Category: Online Education News You Can Use

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***

Lots of local workshops being offered to help us out. People are amazing, right? We just keep going. Pretty remarkable.

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.

(3) Resources

1 Faculty Workshop: Hands-On Labs in an Online World – Thursday 12/3, 2 pm – 3pm

Lynne Miller, Anthropology, is organizing and facilitating this workshop. Here is a bit from her – 

The workshop will feature four brief presentations:

• Barbara Juncosa will share her creative use of GoPro to demonstrate critical lab procedures. 
• Paul Katson will show a video with the students’ at-home lab activities and associated worksheets. 
• Scott Fallstrom will teach us how to use digital whiteboards to present material effectively. 
• Dominique Ingato will share ideas for enhancing Labster simulations using virtual tools and activities.

Following the presentations, we will have plenty of time for discussion and Q&A, and maybe even some hands-on activities of our own. 

Access the Workshop 

And, yes, it will be recorded – I will distribute the link later in the week.

2. Tips and Tricks for Remote Proctoring

Sinclaire Tirona, Testing Services Coordinator, informed me about this workshop. Here is her message – 

The Academic Proctoring Center (APC) will be hosting a flex-eligible workshop next week onTips and Tricks for Remote Proctoring. This workshop will be especially beneficial to any faculty transitioning from Proctorio at the end of the year or who just want to learn more about how we proctor remotely using Canvas and Zoom.

Details:

Tips and Tricks for Remote Proctoring
Tuesday, December 8^th from 2 pm – 3 pm
Sign up here: https://forms.gle/D2pFnL2msmxpxVEN9

3. Document Accessibility Training (with an emphasis on Canva Documents)

Aaron Holmes, DSPS Access Specialist, let me know about this workshop he is facilitating next week. Aaron provided the following context and information – 

If you are not familiar with Canva, it is a website that allows for the quick creation of fliers/images. Some departments are using Canva to create content for their social media accounts as well as physical fliers when we are on campus. Unfortunately, the documents and PDF files that Canva creates are not accessible right off the bat. That is where the idea of this training came from. To make sure that our digital content is accessible to all of our students, I am offering training on document accessibility. The training will cover the basics of document accessibility (Canva and Word/PDF will be the focus). The training will allow for a question and answer session and will be recorded so that those who cannot attend in real-time can still access the video.

Date: Wednesday, December 9th
Time: 1:00 – 2:30 PM
Length: 60-minute training, 30-minute question/answer
Zoom Link: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/99254075553

(2) Online Tips and Tricks

1. 3 Ways to Humanize Your Online Course
   This post provides practical and easy-to-use strategies to humanize your course and increase student engagement with each other and your class. 
   
2. Ready Made Canvas Course Templates
   Okay, I did not know this existed. So, there are some fantastic templates that you can easily plug into your course and make it “pop.” I made all my visuals and graphics myself. This resource would have saved me hours and hours. Oh well. I hope this helps y’all. 

(1) Question

How do our students feel as we end this most unprecedented semester? Ask them. 

Stay joyful,

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

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***

Thank you.

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.

(3) Resources

1. Canvas 24×7 Support Continues! 
   Jim Julius shared this bit of good news last week! MiraCosta has decided to fund this resource at least through June. This update is a big win for faculty as I have heard from many folks about how this service has been extremely helpful when they have run into a snag trying to get Canvas to do what they want it to do.
   
2. Achieving The Dream (ATD) – Open Educational Resources (OER) to Create a Culturally Relevant Classroom
   This resource provides an overview of both culturally relevant teaching and OER and how they work hand-in-hand to benefit our students’ learning experience. Not only do they provide context for these hot topic concepts, but they give some great examples including Black Lives in Astronomy, Equality Archive, and The History Engine. 
   
3. The Future of Learning: ACCJC Conversations Among Thought Leaders
   What are things going to look like when we return to the physical classroom? I know that is a question on everyone’s mind. I know I am curious. These conversations may provide us with some ideas for the preparation and execution of post-pandemic in-person instruction. I am attending these, and I hope to see you there! 🙂 

(2) Online Tips and Tricks

1. Viewing Submission Comments Using Canvas Inbox
   JahB Prescott, faculty in Letters, showed me this helpful trick using Canvas Inbox. Sometimes student replies to our feedback in SpeedGrader can get lost in the mix, but you can always catch up on these by going to Inbox and filtering for “Submission Comments.” 
   
   Thanks, JahB! 
   
2. Dragging and Dropping Assignments and Events in Canvas Calendar
   Lisa Lane, a History faculty member, sent this tip over to me and attributed the credit to Robert Kelley, a Psychology faculty member. Moving deadlines for assignments and dates for recurring events is made easy by simply going into Calendar in Canvas and dragging and dropping the items. Lisa made a quick video showing exactly how to perform this. When copying courses from semester to semester, this tip can be especially helpful to account for Spring Break and observed holidays. 
   
   Thanks, Lisa and Robert! 

(1) Question

Cliche time – What are you grateful for today? 

