Author: Megan Tucker

Director of Learning Technologies

Reflections on Online Learning at CCV

It was around 1995 that CCV’s President’s Council found itself glumly acknowledging that we could not deliver all of our academic programs to students at all twelve of our academic centers (then called “site offices”). Access has been the cornerstone of CCV’s mission since our founding in 1970 and the primary reason why we chose to bring the college to communities around the state, rather than requiring students to travel to a central campus. But the reality was that several of our academic centers lacked student populations large enough to support course offerings in all programs. It appeared that we would have to warn students of the need to limit their aspirations to certain degree studies or plan on driving long distances to a larger center.

Fortunately, at about the same time, CCV’s Emerging Technologies Committee (ETC) was exploring a new approach to course delivery. Emboldened by the success of the 1992 Virtual Campus project, which brought the transformative communication medium of email to our far-flung college, the ETC decided that it was time to test the waters in the new field of distance education. Honestly, we had little expertise in academic technology, but at the urging of then-Dean of Administration Tim Donovan, the ETC decided to venture a single online course for the spring 1996 semester.

At the time, there were few models to emulate. Blackboard and Moodle didn’t exist as what are now known as learning management systems, and only a handful of colleges and universities had begun to deliver course materials and instruction online. We ended up cobbling together an online course using electronic bulletin board software and a Web page hand built by a tech-savvy CCV office manager named Megan Tucker.

CCV’s first online course was Introduction to Political Science, taught by the late Bill MacLeay. Because we were launching an untried delivery system, we decided to offer the course free to twenty-five pioneering CCV students, supported in the course by CCV academic coordinator and ETC member Dianne Maccario. We were pleasantly surprised by the success of the course, which included a rather daring experiment with a guest “speaker,” Senator Patrick Leahy, who participated in an online chat session with students.

We took the summer of 1996 to evaluate our experiment and plan three new online courses for the fall semester. In addition to a second offering of MacLeay’s Introduction to Political Science, we added an online section of The Constitution, taught by Anne Buttimer, and a section of Science Fiction Literature, taught by CCV academic coordinator John Christensen. Both Anne and John have been teaching CCV online courses ever since—Anne in criminal justice and John in history. In partnership with Megan Tucker, John has been the guiding light of online learning, growing the program from those three initial offerings to what is now the largest provider of undergraduate online courses in the state of Vermont.

Coordinator of Instruction and Advisement

I just retired from CCV, one month shy of 30 years of working hard and joyfully for a college I love.  In 1983 CCV’s mission of access, affordability and quality inspired me to leave a cushy job at UVM and  make a real difference in the lives of  Vermonters choosing a non-traditional path in higher education

I was one of the first coordinator hired to establish a CCV site in Chittenden County.  In the spring of 1983 we had about 30 students, tuition was $88./ per course. By Fall 1983 our site in the Winooski Champlain Mill enrolled 250 students. One of my clearest memories is of the first week of classes that fall. I was working late, helping students find their way to their classroom and selling textbooks.  We were mobbed and I was very busy.  I quickly realized that our largest class, English Composition had more students that we had chairs for. I hunted for more chairs, knocked on the door of our neighbor VSAC looking for 5 or 6 chairs so students could sit down. No one answered my knock. I quickly jumped in my car and headed home, less than a mile away, at home rounded up every folding chair we had and headed back to CCV. Students were still standing in the back of the classroom, I set down the two chairs that I had carried up and asked a student to help me get the rest. Finally the entire class was seated and the class began. That was the beginning of a rapid rise in enrollment where CCV Winooski would become the largest Academic Center in the college. During those 30 years, we would move our site 5 times to accommodate the growth in students, staff, academic offerings and articulation arrangements with other colleges.

