Cora Agatucci
Sabbatical Leave - Winter 2000
Proposal | Report

Sabbatical Proposal for Winter Quarter 2000
 Approved by the COCC Faculty Professional Improvement Review committee in Winter 1999

[Intra-College Memorandum:]
DATE: January 26, 1999
TO: Bill Buck, Humanities Dept. Chair & Faculty Professional Improvement Review Committee
FROM: Cora Agatucci
SUBJECT: Application for One-Quarter Sabbatical Leave in Winter 2000

I propose a one-quarter sabbatical leave during Winter term 2000 to complete professional development activities which will advance all four major goals stated in my approved PIP for 1996-2000 (....including an account of PIP activities already begun and completed through Spring 1997). To help you place this sabbatical proposal in context, I also submit, with this sabbatical proposal, a 1996-2000 PIP Update reporting on my PIP activities from Spring 1997 through Fall 1998.

Eligibility: Hired in September 1988, I am currently in my eleventh year of full-time employment, tenured since 1992, and now at the rank of Associate Professor. Having taken an FPIRC-approved two-quarter Sabbatical leave in Winter-Spring 1996, I am currently eligible to apply for one more quarter’s Sabbatical leave, per Article 9-Fringe Benefits of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. To help you judge my promise to carry out this new Sabbatical proposal, I refer you to my approved two-quarter Sabbatical request for Winter-Spring 1996, and my follow-up Sabbatical Report,* available for review in my personnel file in the Office of Human Resources. [*Note: I first submitted the follow-up Sabbatical Report in June 1996, but it was apparently misplaced, so I resubmitted it to FPIRC in January 1997 with supporting documents (see my posting "Sabbatical Documents," dated 1/11/97, to FPIRC Discussion folder), and subsequently it was accepted by FPIRC in Winter 1997.]

Proposal Background & Justification

One main impetus for this Sabbatical Leave proposal came in Fall 1998, when I began to receive increasing amounts of local, national, and even international E-Mail correspondence regarding my course websites, particularly the Hum 211 webpages [http://www.cocc.edu/ cagatucci/classes/hum211]. This correspondence, my students’ appreciation of my webpages and multimedia presentations, and my own internet research (however hit-and-miss-when-time-allows), have taught me firsthand to respect the enormous potential of this educational technology. But my ed-tech methodology has thus far hardly been systematic, imitating or building on others’ models, and progressing on a trial-and-error, "teach-me-what-I need-to–know-to-do-this" basis.

To my surprise, my website for Hum 211 (Cultures and Literatures of Africa) was chosen as a Scout Report for the Social Sciences Selection, featured in the Learning Resources section on this online journal:

Culture & Literature of Africa: Humanities 211

http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/index.htm

Created for a course entitled Culture & Literature of Africa, Professor Cora Agatuccis's [sic] interdisciplinary site contains numerous resources related to the historical and cultural study of African oral tradition, literature, and film. In addition to a detailed syllabus, course plan, and list of assignments, this site offers: a literary map of Africa; synopses of African films with annotated references to resources in both print and electronic formats; a section dedicated to African storytelling; pages devoted to the work of authors Chinua Achebe and Tsitsi Dangarembga; and an annotated list of African Studies links divided into subject areas. The richest resource at this site is the African Timelines section, which consists of five narrative chronologies with embedded links documenting the history of African 'orature,' literature, and film. [Online Scout Report for the Social Sciences 2.2 (6 Oct. 1998): Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-1998.

Available: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/socsci/1998/ss-981006.html]

I am proud of the honor conferred by the Scout Report for Social Sciences, for this online publication is "one of the Internet's oldest and most respected publications" of the Internet Scout Project (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison; http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/

report/index.html], funded by a National Science Foundation grant. "The target audience of the Scout Report for Social Sciences is faculty, students, staff, and librarians in the social sciences. Each biweekly issue offers a selective collection of Internet resources covering topics in the field that have been chosen by librarians and content specialists in the given area of study," organized in thematic areas of research, learning resources, and professional and general interest, and website selection criteria are content, authority, information maintenance, presentation, availability, and cost [The Scout Report for the Social Sciences – http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/socsci/index.html].

My academic training and teaching experience have supplied some sound principles to guide the creation, revision, and maintenance of my COCC website and course webpages. But the increased scrutiny that my COCC website now regularly attracts has been cause for more than one anxiety attack. After conducting further webresearch on Scout Report selections and evaluation criteria, I was amazed, frankly, that I had blundered my way into a web-creation deemed comparable to other Scout Report selections. Very recently, I have been asked by Terri Johanson, Interim Director of Distance Learning for the Oregon Community Colleges, to "showcase" my Hum 211 website at Online ’99 Conference on 30 Jan. 1999 in Portland. She kindly praised the site as "beautifully and competently designed and organized" (see attached E-Mail dated 20 Jan. 1999) and wants me to discuss how I arrived at web design and function decisions, and how I use the website to complement or enhance delivery of my Hum 211 class (though she knows that it is not an online modem-based class). "Hindsight" research findings will enable me to outline field-authoritative content, access, design, and function criteria, even if I must honestly confess that the Hum 211 website does not in all respects meet these standards. The Scout Report researchers and judges are too busy, evidently, to supply the individual website critique that I had requested back in Nov. 1998, but I have already learned much about how I could improve my COCC website from scanning online articles such as Jack Solock’s "The Internet: Window to the World or Hall of Mirrors? Information Quality in the Networked Environment," Nov. 1996 [http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/toolkit/enduser/archive/1996/euc-9611.html], published by the End User’s Corner* ("tips on how to surf smarter")
[http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/toolkit/enduser/index.html].
*Note: End User’s Corner is one of three features (the other two being Scout Select Bookmarks—"the best meta-pages"-- and Searching the Internet—with Seachable Indexes, Subject Catalogs, Annotated Directories, Subject Guides, Specialized Dictionaries) offered by Scout Toolkit: Smart Surfer [http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/toolkit/index.html].

