Faculty Web Usage Guide

The purpose of this guide is to help COCC faculty members determine how they should use COCC's various web resources to most affectively communicate with students and the rest of COCC's community.

Faculty Web Resources 

Faculty (Community) Web Pages

A web community is automatically within 24 hours of a new COCC faculty member having their email account created and being registered as an instructor for a course. The web page address will follow the format http://%3cemailname%3e.cocc.edu/ and email will be sent to the faculty member automatically once created.

Suggestions about the use of these web pages can be found in the next section and instructions for administering the web pages is available online at http://programs.cocc.edu/Web+Design/Comm.

This web is visible to anyone on the internet and therefore is expected to be used for information that does not need to be limited to your current students or COCC employees.

NOTE: This is the same web technology that is being used for most COCC departments. Using this system greatly simplifies maintaining a consistent look and feel across the COCC web.

Blackboard

At the end of 2003 COCC purchased the Blackboard Course Management System. Blackboard is a web based product and is designed completely for managing course related content and communicating with students.

Includes support for sharing course details, posting assignments, online testing, communicating with students, discussion groups, and limiting access to only the currently enrolled students.

FrontPage Web

COCC's FrontPage web provides web services for situations where the Community based faculty web and Blackboard are unable to meet your needs. Although in most cases use of FrontPage is not expected there are still cases where it is the logical choice.

The main example where FrontPage is recommended to be used is when a web form is required for gathering information online.

Campus Directory

All faculty and staff are included in COCC's online Campus Directory. As a result everyone has a standard page on the web with the sole purpose of helping users to find important contact information when needed. (example) If a problem is found with your Campus Directory web page you can request a correction by using the "Request a correction" link shown at the bottom of the web directory.

Student and Staff Online Services (Banner Web)

All faculty have access to this online web system so that they can view their schedule, roster, enter grades and see payroll information. To log in to this system use the link on the My Login web page. More information can be found online at http://programs.cocc.edu/Management+Systems/Banner.

WebGrade / Micrograde

An electronic gradebook which is most likely useful for faculty choosing not to use Blackboard. More information is available online at http://programs.cocc.edu/Management+Systems/Electronic+Gradebook/MicroGrade. 

Usage Recommendations

Faculty (Community) Web Pages

• Basic contact information or at least a reference to the faculty member's Campus Directory web page. (example)
• Current term office hours and location.
• Current term schedule (public information only) to help keep students and other faculty appropriately informed of your schedule in case you need to be reached. To assist with posting your schedule, special week view templates are provided.
• Pointer to your department's web page.
• A list of courses currently being taught and links to where any additional information can be found on the web. Whenever possible this should include links to the course if in Blackboard, but it may also include additional references as discussed next.
• In cases where Blackboard does not meet web requirements additional community web pages can be created and organized however the faculty member feels is appropriate.
• When a printed form is needed a PDF file should be created and uploaded to the Community web where a reference can be included to direct the appropriate users.

Blackboard

• Courses are created upon request. (more information)
• Course information (sylabus, etc), course documents, online tests, and more are added by the instructor. (more information)

FrontPage / Expression Web

• Web based forms for gathering information should be created in FrontPage. (example)
• Other content can be created, but preferrably FrontPage would only be used when the need can not be met in one of the previous web systems.
• Whenever possible pages should be created so that they use the current COCC web page look and feel. Instructions are available here.

Creating and Editing your Web Pages 

• Community web administration help
• Blackboard help and information
• FrontPage / Expression Web administration tips
• How to create accessible web pages

COCC Staff: Questions

You can post questions to COCC's public folder at \My Business\Web Administration.