Category: Online Education News You Can Use

Blackboard Updates

• Look for your summer and fall course shells in early May. A significant software and hardware upgrade for our Blackboard system is underway. Look for details on the system changes and process for updating your courses in late April.
• The Blackboard Mobile Learn app, available for Apple and Android products, has been important to many faculty and students in providing better mobile access to many Blackboard features. Now accessing MiraCosta courses through the app is free – the previous small fee is gone. Learn more here and please share this information with your students!

OEI Town Hall: Tomorrow (4/8)

If you’d like to learn more about the CCC Online Education Initiative, tune in to the live stream of the OEI Town Hall event tomorrow, April 8, 10-11:50 am. Learn more and tune in here.

Student Support Resources, Online

As the end of the semester approaches, please remind your students about online tutoring, the online writing center, and the 24×7 online ask-a-librarian service (under “ASK US” at upper right). These services are open to all MiraCosta students – a great way for busy students to get support they need when they can’t come to the library.

Online Orientations to Student Learning Complete

The final two online orientation to student learning sessions were held after spring break. Nearly 250 students attended in all this spring. If you are an instructor who would like to review the list of attending students, let me know.

Online Teaching Conference in San Diego

More than two dozen MiraCostans have expressed interest in attending the Online Teaching Conference in San Diego, June 18-19, with funding from my office (Online Education). Early bird registration ends April 17, so let me know if you are interested ASAP.

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

The Online Teaching Conference is in San Diego on June 18-19, with pre-conference workshops on June 17. As in recent years, I am able to help fund attendance, and I hope we again send a strong group of MiraCostans. The conference is focused on online teaching and learning in the California Community Colleges, and is a great opportunity to hear from and network with faculty and student services staff about helping students to succeed with online education. Keynotes include Phil Hill and Michael Feldstein of the excellent e-Literate blog, along with Online Education Initiative director Pat James.

If you are interested, please let me know soon, so that you can register at the early bird rate (by April 17) and so that I can plan the year-end Online Education budget accordingly.

Some procedural notes & caveats:

• If you are planning to go, you’ll need to have your travel request signed by me in addition to the usual signers.
• Note that because this conference is outside of the fall/spring semesters, it is not Flex-eligible for associate faculty.
• Note that because the conference is local, most of our attendees will not be eligible for hotel stay or meal reimbursement. You will receive mileage reimbursement and conference registration. If you believe you have special circumstances that warrant coverage of hotel expenses, let me know.
• Note that pre-conference workshops in which goods are provided (iPads, books, software, etc.) cannot be paid for via travel funds. You would need to find another source of funds to cover those fees if you are interested.

Jim Julius, Ed.D.
Faculty Director, Online Education
jjulius@miracosta.edu

Happy Spring!

Blackboard email Issues

Last spring, AOL and Yahoo changed some of their email rules (aka “DMARC”) to try to cut down on spam. Email messages with return addresses from AOL and Yahoo-family domains which did not actually originate from one of their servers are rejected by email systems following the DMARC rules, meaning that for some people, email they send from Blackboard is not received by others. We expect AIS to put a workaround in place over spring break. It does not fix email generated by Blackboard from tools such as announcements, grade center, and discussion boards. Email from these areas should be fixed during the next major Blackboard version upgrade, which is planned to take place between the spring and summer semesters.

Online Teaching Conference: Call for Proposals

The Online Teaching Conference will again be in San Diego, June 18-19. The call for proposals is open until March 15. As in recent years, I anticipate being able to help fund attendance, especially for accepted presenters, so please let me know if you are interested. (Note that because this conference is outside of the fall/spring semesters, it is not Flex-eligible for associate faculty.)

Online Education Initiative (OEI) updates

See the latest update on the OEI from executive director Pat James, with details about the selection of Canvas as the OEI common course management system, and insights from an OEI professional development summit held in San Diego last month (which was attended by four MiraCostans). Upcoming opportunities to learn more about the OEI include an ASCCC online education meeting on March 21, an OEI Town Hall at the Campus Technology conference in Long Beach on April 8, and the Online Teaching Conference in San Diego, June 18-19.

Late Start Online Learning Orientations for Students

This spring’s last two Student Orientation to Online Learning sessions will be held on the OC campus 3/24, and online 3/25. Details are on the TASC student success workshop site.

Professional Learning Opportunities – All Flex-Eligible

• Free online courses being run in Canvas: Becoming a Blended Learning Designer (already underway) and Learning to Learn Online (starts Mar. 9).
• The ASCCC (Academic Senate of the California Community Colleges) is holding free Online Education regional meetings. The southern CA meeting is March 21 at Mt. San Antonio College. Learn more and sign up here.
• Recommended reading: the 2015 Horizon Report on emerging technologies in higher education, and the 12th annual Online Learning Consortium report on the state of online learning in the US.
• See the new MOE faculty resources website with links to local resources and workshop archives, as well as a list of recommended ed tech and online ed conferences.

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

Online Education Initiative (OEI) updates

OEI has made its selection of a common course management system: Canvas. Read more about the selection, or put on your hype goggles and learn about Canvas. We do not know when Canvas might become widely available, but we do expect that our OEI pilot courses will be offered via Canvas beginning next spring. MiraCosta’s first two OEI pilot courses are running this semester, taught by Curry Mitchell (English) and Christopher Sleeper (History). See also the latest general update on the OEI from executive director Pat James, and you can also review MOE’s OEI FAQ.

Online Learning Orientations for Students

Over 220 students attended online learning orientations this spring, nearly doubling the total attendance since these began to be offered last spring. Students mentioned more than 35 faculty as referring them to this workshop. Two more sessions will be available after spring break. If you are an instructor who would like to see the list of attending students, let me know.

Professional Learning Opportunities – All Flex Eligible

• Check out an archive of a MiraCosta online ed workshop.
• The ASCCC (Academic Senate of the California Community Colleges) is holding free Online Education regional meetings. The southern CA meeting is March 21 at Mt. San Antonio College. Learn more and sign up here.

The Online Teaching Conference will again be in San Diego, from June 18-19. The call for proposals is not yet open, but should be soon. As in recent years, I anticipate being able to help fund attendance, so please let me know.

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