The Hum 211 website and spin-off PowerPoint presentations and course packs are the best developed of my edu-tech materials, thanks to the PET-supported training I received and time I was able to devote to these projects in Summer 1997. The rest of my course and special interest edu-tech projects have been created and revised term-by-term, course-by-course, on a very time-constrained, triage basis. As you may know, maintaining an up-to-date website is a continuous and time-consuming project, and an out-of-date course website can often do more harm than good. Furthermore, over the last year, the limited time I do have to "surf the ‘net" has astounded me with the explosion of authoritative and valuable scholarly projects and educational resources in my instructional fields—which simply did not exist a year ago—and I feel I have barely plumbed COCC Library online resources, not to mention our massive new acquisitions rolling in this year.

The Scout Report Selection and the Oregon Showcase invitation show I have some "edu-tech" promise. But I know just enough now to realize how much more, and more effectively, I could accomplish to benefit my courses and students, my department, and the College. This proposed Sabbatical Leave is designed to help me (and interested colleagues willing to collaborate with me) contribute further to COCC’s multifaceted efforts to strengthen the quality of student learning in the 21st century by harnessing appropriate instructional technologies.

Location & Timeline: Aside from my genuine and growing excitement over the potential of "edu-tech," and the ever-expanding availability of high-quality electronic resources, personal constraints have now forced me to concentrate my professional development activities on those I can accomplish largely at home: my son has married and left home, my elderly mother lives with me, and her hip injury, metastasized cancer, and growing senility since Summer 1998, mean that she cannot be left alone and requires safety monitoring and anxiety-reducing companionship. Therefore, physical travel to pursue professional improvement has become difficult for me. During academic year 1998-99, I have had to engage a full-time caregiver during the week while I am at work, and quality caregiver coverage is expensive. I anticipate having to reduce caregiver coverage in Summer 1990--and the "covered" time left me for uninterrupted, productive work will be correspondingly curtailed. Nevertheless, I should be able to begin many of the sabbatical activities proposed below in Summer 1999, laying the groundwork for their completion in Winter 2000, when I will again have 40-hour-a-week caregiver coverage for my mother. Thankful I am for the expansive professional development opportunities afforded by cyber-travel, research, and exchange.

Replacement Staffing: I apply for Sabbatical Leave in Winter 2000 after discussions with Humanities Chair Bill Buck and EOU-COCC Coordinator Kathy Walsh. It will be easiest during that quarter for them to secure faculty replacements to teach COCC and EOU courses I am otherwise scheduled to teach in Winter 2000 (2 sections of WR 122, 1 section of ENG 105, and 1 section of EOU ENGL 407).

Proposed Sabbatical Leave Activities
(Correlated to Approved 1996-2000 PIP Goals)

RE: PIP Goal #1 & 3:

  1. Conduct research, identify and then systematically apply sound criteria for web content and authority, design and presentation, access and availability, information maintenance, and cost, to my own COCC website. Review Barbara Klett’s IT Newsletter, other relevant COCC resources and faculty/staff projects to advance and other activities proposed in this Sabbatical application. Scout Report has recommended beginning with these resources:

Generate a heuristic tool based on the above identified criteria relevant for student researchers’ use in evaluating and documenting internet sources—e.g., in WR 123 and my WIC courses featuring research projects. (I also need to research and identify a more up-to-date, electronically-aware WR 123 textbook with a stronger WAD orientation!)

Rethink and redesign my COCC website conceived as a holistic, internally consistent unit.

Share my bibliography, findings and products relevant to Activities #1-3 with interested faculty and staff who are maintaining, or are interested in creating, instructional websites (e.g., via workshop, postings to First Class Conference folders), and invite their constructive criticism.

Review all my webpages systematically to update hyperlinks & remove broken links.

Work with COCC webmaster to update lists of my "Classes Using WWW at COCC" [http://www.cocc.edu/classes], and hot link my course pages to relevant COCC program and course description pages. [Reference: E-mail from Mary Wagner to faculty, dated 10/28/98].

Investigate the work of Chuck Hutchings, Kathy Walsh, and others in developing interactive websites and modem-delivered courses for possible applications to my own courses in future; arrange relevant training to develop needed skills; and redesign course writing and research assignments to stimulate increased use of webresources.

RE: PIP Goals 1, 3, and 4

Conduct research to identify and update electronic resources in my instructional fields, to augment and update my course websites, multimedia presentations, coursepacks, and related instructional materials. (This research will include a growing list of websources I’ve already bookmarked.)

