop, @One, OEI, oh my…what counts as GADER? Everything that counts as GADER will be posted on the GADER page! If you have other ideas for GADER, or believe you have done other professional-level DE training this year, feel free to email defacdev@glendale.edu.
GCC DE Community of Practice Finally, the GCC DE Community of Practice is a way of deepening the learning that we do together in DE pedagogy and practice, and in deepening the connection between GCC faculty who teach online, as well as connecting us to practitioners around the state. It allows us an opportunity to delve deeply into the OEI rubric and a variety of best practices, such as humanizing online education, online equity, and course design, and to improve our teaching and our courses through mutual support.
I want to do the DE Community of Practice thing! How does it work? It begins as a Canvas course with six modules. Each module has two fully online asynchronous hours, and one face-to-face hour, which includes lunch. You are welcome to do the asynchronous hours only, but for the face-to-face, you must do the online work first. Each module is worth three hours of GADER. If you are not in that course, and you would like to be, email defacdev@glendale.edu to be added.
I prefer one-hour, face-to-face workshops. Are there any? Yes! GADER
I want to really ramp up my professional development in DE. Do you have any suggestions? We do! We highly recommend the @ONE Courses.
I don’t teach DE, but what I really want is help with Canvas. What are my options? We have two wonderful options: First, there is a FREE Self-Paced "Introduction to Teaching with Canvas" course that you download and complete on your own time – this of course cannot earn you GADER or Flex – but it can expand your knowledge and help you in the classroom! Second, we have a wonderful, full-time Technology Specialist, Connie Lantz (clantz@glendale.edu), that offers one-on-one Canvas face-to-face Canvas workshops, which can be used for Flex!
What a whirlwind, and we are just beginning!
Also, don’t forget that we have a fantastic one-stop-shop DE Student Website!
Do you have everything you need, but just want to make sure you know all of GCC’s DE Course Requirements?
We are here to help you in all your DE needs…email us!
Alexa Schumacher – DE Coordinator (de@glendale.edu)
Julie Gamberg – DE Faculty Development Coordinator (defacdev@glendale.edu)