Another meaningful memory for me is working on an articulation agreement with the University of Vermont. In those early days CCV was not openly welcomed in Chittenden County. With five colleges in the area, many thought CCV was not needed.  Some colleges were concerned we would take their students. Others felt because our tuition was so low and our faculty was all part-time, that we just could not be a quality institution. But we knew we had a place in this arena and we were interested in partnering with those 4 year colleges. We wanted pathways so our students could receive Bachelor degrees. We began a long, two year process, to convince the University of Vermont it was in their interest and the interest of Vermonters, to develop an articulation agreement.  I remember one long meeting with some of the UVM faculty.  Barbara Murphy, our academic dean, and  Joan Smith , UVM’s academic dean,  a few members of UVM’s faculty expressed the concern that CCV students transferring into liberal arts majors at UVM would not be adequately prepared for upper level courses.  I collected syllabi and course descriptions for over 200 of our courses to persuade them our courses were indeed academically sound and rigorous. The UVM registrar and academic deans reviewed these materials and they conducted focus groups of CCV students who had successfully transferred. UVM researched the GPAs of the CCV transfers.  It was determined that our students were outperforming many of UVM’s traditional students!  That fall Judith Ramely, the president of UVM and Barbara Murphy, now CCV’s president, signed an articulation agreement that guaranteed admission to the College of Arts and Sciences and UVM opened their doors wide for CCV students who today transfer successfully and easily.
Finally, I want to speak about the coordinator’s role of overseeing faculty and developing and growing academic departments. When I started at CCV I supervised all the academic disciplines. But as the site grew and new staff were hired, I eventually only had one discipline, Art. I had the opportunity to hire and support   many talented and local artists who came into the CCV classroom and inspired our students. Many of those early faculty members from the 1980’s are still teaching at CCV today. During those years we built a ceramics studio starting with donated electric wheels and a kiln set up in a traditional CCV classroom. We developed relationships with Burlington City Arts, glass studios, the UVM Photography Coop, the Shelburne Craft School and UVM’s Fleming Museum.  Students’ work from many of these classes is now displayed in the halls of our new building in Winooski. One of my favorite pieces was completed by the Fall 2001 Stained Art class.  After the 9/11 attacks students in that class finished a group project , a large glass piece that depicts hands cradling the earth. It is breathtaking and represents to me what CCV was about:  community building, access.  Outreach, and the many talents of our students.  I feel privileged to have completed my career in education at CCV.

Site Office Manager, Montpelier

During the summer of 1991, I began my first class at CCV in Montpelier and it was a Microcomputer Applications course.    At that time CCV was located above what was known as the Lobster Pot restaurant (now known as Chef’s Table).  There were two students to a computer so we had to share and take our turns.  During the week, I would come into the center and do my homework and a kind man with a beard would appear and go into an office whose entrance was through the computer room.  He would sometimes come out and wander through the room and ask how things were going.  Since our text had some errors, I would ask him a question or two and he would give me some assistance.

The environment was always very friendly and folks seemed great.  When I found out that CCV gave out a student card for local discounts, I ventured into the front office and asked for a card.  Because I have such a difficult name, my card had to be typed more than once for corrections.  During my first semester, I noticed that an opening had come up in the front office and I decided to apply because I felt really comfortable in my new surroundings.  Somehow I got an interview even though over 80 applicants applied.  They remembered me from the class and from having my card done over.

I interviewed with each coordinator separately in their offices after meeting with the office manager and was then asked to take a typing test on a typewriter.  I was a little nervous about this because I had injured my right wrist a few days earlier.  Unknown to the CCV staff, I had gone to the hospital earlier and was told that I had to have a cast put on my right arm.  I took the typing test and then proceeded back to the hospital for my cast.  The next day I was offered a position as a Secretary Receptionist and began my position a week later.  I then came to find out three weeks after I began work that the nice man who helped me with my homework was really the Regional Director and new boss, Tim Donovan and not just some computer person.

The first week of work was spent reading manuals which I ended up taking home as we were also in registration mode.  After a few days, I remember speaking to the manager and saying I did not think I could do the job and remember everything I had read.  Joyce Prosser, the office manager, was really upset because she did not realize I had actually read everything.  Speaking of registration, it was interesting and unusual.

We did registration by hand, no computers.  We had lined cards where the course name, name and instructor were listed.  I entered the student name on the card in pencil if they registered but did not pay and switched to pen if payment received.  Registration forms were in triplicate on NCR paper and we kept a copy, one went to the student and another to the business office.  If the student did not pay or switched we erased or did white out on the card.  Textbooks were sold on a Saturday and we stocked shelves and mailed them back if the course was cancelled or extra books.

Classes were held in Montpelier High School, Spaulding, U32, Bethany Church, Kellogg Library, NECI, National Life or anywhere we could find space.  If the schools cancelled due to weather or other instances, we were locked out.  There were times nobody notified us for early closings and students arrived to a locked building.  There was no food or drink allowed in our rental spaces, and AV equipment was not always available.  I took one class at Bethany Church was our accounting instructor, Valerie Edwards, taught from the pulpit.  If students were taking three or four courses, they could be taking each class from a different location.

Course and student evaluations were in triplicate forms, NCR, paper and were done on the one computer and printer.  We would place the NCR paper in the printer and one of us would have to fold the paper as it came off the printer.  If it became off track or was a problem, we would have to start from the beginning.  Our computer program at that point was done on Word Star.  This was an all day procedure for printing, tearing each form, sorting and giving to faculty.  At that time, students did student evaluations on what they had learned and their comments in the course in pen.  Faculty did their piece in pen and turned into the advisor who read all of them.  After they were read, the office had to tear them into their piles, copy for mailing to student, student file, and business office.