Stay joyful,

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

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***

We have heard it many times – we are trying to do too much right now. Yet, there always seems to be more and more coming in. Remember, these are archived. Please come back to it when it is a good time for you. 

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.

(3) Resources

1. Drive-Thru Farmer’s Market
   
   Devon Boone, CARE Manager, sent out an announcement earlier this week, and I think it is worth echoing here. Our CARE Team does such a great job providing much-needed resources to our students and our community. Please let students know to be on the lookout for the Drive-Thru Famer’s Market in their email inbox. 
   
   Here is some of the information from Devon’s message:
   
   The Campus Assessment, Resources, and Education (CARE) Program will be hosting a “Drive-Thru” Farmer’s Market on Tuesday, November 24th from 1:30pm-2:30pm (or while supplies last) on the Oceanside Main Campus (1 Barnard Drive, Oceanside CA 92056) in Parking Lot OC-3C to provide CURRENTLY ENROLLED FALL STUDENTS with FREE pre-packaged groceries of produce and dry goods including a turkey and holiday food items (first come, first serve), sponsored by San Diego Food Bank.
   
   You can also volunteer to help the team at a future Farmer’s Market event – Volunteer Form
   
2. Tomorrow’s Professor – eNewletter: 1831 – Spotlight on Teaching and Learning: Mid-Semester Check-In
   
   We all know that check-in with our students is a good idea. However, it can be challenging to decide what to ask, how to ask it, and what to do with the feedback. This post provides some suggestions to help us meet those challenges.
   
   *This site provides many other posts on teaching and learning, career development, and overviews of research on education.
   
3. The Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) – Inclusive and Equitable Teaching ACUE Curriculum Crosswalk
   
   This resource was brought to me by our Vice President of Instruction, Diane Dieckmeyer. Thanks, Diane! 
   
   This eBook covers inclusive learning objectives, inclusive assessments & activities, inclusive grading & assessment, inclusive course content, inclusive syllabi… you get the idea – they are inclusive syllabi. If you are looking for ways to be, you guessed it, inclusive, this guide provides some straightforward and practical ways to implement new practices. 
   

(2) Online Tips and Tricks

1. Copying an assignment to another one of your courses
   If you are teaching multiple sections of the same course or starting to build your Spring classes, this is a helpful tutorial on how to migrate your assignments from one course to another. Just know that any changes you make to the original assignment will not translate to the previously copied one. Additionally, if you copy the same assignment to the other course more than once, the assignment previously copied will be overwritten with the new copy. 
   
2. Exporting grades to a spreadsheet (and back to Canvas)
   If you want to work on your class grades using Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers, you can download a CSV file from the Canvas Gradebook to export the data. Further, you can work on the grades and re-upload the modified file back to the Gradebook.
   
   This feature is also helpful if you want to keep a record of grades at different points of the semester or at the end of the term. 

(1) Question

Are we okay with things not being the best they can be when nothing right now will meet that standard? Or better – Is this the best that it can be given the circumstances? Or even better – was anything ever meeting the standard of “the best that it can be?”

Stay joyful,

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

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***

OI am sending this out at 11:25pm on a Friday night – just to keep the streak alive. Also, Friday nights aren’t what they used to be…kay, I was a bit late getting this out today. Yeah, things are coming in late today…

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.

(3) Resources

1.  Academic Impressions
   We now have a year-long subscription to this professional development service that offers faculty learning on such topics as teaching, DEI work, online course design, and many others. There are both synchronous and asynchronous offerings. I have only started to poke around on this platform, and I would welcome any feedback from others who decide to complete some of the webinars/training. 
   
   Our College President included this resource in a recent update email. Here is the message from Dr. Sunny Cooke – 
   Academic Impressions: MiraCosta College employees now have access to Academic Impressions which provides extensive online leadership and professional development resources specifically for colleges and universities. Several of the training sessions address subjects such as: engaging in empathy, managing your emotional labor in the workplace, and communicating effectively in high-anxiety times (to name a few).   Log on (with your single sign on) and start learning. 
   
2. ASCCC Webinar 
   Many faculty members are struggling with ensuring the kinds of lab-based experiences they would hope to achieve during distance learning. These sessions bring folks together to share effective tools and practices while opening up space for people to share. 
   
   Strategies and Effective Practices for Conducting Labs and Activities Online (Hard-to-Convert Courses) 
   Date/Time:  Monday, December 7th, 3:30-4:30pm 
   Date/time: January 7, 2021 3:30-4:30 
   
   As the pandemic persists, Career Technical Education faculty have taken on a heavy lift of delivering quality career education to their students.  Laboratory modifications for online environments continue to be a challenge.  This professional development session will offer resources, expert advice, and a conversation to help us all better serve our students. Bring your best ideas! 
   