Compile lists of new COCC Library print and media acquisitions and internet periodical database sources --and explore other internal COCC web sources--to add and/or hyperlink to my COCC websites, especially bibliographies and abstracts of local informational resources for COCC and district students’ use in my own and others’ courses. [See, for example, my African Films webpage, featuring COCC Library Media holdings and hyperlinked to relevant internet sources, linked to: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/ ] Announce the availability of such resources to district schools, via appropriate COCC Outreach channels, and actively pursue stronger College-school connections.

Create new webpage(s) to showcase these COCC Library holdings and sources—for example, a webpage showcasing works by Nobel and Booker Prize Winners in "World Authors" category (one focus on my library acquisition requests and ordering in Fall 1998) with hyperlinks to Nobel, Booker-McConnell, and other relevant websites featuring these world authors. I’d also like to create, with Kathy Walsh’s assistance, a webpage on Black History Month, and update my specialty webpage on Women’s History Month.

Investigate global internet leads (I have a growing list) for establishing links between international/multicultural educational institutions, interested faculty, and their students; and my COCC/University Center courses and students. My goal is to lay a foundation for imitating Kathy Walsh’s model internet exchange, focused on common literary texts, between students in her COCC African American Literature and Culture course and in a parallel course in Long Island, NY. I have already participated in bulletin board discussion of Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions with Ruth Benander’s African literature students at Raymond Walters College, Cincinnati, OH. We may be able to align future offerings of our African lit courses, and I am hopeful that I can establish at least one parallel international internet connection—the many colleges and universities online in South Africa and Japan seem the most promising grounds thus far.

RE: PIP Goals 2 & 3:

Work with interested others (e.g. Writing and WIC faculty) to reassess and adapt my specialty webpages of resources--e.g., WIC and WAD, Links for Writers and Researchers, A Guide to Documenting Sources (& avoiding plagiarism), Educational Reform Standards, Visual Literacy--to common departmental and interdisciplinary faculty and student needs; and explore the desirability of using this web-foundation to propose/create "official" departmental, WIC, and/or COCC webpages for approval by relevant COCC curricular committees.

Create a hyperlinked table of contents, index, or specialty web page to showcase current and future "web-published" examples of strong student writing, published with student permission and completed in response to assignments (descriptions or directions to be accordingly supplied), for my own and others Writing and WIC courses. Such a web-resource would afford accessible models to future COCC students in my own and others’ Writing and WIC courses, and may be helpful to non-COCC students out there in our "cyber-community." I would invite other Writing and WIC faculty to begin collecting and/or submitting their collected student writing samples (again with student permission) to this website. And, with permission, I would propose that our COCC website of student writing be linked to selected reputable national educational websites (e.g., Univ. of Texas-Austin, which has advertised for such student writing resources).

Explore possibilities for inter-institutional connections, cooperation, and more "seamless articulation" in curricula--e.g., with district K-12 schools and Univ. of Oregon’s ISTE: International Society for Technology in Education, dedicated to "improving the quality of all levels of education through the use of technology." [Email: < iste@oregon.uoregon.edu > URLs:< http://www.iste.org/ > and < http://isteonline. uoregon.edu/ ] I’d like investigate the reading lists and lines of thinking announced in two advertised online courses for Fall 1998 offered by Teacher’s College-Columbia University:
[ http://cite.tc.columbia.edu/courses/ ]

Instructional Design of Educational Technology - SCFU4083, a web-based distance learning course. "SCFU4083 covers standard approaches to designing computer-assisted instruction and some more recent frameworks for constructivist approaches to designing learning environments. . . . The course is divided into three units: (1.) Instructional Design Theories; (2.) Computer-Based Approaches to Constructivism; and (3.) Instructional Design for Local Communities and Global Networks." The course is centered on Thomas M. Duffy and David H. Jonassen’s Constructivism and the Technology of Instruction (1992).

RE: PIP Goals #3 & #1

Conduct research in developing theoretical currents in writing, rhetoric, and literature focusing on new epistemologies and critical thinking paradigms generated by non-linear and "collage"-designed hypertext writing, reading, and informational research. I am particularly interested in exploring new ideas regarding "A Rhetoric of Writing for E-Space," and the impact on literary criticism and theory (e.g., intertextuality, multivocality, decentering) suggested by George Landow’s Hypertext 2.0: The Convergence of Contemporary Literary Theory and Technology (Rev. ed. Parallax: Re-Visions of Culture and Society Series. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1997).

