Category: Featured

Hello everyone, and happy summer! Please look over the following carefully. It’s full of important info and opportunities for all MiraCosta faculty!

– Jim Julius
Faculty Director, Online Education

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PROJECT Online Teaching Foundations – June 8-12

As I announced last week, MiraCosta will hold an online teaching institute the week of June 8-12. You can review daily topics, and respond to the interest survey if you haven’t yet done so (thanks to all who have!). This is a collaboration between the C³ Teaching & Learning Center, Online Education, and PDP. PROJECT stands for PROfessionals for Joy, Equity, and Community in Teaching!

Canvas updates

– Canvas End of Term

After June 1, your spring Canvas classes go into read-only mode for you and your students. If you wish to remove access to any of your course materials for your current students beyond this semester, you need to do so by June 1. Review our Canvas end-of-term guide for details.

– Canvas Studio is now a permanent tool

The Studio tool within Canvas allows you to create screencasts, turn videos into discussions, and even embed quiz questions into videos. It’s no longer a pilot – AIS has made a commitment to fund it on an ongoing basis. Check out our local introductory page or jump straight to Canvas’s full set of Studio tutorials. 

– Combining course sections in Canvas – still not available, but progressing

The moratorium on combining multiple course sections into one Canvas site due to FERPA concerns is nearly resolved, but for the summer we remain unable to combine such sections in Canvas.

– Support for pronouns in Canvas

The NameCoach tool is no longer being supported by state funding and will be removed from Canvas prior to the summer term. However, the good news is that Canvas itself now supports pronouns in the People area (class rosters) and all Canvas users will be able to select their pronouns in their settings. Look for more info on this soon.

– New in Canvas: Ally – Providing course material options

Starting this summer, files you upload into Canvas such as PDFs, Word documents, and PowerPoints will be automatically available to students in multiple fully accessible and mobile-friendly formats. This tool is being funded by the chancellor’s office through the end of 2020. Look for more info on this soon.

– Zoom app/client update needed by May 30

If you are a ConferZoom user, you should have received a message from CCC TechConnect directing you to update Zoom on all your devices. If you don’t, you will be forced to starting June 1, which could delay your access to a Zoom meeting. Please do so now if you haven’t already done so.

– Summer Student Orientations to Online Learning

I’ll be offering nine Student Orientation to Online Learning student workshops in the first two weeks of the summer term – dates and times are posted on the TASC site. Student attendance at these sessions is available to you in SURF if you are teaching a summer class and wish to incentivize student participation. Learn more about the Student Orientation to Online Learning.  

– Open Educational Resource (OER) and Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) reminders

Knowing that your classes will continue to be taught mostly or entirely online might get you rethinking your course materials. Be sure to consider OER and library options! The MiraCosta OER/ZTC disciplinary resource site includes recommended OER and library materials organized by discipline.

– Teaching a Zero- or Low-Textbook Cost summer or fall class?

If you are teaching any summer or fall classes that have course material costs of $0 (zero) or under $40 (low), please be sure to designate those classes as such in SURF. This enables your class to receive a special denotation in SURF and also to be listed on the ZTC/LTC page. See directions here.

– Want support to bring down course material costs for your students by adopting OER?

We still have grant funds available that can provide stipends, support for student workers, instructional design expert assistance, and more, if you are undertaking work that will save students at least 30% over current course material costs through adoption of OER. Contact me to learn more.

– Interested in getting involved in statewide OER work?

The statewide Academic Senate’s OER Initative (ASCCC OERI) is looking for faculty to serve in a wide range of capacities, from reviewers to discipline leads to regional leads, during the next academic year. If you are interested, please complete both the ASCCC OERI Application and the ASCCC Faculty Application for Statewide Service.

Hello, Faculty Community! 

We hope things are going as well as can be expected. We want to keep you updated on the support and resources that are available to our students and you. Please review the following – 

Support for students that faculty are encouraged to share and reinforce:

• The Student Support Hub in Canvas includes many excellent services featuring live online support experts from the library, tutoring, STEM/Math Learning Centers, Writing Center, Counseling, Career Center, Computer Labs, and Student Help Desk
• NetTutor was added to all Canvas course menus last month – this allows all students to access online tutoring directly from all Canvas courses; you can remove this from your course menu if you don’t think this would be helpful to your students
• The Student FAQs document is kind of like a virtual MiraCosta campus – students can find answers to many questions that they would have asked on campus, and find contact information to pursue any needs further
• The Reshaping Your School Schedule During Remote Instruction document has excellent info for students on good habits for online student success, self-care and mental health tips, online learning netiquette, Zoom tech tips, and more
• Students who are need of technology resources or have other major life concerns making it difficult to continue their studies, they can self-refer, or you can refer them for support via the CARE form

Support for faculty to better support students:

• The MiraCosta APC is dedicating staff time to helping faculty reach out to students who are falling behind. Fill out the attached form if you’d like them to work with you and your students.
• Faculty in need of webcams, headsets, or other resources to help you work from home should fill out the Help Desk request form on the Portal – details about this and additional remote working information is on AIS’s Remote Work Resources site
• The Remote Instruction Faculty FAQs document includes lots of guidance and resources for MiraCosta faculty at this time
• Check out the library support options if you want to ensure that students who were using textbooks on reserve in the library will continue to have access to crucial course material
• Check out the CVC-OEI schedule featuring daily online office hours for faculty as well as a variety of webinars
• Center of Urban Education – Webinar: The Importance of Equity-Minded Virtual Practices during COVID-19 on Thursday, April 23 at 12 pm.

Take good care,
Sean and Jim