CCT online courses in China

Notes from CCDE-China meeting, 12 Feb 2009

- it was explained how the UMB-China project is not simply within UMass but part of a national effort to engage the Ministry of Ed. in China with the U.S. higher ed system

- a key part of the project is involvement with Chinese consulting group Great One, which has strong connection to Chinese education and U.S. schools – UMB is working with a particular consultant named Juliana who is strongly connected to many important people in China education and seems to be the conduit for key decisions/directions

- it was emphasized that the school thinks about the project as a pilot for a longer-term program, so the UMB admin is more concerned right now about starting small, creating a very high-quality experience, and learning quickly, rather than needing to make money right now or have an abundance of students and courses – there are currently 4 programs teaching 2 classes each in the summer, maybe a 5th program to be added eventually as Donna works toward it (Instr. Tech.)

- another note is that UMB and Harvard are in partnership with the project and so they will use each other’s status as a “research university” to enhance the perceived quality of the project to China ed. leaders; there are no conflicts between the nature of each one’s involvement, since Harvard is (and has been for a few years) focuses only on non-degree teacher in-service education programs

- the current thinking is that we are hoping for approx. 25 people per class in the first classes (i.e., summer term), and then eventually be satisfied with 15-20; there will be some process for determining which Chinese students are actually interested in a Masters and find a way to qualify them through to the end; all participating students will get a non-credential certificate of completion even if not continuing for the Masters

- basic idea is that our instructors teach face2face courses in summer in China, then online classes happen at a distance over the year, and then China students complete the Masters with a face2face visit to the U.S. for final courses – this arrangement is needed to satisfy the China Min. of Ed.’s requirement that this be a “blended” program, since an all-online program would not be regarded with much prestige by them

- 2 different populations of students are generally identified as target students – secondary school teachers seeking advanced degrees (most immediate and accessible), and current professors at two-year colleges, who might already have advanced degrees, but are supplementing their experience and their CV with the credential of a western education (needs further exploration depending on whether or not there are enough of these types in the Shanghai area as the geographical focal point right now)

- along with the School Counseling program, the CCT program involvement is the other one that still is passing through the Grad. Studies committee approval – Kitty will be sending information to Peter to make sure the needed parts/documentation are clear, and the GCE Dean (Carol I think?) will help to follow up also.

- a marketing brochure has been created in Chinese with descriptions of programs and courses and needs further review; this consists of the same information from the course catalog, PLUS an additional paragraph for each of the 4 GCE (Graduate College of Education) programs explaining its relevance to the China students—when it was mentioned that this was written by CCDE staff, it was brought up that it needs to be cleared by the GPDs, so Peter should be seeing the text for this soon and get chance to review it

- classroom technology is being verified now in China classrooms – not formally confirmed that resources meet minimum requirements but basic use of Blackboard seems to have been ok in previous tests

- summer dates of Aug.3-21st 2009 have been confirmed

- there is a hotel affiliated with the school where instructors will stay – it will have a kitchen but instructors are advised to plan on eating out for simplicity, as buying food might be difficult; there will be a single designated caretaker-person who assist instructors on everything from checking in to the hotel to getting around and acclimated – specific person to be determined; instructors will be advised to arrive a few days early to get used to their surroundings, but it is still being verified how early they can arrive

- during the summer face2face courses, instructors are requested to have built some online course materials in Blackboard already as a way to introduce summer students to the online system before they actually have to really use it in the fall – should be considered a “web-enhanced” course rather than purely face2face classroom – Gene Schwalb will work with everyone to set this up

- some of the participants requested some kind of training on Chinese culture to help become more sensitive to expectations and etiquette related to working with the students – there is a plan to try to make this happen - stay tuned for upcoming details; also, some kind of live-voice conference call might be set up eventually to let the instructors talk to/hear from the China students ahead of the face2face visit