Category: Online Education News You Can Use

Dear faculty,

I hope your spring is blooming! Lots of great online education professional learning this week and month to provide us with rain and sunshine:

• We have a new weekly online challenge this week, led by Lisa M. Lane, focused on Taming the [Canvas] To-Do List
• If you’re looking for some creative support in getting through the mid-semester time and rebuilding instructional momentum, reach out to a peer faculty mentor and/or our instructional designer
• March 7-11 is the worldwide Open Ed Week – there are dozens of events to choose from! See below, also, for more specific Open Education events and resources from the ASCCC’s OER Initiative.
• Visit tic.miracosta.edu for reminders about other key online education resources and events, including the new required Online Compliance training for distance education, upcoming webinars put on by some of our online tech providers (including Perusall, Playposit, Respondus, and Turnitin), and much more.

Skip below my signature for the latest detailed newsletter full of resources and professional learning opportunities from the ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative!

– Jim

Jim Julius, Ed.D.
Faculty Director, Online Education
miracosta.edu/online | tic.miracosta.edu

• Discipline Communications – Don’t Miss Out •

The OERI – and ASCCC – use discipline list-servs to share information specific to a given discipline. These one-way disciplines will never overwhelm your inbox and being on your discipline’s list ensures you don’t miss out on any discipline-specific opportunities or events. Sign up for an ASCCC list-serv – or list-servs today. Also consider signing up for the ASCCC OER Initiative list-serv if this message has been forwarded to you.

• OERI Discipline Resources – Archived Webinars and Resource Collections •

The ASCCC OERI Discipline Leads have been busy updating resource lists and making new collections available. Visit our Open Educational Resource by Discipline and Open Educational Resources by TMC pages to access a comprehensive and curated list of resources by discipline or by Transfer Model Curriculum (TMC). If you are using an OER that is not on your discipline’s list, please let us know. In addition to our discipline collections, we have an ever-growing collection of archived webinars that not only offer discipline-specific information but can also expand your knowledge of OER more generally. If you are considering contributing to your local ZTC degree efforts, these resources can help to inform your response.

• OERI Spanish Webinar – March 2022 •

Friday, March 25, 9:00-10:00am
What’s new in Spanish OER?

Are you interested in learning what’s new in Spanish OER? What about using H5P activities as formative assignments? Come and learn what OER faculty are using in their classrooms.  We will also discuss what else is needed in our discipline (specific resources, what classes lack quality OER, etc.) and any other issues or questions that come up along the way.

Register for What’s new in Spanish OER?

• OERI Events – March Weekly Webinars – Back to the Basics •

In the spring 2022 term, our Weekly OER Webinars are on Fridays from 10:30 – 11:30 am. Weekly webinars are archived. The ASCCC OERI will provide automated captioning for all webinars. If you would like to request live human closed-captioning for any of our offerings, please contact us by e-mail at least 10 business days in advance.

Friday, March 11, 10:00-11:00am
Beginner Series: LibreTexts Level I

LibreTexts is a powerful platform for all things OER – publishing, printing, developing, “remixing”, interactive exercises, homework systems, and more. This webinar will introduce you to LibreTexts and its capabilities, providing an overview of the simplest use-case scenario.

Register for Beginner Series: LibreTexts Level I

Friday, March 18, 10:30-11:30am
Beginner Series: Introduction to MyOpenMath

Have you wanted to create a ZTC course, but the need for a homework system has prevented you from doing so? MyOpenMath is a free and openly licensed homework system that California Community College faculty in math, physics, and other disciplines have been populating for their use – and yours. What is MyOpenMath and what resources are available for your adoption? Join us for a basic overview of MyOpenMath to learn more about this valuable resource. 

Register for Beginner Series: MyOpenMath

Friday, March 25, 10:30-11:30am
Beginner Series: Introduction to H5P

Do you teach in a discipline where interactive exercises are a must? H5P is a tool that can allow you to create the interactive exercises you need or to use the interactive resources developed by others. What does H5P have to offer and where can you access H5P? This session, hosted by LibreTexts, will introduce you to the H5P resources available to you within the LibreTexts platform.

Register for Beginner Series: Introduction to H5P

• OpenEd Week LibreTexts Events •

LibreTexts is an open textbook platform enabling faculty to discover, create, and curate instructional materials in many disciplines. We’ve selected events from the LibreTexts OpenEd Week schedule that we think would be of interest to California Community College faculty – and many feature your CCC colleagues. Registration is not required. Access all LibreTexts OpenEd Week events.

March 7, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Co-Authoring OER in LibreTexts

This session will present strategies developed to help authors collaboratively create resources using the LibreTexts platform.

