Category: Online Education News You Can Use

Online Ed Info for ALL MiraCosta faculty

Happy fall, everyone. Please see below for important online education-related updates and information for all MiraCosta faculty.

Canvas Updates

Lots of new features are available in Canvas, which is now the sole course management system at MiraCosta. These include a more streamlined way to use Turnitin, an updated Gradebook, a brand-new Quiz feature, a new integrated accessibility checking/correction tool, and more. Read more.

If you are still getting familiar with Canvas, remember to check out all the great Canvas resources we provide, and at this time especially our Start of Semester Canvas Checklist.

Online Academic Support Resources for ALL Students

As you finalize your syllabi and course resources, please make your students aware of online tutoring, online writing center, and the 24×7 online ask-a-librarian service. These services are open to all MiraCosta students in any class!

Preferred Name Change Form for Students

Students who prefer to be known by a different name from their legal/formal name on record may change their name via SURF – instructions are here. Preferred name is used in Canvas, on class rosters and student ID cards, and to borrow items from the college library. Students may also stop by Admissions and Records to submit a paper Preferred Name Change form.

Designating Zero- and Low-Textbook-Cost Classes

If you are teaching a ZTC or LTC class this fall, please ensure it is designated as such in SURF – see directions to do so.

You can view more details about ZTC and LTC designations, as approved by the Academic Senate.

For faculty teaching at least one online/hybrid class this fall:

Fall Student Orientations to Online Learning

I will offer many online learning orientation sessions this fall. Please share the schedule with your online/hybrid students and encourage their attendance. Read more, including how to get a report from SURF on which of your students attend.

Online Class Schedule – UPDATE and beware HTML

For all those teaching an online or hybrid course this fall, please make sure your class description is up to date on the separate Online Class Schedule page. Students use this page to learn how to get started with your class, and you can provide other important information to help students prepare for success. See detailed instructions if needed. Please note: if you have done this in the past by copying text from Word or other sources, you may have introduced HTML that causes your course description to be inaccessible. Please type directly or copy in plain text only by copying from NotePad on a PC or TextEdit on a Mac.

CCC DE Faculty Survey

The California Community College Chancellor’s Office conducts annual surveys of faculty and students involved in Distance Education. Be on the lookout this month for a survey if you taught a DE class in the spring, and please take the time to complete it – your input is invaluable!

Come on and Zoom-a-Zoom-a-Zoom-a-Zoom!

You might have to be of a certain age to get that headline. Anyway, Zoom is a great tool for live online interaction that has now replaced the old CCC Confer (Blackboard Collaborate) in the CCC system. Learn more about Zoom.

NetTutor Online Tutoring Service

In addition to eTutoring, an online tutoring option for MiraCosta distance education classes is NetTutor. Unlike eTutoring, NetTutor provides extensive coverage up to 24×7 of just about any academic subject, and is available via a link embedded within Canvas. The link would take students directly to the subject-specific tutoring area with no additional login required. Also with NetTutor, each instructor may specify “Rules of Engagement” that inform tutors about the approach and resources you would like them to use when working with your students. Contact me if you’re interested in NetTutor for your fall class(es).

Distance Education Requirements and Guidelines

Please review the MiraCosta online class quality guidelines. The document has two parts – (I) Essential elements for all distance education classes as already required in department and college policies (especially AP 4105 and the Syllabus Checklist), and (II) Good practices featuring principles and examples commonly recommended for consideration in online education.

Captioning Support

Videos included in your online course materials should be captioned. 3CMediaSolutions is a video storage and streaming system for California Community College faculty that provides free professional captioning as an option when you upload your media to the site. It’s a great way to manage your media and to get everything captioned. You can also work with Robert Erichsen of DSPS to submit media for captioning through a special grant-funded program. Please contact him to learn more: rerichsen@miracosta.edu

Jim Julius, Ed.D.
Faculty Director, Online Education
miracosta.edu/online | tic.miracosta.edu
OC 1254, MS 11A
1 Barnard Drive | Oceanside, CA 92056
(760) 795-6745

@jjulius | Linkedin

 

Updated Tools & Features to Try in Canvas

Behind the scenes, Canvas is updated regularly. Check out some of the updated tools and features available in MiraCosta College’s Canvas. (Note: The list below is intended to highlight the most significant changes – but many smaller updates occur frequently).

Summer 2018

  • New Gradebook – The New Gradebook is a beta feature that allows instructors to view an improved version of the Gradebook. This feature makes grading more flexible and intuitive. As of early fall 2018, each instructor interested in this must opt in; within the next 6 months this is likely to become the default Gradebook.
  • Quizzes.Next – Canvas’s new quiz/test assessment engine. Quizzes.Next will replace the original Quiz function in the near future (late fall 2018 or spring 2019, most likely). Quizzes.Next assessments are a particular type of Assignment rather than a distinct tool.
  • Turnitin LTI 2.0 Canvas Plagiarism Framework – An update to Turnitin available within Canvas that offers a tighter integration between a Canvas assignment and Turnitin, relying on Turnitin for plagiarism checking but using the native Canvas tools such as rubrics and speedgrader for assessment and feedback.
  • UDOIT – The Universal Design Online Content Inspection Tool, or UDOIT (“You Do It”) enables faculty to identify and correct many accessibility issues in their MiraCosta Canvas courses.
  • Dashboard List View – Students and instructors may change the Dashboard view to a list format with to-dos, feedback, and other activity organized by courses. Instructors can now set Pages and non-graded Discussions as to-do items. Students and instructors also may add their own personal to-dos to Canvas.

What is on the Horizon with Canvas?

Countdown to Canvas: 3 weeks to go

Canvas is now MiraCosta’s sole course management system!

Blackboard and Moodle access links have been removed from http://miracosta.edu/online to eliminate any confusion for our summer students.

Faculty who are continuing to access old courses in Blackboard and Moodle may do so until June 30 via:

  • Blackboard: https://blackboard.miracosta.edu/
  • Moodle: http://miracosta.mrooms.net/

If you need to catch up on details about extracting course content and data from the older systems, please see my previous Countdown to Canvas message.

Happy Summer!

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

Countdown to Canvas: 6 weeks to go

Please be sure you have extracted everything you need from Blackboard and Moodle, since access to those systems ends on June 30. See Considerations in Leaving Blackboard and Moodle for more details; for quick guidance on downloading class gradebooks and archives, see directions to do so for Blackboard or for Moodle.

Further, please consider carefully:

  • Are there old courses that you haven’t taught for some time, but you don’t want to leave behind? Don’t forget those!
  • Are there old courses that someone else in your department taught, but that person has since left MiraCosta, and your department has permission to reuse course content? If so, contact Karen Turpin (kturpin@miracosta.edu) for assistance in bringing such content over to Canvas.

Finally, if you are still getting up to speed on Canvas, keep in mind:

  1. The plethora of great locally-developed and selected Canvas resources available to you.
  2. The 24-7 instructor hotline for Canvas support – it remains available throughout the summer: 1-833-345-2890 and is your best option for quick “how do I do this in Canvas” or “why isn’t Canvas doing what I think it should do” types of questions.
  3. The TIC will be closed for its transformation into the brand-new Teaching & Learning Center during the first part of the summer, but Karen and I are working and available to you throughout the summer – feel free to contact either of us with questions that go beyond what the Canvas hotline can provide.

 

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