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

C3-2-1 Newsletter #18

Hello, Faculty Community! 

***You are receiving this newsletter because you are a faculty member at MiraCosta College. I, Sean Davis, am the coordinator of our C3 Teaching and Learning Center***

I am proud to be a member of the Asian and Pacific Islander Community and in solidarity with our sisters during this moment of grief and pain. 

3 resources related to teaching and learning, 2 online tips and tricks, and 1 question for reflection

Looking for archived resources, tips/tricks, and questions?

Revisit the past editions of the C3-2-1 Newsletter here. 

Want to share? 

If you have some resources, tips/tricks, and questions to share, please contribute to the newsletter using this C3-2-1 Form.

C321 Newsletter

(3) Resources

  1.  Leading with Justice – Educational Leadership Speaker Series

    This resource was sent to me by Chad Tsuyuki (Letters). Thank you, Chad. You always have excellent recommendations. Sacramento State University is organizing this series with several prominent leaders in education, and it is available free for all. The talks are being recorded, and some have already been archived on their website. This series is a year-long effort with a full slate of speakers this spring and fall. 
  2. Misinformation Forum Series

    Our Web Services & Emerging Technologies Librarian, Lauren McFall, has organized an interdisciplinary faculty lineup to present intriguing and timely topics this Spring.

    Misinformation is an old problem, but technology has manifested that problem in new ways. In response to recent events over the last year, the MiraCosta College Library, in collaboration with faculty across many disciplines, hosts a series of misinformation forums to discuss these issues and help promote information literacy. Students, Staff, Faculty, and Administration alike are welcome to join the discussion.

    You can watch the first forum here – My Neighbor is a Conspiracy Theorist! The Psychology of Misinformation and How to Dilute the Kool-Aid.
  3. Instructional Design and Faculty Mentor Support

    Peer faculty mentors are great for specific questions on online teaching strategies, tools, and other kinds of professional advice and support to help you serve students effectively while staying healthy and sane.

    Our Instructional Designer can provide more extensive support such as thorough course design feedback and assistance, making course materials fully accessible, reviewing and adopting Open Educational Resource course material, and more.

    Use this form to get connected to a mentor and/or our instructional designer – Instructional Design and Faculty Mentor Support

    Please do not forget to take advantage of these valuable resources provided by dedicated and talented folks. 

(2) Online Tips and Tricks

1. Adding Rubrics to Quizzes

Did you know you can add rubrics to quizzes in Canvas? I did not. You can’t use the rubrics to grade quizzes (I am not sure how that would work anyway). However, you can use rubrics to clarify expectations for quizzes and give students a bit more guidance before they take an assessment. 

2. Using the Outcomes Feature in Canvas

If you are into backward design and ensuring students meet expectations for your student learning outcomes, this feature will be a powerful tool for you. It is especially helpful when it is time to measure SLOs at the departmental level. Using this tool will help track mastery of content in your classes. 

(1) Question

How can we care for those suffering right now and still preserve ourselves for the long road ahead? 

(Try to) Stay joyful,

Sean Davis
Joyful Teacher in Residence 
Coordinator, C3 Teaching and Learning Center

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