Documentation and Evaluation of Proposed Activities

  1. Compile selective bibliographies based on completed research and share them with interested colleagues through appropriate means (COCC Library Reserve, COCC websites, FirstClass Conference folder announcements, etc.)
  2. Sabbatical Leave Report to FPIRC, Humanities Dept. Chair Bill Buck (my designated evaluator), and EOU-COCC Coordinator Kathy Walsh.
  3. Review of my revised COCC website, course and specialty webpages by Humanities Dept. Chair Bill Buck, FPIRC, and interested others in the COCC and cyber community.
  4. Share my Sabbatical Leave findings and instructional products with interested colleagues within and outside my department. This could be accomplished through various means: web-publications, FirstClass Conference folder postings, special interest E-mailings, College Hour presentation, and one or more follow-up faculty workshops, on, for example, applying sound criteria to developing college-level websites; a heuristic for evaluating and documenting electronic sources in WR 123 and other research-based courses; a rhetoric for writing in E-space; resources to support WIC and WAD writing assignments; webpublishing student writing, demonstrations of PowerPoint and multimedia presentations.
  5. Revised COCC and EOU course syllabi, coursepacks, and relevant supplemental materials filed in the Humanities Dept. Office.
  6. Student Evaluations administered in affected COCC and EOU courses.
  7. References from website "end-users" and colleagues who work with me on any of these Sabbatical Leave projects.
  8. Propose at least one follow-up paper or panel to a local or regional conference on a topic related to my Sabbatical Leave activities, as appropriate and feasible opportunities arise.

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Report on Sabbatical Leave Activities for Winter 2000
(Correlated to Approved 1996-2000 PIP Goals)
Learn more about Cora's Professional Activities below.

DATE: May 24, 2000

TO: Faculty Professional Improvement Review Committee

Kathy Walsh, Acting Chair, Humanities Dept. (Spring 2000)

Bart Queary, Vice President for Instruction

 FROM: Cora Agatucci

 SUBJECT: Winter 2000 Sabbatical Leave Report

 In my approved Winter 2000 Sabbatical Leave proposal, I originally proposed fifteen activities related to the four major goals of my approved 1996-2000 PIP. Between late summer 1999 and early winter 2000, unanticipated professional development opportunities presented themselves to me, including four listed below:

  1. Grant recipient, with Kathy Walsh and Bart Queary, for project entitled "Cyber Rhetoric: Creating an Online Learning Community in the Humanities." Grant awarded by "Advancing The Humanities Through Technology At Community Colleges," a National Education Project of the Community College Humanities Association (CCHA), supported by the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH). Attended national conference Dec. 1-5, 1999, George Mason Univ.-Fairfax, VA. Action Plan developed for completing Project between Winter 2000 – Fall 2001. Project Description is attached. For more information, please review: http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/ccha/ccha.html
  2. Invited to publish a print version of my online Hum 211 African Timelines, Parts I (Ancient Africa) and II (African Empires), in the January/February 2000 issue of New Crisis Magazine (sponsored by the NAACP) in honor of Black History Month.
  3. Invited to review, for Bedford-St. Martin’s, a Revision plan for The Bedford Anthology of World Literatures, 2nd ed, March 13, 2000. Revised version of Davis et al’s Western Literature in a World Context (1996) – I use vol. 2 when I teach English 109 – Western World Literature (Late 18th – late 20th centuries.
  4. Invited to write articles on Cynthia Ozick and Gish Jen for Contemporary American Women Fiction Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook (to be published by Greenwood), by editor Laurie Champion (San Diego State University); bought & began reading primary works by Ozick and Jen, and began research to locate secondary sources, February 2000.

All the above could be applied effectively toward accomplishing my 1996-2000 PIP goals and most of my Winter 2000 sabbatical leave activities (except proposed Sabbatical Activities #10 & #11: see below*). The CCHA-NEH Grant Project was by the far the most ambitious and time-consuming, committing me to extensive research, technical training, new web materials development in Winter 2000, in preparation for teaching a new course Hum 299: Student Perspectives on World and Multicultural Writers – Writing for the World Wide Web, in Spring 2000.

Sabbatical Leave Activities Accomplished in Winter 2000
(Correlated to Approved 1996-2000 PIP Goals)

For your reference, sabbatical activities are numbered and their substance quoted as originally proposed. Relevant accomplishments follow each grouping.

RE: PIP Goal #1 & 3:

Proposed Activity #1. "Conduct research, identify and then systematically apply sound criteria for web content and authority, design and presentation,…to my own COCC website…."

Conducted research and compiled annotated bibliography of resources for web design, source citation and evaluation: see Hum 299 Resources webpages accessible from "Hum 299 Resources Table of Contents": http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/resources/linksTOC.html

Proposed Activity #2. Generate a heuristic tool based on the above identified criteria relevant for student researchers’ use in evaluating and documenting internet sources…" and identify a new textbook adoption for WR 123.

Developed heuristic checklist of (web) source evaluation criteria for use in Hum 299 and a combined PowerPoint/Web-based presentation for WR 123: see "Evaluating Websites":  http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/lessons/webeval.html 

Identified current status and changes (especially for electronic sources) in MLA, APA, (Univ. of) Chicago Author-Date and Chicago Humanities (AKA Turabian), CBE (Biology), and new CGOS (Columbia [Univ.] Guide to Online Style) academic documentation styles, updated relevant links on my webpages, created new instructional materials for Hum 299 and WR 123: 
"Citing Sources": http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/webcite.html 
"Annotating Sources & Netiquette": http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/webcite2.html 

I have adapted two prominent academic citation styles in my fields—MLA and CGOS-Humanities—in annotating and citing sources in several of my course Links, Bibliography, and Works Cited webpages. For examples, see:

(a) Hum 299 "Bibliography & Works Cited in Cyber Rhetoric & Team Website Directions":  http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/lessons/biblio.html 

(b) To prepare for publication of Parts I & II of my African Timelines, I complied a formal Webliography of Works Cited for all 5 parts of my Timelines in Jan. 2000: These I have then used as models for students. See Hum 211 African Timelines Works Cited: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/timelines/worksctd.htm

I reviewed possible textbooks, and adopted 2000 ed. of Curious Researcher, for my Spring 2000 WR 123, and revised my course materials accordingly.

