Online Ed Tech Pilots

In collaboration with the MiraCosta Online Educators committee and individual faculty, the office of Online Education regularly supports pilot evaluations of emerging technologies. For more information on current pilots, including getting involved if you are interested, please contact Jim Julius, faculty director of online education.

Current Pilots

  • Canvas Studio (2019-20) – Originally known as ARC, Studio makes it easy for faculty and students to record and manage screencast and webcam video directly in Canvas. Faculty can set up discussion and quiz activities that integrate video, and can comment directly on student assignments submitted as videos. This is available to all faculty and students.
  • PlayPosit (2016-20) This technology was licensed to fill the gap left when Zaption was abruptly bought out and discontinued. This technology integrates with course management systems and enables faculty to add questions directly within videos for students. Scoring of questions and tracking of student engagement with videos is automated and integrated with the Canvas gradebook, if desired. This license is limited.
  • Tools from the Online Education Initiative – As an OEI pilot college, MiraCosta has access to a number of tools for use in online education (100% online and hybrid classes). These include online tutoring platform and service provider NetTutor, online proctoring tool Proctorio, online name pronunciation and gender identity tool NameCoach, Canvas discussion alternative Notebowl, and online counseling platform Cranium Cafe.

Previous Pilots – Now Standard

  • Canvas – See the course management system evaluation process for details on how Canvas was evaluated, selected, and piloted in 2016 on its way to becoming the sole course management system at MiraCosta.
  • Zoom – This web conferencing software was available to all CCC faculty as a pilot of CCC Confer (originally under the “ConferNow” rebranding). As of summer 2018, it has been fully adopted (now called “ConferZoom”) and has replaced the old CCC Confer (Blackboard Collaborate) as the tool to use for synchronous meetings and activities. Read more about ConferZoom.

Previous Pilots – Adopted but No Longer in Use

  • Camtasia Relay (2012-13, institutionalized in 2013-14; discontinued in 2017-18) – this screencasting tool for faculty, staff, and students was piloted and found useful by many faculty and staff, and was fully adopted by the college. Its name changed to TechSmith Relay; TechSmith eventually changed the product and no longer supported the version used at MiraCosta. MiraCosta now has institutional licenses for Camtasia and Snagit software for screencasting and video editing.

Previous Pilots – Not Continued

  • Blackboard Collaborate Ultra (Discontinued June 2018 by CCC Confer)-  This web conferencing software is available within Blackboard or Canvas and can be used in place of the older Collaborate (or CCC Confer). It is more video-centric than the current CCC Confer and works directly within your browser without requiring Java and the separate launcher program like the traditional Blackboard Collaborate.
  • Zaption (2015-16, renewed for 2016-17 but was bought out and retired) This technology is similar to PlayPosit (see above).
  • YouSeeU (2014-15) – this tool providing multiple assignment and test tools integrating instructor and student video within the course management system was piloted primarily by International Languages faculty. While several found it to be a promising tool, the overall learning curve and challenges it presented led pilot users to decide it wasn’t quite ready for adoption.
  • Respondus LockDown Browser (2012) – this tool for restricting student access to other digital resources while taking an online test was piloted by several faculty in collaboration with the Academic Proctoring Center. Its benefits were not found to outweigh the challenges associated with its use.