Join Co-Authoring OER in LibreTexts, 11:00 am March 7

March 7, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
Leveraging OER to Increase Access to and Engagement with Ancient and Medieval Texts

This presentation discusses how student- and instructor-created and annotated OER editions and translations of ancient and medieval texts can increase the accessibility of and engagement with challenging primary sources. Example units for ancient history and literature, medieval history, and gender and women’s studies will be shared.

Join Leveraging OER to Increase Access to and Engagement with Ancient and Medieval Texts, 12:00 pm March 7

March 7, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Introduction to the LibreVerse

Join LibreTexts Executive Director, Delmar Larsen, as he introduces you to the LibreTexts OER creation and hosting platform. 

Join Introduction to the LibreVerse, 3:00 pm March 7

March 8, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Making the Most of an Open Textbook

We will discuss how to bring your LibreTexts book into your LMS so students encounter textbook materials as needed in connection with assignments. We will also see how to assign and give credit for social annotation of the assigned textbook readings and revise the book in response to student feedback.

Join Making the Most of an Open Textbook, 1:00 pm March 8

March 9, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Mastering ADAPT – The LibreTexts Homework System

Join LibreTexts Executive Director, Delmar Larsen, as he gives you an inside look at LibreTexts open homework system, Adapt. Account creation is strongly recommended before attending the session. Create a free account before attending this session.

Join Mastering ADAPT – The LibreTexts Homework System, 3:00 pm March 9

March 10, 9:00 am – 10:00 am
LibreTexts Accessibility Updates

Join LibreTexts accessibility team as they discuss their latest efforts to make the LibreTexts more accessible to users.

Join LibreTexts Accessibility Updates, 9:00 am March 10

March 10, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Using LibreTexts to Create Interactive OER Content for Your Courses

See how to take OER textbooks and customize them to include multimedia and interactivity using LibreTexts. The remixed versions of the OpenStax calculus and statistics books will be shown, but the remixing can be accomplished with any OER textbook.

Join Using LibreTexts to Create Interactive OER Content for Your Courses, 1:00 pm March 10

March 11, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
H5P in LibreStudio: Building Interactive Content for your Textbook

Join LibreTexts Senior Product Manager, Yasin Dahi, in conversation with faculty who are using LibreTexts LibreStudio software to generate H5P exercises for their courses. 

Join H5P in LibreStudio: Building Interactive Content for your Textbook, 11:00 am March 11

Connect with your colleagues in this fun new way – Podcast Club! We’ll take our favorite podcasts, listen to them in our own time, and then come together collectively to discuss.

When: Discuss on March 3^rd at 3pm

Where: Zoom

What: This American Life: Three Miles
Description: There’s a program that brings together kids from two schools. One school is public and in the country’s poorest congressional district. The other is private and costs $43,000/year. They are three miles apart. The hope is that kids connect, but some of the public school kids just can’t get over the divide. We hear what happens when you get to see the other side.

Listening is optional. There are many ways this podcast connects with our diverse student body and what we do as teachers to facilitate their learning and growth.

Can’t make it, but want to suggest a podcast? Add to the Google Doc

Want to suggest another day or time? Just reply to this email with your availability.

February is already here! Still polishing your class design and online teaching skills? There are so many great opportunities and resources!

First I want to highlight something 💥 brand spanking new 💥 . Our MiraCosta Online Mentor faculty and instructional designer are putting together a series of weekly challenges to be held throughout this spring!

• Each challenge will enable you to make a small but important improvement to your classes
• Each challenge is designed to require no more than 3 hours of your time
• You are welcome to participate as much or little as you like
• The challenges will be based in our new MiraCosta Teaching Collaborative space in Canvas (feel free to take a peek!)
• The first challenge will start on Feb. 7 – look for more info coming soon!

Beyond that, I invite you to check out our TIC home page which includes essential information for any MiraCosta faculty member teaching using online technologies. It now includes:

• links to recordings of our workshop series from Flex week about the items on the new required self-checklist for online teaching
• links to register for online teaching webinars coming up soon, offered by technology providers such as Perusall, Pronto, PlayPosit, and Respondus, as well as from @ONE.
• faculty support options including MiraCosta Online Mentor and the MiraCosta Instructional Designer, Nadia Khan

Finally, a reminder that Student Online Academic Readiness workshops are continuing this week and next – please share the schedule and signup form with your students if you’d like to encourage them to attend a one hour workshop where they will get tips on Zoom, Canvas, time management, online library resources, and all the amazing forms of support that MiraCosta provides to them online.

– Jim

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