I reviewed possible textbooks and adopted 2000 ed. of Online! A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources adopted for my Spring 2000 Hum 299; however, no current textbooks on WWW Writing are adequate for my purposes and I have, in effect, been writing and webpublishing an online "textbook" for Hum 299, Winter-Spring 2000.

Proposed Activity #3. "Rethink and redesign my COCC website conceived as a holistic, internally consistent unit."

I have made a solid beginning to the task of applying web design principles and evaluation criteria, and format changes in electronic source citation to my own webpages. But since I now maintain over 300 webpages, the task is hardly complete. I created two working "Site Map" webpages—one for "cagatucci" and one for "hum299--to identify (almost all) the 300+ webpages that I am currently maintaining, and to help me impose an organizational strategy for redesigning my COCC website. I have experimented with several webpage design templates, especially in my Hum 299 webpages, as well as redesigned some of my other course webpages—especially headers, footers, navigational menus, webliographies. I have had to adopt a piecemeal "triage" approach to redesigning my webpages, beginning with those related to the most current courses that I am teaching and projects that I am engaged in. I have also used what I have learned to integrate into HUM 299 lessons links to my webpages as both good and bad examples of webdesign principles, with explications. For examples of related webwork accomplished, see:

 

  1. Site Map: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/sitemap.htm
  2. Hum 299 Site Map (Please sample Hum 299 webpages accessible from this Site Map webpage): http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/sitemap.html
  3. Hum 211 African Timelines webpages accessible from the Table of Contents: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/htimelines/
  4. Hum 211 African Authors: Chinua Achebe & Things Fall Apart redesigned as 5 webpages and accessible from Achebe Table of Contents webpage: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/achebe.htm
  5. Revised websites for courses I taught in Fall 1999 (WR 20, WR 121, ENG 104) and for those I am teaching in Spring 2000 (ENG 109, HUM 299, WR 123, WR 316): See Site Maps referenced above.

Proposed Activity #4: "Share my bibliography, findings and products relevant to [Proposed] Activities #1-3 with interested faculty and staff who are maintaining, or are interested in creating, instructional websites (e.g., via workshop, postings to First Class Conference folders), and invite their constructive criticism."

Informed colleagues of Hum 299 lessons and other online resources for via posted notice to Humanities FirstClass Conference;

With Kathy Walsh made presentations on available Hum 299 online instructional materials to Social Sciences Dept. & Faculty Librarians, March 2000 (and during Spring term, to Humanities and CIS departments).

The Hum 299 "Evaluating Websites" lesson became the basis for a Spring 2000 Hum 299 Student Website Midterm Review Checklist developed for use by me and Hum 299 Reviewers Jon Bouknight, Cat Finney, Barbara Klett, Jack McCown, and Patricia O’Neill:  http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/ccha/reviews2.html 

Proposed Activity #5. "Review all my webpages systematically to update hyperlinks & remove broken links."

This is another partially completed and ongoing task. For one who is responsible for "maintaining" 300+ webpages containing thousands of WWW links, I was naïve in proposing to complete this Sabbatical activity in one term. I have been repairing and adding WWW links on many of my course webpages since Summer 1999. In Winter 2000, Barbara Klett taught me how to use FrontPage capabilities to assist in identifying and repairing broken links, but the task remains daunting—indeed, can never be "finished," for Internet websites and their URLs are in a constant state of flux. Again, I have adopted a cyclical "triage" approach based on which courses I next teach and which projects I must next prepare.

(a) African Timelines: I began researching, updating and repairing links on these webpages in August 1999, because they have attracted international attention and national awards (and frequent E-Mail queries from everywhere regarding broken links!). The Jan. 2000 New Crisis Magazine publishing opportunity mentioned above also impelled me to update and repair Timelines links in Jan. 2000. A quick visit to follow selected links given on any of the African Timelines pages will acquaint you with the situation – accessible from African Timelines Table of Contents: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/htimelines/

(b) I began the same update/repair process in August 1999 with WWW links included on my redesigned Hum 211 Chinua Achebe & Things Fall Apart webpages – a process that has continued through May 2000. These pages are accessible from the Achebe Table of Contents webpage: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/achebe.htm

(c) I created an Eng 104 course website in Summer 1999 (course taught in Fall 1999), and applied redesigned webpage features (e.g., headers, footers, WWW link citations & annotations) to Eng 109 course website in Winter 2000. Eng 109 website accessible from: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/sitemap.htm 

Proposed Activity #6. "Work with COCC webmaster to update lists of my ‘Classes Using WWW at COCC’ [formerly: http://www.cocc.edu/classes], and hot link my course pages to relevant COCC program and course description pages."

