Category: Media & Technology

Pronto

Pronto Flex Workshop Recordings

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!

If you do not want Pronto to be available for any class, opt out via the Pronto Course Management tool.

Some stats as of the start of fall 2023, after two years of using Pronto at MiraCosta:

  • nearly 9,600 MiraCostans signed in to Pronto
  • nearly 176,000 messages sent
  • nearly 37,000 groups created

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.
  • 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.
  • Accessibility and Privacy Pronto is both WCAG 2.0 AA and FERPA compliant. Pronto keeps you connected to everyone without sharing personal contact information.

Check out this brief introduction to Pronto from MiraCosta faculty member Tanessa Sanchez:

Pronto Faculty Introduction

Where Can I Access Pronto?

Pronto is available in 3 ways:

  1. Pronto icon 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.
  2. Through any web browser at miracosta.pronto.io .
  3. Via the mobile app, which is available for free in the Apple and Google app stores (search Pronto: Team Communication).

Getting Started with Pronto

To jump in and try out Pronto, self-enroll in a MiraCosta faculty Pronto practice course in Canvas. Once you are in, you’ll see some directions to get started and try it out!

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.

To get started on your own, review the Canvas/Pronto integration guide, check out Pronto’s 3-part YouTube introductory series for faculty, and/or watch the 6 minute video:

Canvas // Pronto Integration from Pronto on Vimeo.

Pronto only becomes active for a 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.)

Use the Pronto Course Management tool to turn off Pronto for a particular class. Learn more about Pronto Course Management.

Technical support, tips and resources

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”)

Here are some excellent additional Pronto resources:

Credits

Thanks to Fabiola Torres of Glendale CC, MiraCosta’s Tanessa Sanchez, and Matt Baugh from Pronto for resources that helped to develop this page.

Pope Tech and Canvas Accessibility

Pope Tech And Canvas Accesibility Flex Workshop Recordings

Pope Tech is an accessibility remediation tool available to instructors in Canvas. This tool gives instructors a quick but powerful way to check for and fix common accessibility concerns in Canvas content. Ensuring your Canvas courses are free of accessibility concerns helps support inclusion and equity for all students, and also is a requirement of MiraCosta policies as well as state and federal regulations.

MiraCosta College has two Pope Tech Canvas LMS tools:

  • Accessibility Guide – a page-by-page accessibility checker and remediation assistant for Canvas
  • Accessibility Dashboard – a course-level dashboard allowing you to review and correct accessibility issues throughout an entire Canvas course
Canvas LTI Dashboard and Accessibility Guide

Pope Tech Canvas LMS Tool Resources

Instructor Accessibility Guide: Demo for Canvas LMS

Pope Tech Detailed Guidance

Click any of the items below to view more details, including video guides, for using Pope Tech.

What Canvas elements can be tested? What does Pope Tech check for?

What Canvas elements can faculty test with Pope Tech?

Most areas where faculty use the Canvas Rich Content Editor can be tested with Pope Tech:

  • Canvas pages
  • Syllabus
  • Quiz descriptions
  • Discussion Topics
  • Assignments
  • Announcements

To test a Canvas item for accessibility concerns, activate Pope Tech by selecting the Pope Tech icon button at left of the Cancel and Save buttons while editing any of the Canvas items above. Pope Tech works even when the item is not yet published.

Pope Tech button at left of Cancel and Save buttons

What does Pope Tech check for?

  • If headers are present or skipped 
  • Flags suspicious alt text for images (contains “image of”, “image”, etc.)
  • Color contrast between text and highlighted colored-background
    (Note: doesn’t check color contrast within images)
  • If font size is readable
  • Flags non-descriptive links such as “click here”, “link”, “more”, “read more” 
  • Flags redundant links 
  • Flags tables that lack at least one header and caption.
  • Flags YouTube, Canvas embedded video and Canvas embedded audio to bring awareness media will need to be manually reviewed for captions
  • Flags potential inaccessible files that need to be manually reviewed

How do I use Pope Tech?

Using Pope Tech is simple and intuitive.

Step 1: Open Pope Tech 

To access the PopeTech Course Dashboard tool, click Pope Tech Accessibility in any Canvas course menu.

To test an individual Canvas item for accessibility concerns, activate Pope Tech by selecting the icon next to the Cancel and Save buttons on a Canvas item while using the Rich Content Editor.

Pope Tech button at left of Cancel and Save buttons

Step 2: Use Pope Tech to Locate and Fix Accessibility Issues 

When Pope Tech is activated, the Pope Tech menu appears on the right-hand side of the screen. At the top of the interface,  the number of errors and alerts will need to be addressed. 

  • Errors are accessibility errors and should be looked at for remediation.
  • Alerts are suspicious areas. Alerts may or may not be an accessibility error. The user should review these and fix if necessary.
  • Rescan can be used once errors and alerts are fixed. This will allow the user to scan the page a second time and verify that all fixes were applied correctly.

