Students that drop a course in SURF after the semester has started remain on the People roster in Canvas, but with an inactive role. Students in the inactive role do not see or have access to the Canvas course, but faculty may access activities and grades of an inactive student. This is particularly helpful when a student grade is challenged or if a faculty member is evaluating whether a dropped student is eligible to be reinstated to a course.
People
Within the People roster on Canvas, students that have dropped will have the inactive tag displayed to the right of their name. This identifier will remain next to the student’s name throughout the course unless the student is reinstated to the course. Click the student’s name to access additional information about the student and review the student’s completed activities.
You cannot hide inactive students in the People roster.
Pronto Open Lab – Learn How to Level Up Your Engagement! ( Zoom Recording, 46 minutes) – 1/17/2024 workshop by Lauren Luker (Pronto) & Jim Julius. This workshop provides an overview of Pronto’s features and how to get started with using Pronto to enhance class communication. This recording requires a passcode: +I2?3aXA
Pronto is an app that works within and outside of Canvas to enable seamless, fun, and effective communication between faculty and students, and among students. Many California Community Colleges are now using Pronto. An initial pilot in 2021-22 went extremely well, and Pronto has been institutionalized going forward!
Some stats as of the start of 2024, after two years of using Pronto at MiraCosta:
nearly 11,200 MiraCostans signed in to Pronto
over 214,000 messages have been sent across more than 6,000 groups
What Pronto Offers
Real-time Chat Without having to share phone numbers or other contact information, now you have real-time messaging across each class and to individuals. Send text messages, files, images, emojis, and GIFs!
Message Translation Pronto gives everyone a voice by allowing them to send messages in their preferred language, and Pronto then automatically translates messages into the recipient’s preferred language.
Live-stream & Group Video Chat
Broadcast live video to your classes, and record your video sessions for replay. This may be a nice alternative to Zoom for things like office hours, group meetings, and more. Viewers interact using the chat button. It keeps the process smooth. Here is a video from Fabiola Torres of Glendale CC on how she uses the live-stream feature for class.
Chat via live video with up to 10 people simultaneously. Perfect for group projects!
Live 1:1 video chat any time for face-to-face interaction with a student. Or live-stream with a student and they can chat (they don’t have to be on camera).
Announcements Keep your entire course in the loop by sending a message to the whole class. It’s like sending a real-time announcement to your entire class. Keep everyone updated on assignments, tech glitches, emergency alerts, and any other important information you need to get out instantly. You can send one Announcement to multiple Pronto groups at once if you wish.
File Sharing & Storage Share any file type—documents, spreadsheets, slideshows, photos, videos, and more. All files stored in Pronto remain available through Pronto for easy retrieval with no storage limits. Pronto integrates with all reputable cloud storage repositories, including Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud, and Google Drive.
Task Management Keeps students organized and accountable by assigning tasks. Tasks allows you to create reminders for yourself or others in groups—attach files, photos, or videos and assign due dates with auto-reminders for each task. Here is a video from Professor Gomez of Glendale CC demonstrating how to assign a task.
Accessibilityand Privacy Pronto is both WCAG 2.0 AA and FERPA compliant. Pronto keeps you connected to everyone without sharing personal contact information.
Viewing Data Pronto lets you know who has seen your messages, so you can decide whether to follow up in different ways with those who may not have viewed a message.
Group Creation Groups you set up in Canvas automatically get a Pronto group. But anyone can also create Pronto groups on their own. Pronto groups created within the Pronto app remain available indefinitely, while Pronto groups tied to a Canvas class will end once the class is completed.
Check out this brief introduction to Pronto from MiraCosta faculty member Tanessa Sanchez:
Pronto Faculty Introduction
Where Can I Access Pronto?
Pronto is available 4 ways:
Directly within Canvas. If you are enrolled in any published course where Pronto is active, you will see the Pronto icon at the bottom left of Canvas, in the Global Navigation menu (you may need to scroll the menu down). Selecting the Pronto icon will open up Pronto to the latest chat you have had open or the course/group with which you are currently engaged.
The first time you use Pronto, you’ll need to provide your MiraCosta email address and then enter a code that Pronto will send to your email. If you are not yet enrolled in any course that is published and uses Pronto, you may need to wait until that occurs for this step to work.
Pronto only becomes active for a Canvas course after it is published. NOTE: this doesn’t happen automatically – Pronto becomes active for a newly-published course once the next synchronization between Pronto and Canvas occurs – this happens daily at 7 pm PST. But if you want to make Pronto active immediately after publishing a course, you can manually enable Pronto in the Pronto course management tool.
Do I have to use Pronto?
No, Pronto is available but you can ignore it. Doing so will still allow your students to use it. If you wish to turn off Pronto temporarily or permanently for a class, you can do that too. (Even if you like having Pronto on most of the time, you may wish to shut it off during an exam, for example.)
Support for Pronto is provided via the Pronto support site or by contacting help@pronto.io
A few important notes/tips:
Students added to your Canvas class will not be able to use Pronto for the class until the next Pronto synchronization occurs. You can use the Pronto Course Management tool to manually force Pronto to synchronize with a course if necessary.
Faculty can’t see Pronto in Canvas’s Student View. If you wish to experience Pronto within your course as your students would, you need to use your “fake student” account. But rest assured that the student experience with Pronto is just about identical to what you see on the faculty side.