With Barbara Klett’s assistance, my course websites have been linked to COCC webpage Internet-Enhanced Classes at COCC:  http://www.cocc.edu/classes/ieclasses/default.html 

Proposed Activity #7. "Investigate the work of Chuck Hutchings, Kathy Walsh, and others in developing interactive websites and modem-delivered courses for possible applications to my own courses in future; arrange relevant training to develop needed skills; and redesign course writing and research assignments to stimulate increased use of webresources."

Proposal (negotiated with Bill Buck, Eleanor Latham, Vickery Viles, and Barbara Klett) approved in Jan. 2000, to teach my scheduled section of English 103 (Survey of British Literature – 19th and 20th centuries) as a combined televised/modem course for Open Campus in Spring 2001; and to receive relevant training in Summer 2000. (Eleanor will do the same with Eng 101 & 102, the first two courses in the sequence; and I have signed up for COCC training sessions to be held June 14-15, 2000.)

To encourage student use of my webresources, I scheduled as many of my Fall 1999 and Spring 2000 courses in multimedia classrooms as possible so I could demonstrate my course websites in class; and I developed new assignments and activities that integrated use of course webmaterials.

I investigated with Kathy Walsh and Barbara Klett the viability of using WebCT in Hum 299, but opted instead for FrontPage98 (available in LIB 117 classroom) and FirstClass course discussion conference. Since I have FrontPage97 on my home computer, in Winter 2000, I trained further to upgrade my skills using FrontPage98 with Barbara Klett. [I will convert to FrontPage2000 (a much improved webauthoring product) in Summer 2000.]

RE: PIP Goals 1, 3, and 4

Proposed Activity #8. "Conduct research to identify and update electronic resources in my instructional fields, to augment and update my course websites, multimedia presentations, coursepacks, and related instructional materials…."

As mentioned above, I have been conducting webresearch to add new links, as well repair broken links on many of my course webpages in Summer 1999 and Winter 2000. I started two "New Links" working webpages on which to add and annotate WWW links relevant to my instructional areas as I locate them – then I integrate them into my course websites as opportunity and time arise.

Two major efforts were invested in (a) embedding new WWW links on topics addressed in my African Timelines pages and (b) compiling the Hum 299 Resources webliographies on Content Resources for Hum 299 Web Research; Cyber Rhetoric, Hypertext, & Teaching Resources; Website Design & Evaluation, including Using FrontPage98 & Intellectual Property; and Sample [mostly] Student Websites. Accessible from Hum 299 Site Map:
 http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/sitemap.html

I revised or created new webpages, PowerPoint presentations, and identified new multimedia resources in Winter 2000, for my spring term Eng 109 (Western World Literature).

I researched potential texts and adopted Best Essays of 1999 for my spring term EOU Writing 316 (Advanced Prose Writing), and revised my course materials accordingly.

I purchased books, journals, and CD’s to support current and future professional development activities– see my recently submitted PIP Funding Request.

Proposed Activity #9. "Compile lists of new COCC Library print and media acquisitions and internet periodical database sources --and explore other internal COCC web sources--to add and/or hyperlink to my COCC websites, especially bibliographies and abstracts of local informational resources for COCC and district students’ use in my own and others’ courses. . . . Announce the availability of such resources to district schools, via appropriate COCC Outreach channels, and actively pursue stronger College-school connections."

Implementing the new COCC website "broke" and outdated many of my previous links to COCC resources for student writers and researchers. Thus, I had to search out new COCC resource pages and their URLs, and created two new webpages: 

(a) COCC Links: Online COCC Resources for Student Writers & Researchers:  http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/cocclk.htm 

(b) A specialized Hum 299 version of COCC Links: Online COCC Resources for Student Writers & Researchers:  http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/resources/cocclk.html 

I added new annotated Infotrac sources to various online bibliography pages that I maintain (e.g. Chinua Achebe, African and Asian films, World literature), as well as compiled resources for use by my future Hum 299 students during Winter 2000.

I did not get very far with advertising such webresources to district schools; however, the webpages are in place, and I hope to pursue this goal in future.

NOTE: As part of our Hum 299 grant project we scheduled a public presentation on April 17, advertised it in the Bulletin, and hoped to attract district educators, but in fact different sectors of our community attended the event: mostly business and professional people interested in learning how to create webpages and write effectively for the World Wide Web.

*Proposed Sabbatical Activities NOT accomplished:

Proposed Activity #10. "Create new webpage(s) to showcase these COCC Library holdings and sources…."
Proposed Activity #11. "Investigate global internet leads…for establishing links between international/multicultural educational institutions, interested faculty, and their students; and my COCC/University Center courses and students…."

RE: PIP Goals 2 & 3:

Proposed Activity #12. "Work with interested others (e.g. Writing and WIC faculty) to reassess and adapt my specialty webpages of resources--e.g., WIC and WAD, Links for Writers and Researchers, A Guide to Documenting Sources (& avoiding plagiarism), [etc.]… --to common departmental and interdisciplinary faculty and student needs; and explore the desirability of using this web-foundation to propose/create ‘official’ departmental, WIC, and/or COCC webpages for approval by relevant COCC curricular committees."