Note: Files, videos, and audio will always be listed as alerts, as these require manual review with human eyes!   

In the example below, we have 11 errors and 4 alerts.

Pope Tech Accessibility checker interface

In the Pope Tech interface, results are organized by the following categories:

  • Images and Links
  • Text and Contrast
  • Headings
  • Tables and Lists
  • Documents and Videos 

Each of the categories can be expanded to show the errors or alerts. To view the content raising an error or alert:

  1. Select the arrow displayed next to any category name. Once you expand a category, Pope Tech will display fields grouping together issues within that category. 
  2. Click any field to view detailed results and how to fix them.
  3. Click a particular result to highlight the indicated content within the Canvas editor, enabling you to fix that content.

This quick (42 second) video demonstrates the process described above:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0izZNAG-BMu0026feature=youtu.beu0026ab_channel=YoussefFrancis
Video Demos: Fixing Alternative Text, Color Contrast, and Table Errors

Fixing Alternative Text

Alternative Text errors are listed in the Images and Links category of the Pope Tech tool. This video demonstrates how to fix such errors:

https://youtu.be/sHs7gQLaihs

Fixing Color Contrast

Color Contrast errors are listed in the Text and Contrast category of the Pope Tech tool. Users can fix color contrast errors by one of two methods:

  • Adjust the color in the Canvas rich text editor.
  • Adjust the contrast by using the sliders in the Pope Tech interface until the interface displays a “Pass” message.

This video demonstrates how to fix such errors:

https://youtu.be/2aDRvb-VGBA

Fixing Table Captions and Headers

Table errors are listed in the Tables and Lists area of Pope Tech. Using Pope Tech, it is very simple to add a table caption and designate whether the first row or the first column must be the header. This video demonstrates how to fix such errors:

https://youtu.be/AFPkAQ4knDw
Accessibility Issues Explained, from PopeTech

Click any link below for details about common accessibility issues, why it matters, and what to do to fix/avoid the issue.

Credit

Thanks to Tracy Schaelen of Southwestern College for originally developing content represented here, and to Liesl Boswell of the CCC Accessibility Center for some modifications and suggestions.

Zoom: Getting Started, Getting Help, and Using Zoom with Canvas

Zoom Flex Workshop Recordings

Zoom Logo

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:

  • Unlimited meeting lengths and very large numbers of attendees
  • Recordings “in the cloud” so that you do not need to manage large files of your recorded meetings
  • Auto-transcription of your cloud-based Zoom recordings

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.

Log On to Zoom at MiraCosta College

  1. To access your Zoom account via the web go to: https://miracosta-edu.zoom.us
    Sign in with your MiraCosta College employee account and two-factor authentication (2FA).
  2. To sign into Zoom app(s) on desktop and mobile:
    1. Open the installed Zoom app. (Download the latest Zoom apps from http://zoom.us/download )
    2. Select the ‘Sign in with SSO’ button or option at the app login screen
    3. Enter our ‘Company Domain’: miracosta-edu
    4. You will be directed to our MiraCosta login portal where you will enter your MiraCosta credentials.

MiraCosta Zoom Help and FAQS

  • Zoom help for MiraCosta staff and faculty is through the Employee Helpdesk:
  • Zoom help for MiraCosta students is through the Student Help Desk
  • General MiraCosta Zoom account help and FAQs (You will need your MiraCosta credentials to access this).
  • How do I get a Zoom account? If you had a pro Zoom account through ConferZoom prior to 2021, it should have been automatically migrated to the MiraCosta Zoom, and there’s nothing you need to do. If you did not previously have a Pro Zoom account, and need to create a MiraCosta Zoom account, sign in to the MiraCosta HelpDesk in the Portal and select the NEW Zoom Account Request option.
  • What if I’m having trouble with my Zoom account? Sign in to the MiraCosta HelpDesk in the Portal and click the User Accounts button to request help.
  • What happened to my Zoom recordings made before 2021? They are still in your Zoom account! The old links to Zoom recordings will still work, but a message will briefly appear when people click an old link. If you update an old recording link with the new MiraCosta Zoom URL (replace cccconfer.zoom.us with miracosta-edu.zoom.us in the link) it will work seamlessly.
  • What happened to my recurring Zoom meetings I set up before 2021? Similar to your recordings, old links to recurring Zoom meetings will still work, but a message will appear when people click an old link. If you go to your Zoom account, you’ll see that your meetings have been migrated in, and you can get a new invitation. You can also simply update a meeting link created before 2021 with the new MiraCosta Zoom URL (replace cccconfer.zoom.us with miracosta-edu.zoom.us in the link).
  • What happened to Reports from Zoom meetings held before 2021? They are gone, sorry.
  • How much storage do I have for Zoom recordings? As of spring 2021, there is not a limit; however, this may change in the future if we do not manage our recordings well. Please delete recordings that you do not need.