Telephone lines were interesting.  We had what we called “tin lines” to call other centers.  It was a phone call with delayed speech and we were always interrupting each other.  The good part was that it was only four numbers to remember.  I believe this kept calling to a minimum on time spent speaking to one another.  This was a free service.

In the early 1990s, we used typewriters to sent out cards as reminders.  You programmed a message onto the typewriter and spent part of the day, hitting a key and it would type the message.  It was very monotonous but it worked and you did not have to constantly type.

We were also strong in those days as we carried new loads of computers off the back of a truck and hauled them up stairs.  No indoor service in those days.

Around 1993 or 1994, we moved to a new location which was on the Vermont College of Norwich University and had housed the schooling for military cadets.  It was new space with lots of classrooms.  The interesting part was our move to our new spot.   Eric Sakai had a chain saw and cut bookcases from the walls of our old space and we hauled to our new building.  This is when I began my role as an Office Manager.  We had a week to adjust to our new space and begin registration and get everything unpacked.  Money was really tight and we had one fan for the building and it was placed by our copier.  We had two TV’s which we carried up and down the stairs as there was not elevator and no funds to purchase anything else.  Our desks were ones were folks had to slip into and we had some with desks and chairs.

Former Director, CCV Library

With A Little Help From Our Friends

There is a fire burning not far from my home in Prescott, Arizona and the prospects for near-by homes are not very good.  Ironically, it is a reminder that once it was ice, not fire, that provided the challenges to life and limb in the fair state of Vermont.

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

With a nod to Robert Frost
“Fire And Ice”

When I joined the staff as a Coordinator of Instruction in Brattleboro in 1976,there was, indeed, an icy chill in the air when it came to Considering Community College of Vermont a legitimate college. For one, the College provided no library and research service to students and instructors.  Instructional sites were far from each other and during a typical Vermont winter, it was virtually impossible to share information resources in a timely manner. No internet, no e-mail, no databases, but most of all no cooperative agreements with college libraries in the state to provide all Vermont students  access to information sources on an equal basis.  The challenge:  get it together, get people to talk and plan, just get going.  Build a state library network.

“How does a campus-free college, which is spread all over the state of Vermont, provide its students with library services? To a large extent, it’s done with wires.” (Dennis Lindberg, Addison County Independent, March 11, 1987) The planning for a state-wide automated library system had begun in 1982 when a system-wide assessment group was assembled by the Vermont State Colleges Chancellor to conduct a detailed assessment of Vermont State College library and information services.  How to provide library services to CCV was one of the driving forces in this joint planning project. Membership consisted of representatives from each of the five state colleges, and the assessment process took into consideration the quality and quantity of collections as well as ratings of how they supported each college’s general education program.

The assessment took nearly a year, and in July 1983 the Group produced a 38 page report for the Board of Trustees proving that Vermont State College libraries were weak when compared to ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) standards. (Dennis Lindberg, Vermont State Colleges Library Assessment Report, Waterbury, VT., 1983).  The  next step was for the Chancellor to appoint a system-wide Task Force on Library Development in the Fall of 1983 to address the following recommendations:

There should be parity between on-campus and off-campus

Programs in requirements for and use of library/information
Resources;

The system will have a single, joint on-line catalog as one node in a network also including the University of Vermont, Middlebury College and the State Department of Libraries;

Increased reference services will include reference librarians
for the Community College of Vermont (CCV);

A joint serials list will be developed;

There will be a five year coordinated collection catch-up program to add 15,000 volumes per year to system holdings, including small reference collections for CCV site offices.

Costs were projected to be $2.6 million in one-time (capital) funds, and increments to the annual operating budget to total $561 thousand.

Four years later, Community College was able to offer an unusual variety of library services to its patrons.  Twelve site reference collections were begun in the spring of 1985, and further developed during the following year bringing the volume total to approximately 7,000 in 1987.   These collections were never designed to be mini-libraries to fill all the research needs of students.  Instead, they were laboratories for learning library/research skills. (Eileen Chalfoun, “Off Campus Library Services Community College of Vermont,” The Off-Campus Library Services Conference Proceedings, Reno, Nevada, 1986:61).  Classes in research and writing skills were held in these reference library spaces.  “I saw a student sitting cross-legged on the floor of the resource room studying and thought ‘a real college.’  (Pres. Barbara Murphy, nd) Internally, CCV created small resource rooms in each site with basic reference collections, part-time resource librarians, bibliographic instruction (now called information literacy skills), and soon after computers to access information to SCOLAR (database of College resources.)

