Category: Online Education News You Can Use

MCC Canvas Tutorials & Articles

 

A collection of MCC specific tutorials & articles can be found below, or search for a topic in the search box in the top right corner of this website. The official Canvas Guides are a great source of tutorials on all Canvas features for instructors. You may also be interested in MiraCosta’s general Canvas Information & Resources page.

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Return to Canvas Information & Resources

MiraCosta Canvas Updates for Canvas Instructors Spring 2017

Hello! You are among over 130 faculty who have published courses in MiraCosta’s Canvas system. I hope the semester is starting well for you and your students, and just wanted to reach out to you with a few items.

Faculty Support Resources

Hopefully you are well aware of all the resources linked at https://tic.miracosta.edu/campus-teaching-technologies/canvas/. In particular, our Canvas Transition Team faculty are making themselves available in the TIC multiple times over the first few weeks of the semester – check out their schedule at the top of the TIC Canvas page. Feel free to drop in and chat about any questions/challenges you may have.

We’re also hearing good things about the 24×7 Canvas support available at 1-877-884-1673. Remember, this comes directly from Canvas, so they don’t necessarily have all the answers when it comes to MiraCosta-specific questions (such as how students get added to your class). But they are great for any general questions and guidance about the use of Canvas.

Student Support Resources

Please recommend the Student Help Desk to your students. They can provide live support that is very MiraCosta-specific. When the Student Help Desk is not available, students may also use the 24×7 Canvas support number. Also, please reinforce with your students the ease of access to these resources simply by clicking the Help item at the bottom of the main Canvas menu (the blue menu at far left once logged into Canvas). There are also two more Canvas-specific MiraCosta student success workshops this semester:

  • Today (Feb. 2), 5-6 pm in CLC 133 – Student Help Desk introduction to Canvas (by Jesse Leon)
  • Monday, Feb. 6, 12-1 pm in OC 1201 – Student Orientation to Online Learning in Canvas (by Jim Julius)

Student Names in Canvas

Please note that unlike Blackboard and Moodle, students are not able to customize their first name from within Canvas. If a student wishes to have a different first name displayed in Canvas for any reason, they just need to stop by A&R and fill out a “Preferred Name Change” request.

Your Feedback

As you are among the first MiraCosta faculty to use Canvas for a class, your feedback is very valuable – as is your students’. Please feel free to contact me at any time with any feedback you may have about Canvas – positive, negative, or anything in-between! I’m especially interested to hear what support resources have been of greatest value to you as you’ve been learning to use Canvas, and what suggestions you have for adding to/improving MiraCosta’s workshops and support offerings.

Thanks and best wishes for the semester,

Jim Julius, Ed.D.

Faculty Director, Online Education

 

Dec. 2016 Online Ed News You Can Use

Can you believe the semester is almost over?

Spring Classes – Blackboard & Canvas

All spring classes are available to faculty now in both Blackboard and Canvas. Remember, MiraCosta will support Blackboard, Moodle, and Canvas through spring of 2018, with full conversion to Canvas by summer 2018. Please see the TIC page on Canvas for lots of great resources including workshop schedules (two coming up on 12/9 and 12/13, and many planned for Flex week), recordings of previous workshops, and links to much more. Also, if you have not seen the FA’s position on the Canvas transition, it is recommended reading – negotiations are ongoing.

Online Instructors: Please Update Online Class Schedule

For all those teaching an online or hybrid course this spring, please make sure your class description is up to date on the separate Online Class Schedule page. This is especially important over the next few semesters as students will be wondering which course management system to find each class in. You can provide that and other important information there to help students prepare for success in your class.

Spring Student Orientations to Online Learning

I will offer twelve online learning orientation sessions this spring. Please share the schedule (not updated for spring yet, but will be soon) with your online/hybrid students and encourage their attendance. I will offer a few that are based in Canvas; most will continue to be in Blackboard. Online instructors can pull a report from SURF of the students who have completed this orientation.

Online Academic Support Resources for ALL Students

As you create your spring 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!

Blackboard Quiz/Test Bug

As finals approach, if you give Blackboard quizzes or tests that include open-ended questions, and that present all questions at once, please review the details about a problem with students using Internet Explorer 11 to take your quiz or test.

