College board told of new system for online studies

By Katie Evans
Herald/Review
Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, Oct 15, 2008 - 05:22:09 am MST

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SIERRA VISTA — The Cochise College Governing Board heard about various ways the college is moving forward during its Tuesday night meeting at the Sierra Vista campus.

One such change is an improvement in its online campus as it switches to the WebStudy system.

WebStudy, which is in place as of this semester, replaces the Blackboard system the college had previously been using.

WebStudy provides 24/7 support not only to the college, but directly to the students who can call up with problems, said George Self, director of the online campus, during his presentation.

A smaller company, Self said they are seeing results faster when they call WebStudy requesting changes or help.

“Literally I have spoken to their CEO numerous times on the phone,” Self said, adding he couldn’t even tell the board who Blackboard’s CEO was.

In addition to improved support, WebStudy has a log-on screen that updates the user on changes since their last log-in, as well as e-mail and student statistics to allow the teachers to better track their students activities while logged on, among other things.

Also during Tuesday night’s meeting the board was informed that the food services provided by Chartwells will be terminated as of Dec. 18. The board later voted to start food services with Sodexo on Dec. 22, continuing no later than June 30, 2019.

“We’re confident they’ll be able to step in late December … and begin providing service,” said Cochise College President Karen Nicodemus.

In other meeting news:

• The board received an update on the college’s strategic planning process and enrollment management effort.

• The board was presented with a revised faculty workload concept.

Herald/Review reporter Katie Evans can be reached at 515-4611 or by e-mail at katie.evans@svherald.com.

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blackboard wrote on Oct 15, 2008 11:37 AM:

" I think Cochise College didn't know how to correctly impliment blackboard. Blackboard has student statistics, email as well as chatrooms, discussion boards and the ability to transmit podcasts. Sounds like a user error to me. "