Category: Online Education News You Can Use

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.