Author: Jim Julius

Dear MiraCosta Faculty,

Winter is coming! (That’s a gift, not a threat!) As we finish up, here are some reminders and resources to help you reach the finish line, and perhaps, to begin spring preparation.

Canvas End of Term

After Dec. 31, your fall Canvas classes go into read-only mode for you and your students. If you wish to remove access to any of your course materials for your current students beyond this semester, you need to do so by then. Review our Canvas end-of-term guide for details. It also discusses what you need to do if you have any students who will receive Incomplete grades.

MiraCosta Online Mentors and Instructional Designer Support

If you’d like help with any semester wrap-up tasks, or as you begin working on spring classes, MiraCosta peer mentor faculty are available over break (please see the email sent today by Sean Davis for details), and/or you can consult with our Instructional Designer, Nadia Khan (click the link to schedule a time).

Helping Students to SOAR

The SOAR (Student Online Academic Readiness) workshop returns in spring. In partnership with librarians, we’ve already lined up many workshop times for the spring semester (page will be updated very soon if it’s still showing fall times when you view it). Please feel free to recommend this to your students as you build syllabi and welcome pages for your classes! As always, we’ll have Canvas announcements reminding students of sessions each week. And as always, you can check to see if your students have attended one of these workshops in order to incentivize their participation.

Upcoming Professional Learning Opportunities for Online Teaching

• We’re planning lots of great online-related workshops for Flex week, with topics including Canvas course design templates, Canvas Studio, Pronto, Perusall, Zero Textbook Cost Course and Program Development, and open drop-in times for consultation with Canvas experts and peer faculty mentors. Also, look for a discussion about Artificial Intelligence and its impacts on teaching and learning, which we expect to be the beginning of a series continuing into spring.
• Additionally, MiraCosta Online Mentors will be offering three 4-week @ONE courses adapted for use at MiraCosta this spring: Creating Accessible Course Content, Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning, and Introduction to Asynchronous Online Teaching and Learning. Look for an email coming soon from Nadia Khan with more details about these, which we expect to launch during Flex week.
• @ONE has opened registration for free spring webinars on using video in online teaching.
• The Online Teaching Conference will take place in person June 21-23, in Long Beach. The call for proposals is open now through January 31 if you’re interested in presenting.

Wishing you a restorative winter break!

– Jim

Jim Julius, Ed.D.
Faculty Director, Online Education
MiraCosta College Online Education | MiraCosta Online Faculty Support

Please see below for quick reminders of important online-focused resources to help you help your students succeed!

Support for You

• Our Canvas start-of-term checklist can help you finalize your classes.
• The MiraCosta Online Class Quality Guidelines provides MiraCosta requirements and recommended practices for online instructors; join our accompanying Canvas course to be inspired by (or even copy from) real world Canvas examples shared by colleagues.
• Ongoing faculty support – You can request an appointment with our Instructional Designer, Nadia Khan, anytime.
• Tech Support – Canvas options include 24×7 phone and chat support. Just click the Tech Support button at lower left in Canvas! Zoom tech support for faculty is available through the MiraCosta employee help desk.
• MiraCosta technologies supporting online teaching and learning – please see the last section of this email for an overview, with links to learn more.
• Online Ed Workshops – You can always view recordings of online education Flex workshops (Flex-eligible, YES!).

Support for Your Students – Please help your students to be aware of and make use of these important services and resources!

• Student Online Academic Readiness workshops – In collaboration with the library, I’ll be offering about 20 of these across the first 9 weeks of fall – see all dates and times on the TASC site and in Canvas announcements. These workshops (formerly known as Student Orientation to Online Learning) 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.
• Online Student Support Access Points – the Student Support Hubin Canvas, accessed via the Student Support button on the bottom left in Canvas, gives quick access to online support from the library, STEM & MLC, online tutoring, writing center, counseling, career center, open computer lab staff, student help desk, health services, CARE team, and more! The Help Hut on the MiraCosta website is also a quick way for students to connect with all kinds of support services including A&R and Financial Aid.
• Tech Support – Also at lower left in Canvas is a button for students to quickly access Tech Support options, including 24×7 phone and chat support from Canvas, and our local MiraCosta student help desk.
• Technology Needs? – Be sure to share the updated form for students to fill out if they need a loaner laptop or hotspot.
• Class Availability in Canvas – Faculty teaching distance education (online and hybrid) classes are expected to make their classes available by mid-day on the Monday of the week in which they begin. To learn more, please see MiraCosta Distance Education Class Authentication Compliance, Start-of-Term Availability Procedures, and Recommendations.

MiraCosta’s Online Education Tools

Click the link immediately after each bullet for a detailed MiraCosta-specific overview of each item below. This is not intended as a comprehensive review of all technologies for online teaching supported by the college, but rather a quick look at the essentials available to all faculty. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions about these or other resources.

• Canvas – the #1 tool for faculty and students
• Zoom – if you’re using Zoom, make sure you’re using a pro Zoom account through MiraCosta.
• Canvas Studio – enables faculty and students to create videos while inside Canvas. Faculty can create interactive discussion or quiz activities based on video.
• Pronto is an incredible mobile-friendly and Canvas-integrated messaging platform that’s ready to use in every course.
• Perusall is a social annotation tool available within Canvas that makes it easy for students to comment/discuss right on a text, document, or image.
• Lab Archives Electronic Notebook is an online notebook especially useful for translating lab manuals and student notes/work into the online environment.
• Pope Tech helps faculty detect and correct accessibility issues within Canvas. See also Tips for Creating Accessible Course Content.
• Ally automatically converts content you share through Canvas into multiple formats for students, allowing for listening rather than reading and better access to content on mobile devices.
• PlayPosit – This video interaction tool offers more complexity and options than Studio. Studio is a great place to start, but if you’re looking for more question types to add to your videos, PlayPosit is a great option. 
• Turnitin – help students learn to properly cite sources and avoid plagiarism. Also provides grading and peer review tools for written work.

Best wishes for a 😊 🍁

– Jim

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