Zoom Documentation

The following Zoom trainings, documentation, and resources can help you stay informed:

Using Zoom with Canvas

You can schedule and run video meetings directly within Canvas, using the new Zoom integration (this is MUCH improved over what what we had prior to 2021). To get started and learn more about the Zoom/Canvas integration, see directions below; for more details you may be interested in:

You may also share Zoom links and recordings inside of Canvas without using the integration.

Canvas Integration with Zoom

  1. Enter your Canvas course
  2. Click Settings on the course menu
  3. Click the Navigation tab
Zoom Canvas LTI Step 2 and 3
  1. Click the 3 dots to the right of Zoom and select Enable.
  2. Click the Save button
  1. Click the Zoom course menu item which will appear in your course menu.
Zoom Canvas LTI Step 6

Now you can schedule and access Zoom meetings from inside of Canvas.

Viewing All My Zoom Meetings in 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‘.

All My Zoom Meetings link in Canvas

PlayPosit in Canvas

Playposit logo

PlayPosit Flex Workshop Recordings

PlayPosit is an interactive video learning tool that is fully integrated with Canvas. Playposit allows instructors to create activities using videos from 3C Media, YouTube, or other video sources.  

MiraCosta has piloted PlayPosit for several years. As of 2020-21, PlayPosit is now available to all MiraCosta faculty through a CCC system license.

PlayPosit allows you to:

  • Layer a variety of assessment activities within a video, creating a quiz with results going automatically into the Canvas gradebook. (Canvas Studio has similar functionality, but with fewer and simpler question types than PlayPosit.)
  • Track detailed viewing analytics for videos

PlayPosit Guides

See the Quick Start Guide, or view more detailed guides embedded below.

Building a Bulb in PlayPosit 3.0

CCC TechConnect – 3CMedia Hosted Video

Assigning Bulbs in Canvas

Monitor Analytics

Playposit in MiraCosta College Canvas

Playposit is an external tool. One of the most common places you will find it is within the RCE (Rich Text Editor).

New RCE

Additional Support

Turnitin

Turnitin logo

Turnitin Flex Workshop Recordings & Updates

Turnitin is a cloud-based service for originality checking, online grading and peer review that saves instructors time and provides rich feedback to students. Turnitin is used to support the submission, tracking, plagiarism prevention, and evaluation of student work online. As of April 2023, Turnitin also provides an evaluation of the likelihood of student writing being generated by AI (artificial intelligence).

It’s a good practice to use Turnitin to support student learning about academic writing through a formative process, and not as a policing tool. The following Dos and Don’ts are from a Turnitin presentation about best practices.

Dos:

  • Set clear expectations regarding academic integrity
  • Help students understand the relationship and differences between similarity and plagiarism
  • Use the Similarity Score formatively
  • Ensure that students understand the Similarity Score and what it means about their writing

Don’ts:

  • Use the Similarity Score as a “gotcha” or punitive measure
  • Conflate similarity and plagiarism
  • Use the Similarity Score exclusively as a summative measure 
  • Implement the use of the Similarity Score without ensuring that students understand what it means and how they can use it to improve their writing

Turnitin is available in Canvas.  MiraCosta College has an unlimited license to Turnitin, GradeMark, and Peer Review for all courses.

Canvas integration with Turnitin

Turnitin is available within Canvas in two different ways. As of August 2019, Turnitin says that both of these integration methods will be supported indefinitely. The links below provide more details about how to use each method.

  • Turnitin LTI 2.0 for Canvas
    • Offers a tighter integration between Turnitin and Canvas within Canvas Assignments.
    • The Turnitin experience still “feels” like Canvas.
    • For faculty who like to use the Canvas grading tools along with Turnitin’s plagiarism checking capabilities.
  • Turnitin LTI 1.0  for Canvas (Classic LTI Version)
    • Uses Canvas’s “External Tool” feature to connect seamlessly from Canvas over to Turnitin.
    • Users clearly notice that they have gone from Canvas into Turnitin.
    • For faculty who like to use Turnitin’s grading and feedback tools along with its plagiarism detection.

Turnitin Status Updates & Support

Check below if you are experiencing Turnitin errors – often these are due to issues with the entire Turnitin service and are not something we control locally.

Turnitin has several support services for your questions or problems:

Plagiarism Prevention & Student Intellectual Property

MiraCosta faculty using Turnitin for plagiarism prevention should be aware of these key points from MiraCosta’s administrative procedure on intellectual property:

When an instructor makes use of software that incorporates student works into its database, as is common with plagiarism-prevention software, the use should be governed by the following guidelines:

–  Student work may not be submitted to plagiarism-prevention software or other software that incorporates a student’s work into its database without the student’s knowledge.
–  Students should be informed in the syllabus that such software is used in the course and that the software incorporates any student work submitted into its database.
–  Students should be given alternatives, such as requiring students who do not submit their work to plagiarism-prevention software, to document their references using an annotated bibliography and/or photocopies of the first page of all sources used and/or to write a brief paper describing their research methodologies.

Learn more about Turnitin

Professional development opportunities are available from Turnitin:

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