A Special Thanks To Our Veterans!

A big THANK YOU goes out to all the Vets and those who are currently serving our country! We have a lot to be thankful for because of all of our dedicated heroes, so THANK YOU!

Berkeley College participated in the Veteran's Day parade this morning in NYC, so I hope many of you were able to participate in such an important event!

So we are finally concluding on week 7, which again, totally hard to believe! I can't stress enough how important it is more than ever to keep those grades up and consult with a tutor if you are in need of some help! It can really help you so take advantage...IT'S FREE!!!

On Monday, I volunteered at the 2010 Distance Learning Symposium, which officially kicked off National Distance Learning Week. I was given the opportunity to meet a lot of the online staff, and helped participate in the events that unfolded throughout the afternoon. The symposium began off with presenter, W. Scott Lewis, who is a partner with the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management and Associated General Counsel for Saint Mary's College in Indiana. He brings over 15 years of experience as a student affairs administrator, faculty member, and consultant in high education. He gave an excellent speech about Law 101 for Online Faculty and really engaged all of the faculty. He was very knowledgeable and offered a lot of information for the staff.

The point of his speech was to discuss the legal issues that come along with online faculty. Some of the issues mentioned throughout his speech was FERPA rights, Free Speech, ADA/Section 504, Title IX/Section 1983, and Negligence. Being that I was sitting in on this as a student, I still found it to be quite interesting. The faculty seemed to be really interested and were really involved by providing feedback and asking questions. The one thing I felt was really helping the faculty understand the situations was through the use of case studies. It's always nice to see an example that supports the topic. I felt the case studies really helped with interaction between the speaker and the faculty.

My task for the day was to register the faculty and help direct them around the Garret Mountain Campus since most of them were not familiar with the campus, being that they are online instructors. I also saw a lot of familiar faces/names, which was good since I got to meet some of the professors I have this quarter! Overall, the day was a success! I will have some pictures to share, but for now I just wanted to share my experience!

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend, and I hope everyone had a chance to participate in the National Distance Learning week events!