Mary Frances Pinson March 1, 2012 Observation 3: Dr.

Kevin Mobbs, Instructional Technology Coordinator at the College of Coastal Georgia 9:00-10:00AM o I met Dr. Mobbs in his office on the second floor of the Academic Commons North building at the College of Coastal Georgia. I have only e-mailed Dr. Mobbs, this was our first time meeting. o We talked about my career as a teacher and my progress in the masters program at Georgia Southern. We talked about my observation. I shared with him the two previous observations I have done. o Dr. Mobbs shared with me his background before taking the position at CCGA. o BIO: Dr. Mobbs is from the north Georgia area. He graduated with his undergraduate degree in Music from Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama. After he graduated from college, he moved to Florida and North Carolina where he did some odd jobs before settling down into a career. In North Carolina he taught music in a private school. He then moved to Carrollton, Georgia where he got a masters degree in Instructional Technology from the University of West Georgia. He then went on staff at the University of West Georgia as a professor of music. He was a professor for six years and then the school had a position for the Instructional Technology Coordinator. He applied for that position and with his love of teaching music, the taught a couple of classes each semester and took on the roll as the IT Coordinator for the university. He did this for three more years. In March of 2011, Dr. Mobbs moved to Brunswick, Georgia where he took the position as the Instructional Technology Coordinator and a part time music professor at the College of Coastal Georgia. He has only been in this position for almost a year, but he told me that he is always learning something new and experiencing new things daily. I asked Dr. Mobbs about his music degree and his decision in music. He told me, It may not be recorded, but music may be the first to use technology. Musicians love technology. They have used it for composing and performing; he used the example of the use of electronics. He also mentioned that it could have been the first discipline to use computers for teaching. In the fall, he teaches Music Appreciation. This course can be an elective for some, but mostly, students are required to take an Art course for their required core classes. He said that many students take Music Appreciation, because music is something we can relate to. His goal when teaching the course is to have the students leave appreciating other aspects of music and other genres that they typically would not come across in regular situations.

Dr. Mobbs mentioned that he had hired a Student Assistant. Her name is Jessica. She was hired three weeks ago. As we were talking, Jessica came in to check in for the day.

10:00-10:30AM o Dr. Mobbs had to check in to a WIMBA meeting. This was an online meeting for administrators of Blackboard. They were to discuss upcoming news on the changes and transitions that schools will be facing when moving from Blackboard to Desire2Learn. Dr. Mobbs did not know if I needed to hear certain things pertaining to this meeting and he put on his headphones. o During this time, Jessica, the Student Assistant, had to the chance to talk. Jessica is in her freshmen year at CCGA. She has goals to be a biology major. She applied for this job, because she wanted something on campus and wanted to cut costs with commuting from home, to school, to work. In a typical week, Jessica will work about 4 hours a day. Her work in the office varies day to day. Dr. Mobbs has been showing her the elements of Desire2Learn. Recently she has created usernames and passwords for all the faculty of the college. At other times she answers the phone in the office and will answer any questions that come their way. If she does not know the answer, she will turn to Dr. Mobbs. She enjoys what she does in the office. She likes being behind the scenes of helping college. Jessica could not stay long today due to prior scheduled activities. 10:30-11:40PM o After Dr. Mobbs had finished his online meeting, he introduced me to Desire2Learn. This is an online classroom tool that professors use to upload documents, links, and other course work such as assignments, quizzes, and tests. It is very similar to Blackboard that most colleges and universities use now, but it has other components that are more up to date. o Before lunch, Dr. Mobbs shared with me his role in rolling out Desire2Learn among the faculty and students in the fall of 2012. Coordinating workshops for training. Making tutorials. Communicating to the cohort leaders and making sure they have the right tools and ideas for cohort trainings.

