Creating a Successful .NET Certificate Program
Improving Faculty Technology Skills through Interactive Training Sessions
CAITL Fellowship Application
Fall 2003 Semester
Steven Schwarz, Instructor

ABSTRACT:
This project has two main focuses. The first is to ensure that RVCC is supporting the community by offering relevant, appropriate .NET educational/training opportunities to its constituency. The second is to support faculty efforts to incorporate technology into instruction by offering training sessions for appropriate applications and pedagogy.

Creating a Successful .NET Certificate Program will focus on developing a Microsoft .NET certificate program that will meet the entry level requirements of local businesses seeking to hire RVCC graduates. CSET full-time Instructors face the difficult task of choosing course concepts that best prepare graduates for the working world. However, we often live inside of a vacuum. It is difficult to know with any degree of certainty the level of programming skills required to obtain gainful employment. Advisory committees provide valuable assistance, but further comprehensive study is required in order to guarantee course concepts are appropriate to employers’ needs.

Since .NET is an emerging technology it’s important to discover whether or not the majority of local businesses are embracing .NET. If they are, whicht .NET languages are they adopting? How much should an entry-level programmer know about .NET? These questions can only be answered by the managers/owners of local businesses via phone, email, a written survey, and face to face meetings.

Developing and Delivering Interactive Technology Training Sessions for Faculty will focus on improving RVCC faculty’s technology skills. During the fall semester, several training sessions will be offered to help faculty create Web sites, search the Internet, and use a spreadsheet to track student progress. These training sessions will not just be limited to fulltime faculty. To specifically attract adjunct faculty, identical training sessions will also be offered later in the afternoon.

• Prong One: The curriculum in the .NET certificate program will be 75-80% governed by the information gathered from discussions and surveys conducted with local businesses who have adopted or will soon be adopting .NET technologies.
• Prong One Report: Available in December, 2003
• Prong Two: There will be at least 12 attendees at each training session held for full-time faculty, 10 attendees at each session held for adjunct faculty. The lessons will focus on creating faculty Web sites using Microsoft FrontPage, searching the Internet using Yahoo and Google, and creating a grade book using Microsoft Excel. Four sessions will be offered in each topic. Two sessions will be offered during College Hour and two will be offered during the late afternoon.
• Prong Two: I will post at the CAITL website the notes from every faculty training session. The notes will include links to relevant sites as well as downloadable templates and sample files.
• Prong Two: I will create an online portfolio of work submitted by faculty members as a direct result of having attended the training sessions. Submission of such documents by faculty attendees will be encouraged but not required.
• Prong Two Measurements: A report detailing the training courses offered to faculty, dates and attendance at each session, and evaluations with anecdotal comments from faculty relating to the sessions’ relevance and effectiveness will be submitted. Faculty will complete a survey after each training session.
• Prong Two Report: Available in January, 2004

PREVIOUS WORK:

Prong One: During the past year I expended a large amount of time and energy learning the intricacies of Microsoft .NET. In March, 2002 I attended a one week Visual Basic.NET training session at SetFocus LLC. In addition I will be attending a five day conference in May devoted to .NET. I have also read several .NET related texts including Programming Visual Basic.NET (Core Reference). Further, I have already created three .NET related courses. The first course, Introduction to Visual Basic.NET was offered during the fall and spring of the 2002-2003 academic year. The other two courses, Microsoft.NET Framework and Active Server Pages.NET, will be offered for the first time in fall 2003.

Prong Two: A large portion of the material I will use to train faculty is derived from the content of RVCC courses. I teach Web searching in Internet and using Microsoft Excel in Computer Literacy. While working as a computer resource teacher in the Hillsborough Public School System, I taught professionals how to create their own Web site using Microsoft FrontPage. Training was offered on several occasions. Satisfactory completion of the course resulted in the acquisition of one district Master's credit.

DISSEMINATION:
All reports will be available from Raritan Valley Community College’s Web site. The online reports will contain links to relevant sites containing additional information. Additionally, training session materials will be available online in a downloadable format. Links to software application tutorials will also be posted online. I will also present my work on campus at a CAITL end of the semester event and present a relevant summary at a national and/or regional conference.

COURSE DEVELOPMENT:

Prong One: Two to Three .NET related courses will be developed during the 2003-2004 academic year. The course content will be driven by the skills currently needed by a .NET programmer seeking gainful employment in the central New Jersey area. By January 2004 a certificate program will be designed and submitted to the Curriculum Committee for approval.

Prong Two: Training material will be maintained in a central location. Therefore, additional faculty members could conduct similar training sessions using my existing course materials. Planned courses include Creating a Website with Microsoft FrontPage, Searching the Internet using Yahoo and Google, and Using Microsoft Excel to Create a Dynamic Grade Book.

APPROACH TO TEACHING AND LEARNING:
It is my belief that learning primarily occurs when students are interested and motivated. However, programming lessons can often be laden with an abundance of dry abstract concepts. Therefore I try to add spark to my lessons by injecting both humor and energy. I focus my energy on conveying my enthusiasm for computer programming in the hope that it rub wear off onto the students.

Finally, there are three reasons why it’s important to challenge each and every student. The first is to protect the value of an RVCC degree, the second is to protect the integrity of the course I’m teaching, and the third is to motivate the student into accomplishing tasks he/she did not think possible. However, there is a thin line between motivation and overload. I try to tow the line between the two extremes.

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Updated 7/23/2003 by AKT