Category: Featured

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.
• MiraCosta Online Mentor support – MiraCosta Online Mentor faculty are ready to support you with 1-1, on-demand support as well as three different 4-week online teaching courses that launch Jan. 30.
• Instructional Designer support – 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 and othertech 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.
• The MiraCosta Online Class Quality Guidelines provide 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.
• Online Ed Workshops – The Flex week schedule includes many great online-related workshops. And 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 – With the library, I offer nearly 20 of these across the first 9 weeks of the semester – 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 Hub in 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 and Online Education webpages are also great starting points for students to connect with all kinds of support services when they’re not in Canvas.
• 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 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.
• Zero- and Low-Textbook Cost Course Sections – If you are teaching one of these, please be sure to mark your class in SURF as LTC or ZTC if you haven’t already, so students know that your class has lowered that access barrier!

MiraCosta’s Online Education Tools

Click the link immediately after each bullet for a detailed MiraCosta-specific overview of each item below. 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.
• Pope Tech helps faculty detect and correct accessibility issues within Canvas. See also Tips for Creating Accessible Course Content.
• 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.
• 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.

– Jim

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