Transcript Neill-Roman_LEAGUE_2008_1Mar_FINAL - Archive

Creating a College-Wide
Computer Literacy Program
Sandra Neill and Miguel Roman
George Brown College
Toronto, Canada
Outline
 About George Brown
 About Us
 About CSA
 CSA@GBC
 Digital Literacy for Productivity
 Our Curriculum
 CSA in the Community
 The Big Picture
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
George Brown College
 Downtown Toronto,
Canada
 Two campuses +
satellite at Ryerson
University
 14,000 fulltime
students
 50,000 continuingeducation students
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
About us
Sandra Neill, Professor
Miguel Roman, Technologist
Learning Innovations and Academic Development (LIAD)
• Computer Skills and Applications program (CSA)
• LMS
• Web conferencing
• Education technology research, evaluation, pilot
• Teacher training in education technology
• Online course development
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
About CSA
 1995: Province of Ontario mandate for
generic skills widened to include basic
computer literacy
 GBC’s Computer Skills and Applications
program created that same year to fulfill
mandate
 2007: New focus: “Digital Literacy for
Productivity”
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
About CSA
7000+ students/year
Self-directed & online, but primarily oncampus
Suite of basic~intermediate computer skills
courses covering a range of Microsoft Office
applications
Three dedicated labs, one at each campus
Training & assessment software is “SAM”
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
CSA: Our Team
Sandra Neill: “Front-end processes”
 Curriculum design: Select tasks and learning
pathways; set testing and training parameters;
 Assemble courses & sections;
 Student issues; accessibility requirements;
staffing; day-to-day lab and program issues;
 Program and process review and renewal.
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
CSA: Our Team
Miguel Roman: “Backend processes”
 Database management & automation of batch
processes:
Student info from SIS → CSA course database
 Query to derive results; Periodic updates;
Batch grade load from CSA database → SIS
 Program and process review and renewal.
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
CSA: Our Team
Other team members
 Technician: server/labs/hardware/image;
 Two coordinators: course administration &
frontline student issues;
 Eight computer skills teaching assistants to
tutor students, invigilate tests, and keep the
labs running.
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
About CSA
 Almost every incoming student in an apprentice,
diploma, or degree program takes a Computer Skills
and Applications course
 7000+ each year
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
CSA@GBC
 Flagship course contains five basic modules:
Windows, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet
Explorer
 Students can take a for-credit Challenge Test
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
Digital Literacy
for Productivity
Today’s students:
 Not intimidated by technology: proficient with
social networking but not in the use of standard
business applications
 Little change in challenge testing results over last
5 years
CSA program provides digital literacy for
productivity
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
Unique Curriculum
 Three-step test-training-test path
• Students begin with an assessment;
• Following assessment, receive personalized training on the
tasks they could not complete;
• Training is followed by an exam on the same tasks.
 Remediating path eliminates need for redundant
training/testing
• Students must learn and test successfully on 80% of the
tasks they were unable to do in the assessment.
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
CSA@GBC
 Assessment & exam done in CSA lab
 Training can be done anywhere software is
installed
• Software available on loan from library
 Custom training remains available throughout
course
 Three attempts at each exam
 Only one deadline: last day of term
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
CSA@GBC
Did you finish this course early?
450
400
350
Yes, in 7 weeks or less
300
Yes, in 12 weeks or less
250
No, I finished in week 15
200
150
100
50
0
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
CSA@GBC
Continuing-education and Access programs
are a little different
• Two-step path: full complement of training on all
tasks first, followed by a test
• Seems to work better with adult learners and
computing novices
• Miguel teaches our continuing education courses
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
CSA@GBC
We partner with GBC Staff Development office
Staff Development uses our course database
to train faculty and staff on MS Office
applications
HR can use our software to test job applicants
when job requires proficiency in MS
applications
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
CSA in the community
 Community partner groups take our flagship course at
no charge
 On completion, participants receive a college credit
• Goodwill’s “Real Employment to Achieve Community Health”
Program
• Fred Victor Centre’s “Employment and Skills Training” Program
• Jewish Vocational Services “Bringing Employment Specialists to
Tomorrow” Program
• Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto’s “Survivorship Transition-toEmployment Program”
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
The Big Picture
SCT
Banner
CSA
Database
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
SAM
Student Registrations
• SCT SIS Database
SCT
Banner
SAM gets its student data from the SCT
Banner database.
Population is started through an initial
SQL extract for each section in SAM and
kept synchronized through daily SQL
extracts from the SCT SIS database.
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
Data Translation
• CSA Database
CSA
Database
We maintain our own database which
mirrors the SAM database but contains
additional information not necessary for
SAM.
This allows us to translate the business
rules of our institution to suit SAM and
vice versa.
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
Database Updates
Managing the Database
SAM database snapshots are sent periodically by
vendor; we load these into our CSA database.
SAM
The SAM data is combined with our SIS student
data in the CSA database.
This allows us to do periodic data integrity checks between
databases and produce custom reports during an
active term.
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
Grade Process
SCT
Banner
Final grade calculation is
performed in the CSA database,
then formatted for upload to the
SCT SIS database.
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
CSA
Database
Archive
Final reports are produced and all
data is archived for future reference
in the event of discrepancies or
grade challenges.
Database is purged and readied
for the new term.
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College
Questions
Thanks for coming!
Contact us at:
[email protected]
[email protected]
S. Neill & M. Roman
George Brown College