Category: Online Education News You Can Use

Preparing for Summer 2021 Online Student Success

To all faculty teaching this summer – please take advantage of and share these important resources and opportunities for you and your students!

Support for You

  • Instructional Design help – To request online teaching and course design support from our instructional designer, please fill out our request form. We’ll get you connected! (This is only available through June.)
  • Tech Support – Canvas options include 24×7 phone and chat support. Just click the Tech Support button at lower left in Canvas! Zoom tech support for faculty is available through the MiraCosta employee help desk.
  • Our Canvas start-of-term checklist can help you finalize your summer classes.
  • The MiraCosta Online Class Quality Guidelines were significantly updated this spring and approved by the Academic Senate in May. Please review them to learn more about MiraCosta requirements and recommended practices for online instructors.
  • MiraCosta technologies supporting online teaching and learning – please see the last section of this email for an overview, with links to learn more.

Support for Your Students

  • Student Orientation to Online Learning – In collaboration with the library, I’ll be offering eight of these workshops at the start of the summer semester– see all dates and times on the TASC site and in Canvas announcements. These workshops 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 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, and more! The Help Hut on the MiraCosta website is also a quick way for students to connect with all kinds of support services including A&R and Financial Aid.
  • 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 CARE form for students to fill out if they need a laptop and/or hotspot to succeed this summer.

MiraCosta’s Online Education Tools

Click the link immediately after each bullet for a detailed MiraCosta-specific overview of each item below. This is not intended as a comprehensive review of all technologies for online teaching supported by the college, but rather a quick look at the essentials. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions about these or other resources.

  • Canvas – of course is the #1 tool for most faculty.
  • Zoom – Make sure you are using MiraCosta’s professional-level Zoom account to get access to the full set of Zoom features.
  • Canvas Studio – This great tool 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.
  • Pope Tech  helps faculty detect and correct accessibility issues within Canvas. See also Creating Accessible Course Content for tips on ensuring all the content you add to Canvas is fully accessible.
  • 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 – Many faculty use Turnitin to help students learn to properly cite sources and avoid plagiarism, as well as to assist with grading and peer review processes for written work.
  • Productivity Software, Hardware, and other resources for working from home – this AIS website includes a number of links to helpful resources for being fully equipped when teaching from your home.

Happy summer teaching!

– Jim

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

Finishing strong and looking ahead

Dear MiraCosta Faculty,

Congrats as we approach the spring finish line! Here are a couple quick reminders and opportunities for support with your online teaching:

Canvas End of Term

After June 7, 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 7. Review our Canvas end-of-term guide for details.

MiraCosta Online Mentors and Instructional Designer Support Still Available

If you’d like help with any semester wrap-up tasks, or as you begin working on summer or fall classes, our MiraCosta peer support faculty are available through the end of May, and our Instructional Designer is available through the end of June. Fill out the request form to get connected!

Pronto Available for 2021-22

Check out Pronto, an incredible mobile-friendly and Canvas-integrated messaging platform that’s ready to use in every course. Faculty who used it this spring found it extremely useful for communicating with students.

Summer Professional Learning Opportunities

Fall Flex Friday: Call for Participation

Friday, August 13 has been designated by PDP as having a focus on online instruction. Sean Davis and I would like to organize the day into a conference format. We’re grateful for the proposals already submitted to PDP and we would like to involve more folks. If you didn’t submit a proposal but would like to be involved in some way, please just send me a quick email expressing your interest and ideas. We look forward to working with you!

In gratitude,

– Jim

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

Equity Online: Celebrating Our Collaborative Work in Progress

Equity Online: Celebrating Our Collaborative Work Progress

Hello, Faculty Community! 

This Friday the C3 Teaching & Learning Center and Online Education welcome you to a full day of celebrating, cultivating, and connecting around our commitment to equity-minded online education. This year has been incredibly challenging in so many ways, but our instructional practices have also advanced under those challenges, and this day is intended to both recognize the efforts of our community and to inspire and inform our ongoing work.

