I am excited to introduce new programming from our C3 Teaching and Learning Center. Conversations Connecting Colleagues is an effort to get us discussing important issues related to our profession. Once a month, I will release an article related to teaching and learning. Over the course of the month, you can engage with our faculty community by annotating the article and responding to others’ annotations. We will use a program called Hypothesis. Hypothesis is a tool that allows us to have a shared and social reading experience. You can jump in and out of the conversation anytime over the month. Once the social reading period is over, we will host a debrief session (On the first Wednesday of the month from 9:45am to 10:45am) in the C3 Teaching and Learning Center and online via Zoom.
From here, you can start annotating by selecting
any text, clicking “annotate” and submitting your text. You can also
see what other folks in the group have noted and reply to their
submissions.
My hope is that Conversations
Connecting Colleagues will engage our community and start important
discussions on issues that matter to us.
Direct Share allows users to copy individual course items to another course and share individual items with other users. This change allows content to be shared directly in Canvas without having to use a secondary repository like Commons.
If you haven’t heard, Canvas Studio is a video tool built into Canvas that allows you to create screencasts, turn videos into discussions, and even embed quiz questions within videos. Check out our local introductory page or jump straight to Canvas’s full set of Studio tutorials.
Point your students to the Student Support button on the left in Canvas for quick access to online support from the library, tutoring, writing center, counseling, career center, and more!
Reminder: we are still working on a process for combining Canvas classes that address FERPA concerns, so this is not being done for spring.
MiraCosta’s main Canvas page for faculty includes tons of support resources, recorded workshops, and much more – be sure to check it out!
Preferred names & pronouns for students in
SURF & Canvas
Please make sure that students know that if they prefer to be known by a different name from their legal/formal name, they may indicate their preferred name via SURF – instructions are here. Preferred name is used in Canvas, on class rosters, and elsewhere around MiraCosta.
Canvas also includes NameCoach, a tool that allows students to voice-record their own names and indicate their pronouns, making it easier to establish respectful relationships in classroom communities, whether the class meets online or in person. Encourage your students to record their names and specify their pronouns – share this MiraCosta NameCoach tutorial with them (and make sure you do it, too!).
Teaching classes with textbook costs under $40
this spring?
If you are teaching any spring 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.
Teaching online or hybrid classes this spring?
I’ll be offering many Student Orientation to Online Learning student workshops over the first three weeks of the spring semester – see all dates and times on the TASC site and in Canvas announcements. Encourage your students to attend and, if you like, find out which of your students participated in order to award extra credit.
Remember that regular effective student-to-studentcontact is now required for all distance education classes by California Title 5. We’ll be updating our local DE policies and guidelines this spring to address this.
Online Teaching Conference and other professional learning
The CCC Online Teaching Conference moves to Pasadena this year, June 17-19. Online Ed will fund attendance including hotel for MiraCostans who present at OTC. The Call for Proposals is open now through Jan. 31. If you’d like to go but don’t want to submit a proposal, look for more information later in the spring about potential support.
@ONE offers classes for CCC faculty ranging from introductory and intermediate courses about online education, to more focused learning experiences related to topics such as culturally responsive teaching, accessibility, assessment, and much more. New facilitated classes begin January 13, and there are many self-paced classes available anytime – check out the catalog. MiraCosta travel funds can be used to pay for classes that have a cost – if you need funding please reach out to me!
