Online Ed News to Use – Jan. 2020

Canvas updates & reminders

MiraCosta’s Start of Semester Canvas Checklist has great tips and links to tutorials as you set up your classes in Canvas.
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!

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!).

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.

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.
In addition to our standard online tutoring support, online and hybrid classes may also use NetTutor, which you can provide access to directly within your canvas class.
Remember that regular effective student-to-student contact 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!
If you teach a fully online C-ID approved course, you are eligible to receive support from the Online Education Initiative. Learn more about the Course Design Academy and/or signup p for an upcoming informational meeting.!

Happy spring!

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