On mobile devices, Pronto will not show up within the Canvas app or inside of Canvas in a mobile browser. Use the free Pronto app (search “Pronto: Team Communication”)
If you manually add anyone to your Canvas class, they won’t be part of the Pronto group that includes you and your students unless you do one of the following:
In the Add People process in Canvas, be sure to click the Section drop-down menu and choose the section that ends in -SURF
If you’ve already completed the Add People process and need to have someone (such as a TA) interacting with your students in Pronto, go to the Canvas course’s People roster, find the name, click the three dots at far right, choose Edit Sections, and then select the section that ends in -SURF
If you combine course sections into one Canvas course, you’ll need to use the separate Pronto groups associated with each section rather than messaging with Pronto to the entire combined class. Some notes on this process from MiraCosta professor Serena Mercado:
After publishing the combined Canvas course, the merged course showed up on my Pronto list.
In Pronto, when expanding the course (click the arrow on the right of the course name), it was divided into two sections (with REALLY long names)
Hovering over each name makes three vertical dots appear to the right of the name.
If you click on the three dots, you are given the option to nickname the individual sections, so they are more easily identifiable.
Here are some excellent additional Pronto resources:
Pronto slide deck from MiraCosta faculty Dawn Bell and Mariana Silva – includes ideas for using it with students
Pronto posting schedule – A suggested schedule with ideas for when and what a faculty member might use Pronto for to encourage wide student use
Pronto Help Desk – for students from MiraCosta professor Tanessa Sanchez
Pronto vs. Discord – Discord is a popular tool for free-flowing online class discussions – it has its downsides though as a tool that has not been vetted by the college and is outside of the college’s control
Thanks to Fabiola Torres of Glendale CC; MiraCosta’s Tanessa Sanchez, Serena Mercado, Mariana Silva, Dawn Bell, and Kristi Reyes; and Matt Baugh from Pronto for resources that helped to develop this page.
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.
Information to share with your students
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.
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.
Information for Faculty
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.
Instructor Navigation Menu
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.
Instructor To Do List
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.
Enabling the EvaluationKIT Course Navigation Menu Tool
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.
Click on Settings. You will find this as the last option on your course navigation menu.
Click the Navigation tab.
Find the EvaluationKIT Course option in the bottom list of hidden navigation items.
Drag EvaluationKIT Course from the bottom list to the top list of available items.
Click the Save button
Questions about Course Evaluations
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.
And here are some links for those who wish to follow up on what we are sharing (remember, we are just briefly introducing ideas, not walking step b step through the how to’s).
As Jim J. worked through his ideas, he reminded us of what an amazing recourse the TIC home page is and the practical teaching ideas we can find in our Distance Education Handbook.
When Nadia walked us through adding quiz questions and annotations to video in canvas, she highlighted the possibilities. But she also has a video that walks interested colleagues step by step through the how to’s of this tool: embedding quizzes and annotations in videos.
Thanks to all — especially our colleague Arturo Arevalos — for another lively session.
gym sullivan joyfully celebrating, cultivating, and connecting
Welcome back! Please see below for quick reminders of great MiraCosta resources to help you enable your students to succeed in online environments! If you use Pearson tools in Canvas, please be sure to see the final bullet in the first section for a critical update that occurred this summer.
Ongoing faculty support – You can set a meeting with our Instructional Designer, Nadia Khan, any time. Note: the Online Mentor program has not yet been renewed – I will keep you informed if/when that becomes available again.
Tech Support – Canvas options include 24×7 phone and chat support. Just click the Tech Support button at lower left in Canvas! Zoom and other MiraCostatech 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.
Pearsonusers! The integration between Pearson and Canvas had a major update following the spring term. MyLab is now called PearsonAccess. Links to Pearson MyLab tools from copied courses will no longer work and must be updated. Please see the Pearson Canvas integration guide for instructors and Pearson Transition guide to learn more, and reach out to your Pearson rep if you need assistance.
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 a number of these during the first two weeks of summer – see all dates and times on the TASC site and in Canvas announcements. These workshops engage students with resources MiraCosta provides to support them, as well as 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 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! NEW: The Ask the Spartan chat integrated into MiraCosta’s website provides both automated responses and (brand new!) the opportunity to connect to Live Chat with staff from many student support areas.
Tech Support – 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 form for students to fill out if they need to borrow a laptop or internet hotspot
Click the links for a detailed MiraCosta-specific overview (and often, recorded Flex workshops) for each tool below. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions about these or other resources.
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. NEW: the PopeTech dashboard tool added to Canvas this summer provides a course overview for addressing all accessibility issues in a course in one place, rather than having to go item-by-item through Canvas.
SensusAccess is a NEW tool added this summer to provide multi-format course material accessibility and file type conversion options for students, replacing Ally. If you notice an S symbol next to your page title and next to items in the Modules view, that’s SensusAccess.
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 types of interactivity to add to your videos, PlayPosit is great.
Turnitin – help students learn to properly cite sources and avoid plagiarism. Also provides grading and peer review tools for written work. Turnitin includes an AI detection capability for instructors at this time, but please beware of false positives should you use it.
Best wishes for a fantastic fall!
– Jim
Jim Julius, Ed.D. Faculty Coordinator, Online Education
Directly within Canvas. If you are enrolled in any published course where Pronto is active, you will see the Pronto icon at the bottom left of Canvas, in the Global Navigation menu (you may need to scroll the menu down). 