Blackboard Archive Access

Access to the Blackboard archive server, which contains courses from spring 2015 and earlier, is now restricted to AIS helpdesk staff. You may view directions for requesting an export of courses from spring 2015 or earlier if you need to copy in an old course to update for spring.

Interested in Open Educational Resources (OER)?

College of the Canyons is hosting a free OER summit on January 31st. Visit the website to learn more and register.

Online Teaching Conference

After a few years in San Diego, the CCC Online Teaching Conference will be held in Anaheim June 19-21.

More Professional Learning Opportunities

  • Take a 4 week online teaching class starting January 9 from @One. The Introduction to Teaching with Canvas course is free for MiraCosta faculty with the OEIfree4U code.
  • Get up to speed on 3CMediaSolutions, a great resource for storing, streaming, and curating instructional video.
  • Watch a live or archived webcast about Turnitin.
  • Watch an archived online Flex workshop led by me or Karen Korstad from this fall or past semesters.
  • Santa Barbara City College is hosting a free event, Pedagogy to Increase Student Success: An Unconference for Online Educators on Feb. 25, 2017.

Best wishes for a great break!

Jim Julius, Ed.D.
Faculty Director, Online Education
Vice President, Academic Senate

December & Flex Week Canvas workshops

December

The Canvas faculty Transition Team is offering three more Canvas workshops before break.

Workshop: All Hands on Canvas

This workshop is designed to give you open time to work with Canvas in a supported environment. A faculty member who has taught with Canvas will provide a very brief overview of Canvas in the first 10-15 minutes, and from there the time is open for you to become more proficient in your use of Canvas, and to work on developing a class in Canvas, with the support of experienced Canvas users. In addition, attendees may benefit from exploring Canvas resources found at https://tic.miracosta.edu/campus-teaching-technologies/canvas/ .

Date / Time / Location / Facilitator(s):

Tuesday 12/6 – 2:30-4 pm – OC 4612 – Gail Meinhold
Friday 12/9 – 1:30-3 pm – OC 4611 – Billy Gunn
Tuesday 12/13 – 9-10:30 am – OC 4803b – Billy Gunn

You may also be interested in watching a recording of a recent workshop Sean Davis and Robert Kelley offered which included faculty and student perspectives on the experience of transitioning to Canvas.

January – Flex Week

Friday, January 13th will include a full day of Canvas workshops. The day will open with brief presentations/overviews of Canvas from the perspectives of several MiraCosta faculty. Each of those faculty will then lead hands-on workshops on various aspects of Canvas during the day, and the day will end with a facilitated open lab session for those who want to get to work with Canvas.

Tuesday, January 17th will feature a full day of 1.5 hour Canvas open lab sessions with the support of experienced MiraCosta faculty and staff. Attend as many as you like.

Thursday, January 19th we will offer one final hands-on Canvas workshop focusing on page design, an important skill for those who wish to explore possibilities for Canvas use beyond the basic approaches most typically used with Canvas.

Sign up for these via MyFlex when PDP releases the spring Flex schedule!

As always, you may wish to review the FA’s position on the Canvas transition.

Jim Julius, Ed.D.
Faculty Director, Online Education
Vice President, Academic Senate

Canvas now open to all MiraCosta faculty

All spring 2017 classes are available to faculty now in both Blackboard and Canvas. MiraCosta will support Blackboard, Moodle, and Canvas through spring of 2018, with full conversion to Canvas by summer 2018. (Faculty who wish to use Moodle for any classes should request those from Karen Korstad – kkorstad@miracosta.edu).

Please see the TIC page on Canvas for lots of great resources if you wish to begin learning about Canvas. A number of MiraCosta faculty have been teaching Canvas pilot classes this fall, including the Canvas Transition Team of Billy Gunn, Curry Mitchell, Gail Meinhold, Leola McClure, and Robert Kelley. They are currently developing training resources to share with all faculty, and we will soon release a list of Canvas introduction/open lab sessions to be held this fall. We are also planning an all-day Canvas workshop for the first day of Flex week in January (Friday the 13th).

You may also be interested in the video of the fall Flex “Goodbye Blackboard and Moodle, Hello Canvas” webinar featuring Billy Gunn and Curry Mitchell.

Finally, if you have not seen the FA’s update on the Canvas transition, it is recommended reading.

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

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