   Presenters:
   Dr. Lynn Shaw, Academic Senate, CTE Curriculum Director
   Jimmie Bowen, Antelope Valley College
   Audrey Le Baudour, RDEE, RHT, Santa Rosa Junior College
   Agriculture faculty member, TBA
   
   Register for Monday, December 7th, 3:30 – 5:00pm
   Register for Thursday, January 7, 2021, 3:30 – 5:00pm
   
3. On Course
   This organization has long been recognized as a quality professional development resource for strategies, techniques, and ideas that work toward the goal of student success. They regularly host conferences and workshops on teaching, learning, and college success skills – these events have hefty price tags. However, their newsletter archive includes helpful entries that are succinct and relevant to current challenges in higher education. 

(2) Online Tips and Tricks

1.  Keeping Up With Your Class Using Canvas Analytics
   Using this feature, you can go beyond viewing student grades by seeing page views data, participation, and submissions. You can also track page view by date to see when students are accessing your course. This could be helpful when planning the release of content and assignments. Feels Big Brotherish – because it is. 
   
2. SpeedGrader Hacks
   Okay, so I know most of us are familiar with SpeedGrader at this point. However, there may be options in this SpeedGrader that you are not using and/or aware of. Last week, James Garcia (Sociology) introduced me to the keyboard shortcuts in SpeedGrader. How could I miss that?!? Well, it is likely that there are more efficiency hacks to uncover with this essential Canvas tool.

(1) Question

If you were not online, where would you be?

Stay joyful,

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

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***

Okay, I was a bit late getting this out today. Yeah, things are coming in late today…

What a week. I hope you are well, and things are as decent as they can be.

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.

(3) Resources

1.  OneHE –
   
   There are so many great resources on this site! The A-Z Index of Teaching is fantastic. OneHE’s four-pronged community-based approach to better teaching includes being Connected, Informed, Questioning, and Caring. This site is definitely worth a visit (or several).
   
   Of particular use for a day like today is their step-by-step activity for checking-in on students to see how they are feeling today. Here it is – Four Ideas For Checking-In
   
2. A Message from the President/Superintendent of MiraCosta College
   
   Last Friday, our college president, Dr. Sunny Cooke sent out an email detailing information on and resources for the election as they are pertinent to MiraCosta employees. Here is a snippet from her message: 
   
   SUPPORT FOR EMPLOYEES:
   
   These are particularly stressful times, and the unknowns of election results and impacts may seem overwhelming at times. I want to reiterate MiraCosta’s commitment to you and emphasize the importance of self-care.
   • All MiraCosta employees are eligible to receive confidential support. The Employee Assistance Services for Education (EASE) program provides free, short-term counseling over the phone or by appointment. To learn more, please contact the EASE Program at 800.722.3273.  
   • Should you need to take a personal leave day or some time off, please work with your supervisor on approval.
   • Make sure to practice self-care and stress management including:
     • Please focus on healthy eating, adequate exercise and sleep, and stress relief techniques such as deep breathing, meditation, and other forms of mindfulness
     • Tuning out election news if it becomes too stressful
     • Reach out to talk to a friend or family member when you are feeling overwhelmed or particularly concerned
     • Turn your focus to helping a friend or neighbor in need
     • f your schedule permits, give back to your community by way of volunteering.
   • Our Mental Health Counselors on Campus have developed a set of six, short health and wellness videos that will be shared each week, for six weeks beginning the week of November 2, 2020.  
     
     Regardless of the election results, MiraCosta will uphold our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and condemn any acts that attempt to distract us from our core values and mission. 
     
3. November is National Career Development Month! 
   
   Our Faculty Director of the Career Center, Donna Davis, invites us to engage this month starting with a kick-off FLEX workshop next Monday, November 9 (see attached flyer)
   
   Here is a bit from Donna –
   
   Although we can’t celebrate with free coffee, as we have in years past, we invite you to kick off the month by attending a Flex workshop next Monday, 11/9/20, from 2:30 PM-4 PM; see the attached flyer to RSVP and get the Zoom link.
   
   At next week’s Flex, we’ll
   • introduce the MiraCosta-customized Career Coach exploration tool,
   • share an assignment 5 faculty implemented using Career Coach last spring, and
   • review feedback from students who completed the assignment. 
     
     Can’t wait to get started?  Click “Explore Careers and Programs” on the MiraCosta home page or click “Explore Careers” on any academic program page

(2) Online Tips and Tricks

1.  25 Strategies to Engage Students on Your Next Zoom Meeting
   
   This site provides a pretty solid list of tools and tricks for engaging students in Zoom. Some of the ideas are pretty basic (like sharing your screen), but others are a bit more advanced AND fun – like “Bingo” and Hosting a “Game Show.”
   
2. Creating Engaging Lecture Videos
   
   What kind of lecture video do you want to present? Classroom style? Khan Academy-like? Animation? This site provides these lecture recording techniques and more. There is also a section on dos and don’ts that are based on research focused on viewership. 
   
   Some key takeaways- keep videos short, talk fast with enthusiasm, and use relevant visuals

(1) Question

How are we remaining flexible and understanding as we know this week has impacted our students in very different ways?

Stay joyful,

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