Author: Jim Julius

November Online Ed News You Can Use

Online Education Initiative update

Last Friday, the MiraCosta Online Educators committee, in collaboration with the Academic Senate and Faculty Assembly, held a forum to address questions and provide more details about the OEI. Ric Matthews and Bonnie Peters from the OEI were on the panel along with Mike Fino, Jonathan Cole, Curry Mitchell (English faculty member who is participating in the OEI pilot), and me. Please see the OEI FAQ developed by MOE. (which is posted on MOE’s new website, also worth a look)

Remind Students – Great Online Support Resources

As the end of the semester approaches with term papers, final projects, and finals, please remind your students to take advantage of online tutoring, our online writing center, and the 24×7 ask-a-librarian service (under Ask Us at top right).

Please Update Spring Online Class Schedule

The spring class schedule is available, which means it’s time for online and hybrid class instructors to make sure their class info is updated on the Online Class Schedule site. (Thanks to those who already have!) Students use this supplemental schedule to learn more about the details of online classes. A more detailed email will go out to all spring online instructors next week.

Professional Learning Opportunities – Get Flex Credit

  • National Distance Learning Week is Nov 10-14! The US Distance Learning Association is running free webinars all week. Additionally, the Online Learning Consortium has a free Google Hangout at noon on 11/10: Distance Learning Best Practices for Community Colleges, and the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources has a free webinar at 10 am on 11/12 called Opening up Pedagogy in Communications and History Class.
  •  MiraCosta is now a member of the Instructional Technology Council, a national professional organization focusing on distance education in community colleges. See their most recent newsletter and explore their website. Many resources are publicly available but some require a member account – just let me know if you are interested in ITC credentials.

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

Bonus Fall Online Education News You Can Use

Online Education Initiative (OEI) Forum next Friday, 10/31

The MiraCosta Online Educators committee has organized an OEI forum next Friday, 1:30-2:30 pm, in the Little Theater (OC 3601). The event takes place following a Faculty Assembly meeting for full-time faculty. Food will be available starting at 1:15 outside the Little Theater and may be taken inside during the forum. As you likely are aware, MiraCosta is one of 24 CCCs selected as a pilot school in the Online Education Initiative. This forum will give an opportunity for open discussion about the OEI’s goals and timelines, MiraCosta’s participation, faculty interest and concerns, etc.

Bb Grader app for iPad now available

Blackboard has released a free iPad app for instructors that makes grading assignments via an iPad simple and powerful, and our Blackboard system is now configured properly to enable its use. You can use a stylus to annotate papers as well as giving audio or video feedback. This video demonstrates the capabilities. If you’d like to try it out but don’t have an iPad, remember that the TIC has some iPads available for 2-week checkout. Contact Karen Korstad to learn more.

Student Orientations to Online Learning complete for fall           

Last week the final two fall Student Orientation to Online Learning sessions were offered. 156 students attended this semester, bringing the total attendance since spring to 260 students. If you are incentivizing student attendance, please contact me for a list.

Professional Learning Opportunities – Get Flex Credit

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

October Online Ed News You Can Use

Are we really halfway to winter break already?!?

Student Support, Online – especially for midterms!

Please remind your students about MiraCosta’s free online tutoring, online writing support, and 24×7 Ask-A-Librarian (under Ask Us) services available to all students.

Final Fall Student Orientations to Online Learning

10/14, 1-2 pm in OC 1201, and 10/16, 5:30-6:30 pm online. See TASC’s site for details and links to sign up for and attend the online session.

Blackboard Issues

Two concerns have come up more frequently this fall with Blackboard. One: anyone with an AOL or Yahoo email address sending out email to class members via Blackboard (or Moodle) will find that many will not receive that email due to changes that AOL and Yahoo made last spring to reduce spam. Two: cutting-and-pasting into the text editor in Blackboard yields inconsistent results. This is a complex issue involving browser security settings as well as Blackboard-specific bugs, and the details vary greatly depending on context. Contact me if you’d like more information about either of these.

Online Education Initiative (OEI) Update

The statewide Online Education Initiative continues. As one of 24 pilot colleges, a handful of MiraCosta departments/faculty are considering applying to offer classes through the pilot this spring, incorporating new student readiness resources the OEI is developing. Other key initiatives of the OEI at present are the selection of an online tutoring service and a common course management system. The MiraCosta Online Educators committee is hoping to host a faculty forum on the OEI in the next several weeks – look for more information soon.

Professional Learning Opportunities – Get Flex Credit

  • San Diego CCD invites your participation in a faculty-led Distance Learning Summit on 10/24 – more info and sign-up link here.
  • Sign up for a webinar (Oct. 15, 12 pm) on how to store and share media and other files with 3CMediaSolutions.
  • Participate in free webinars this fall from the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources and from Turnitin (many offerings Oct 7-10).
  • Review an archived MiraCosta online ed workshop.

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

September Online Ed News You Can Use

Hope your semester is starting well!

Online Education Initiative (OEI) Update and Opportunities

You probably heard that MiraCosta is one of 24 colleges selected to participate in the pilot of the statewide Online Education Initiative. Much more information will come as this initiative proceeds; feel free to contact me if you have questions. Two opportunities are open now to all faculty: first, courses offered through the OEI will be reviewed by peer faculty – you can apply to be a course reviewer – deadline Sept. 12. Second, the OEI is seeking input by Sept. 22 on the selection of a common course management system to be used for the OEI.

Program Review Support

As your department works on Program Review, please consider me a resource if you have questions about online education data and planning. In the portal, you may access the Online Education program review data packet if you wish to examine college-wide data on success and retention by course modality and student demographics. The Chancellor’s Office Datamart site can also be useful for queries if you’re interested in historical and/or statewide outcomes data for distance education.

Student Orientation to Online Learning

Over 130 students have attended one of these one-hour sessions this fall, adding to the more than 100 that attended earlier this year in spring and summer. If you are incentivizing student attendance, please contact me for a list.  Two more orientations will be held in October – see TASC’s site for details.

Online Student Supports

I find during the student orientation sessions that most students are not aware of (but get very excited about) MiraCosta’s free online tutoring, online writing support, and 24×7 Ask-A-Librarian (under Ask Us) services available to all students. Please direct your students to these great resources!

Captioning Support

MiraCosta’s Access Specialist, Robert Erichsen, coordinates support for captioning of audio/video materials via the DECT grant. Please contact him (rerichsen@miracosta.edu / 760.795.6684) by Sept. 12. Also, the CCC system’s new 3CMediaSolutions enables you to request captioning on videos you upload to the site for storage/streaming.

Professional Learning Opportunities

  • San Diego CCD invites your participation in three upcoming online education events: A Day with TechSmith on 9/19; Blackboard Symposium on 10/3; and a faculty-led Distance Learning Summit on 10/24. Let me know if you’re interested and I can provide more details.
  • Participate in webinars and courses this fall from @One or the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources; review an archived MiraCosta online ed.
  • ConnectedCourses is a free online community running throughout the fall exploring socially connected open education, facilitated by a stellar lineup including MiraCosta’s own Lisa M. Lane, and beginning on 9/15.
  • Univ. of Central Florida maintains the Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository. Browse it for ideas; attend a webinar on 9/17 at 11 am to learn more; even submit your own online teaching strategies.

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

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