Direct reference service was provided to students scattered around the state by means of a WATS line into the office of its library coordinator.  No fees were charged to students for this service.  Telefacsmile transmission of information from seven site offices to four state college campus libraries was also provided.

IRIS (Instructional Resource and Information System) was a computer program designed to assist the College’s instructors in sharing successful and exciting teaching techniques, classroom materials, exercise, books, videos, films, filmstrips, journal articles, bibliographies, and guest speakers.  Each site office library was equipped with a microcomputer, printer and software to enable instructors to access at their convenience.

Of special interest was the bibliographic instruction manual, Biblio-Tech, planned and written by CCV staff in 1985 especially for students in a non-campus setting.  The book covered topics such as retrieving and using information, helpful hints for conducting research, information search strategies, computers in the library, research terminology, and library research facilities.  The book was addressed to students, and allowed them to follow the steps to doing careful research without the strict guidance of an instructor.  In retrospect the strategies introduced the skills now described by ACRL as Information Literacy Standards.

During the academic year orientations and workshops were held to explain the College’s library system.  Specific courses in research and writing were listed in the college catalog, and arranged for students.  Staff development days were held on a yearly basis.  Site Coordinators worked with instructors to incorporate research objectives into course descriptions, and panned formal library instruction periods for students each semester.  Information literacy standards remained as the largest goal in library planning, and the staff continued to experiment with ways of providing information electronically without sacrificing  the value of close human interaction, and the serendipity of traditional library browsing.

In December of 1986 Vermont’s governor, Madeleine M. Kunin, officially cut the computer ribbon which activated the state’s Automated Library System.  This momentous occasion marked a milestone in the joint planning efforts of the Vermont Department of Libraries, VermontStateColleges, MiddleburyCollege, and the University ofj Vermont to bring the on-line catalog and automated circulation to the citizens of the state of Vermont.  The governor noted that the “machine age has [sic] begun in earnest.” (“Governor Cuts Ribbon On Computer,” Department of Libraries News, 1987:1).  The truth of the matter is that the College could not have come very far without a little help from friends.

In an attempt to improve cooperation among the Vermont State Colleges, CCV’s Library Director served as Interim Library Director of Vermont Technical College. A plan was developed to create a central library in Randolph with a Central Librarian to provide service to CCV students around the state.  A well written plan with assessment, goals and intended outcomes was presented to the presidents of CCV and VTC, and tabled for a number of years until implementation became feasible. (1994)

Your droll humor and style
Are a fact plain to see;
You make it fun working;
Filing cards at CCV.
I’m sure you can’t guess
Who wrote this corny rhyme.
(HINT:  I’m in the Resource Room
Having a great time!)
So keep those cards and books coming
 And the C.O. at bay
And have a fantastic Valentine’s Day!

Anonymous (to this day!)

And this is why CCV is dear to so many, in times of both fire and ice.

CCV Business Manager, 1976-1979

I left CCV in 1979. I worked there for three years.   I was hired as an accountant and then was the business manager.  In 1979, I think, CCV was included into the state college budget, and they were going to consolidate the CCV business office with VSC operations in Waterbury.  I knew my position was going to be eliminated so I went to work for International Coins and Currency, which was founded by Dr. Steven Hochshild, who had left CCV days before I started.  It is funny how life is.  My story is:

“CHARGING PEOPLE TUITION”  Are you kidding me?

I started to work for CCV in the days of tuition on your honor.  In those days I think they charged $25-$30 per course.  Yes, per course.  It was on the honor system; at registration students would be given an envelope that could be mailed to the main office (ME) or returned to the local coordinator.  People would pay what they felt they could afford.  We got checks, rolls of quarters, and various denominations in cash and pocket change.  It was an honor system that frankly many students took advantage of; however, that was a guiding principle that Peter Smith, and others had.  CCV’s education was available to all and financial constraints should not stand in the way. I think Nancy Chard, who was a southern coordinator, spoke frequently of this principle with a great deal of passion.  Having only a few years of experience under my belt I knew I was over my head.