You may view a detailed schedule for the day,including Zoom links, but here are some quick highlights:

  • 9:00 – Welcome and introduction to the day
  • 9:30 – A panel of ASE students sharing their experiences as students during COVID-19
  • 10:35 – Keynote address by Michelle Pacansky-Brock, known for her work helping CCC educators to humanize online teaching
  • 12:30 – A SAFE Topics live podcast with ASE program faculty and staff sharing about student support during COVID-19
  • 1:35-3:40 – three workshops to choose from, including:
    • two-hour workshop on Canvas accessibility 
    • one hour workshop on Open Educational Resources 
    • one hour workshop on Addressing and Reducing Online Microaggressions

The day will also include social times at lunch (with a professional DJ supplying the soundtrack!) and at the end of the day.

No Zoom Registration Required – Just use the link and hop in!​​​​​​

Please plan to join us for some or all of this great day. We look forward to seeing you there!

Sean & Jim

Cameras On vs. Cameras Off: Blank Boxes & Framing Faces – A SAFE Topics Podcast

Good evening campus community!

In this episode of the SAFE Topics Podcast, the team goes into the topic of anonymity in the classroom. Join hosts Sean, curry, and Mana along with our special guests, Tyrone Nagai (Letters and Pre-Transfer), Krista Byrd (Psychology), and David Bonds (Mathematics) as they get into the topic of having cameras on vs. having cameras off! Listen in!

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 has Zoom been for you?
  • Having cameras on in-class versus one-on-one office hours.
  • “Just because you see their face doesn’t mean they’re paying attention.”
  • Is the “camera on student” also the “sit in the front student.”
  • The advantages of a live session.
  • Sometimes having cameras on is more of a distraction.
  • What’s happening from the psychological perspective?
  • It’s the students that aren’t showing up that are cause for concern.
  • “Zoom fatigue.”
  • Students are multitasking a lot of the time in a synchronous class.
  • Cameras on and cameras off as an equity issue.
  • Students are lacking friendships, connections, and networks.
  • Forcing cameras can be a tech issue.
  • Reminding ourselves that flexibility is important. 
  • What situations call for cameras to be on?
  • The implications of student success rates during this time.
  • What does participation and engagement mean to you?

Useful Links

The S.A.F.E. Topics Team

curry mitchell – Faculty, Letters (Co-host)
Sean Davis – Faculty, Sociology (Co-host)
Mana Tadayon – Student, ASG President (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

Stay great and have a fun weekend!

The S.A.F.E. Topics Podcast Team

Meet Mana: Awesome Student, ASG President, and the New SAFE Topics Podcast’s Co-Host!

Hello campus community!

In this week’s episode, hosts Sean and curry introduce and welcome Mana Tadayon, the SAFE Topics’ newest co-host! Mana first joined us as a guest on the One Word Conversation episode with students on “Leaders” (S2E3). In today’s release, we welcome Mana as a part of the team and we can’t be excited enough! Listen in and join us in welcoming Mana!!

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

  • Welcoming Mana!
  • What is it about community college that keeps you coming back for more?
  • The immediacy of impact on the campus community.
  • Every single class has a new set of people and that’s amazing. 
  • There is agency and autonomy in the work we do – is it the same for students?
  • What’s missing or makes community college harder?
  • Canvas and the “to-do” list.
  • Having passion and the energy to get through bad things.
  • The trap of “we did it, so we can do it.”
  • Teachers still come in nervous and with imposter syndrome.
  • To care or not to care.
  • What does community college promise to students and to teachers?
  • What does the Associated Student Government promise students?

The S.A.F.E. Topics Team

curry mitchell – Faculty, Letters (Co-host)
Sean Davis – Faculty, Sociology (Co-host)
Mana Tadayon – Student, ASG President (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
S.A.F.E Topics logo

Stay great and have a fun and safe Spring Break!

The S.A.F.E. Topics Podcast Team

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