Antiracism: The Conversation – A S.A.F.E. Topics and (Re)Teach Special Podcast Event

Hello, Campus Community! 
The S.A.F.E. Topics Podcast is back for Season 2! In our season premiere, we teamed up with Bruce Hoskins and his (Re)Teach podcast to bring you a special conversation on “Antiracism.” As a campus, we are reading books on talking about race and the concept of “antiracism.” We brought together some dynamic folks to provide their perspectives. 
This episode is broken up into 3 parts

  1. The Talk
  2. The Work
  3. Our Hope 

Be sure to listen to these in order. 
Many ways to listen

  1. Re(Teach) – Buzzsprout
  2. Podbean Website – S.A.F.E. Topics – Season 2, Episode 1 
  3. S.A.F.E. Topics Spotify – Episode 11
  4. Apple Podcasts – Search for “safe topics” and/or “(Re)Teach”

Here are the details

Antiracism: A one-word conversation with faculty 

For the start of its second season, the first episode of The S.A.F.E. Topics podcast is an exciting one! Hosts Sean and curry are joined by Dr. Bruce Hoskins, host of the (Re)Teach podcast in a collaborative conversation with faculty about antiracism. We are joined by Rachel Hastings (Communication Studies), Oswaldo Ramirez (Counseling), Chad Tsuyuki (Letters), and Denise Stephenson (Writing Center) in an unscripted conversation about issues related to one word, “antiracism.”  

What to listen for

  • Antiracism, nothing new, but how do we start with ourselves? 
  • Looking inward while being surrounded by the normalcy of white supremacy. 
  • Antiracism is not equity.  
  • To be antiracist, it is a daily self-assessment of looking at “normal” spaces. 
  • Language at the root of performance and culture. 
  • “Walking the walk.” – Bringing race to the forefront. 
  • How often are you asked to talk about your own experiences? 
  • We have been socialized to perform, but we need to be action oriented. 
  • Political correctness and getting to ignore talking about race. 
  • Having a fear of saying anything wrong. 
  • Speaking about race will not be a comfortable conversation.  
  • Acknowledging white fragility, but not making it the centerpiece of attention. 
  • Where are our students left out? 
  • Having antiracism integrated into everything we talk about.  
  • Reflections on the NCHEA equity workshop. 
  • The baseball metaphor of antiracism. 
  • Acknowledging the Black Alliance group on campus.  
  • Shifting the conversation from equity to race.  
  • We must focus on what we’re good at as educators. 
  • Asking each of our guests the question: what are we feeling hopeful about? 

    You can connect with the S.A.F.E. Topics podcast on Instagram: @safetopics_podcast and share this podcast with this link.  

The S.A.F.E. Topics and (Re)Teach Teams

Bruce Hoskins – Faculty, Sociology (Co-Host)
curry mitchell – Faculty, Letters (Co-host)
Sean Davis – Faculty, Sociology (Co-host)
Kelly Barnett – Intern and Music Technology Student (Audio Editor)
James Garcia – Associate Faculty, Sociology (Show Notes)

(Re) Teach.  Equity-Inspired Community College Teaching.
SAFE Topics - Dangerous Discussions Need a Safe Space

Launch of the PROJECT – Online Faculty Mentorship Program

Hello, Faculty Community!

We are very happy to announce the launch of the PROJECT – Online Faculty Mentorship Program! 

Project Online Faculty Mentorship Program logo

We know that folks are still adapting to our shift to distance education this Fall. Today, our President Dr. Sunny Cooke, announced that we will be continuing in our current modality for Spring 2021. Are you in need of assistance with your online course design and teaching? Are you looking to learn more ways to engage your students and help them better navigate your classes? Do you want help implementing more equity practices in your online course offerings? 

We have 12 faculty members on the team who are ready to work with you on your online courses – both synchronous and asynchronous classes. Our mentors work in non-credit and credit in disciplines that span across all ACPs (Academic and Career Pathways)

If you want to connect with and be assigned a mentor, please complete the following form so we can assess your needs and know how to best pair you with a member of the team: PROJECT – Online Faculty Mentorship Program

For more information, feel free to contact us! 

Sean Davis ([email protected])

Jim Julius ([email protected]

MiraCosta Online Ed Key Issues Recap

Hello, faculty –

This is a quick recap with links to critical emails sent last week, for those who may have been immersed in summer until the last minute (good for you!). Please review any and all that may be of interest!

Email #1 – includes info on the new ability to merge Canvas course sections

Email #2 – includes a quick overview of MiraCosta’s primary online teaching tools, a heads-up about potential broken links in your courses, and a note about special support for CE faculty

Email #3 – includes info about online ed Flex workshops (now you can view archives of those), new Canvas-based faculty support resources, info on how to access past workshop archives, a note about updates to AP 4105, and info about Canvas support now available via chat

Email #4 – Includes key online student support resources to share with your students: the Canvas Student Support Hub, Student Orientation to Online Learning workshops, CARE resources for students in need, and support for student identity online (pronouns and preferred name)

PROJECT Trainers & Mentors Wanted – was sent by Sean Davis with a call for faculty interested in serving as compensated trainers and/or mentors for other faculty this fall to enhance our equity-minded online teaching practices. Remember to fill out the form by Friday, Aug. 21!

Best wishes for a great start to fall!

– Jim

Jim Julius, Ed.D.