Began updating/revising supplemental course webpages (such as Links for Writers and Researchers), accessible from Site Map: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/sitemap.htm 

I created a new WIC (Writing in Context of another discipline) webpage, where I webposted the COCC WIC Program Description, Proposal form, and Recommended Links:  http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/WIC.htm 

Many of the Hum 299 webpages should provide useful resources for WIC and WAD faculty; and as mentioned elsewhere in this report, our Grant Project called for enlisting indisciplinary faculty and staff to serve as Hum 299 reviewers, and for making departmental presentations (to CIS, Humanities, Librarians, and Social Sciences) in Winter- Spring 2000. We have thus advertised the availability of online resources and explored the possibilities for coordinating interdisciplinary efforts on webtopics of common interest (e.g. plagiarism policy, copyright and permitted use statements, source citation in various professional/academic styles, source evaluation criteria and interdisciplinary field-specific resource recommendations). In particular, we suggested collaborations with the Library folk Mark Dahl, Cat Finney, and Tina Hovecamp, perhaps to create COCC Librarian-endorsed webpages within the COCC Library webpages as a workable and logical centralized location for such webpages. Social Sciences and Humanities, including the Composition Committee are also very interested. As part of our grant project, Kathy Walsh and I will follow up these leads in Summer-Fall 2000.

Proposed Activity #13. Create a hyperlinked table of contents, index, or specialty web page to showcase current and future ‘web-published’ examples of strong student writing, published with student permission and completed in response to assignments (descriptions or directions to be accordingly supplied), for my own and others Writing and WIC courses. …I would invite other Writing and WIC faculty to begin collecting and/or submitting their collected student writing samples (again with student permission) to this website. And, with permission, I would propose that our COCC website of student writing be linked to selected reputable national educational websites …"

I have been collecting and webpublishing, with permission, my students’ writing in various genres and courses for some time—most recently in my Fall 1999 and Spring 2000 courses (Individual course websites accessible from Site Map: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/sitemap.htm  ).

I created a Table of Contents webpage linked to Student Writing pages and assignments in my individual course websites (accessible from Site Map linked above).

Web Resources that I collected in preparation for teaching Hum 299 include many annotated links to student work in many genres and fields. I have since found an excellent model for organizing and presenting student writing in Bennington College (VT)’s "Virtual Classroom" website, which I hope to emulate.

My Hum 299 students are publishing quality webwork this Spring term (see Hum 299 Site Map: http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/sitemap.html )

I have not yet enlisted the participation of other COCC faculty in this endeavor, but I hope to pursue this project with WIC and WAD faculty and their students in future.

NOTE: Univ. of Texas-Austin site collecting inter-institutional examples of course assignments and student writing is no longer being maintained, and I found no other such "open" sites in my Winter 2000 web research.

Proposed Activity #14. "Explore possibilities for inter-institutional connections, cooperation, and more ‘seamless articulation’ in curricula…."

I was invited to prepare regional conference presentation on "Student Perspectives on World and Multicultural Literature: Writing for the World Wide Web," by coordinator Beth Camp (Linn-Benton Community College) and I prepared the presentation in March 2000. [My presentation was subsequently delivered to TYCA-Pacific NW Conference, associated with National Council of Teachers of English, Corvallis, OR – April 8, 2000. Several Oregon and Washington community college faculty expressed interest in the Hum 299 project and volunteered to review the website and offer feedback in Summer 2000.]

RE: PIP Goals #3 & #1

Proposed Activity #15. "Conduct research in developing theoretical currents in writing, rhetoric, and literature focusing on new epistemologies and critical thinking paradigms generated by non-linear and "collage"-designed hypertext writing, reading, and informational research. I am particularly interested in exploring new ideas regarding A Rhetoric of Writing for E-Space . . . ."

The acceptance of our CCHA-NEH Grant Project "Cyber Rhetoric: A Rhetorical Approach to Writing for the World Wide Web" (see attached description) hurled me deeply into this research and teaching activity during Winter 2000. The initial research phase yielded the annotated Hum 299 Resources webpages (see Hum 299 Site Map: http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/sitemap.html ). Phase 2 was to webpublish hypertext lessons that translated (a) cyber-jargon into language that students could understand, (b) theory into practical applications, and (c) generic web design and writing principles into specific advice suited to academic informational webgenres. Writing the following Cyber Rhetoric pages consumed a major part of my Winter sabbatical:

Cyber Rhetoric (1): Introduction to Cyber Rhetoric,Web Medium Characteristics, Web User Patterns:  http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/lessons/rhet1.html 

Cyber Rhetoric (2): "Domains" of Web Communication, Informational Websites & Targeted Audiences:  http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/lessons/rhet2.html 

Cyber Rhetoric (3): Introduction to Genre, Web Genres: Form & Function, Student Web Genres: 
 http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/lessons/rhet3.html 

Bibliography & Works Cited in Cyber Rhetoric & Team Website Directions pages:  
 http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/lessons/biblio.html  

Phase 3 (mostly implemented during Spring term) was to use the foundation of Cyber Rhetoric lessons concrete guidelines, assignments, and assessment tools for my Spring Hum 299 course, specific to FrontPage98 capabilities and creation of academic informational websites. (See Hum 299 Site Map: http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/sitemap.html ) Some of these Hum 299 webpages have already been discussed above—e.g. for Citing and Annotating Sources. In essence, I have written an online textbook.