Then one day during the legislative session, Peter Smith was on the hill pitching lawmakers for more money. He called me and said, “I need to know how many students pay tuition.  I reminded him that we didn’t have that information, because we didn’t track who paid and who didn’t.  He wasn’t happy with that response, but the fact was we didn’t know.  A few hours later he came back to the office and said we must provide this information to the committee or this will affect our funding.  I had to have the information for a 2:00 meeting with CCV staff the next day.  He knew we didn’t have it and conceded that the days of on your honor tuition payments were over.  I put together the numbers as best I could based on the information we and the committee had.  Number of students?  We weren’t really sure about that either nor total amount collected.  It wasn’t a pretty picture, and Peter realized that this information wouldn’t fly with the committee so the meeting turned into a policy discussion about CCV charging everyone tuition.  Well, that was quite a meeting, and in the end it was decided that we would scrap the honor system and charge everyone a flat rate per course.  We would budget some scholarship money for those who needed It, etc.  Somehow everyone blamed me for this horrible turn of events that our enrollment would decline and the mission of CCV would be unable to be fulfilled, and a scorekeeper should not get in the way of CCV educational mission.  Now I had three months to put into place a tuition collection system.  I really knew I was over my head and people were very upset and some were uncooperative.  However people like Peggy Williams in the Johnson office were a great deal of help.  It appears CCV is alive and well. What does a credit cost now?  $200.00 a credit hour.

Site Office Manager, CCV Chittenden site
July 1983 – July 2003

 July 18, 1983 was my first day of work at CCV as Site Services Coordinator.   Michael Sawdey, the regional director welcomed me and gave me a short version of what the daily routine would be like.  Michael had typed the procedures on legal sized paper.  One of the procedures was telephone protocol which was very precise and very helpful.  It stressed the importance of saying, “Community College of Vermont”, instead of “CCV” when answering the telephone.   During my 20 years at CCV, I often referred back to those instructions and I used them when training new employees.  After my fifteen minute training Michael left the office to attend a meeting in our Waterbury office and I was on my own.   I sat at my desk and thought, “what am I doing here?” and then, “what do I do now?”

The CCV Chittenden county office was located in the Chace Mill in Burlington by the Winooski River.  The office was dark and musty smelling.  The entryway had a desk and some filing cabinets, my area, and there was one small room which was used as conference room and/or classroom.  Michael’s work area was somewhere in the back and there was an office for the Coordinator of Academic Services, Mica DeAngelis.  Mica taught off-site several mornings a week and was not there my first morning.

After a while the phone rang.  I picked it up and out of habit I answered it by saying, “Georgia School”, my former workplace, instead of “Community College of Vermont”.  During the morning the phone rang occasionally and a few people came in to ask questions.  I could not answer any of their questions so I wrote down their telephone numbers and told them that I would call them back with an answer.  Towards late morning I had to go to the bathroom and I had no idea where it was or if I could even leave the office.  Across the hall was a lawyers’ office and I had noticed through the glass in our entry door that their door to the office was open.  I decided to ask the secretary there where the bathroom was.  She was very helpful and told me where it was and offered to watch my office in the meantime.  From then on she watched my office when I had to step out.

Around noon Mica came in. What a relief!  She had been at CCV since January when CCV first started a site in Chittenden County.   Mica showed me around and introduced me to the Zenith Silent 700 computer so that I could read the Waterbury mail.   We had to dial a Waterbury number on our telephone and once the connection was made we put the handset on the computer, typed in our site name and number and the latest Waterbury announcements would print out on thermal paper.  The system did not always work and could be very frustrating.

In the afternoon Gary Steller’s Dimensions of Learning class met in the small classroom in the office.   I met my first CCV instructor and some of the students.    Things were looking up; that’s what I was there for.

My CCV story has to start with VSC, for there is where I spent about half of my 33 (ish) years of employment by the System.

Long, long time ago (approx. 45 years!) in a far away land (I now live in Florida) a young woman was hired

as the Sec. to the Assistant to the Provost and to the Construction Coordinator at the Vermont State Colleges office located on the UVM main campus in Burlington.  It was a small office of about 10 staff, headed by Provost Robert Babcock. Shortly thereafter this office moved into a lovely old house at 322 So. Prospect St. where it remained until moving to the Waterbury State Complex.  It was here that I eventually moved into Payroll/Benefits and got to know the old Burroughs machine that took up half my shared office!  We certainly have come a long way technologically!

CCV came into being with Peter Smith at the helm (’70 I believe);  and eventually would move next door to the Chancellor’s Office in Waterbury, where I joined them as Director of Payroll and Benefits for the next half of my venture.  CCV was a safe haven for growth and professional nourishment.  Days were full and learning ongoing but room was made for fun and fellowship as well;  and working was a pleasure.  I look back with warm thoughts and memories on a caring, steady, efficient team that I will always be grateful and proud to have been a part of.

CCV I commend you on your successful mission of enlightenment.  Rock on!

CCV Business Office (retired)