Faculty Director, Online Education

MiraCosta Online Ed Pre-Fall Email #4


Enjoying your last hours of summer freedom? Haha! This is the fourth in a series of emails about all things online leading up to MiraCosta’s fall 2020 semester. If you missed email #1email #2, or email #3 (which, yes, was inadvertently labeled as a second #2 – oops) please check those out!

Thursday updates: all about connecting your students with support for online learning –

  • Student Support Services & Resources, Online
  • Student Orientation to Online Learning
  • Resources to Include in Your Classes
  • Pronouns and Preferred Name in Canvas – an important change

Campus Closed. Student Support Open.

Campus may be closed, but our amazing array of student support services and resources are just one or two clicks away. Point your students to the Student Support Hub in Canvas. Share the link and point them to the Student Support button on the left in Canvas for quick access to online support from the library, STEM & MLC, online tutoring, writing center, counseling, career center, open computer lab staff, student help desk and more! The new Help Hut on the MiraCosta website is also a quick way for students to connect with all kinds of support services, and the tutoring hub gives access from the website to all the academic support resources found in the Student Support Hub within Canvas.

Student Orientation to Online Learning Workshops

I’ll be offering over two dozen Student Orientation to Online Learning workshops this fall – see all dates and times on the TASC site and in Canvas announcements. These workshops help to familiarize students with the resources MiraCosta provides online to support them, as well as to adopt habits and attitudes of successful online students. Encourage your students to attend and, if you like, find out which of your students participated in order to incentivize their attendance.

Two Highly Recommended MiraCosta CARE Resources

The Reshaping Your School Schedule During Remote Instruction document has great info for students on good habits for online student success, self-care and mental health tips, online learning netiquette, Zoom tech tips, and more. Linking to it from your syllabus and course home page could easily provide students with a wealth of great tips tailored for this unique time. You may also wish to share the CARE form – students who are need of technology resources or have other major life concerns making it difficult to maintain their studies can seek help via this form. You also can fill out the form on behalf of students experiencing hardships.

Ensuring Student Identities are Equitably Presented in Canvas

  • Canvas itself now supports pronouns and all Canvas users are able to select their pronouns in their Settings. An announcement in Canvas reminds all users about this. If you previously used NameCoach to support pronouns, note that it is no longer available at MiraCosta.
  • Please make sure that students know that if they prefer to be known by a different name from their legal/formal name, they may indicate their preferred name via SURF – instructions are here. Preferred name is used in Canvas, on class rosters, and elsewhere around MiraCosta.

Got your Flex schedule all planned out? See you online!

– Jim

Jim Julius, Ed.D.

Faculty Director, Online Education


MiraCosta Online Ed Pre-Fall Email #3

Hello Hello! This is the third in a series of emails about all things online leading up to MiraCosta’s fall 2020 semester. If you missed email #1 or email #2 please check those out!

Wednesday updates: all about faculty support and professional learning resources for online teaching –

  • Online Ed flex workshop schedule
  • Canvas-based online teaching resources for MiraCosta faculty
  • Additional workshop archives of interest
  • Updates to AP 4105
  • Canvas support now available via Chat!

Online Education Fall Flex Workshops

Online Ed and C3TLC have coordinated a number of workshops being offered this Friday and Monday. You can see all of these workshops listed in one place; they are also included on the complete Flex workshop schedule. Please note that there are a number of other superb-sounding online ed-related offerings that are also being offered during Flex week. Of special note this Friday is that in addition to the workshops, there will be four hours of open Canvas support time offered by Karen Turpin and several faculty Canvas power users. Drop into that open support lab anytime to get your pressing Canvas questions answered!

Online Education Canvas-based Resources for MiraCosta Faculty

The MiraCosta Distance Education Handbook and the PROJECT Online Teaching Foundations course are two resources you may not be aware of. The DE Handbook covers all kinds of details about policies, procedures, guidelines, and recommendations for online teaching at MiraCosta. The PROJECT Online Teaching Foundations course was put together this summer and includes many recordings of Zoom presentations made by MirCosta faculty and other online teaching experts this summer, as well as a lot of great activities and resources. While there is still a bit of finishing touch being applied to both of these resources, they are ready for you to begin exploring and using.

More Online Ed Workshop Archives

We’ve been offering online workshops and recording them for years! Explore what’s available in our workshop archives page. We also have a separate page with all the great workshops conducted during our instructional continuity transition week in March. If you’re looking for help with a tool or online teaching topic that’s not on this fall’s Flex schedule, you can probably find a recording on one of these pages to help you out. And viewing those recordings is, of course, Flex-eligible.

Updates to AP 4105

AP 4105 – MiraCosta’s administrative procedure on distance education – was updated in the spring to ensure MiraCosta is aligned with California Title 5 regulations on distance education. Most notably, student-to-student interaction is required for all distance education classes as an expansion of the definition of regular effective contact. You’re encouraged to review this AP and make sure you’re on the right track as you set up your classes.

A New Canvas Support Option: Live Chat

You may be one of the many faculty who loves the Canvas 24×7 phone support. Or, you may be one who (like me) would prefer a chat. If you haven’t clicked that Tech Help button at the bottom left corner of Canvas recently, you may not have noticed that Live Chat with Canvas Support is now an option, for both faculty and students. Just be aware, these days they are BUSY! You may need to be a little patient to get through to a rep, but it’s still a great way to get unstuck on Canvas issues as quickly as possible.

Tomorrow: Student support resources!

– Jim

Jim Julius, Ed.D.
Faculty Director, Online Education

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