Documentation and Evaluation of Proposed Activities

  1. The webwork I have completed, including selective bibliographies and much more, have been referenced above and in attachments. These are freely available for review by FPIRC, my designated evaluator, and interested others.
  2. Copies of this Sabbatical Leave Report have been forwarded to Acting Humanities Dept. Chair and EOU-COCC Coordinator Kathy Walsh, and my CCHA-NEH Project partner Bart Queary, for their review and comment. I also plan to create a webpage in which to publish a hyperlinked version of this Sabbatical Report.
  3. As already mentioned above, I have shared huge parts of my Sabbatical Leave findings and instructional products – especially those connected with Hum 299 - with interested colleagues within and outside my department. Kathy, Bart and I plan to make more presentations in Fall 2000 – see CCHA-NEH Project Action Plan accessible via the Hum 299 Site Map: http://www.cocc.edu/hum299/sitemap.html 
  4. My new and revised COCC and EOU course syllabi, and relevant supplemental materials are filed in the Humanities Dept. Office and are available for review online (accessible from Site Map: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/sitemap.htm  )
  5. References: Colleagues who have worked with me on these Sabbatical Leave projects include Kathy Walsh and Bart Queary; Hum 299 Reviewers Barbara Klett, Cat Finney, Jack McCown, Patricia O’Neill, and Jon Bouknight; our CCHA-NEH Project Mentor, Dr. Agatha Taormina (see contact information on attached Project description: Cyber Rhetoric….").
  6. Student Evaluations are being administered in all my Spring 2000 COCC and EOU courses, and will be filed in my Human Resources Personnel file and Humanities Dept. file. Auditing Hum 299 "students" Stacey Donohue and Lisa Goetz-Bouknight, (Humanities instructors), IT Coordinator Barbara Klett (who has also been very involved with Hum 299 students and projects this term), and other Hum 299 Reviewers may be contacted in the interim.
  7. Publication: The Jan/Feb 2000 issue of New Crisis Magazine, containing the centerfold version of my African Timelines Parts I and II is attached.
  8. Conference Presentation: "Student Perspectives on World and Multicultural Literature: Writing for the World Wide Web," delivered to TYCA-Pacific NW Conference, associated with National Council of Teachers of English, Corvallis, OR – April 8, 2000. Beth Camp (Linn-Benton Community College) and Eleanor Latham (who attended my presentation) make be contacted as references.
  9. Professor Olakunle George, Comparative Literatures, University of Oregon, may be contacted regarding my expertise and the quality of my online instructional materials in African Cultures and Literatures. I also continue to collect many E-mails originating with national and international college faculty and students testifying to the value of my Hum 211 webpages, and I can produce some of these if requested.
  10. Collaboration with Kathy Walsh in May 2000, in writing a proposal for a presentation based on our "Cyber Rhetoric" Grant, for the 2000 Conference on College Composition and Communication to be held in Denver, CO.
  11. A copy of my Bedford-St. Martin’s Review of the Revision plan for The Bedford Anthology of World Literatures, 2nd ed, March 13, 2000; is available for review upon request.
  12. A copy of my Feb. 2000 E-mail correspondence with editor Laurie Champion (San Diego State University), who contracted with me to write articles on Cynthia Ozick and Gish Jen for Contemporary American Women Fiction Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook (to be published by Greenwood), is available for review upon request.
  13. Barbara Klett tells me that a "major" number of "hits" have been recorded on my COCC webpages. [Note: I do not keep "counters" on my webpages, but perhaps Barbara would be willing to testify on this point if asked.]

Note: During Winter 2000, I remained on the Tenure Committee due to the number of new members. For a report on my service, please contact Mike Sequeira, 1999-2000 Chair, Tenure Committee

ATTACHMENTS  - Linked if available online:

  1. From Cora Agatucci’s Approved 1996-2000 PIP [Four major goals and methods] - available:
     http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/PIPSab/PIP9600.htm  
  2. Budget of Expenditures and Outside Revenue Earned during Winter 2000 Sabbatical
  3. [Grant] Project Title: Cyber Rhetoric: Creating an Online Learning Community in the Humanities; Advancing the Humanities Through Technology at Community Colleges - including Project Description; Participants; Abstract; Action Plan; Conference Presentation;
    Hum 299 Faculty & Staff Reviewers - available:
    http://web.cocc.edu/hum299/ccha/ccha.html
  4. [CCHA-NEH Grant Mentor] Site Visit and Revised Action Plan (April 2000) - available: 
    http://web.cocc.edu/hum299/ccha/sitevisit.html
  5. Site Map – Hum 299: Student Perspectives on World and Multicultural Writers – Writing for the World Wide Web - available: http://web.cocc.edu/hum299/sitemap.html 
  6. Jan/Feb. 2000 issue of New Crisis Magazine [see centerfold version of Parts I & II of my African Timelines] – only one copy provided.

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Sabbatical Winter Quarter 2000 - Proposal & Report
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Last Updated: Sunday, 23 January 2005


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