Labster is an online lab simulation software available within Canvas.
Zoom provides a reliable, easy-to-use, mobile-friendly tool for live, recordable online presentations, meetings, and discussions with audio, video, chat, screen sharing, polling, and more. It can be used within Canvas or independently.
Zoom Pro is available to all MiraCosta faculty and staff at no charge. Students don’t use the Zoom Pro account but can use free Zoom basic accounts. Nobody at MiraCosta should be paying anything to use Zoom!
The version of Zoom that MiraCostans use changed after the fall 2020 semester; MiraCosta Zoom is now accessed at miracosta-edu.zoom.us rather than conferzoom.org or cccconfer.zoom.us. Faculty need to sign in to Zoom with their MiraCosta College login and password to obtain unlimited pro (“licensed”) access to all features of Zoom, including:
This page includes basic technical how-to information and resources on using Zoom in general, and Zoom use in tandem with Canvas. Please see our separate Teaching with Zoom at MiraCosta College page for more detailed tips about teaching securely, effectively, and accessibly with Zoom.
The following Zoom trainings, documentation, and resources can help you stay informed:
You can schedule and share Zoom meetings and recordings directly within Canvas, using the Zoom integration. To get started and learn more about the Zoom/Canvas integration, see directions below.
Note: You may also share individual Zoom meeting links and recordings in Canvas without using the integration.
Now you can schedule and access Zoom meetings from inside of Canvas.
When you first enter Zoom on Canvas you will see only the Zoom meetings associated with the Canvas course you entered from. To see and access all Zoom meetings within your account, click the link ‘All My Zoom Meetings‘.
MiraCosta’s Learning Centers provide great online tutoring for all students, available in Canvas through the Student Support Hub. For subjects and times where local online tutoring may not be available, the next option is eTutoring through the Western eTutoring Consortium. A third option with even more subject and time availability is NetTutor, available through the California Virtual Campus (CVC-OEI).
Regardless of which online tutoring services may best benefit your students, these are recommended practices that faculty use to help more students benefit from tutoring:
NetTutor provides support for just about any academic subject, up to 24×7 for the most popular subject matter, and can be made available via your Canvas course menu. The link opens an interface where students select their subject for NetTutor help, with no additional login required. Students can access both the STAR-CA tutoring consortium from California and the full complement of professional NetTutor tutors.
First, please keep in mind that if your subject is supported by local MiraCosta Learning Center tutors, you should direct your students to that support primarily. If you do want your students to consider NetTutor support:
Also with NetTutor, each instructor may specify “Rules of Engagement” that inform tutors about the approach and resources you would like them to use when working with your students. If you would like to do this, contact Jim Julius for more information.
Once you add NetTutor to your course menu following the directions below, click the NetTutor link to verify that your subject is available.
1- Click Settings at the bottom of your course menu
2- Click the Navigation tab
3- Click the gear icon to the right of NetTutor
4- Select +Enable
5- Click the Save button
A NetTutor link now appears in your course menu.
Course evaluations are integrated within Canvas for both faculty and students. MiraCosta uses EvaluationKIT to provide this function. When you have a course section that is part of your evaluation process, this page has information to help you ensure it goes smoothly.
These directions are for the SURF enrolled students within your course.
Students can access the course evaluation within Canvas, or through an email sent to them from MiraCosta’s course evaluation survey administrator. Provide the link below to your students to help them with the evaluation process in Canvas.
Students must have cookies and pop ups enabled within their browser for the course evaluation tool to work correctly.
Advise students to contact the Student Help Desk if they need assistance with course evaluations. The phone # is (760)-795-6655.
*Note for Instructors: The Student Course Evaluations menu item will NOT work with your Faculty Canvas Sample Student account, or the Instructor’s Student View in Canvas, as those accounts are not SURF enrolled users within your course.
As an instructor, you can view your course evaluation surveys from the course navigation menu or from the To Do list within your course. It is important to have the EvaluationKIT Course menu navigation tool available in Canvas in order to show the ‘Instructor Course Evaluations’ navigation menu item. Even if this tool is available in Settings > Navigation, this tool will only show up in your course if there is a course survey associated with your course.
If you modified your course navigation menu, you may have hidden the EvaluationKIT Course menu navigation tool. If you are being evaluated, you must enable the EvaluationKIT Course menu navigation tool so that you will see the navigation menu item ‘Instructor Course Evaluations‘, and your students will see the ‘Student Course Evaluations‘ navigation menu item.
If you have not made any changes to your course navigation menu, this is the default location for the EvaluationKIT course surveys. Remember, this tool will only display if you have a course survey associated with your course. The navigation menu item is displayed as ‘Instructor Course Evaluations‘ in the instructor view.
On the To Do list within a Canvas course, you can also view your course evaluation survey. In this area you can view the percentage of students who have responded, as well as the start and end date of your course evaluation survey.
NOTE: Courses with a 1/1/3000 date on the Course Evaluation Survey are NOT being evaluated in the current semester.
If you edited your Canvas course navigation menu, and your course is being evaluated, you may need to add the EvaluationKIT Course navigation tool back to your Canvas course. This is necessary so that you and your students will be able to access your course evaluations in the Canvas course navigation menu.
For questions about student surveys and/or the Course Evaluations & Surveys system, associate faculty should contact their school’s Academic Division Administrative Assistant. Full-time faculty should contact human resources at evalsupport@miracosta.edu
If you are having a computer specific issue with a MCC computer contact the campus Employee Help Desk at (760) 795-6850.
Dear MiraCosta faculty,
I hope your fall is starting well! If you’re looking for a boost to your communication with students but haven’t tried Pronto, this might be a good moment to learn more about it!
Pronto’s a messaging tool that’s integrated with Canvas and also has a fantastic mobile app. We’ve had Pronto at MiraCosta for over 2 years now, and (I just checked) over 9600 MiraCostans have sent almost 176,000 messages with Pronto!
To learn more:
– Jim
Jim Julius, Ed.D.
Faculty Coordinator, Online Education