o Today, Dr. Mobbs needed to create CCGA cohort sandboxes for each cohort leader. He would then e-mail each cohort leader their username and password that Jessica created earlier. He would give them instructions for signing in. The sandboxes on Desire2Learn, are practice courses on the program for cohort leaders to use and practice the ins and outs of the program. 11:40AM-12:45PM o For lunch, Dr. Mobbs and I went to the colleges cafeteria. We went a little early to beat the crowds. o During lunch Dr. Mobbs asked me about my courses at Georgia Southern. I shared with him the classes and the projects that I have made throughout the program. He asked me what Web 2.0 tools I have used and which one was my favorite. He was very familiar with all the tools that I have used and he shared with me some more tools that he has used that have been very helpful in his position. o We also talked about the growth of CCGA. When I moved to Brunswick four years ago, the college was only a 2-year community college. In the last two years, the college is now a 4year institution. On-campus dorms have been built and more degrees have been made available to students to earn. I asked Dr. Mobbs what he knew, just in his short time here, what kind of growth and changes has the college seen in their students. From what he can tell, there has been an increase in student enrollment. More students are coming from surrounding counties and more out-of-state students as well. It was good to see what a positive influence this has been for the college and for Brunswick. 12:45-1:00PM o After lunch, Dr. Mobbs and I went back to his office. There he needed to check his voicemail and e-mails. He had one miss call from one of the cohort leaders. He also had a lot of e-mails just in an hour that we were away from the office. o He told me that a lot of his communication with faculty on campus is typically via e-mails. Often times professors will e-mail him questions before they have to teach a class and then they will have an answer to their questions when they are finished. He said that e-mail is a lot quicker to communicate as well. Some times, his e-mails can be simple instructions and others can be more detailed where he will use screen shots to explain directions on solving certain situations. 1:00-2:00PM o Dr. Mobbs let me login to the Demo account of Desire2Learn. As

he worked on some e-mails, I played around with the program. I am very familiar with the Blackboard program; it is what we use at Georgia Southern. Desire2Learn is very similar in its layout. The first thing I noticed was that Desire2Learn puts as the front wiki is the News, whereas Blackboard puts its larger emphasis on the course work as the front wiki. Other things I noticed: It seemed to be more users friendly. The calendar feature can be linked with the college calendar. Updates and notifications can be sent to ones phone. o As I shared some of these things with Dr. Mobbs, he also shared with me that students should not have any trouble with the change from Blackboard to Desire2Learn. However, professors may have some questions and concerns, but will eventually see the benefits of the new program. o As I looked at the demo account, Dr. Mobbs noticed that when he created the sandboxes earlier today, the template that he needed the program to have did not pull over. He had to go through each cohort course sandbox and correct the template. He said this is an example of testing and learning new programs yourself before others get into the program and have questions. This way you can be prepared for the questions that will come your way. He said that sometimes you have to tell someone that you will have to get back to him or her so you can play around with the program to be able to accurately answer his or her question. 2:00-2:15PM o The faculty member that had called Dr. Mobbs during lunch came to his office. This particular faculty member is one of the cohort leaders. He had questions about Desire2Learn and the training that is coming up. 2:15-3:00PM o I had asked Dr. Mobbs at lunch about the technology that is in the classrooms of CCGA. At this time, we went to one of the classrooms on campus. In the classroom there were these things: Computer An ELMO document camera Projector Screen- some classrooms have Smart Boards. Wireless connections for students digital devices. Speakers in the ceiling for sound.

o Dr. Mobbs explained with the new construction of new classrooms on campus, that it has been shared and encouraged that the classrooms have Interactive Projectors as opposed to Smart Boards. He said that many professors do not like the Smart Boards, due to the fact that professors do not know how to use them since they are usually in those classrooms for an hour and different times during the day. The Interactive Projectors have many pros; they are cheaper, they do not have to be moved, the white board can be used with the dry erase marker or a special pen with the projector, and the projector is closer to the screen, which prevents a shadow when teachers write on the board. 3:00-3:30PM o I asked Dr. Mobbs about his duties and responsibilities in his role as the Instructional Technology Coordinator. o He reports to Phil Mason, the VP of Academic Affairs. o Right now the biggest responsibility is rolling out Desire2Learn among the faculty and students by the fall semester of 2012. He communicates with cohort leaders and answers questions. o He answers a lot of phone calls and e-mails. o To answer questions, he will use links to websites that have tutorials. He will often make his own tutorial to answer questions. He uses Snag-it to make screen shots to help explain instructions. o All of this tutorials can be found on his website: http://www.ccga.edu/et/ o He also can use the Share Screen feature to link his screen to a faculty members computer and help them in that way. o There is a potential opportunity for him to teach a technology course at the college in the future. o Dr. Mobbs does not have any say in the budget, but does make suggestions. o The college does have a technology plan, however it is not looked at very often. He said that it is on his list of things to work on and change this year.

I thanked Dr. Mobbs for allowing me the opportunity to observe him today. It was a different experience to see the role of an Instructional Technology Coordinator in higher education.