Category: Featured

Instructional Design Hub

Need some Ed-tech support? Want to bounce off some ideas for how to design your courses using the MiraCosta College’s Online Class Quality Guidelines? 

Contact Nadia Khan, MiraCosta College’s Instructional Designer, for consultation. You can contact Nadia at nkhan@miracosta.edu or book a consultation with her.

Media & Tech Tips

Canvas Related

Studio Quiz and Studio Annotation

Adding Emojis in Canvas

Integrating Google drive into Canvas

Marking Google Doc assignment via Speedgrader

Canvas Buttons

Student Engagement & Interaction

Answer Garden

Meme generator

Gifs part 1 – A Gif for Your Students

Gifs part 2- A Gif for Your Students: Turning yourself in a Gif

MS Stream

Fillable PDFs

Resources 

Accessibility

Open Educational Resources and Zero Textbook Cost 

MiraCosta Online Class Quality Guidelines

Canvas 

If you have any questions about any of these resources, please contact Nadia Khan, Instructional Designer at nkhan@miracosta.edu 

Unlearn Grading to Ungrade Learning: Part 1 – A SAFE Topics Podcast

Good afternoon campus community,

In our latest episode release, the SAFE Topics team had a conversation with faculty members on the topic of ungrading! We explore ideas like deconstructing traditional grading, assessment being a conversation, meeting resistance, and self-reflections. Join hosts Sean and curry alongside Joe Salamon (Physical Science), Chad Tsuyuki (English), Virginia “Gin” Schwarz (English & Literature), and James Garcia (Sociology) as we talk about the world of ungrading. This episode is one for the books! Keep an eye out for Part 2 coming in the Spring ‘22 semester!

Access the transcript for this episode.

And don’t forget to listen to the mini-series, “Hyflexing,” with hosts Sean and curry!

Ways to Listen!

  1. Podbean – S.A.F.E. Topics
  2. Google Podcasts
  3. Spotify
  4. Apple Podcasts
  5. Amazon Music
  6. Audible

What to Listen For

  • How are we all thinking about assessment in our classrooms?
  • Is ungrading a privilege reserved for full time faculty?
  • Points, points, points!
  • Deconstructing the years of high school grade trauma.
  • The myths of the transactional relationship vs an authentic relationship.
  • Ungrading isn’t a radical idea – it’s being used in other places too.
  • “If you don’t do this, you won’t get that.”
  • The self-worth tied to the grades.
  • How the grade becomes the message.
  • Having both flexibility and rigidity.
  • Have you been met with resistance to ungrading?
  • The importance of feedback.
  • Grades still matter → We’re still working within a paradox.
  • Thoughts on the affective, formative, and summative.
  • Being way less stressed when you don’t have to be a policing person.
  • Making sure we have these conversations and self-reflecting.

The S.A.F.E. Topics Team

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

Connect with Us

PodBean
Safe Topics

How to Copy Individual Items to another Canvas Course or Share them with another Instructor

Canvas’s Direct Share feature allows instructors to share individual course items to their other Canvas courses, and easily share individual course items with other instructors in Canvas. To use this tool you will need to have a course role of Teacher, TA, or Designer in your Canvas course.

Please keep in mind that Direct Share is only for sharing individual items. If you wish to copy an entire course’s content over to a new Canvas course site, it is best to use Canvas’s course import tool to complete the course copy process.

Copying items to other Canvas courses

Follow these step-by-step directions:

Sending items to other Canvas instructors

Follow these step-by-step directions:

You can manage items that have been shared with you from within your Canvas account.

MiraCosta Online Support for Students

Did you know? It’s now a requirement for MiraCosta faculty to “Help students in a DE course section to be aware of MiraCosta College support services and resources, especially those available online.”(MiraCosta Online Class Quality Guidelines)

While there are lots of ways you may do this, here are some important ones to consider adding to your syllabus, your Canvas home page, and/or your introductory week discussions with students:

Student Support Hub

Point your students to the Student Support Hub in Canvas. Share the link and direct them to the Student Support button on the left in Canvas for quick access to online support, including live help, online appointments, and access to key resources from:

  • Library
  • STEM & Math Learning Center
  • Tutoring & Academic Support Center
  • Writing Center
  • Academic Counseling
  • Career Center
  • CARE (including technology device requests)
  • Health Services (including virtual physical and mental health appointments)
  • Open computer lab staff
  • Student Help Desk

Online Help Hut

The Help Hut on the MiraCosta website is a quick way for current and prospective students to connect online with student support areas including Financial Aid, Admissions & Records, Academic Counseling, and the Student Help Desk.

Tech Help in Canvas

The Tech Help button at bottom left in Canvas provides students (and faculty) with quick access to 24s7 phone and chat support from Canvas, as well as local technology support from the Student Help Desk.

Student Orientation to Online Learning Workshops

In collaboration with the library, I’ll be again offering about 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 these great online resources, to become more comfortable with Zoom, and Canvas, and to consider time management strategies. Encourage your students to attend and, if you like, find out which of your students participated in order to incentivize their attendance.

Please let me know if you have questions about any of these great resources!

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

6 Tips for Creating Accessible Course Content

These seven tips are a starting point for creating accessible course content; for additional information or if questions arise, please contact Aaron Holmes, Access Specialist at aholmes@miracosta.edu

  1. Add a Disability Accommodations statement:

    Please review Page 3 of MiraCosta’s syllabus checklist for examples of recommended language:

    Disability Accommodations
    If you have a disability or medical condition impacting learning and have not yet been authorized to receive academic accommodations, you are encouraged to contact the Student Accessibility Services (SAS) office (formerly known as Disabled Students Programs and Services or DSPS). The SAS office can be reached at (760) 795-6658, or by email at sas@miracosta.edu. The SAS office will help you determine what accommodations are available for you. If you’re requesting my assistance utilizing any authorized accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible.

    OR

    If you have a disability, you are encouraged to contact Student Accessibility Services (SAS) (formerly known as Disabled Students Programs and Services or DSPS) at 760.795.6658. Their Oceanside campus office is located in Building 3000, adjacent to Parking lot 3C. They will help you determine what assistance is available for you.

    OR

    If you have a hidden or visible disability, which may require classroom or test accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible. If you have not already done so, please register with Student Accessibility Services (SAS) (formerly known as Disabled Students Programs and Services or DSPS) at 760.795.6658. Their Oceanside campus office is located in Building 3000, adjacent to parking lot 3C.

  2. Add links to Vendor Accessibility information for specialty products used in your course.

  3. Create instructional content with accessibility in mind. Review and apply the following accessibility principles:
  4. Create accessible instructional content based on application.
  5. Accessibility Checkers: always use the software’s built-in Accessibility Checker (Pope Tech Instructor Accessibility Guide in Canvas, Word, Adobe Acrobat, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.). Follow the Repair recommendations provided by the Accessibility Checker to fix errors.

    Resources: 
  6. Ensure Readability Divide large blocks of text into smaller more manageable sections; avoid complex sentences; use sans-serif font at approximately 12 points. Ensure reading order is correct when screen readers are used (beware text boxes and other non-sequential methods for adding text).

    Resources: Website Readability assessment tool
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