MiraCosta Faculty and Student Online Support

Is spring semester off to a great start? Could it be even better for you and/or your students with a little bit of help? The campus may be physically closed but an amazing array of support for successful online education is a click away! Some quick reminders for all faculty, and especially those launching classes starting this week:

For faculty:

  • Online Mentors and Instructional Design help – To request online teaching and course design support from a peer faculty mentor and/or our instructional designer, please fill out our request form. We’ll get you connected!
  • Tech Support – Canvas tech support options include 24×7 phone and chat support. Just click the Tech Support button at lower left in Canvas! Zoom tech support for faculty now is available through the MiraCosta employee help desk.
  • Proctoring – If you have questions about how best to run your online proctored exams, the Academic Proctoring Center is happy to help faculty, as well as potentially providing makeup exam support for your students. For more information, please visit miracosta.edu/apc or email proctoringcenter@miracosta.edu.
  • OER support – Interested in exploring Open Educational Resources (OER) this spring? The college and the statewide Academic Senate OER Initiative have many resources and projects you can tap into. Just reply to me and I can help you get connected with resources, colleagues, support staff, and/or financial support.

For students

  • Student Orientation to Online Learning – I’m offering five more workshops this week and a couple more for the 12-week classes that start in two weeks. More details are on the TASC site, and you can point your students to the signup form. You can also find out which of your students attended a session via SURF.
  • Student Support Hub – Please remind students about the Student Support Hub in Canvas (the button is at lower left in Canvas). This is a quick way for students to connect with live MiraCosta support folks from the library, tutoring centers, Writing Center, academic counseling, Career Center, computer lab staff and the student help desk. New this spring, the Hub has added connections to health services and mental health counseling.
  • Tech Support – Also at lower left in Canvas is a button for students to quickly access Tech Support options, including 24×7 phone and chat support from Canvas, and our local MiraCosta student help desk.

Happy spring!

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

What’s Going Well? – A SAFE Topics Podcast Live Show

Hello and welcome back campus community!

The SAFE Topics Podcast is back at it with our first 2021 release! In this latest episode, we aired our first live recording during the Spring 2021 flex week! Hosts Sean and curry asked a panel of MiraCosta faculty including Himgauri Kulkarni (Biology), Leila Safaralian (Math), Casey McFarland (Kinesiology), Billy Gunn (Film), and Edward Pohlert (Faculty Director, Retention Services): what’s working, what’s challenging, and what should students expect as we all prepare for another semester of remote/online teaching and learning? This is one episode you won’t want to miss!

Ways to Listen!

  1. Podbean – S.A.F.E. Topics
  2. Spotify
  3. Apple Podcasts
  4. Amazon Music
  5. Audible

What to Listen For

  • Introductions from each of our guest faculty members. 
  • What made remote learning easier for students this last semester?
  • The importance of flexibility. 
  • Asynchronous classes working well for entirely new student populations.
  • Opportunities for students to connect with one another.
  • How did the synchronous classes go?
  • Building trust with students from the get-go. 
  • Trying to humanize the online class experience.
  • What has made learning challenging during this time?
  • The lack of instant feedback.
  • Reminding one another that we are all going through this together.
  • Unforeseen challenges that come the student’s way. 
  • The importance of low-stakes meet-n-greets, chats, and online hangouts.
  • The real problem of access and knowledge of technology.
  • Student access to a safe space to learn. 
  • The importance of being more empathetic towards our students.
  • Wrapping up with a one-minute message to students that each of our guest speakers want them to know.

The S.A.F.E. Topics Team

curry mitchell – Faculty, Letters (Co-host)
Sean Davis – Faculty, Sociology (Co-host)
Kelly Barnett – Intern and Music Technology Student (Audio Editor)
James Garcia – Associate Faculty, Sociology (Show Notes, Online)

Connect with Us

PodBean
Safe Topics
S.A.F.E Topics logo

Stay great,

S.A.F.E. Topics Podcast Team

Department Courses in Canvas

Department courses are manually created courses within Canvas that can be used for communication and collaboration with MiraCostans. Some examples of department courses are special collaboration workgroups, academic senate committees, instructional departments, and student clubs. For further information contact Karen Turpin at kturpin@miracosta.edu

Adding Users to Department Courses

Instructors of department Canvas courses can add any MiraCosta College user to the course with Student, Teacher, TA, or Designer permissions. Department courses are not tied to the SURF registration system.

Directions

  1. Enter your Canvas course
  2. Click People on the left course menu
  3. Click the +People button at far right
  4. Select Login ID
  5. Enter SURF ID of the user in the box.
    • You can enter one user at a time.  Example: jjulius
    • Or multiples with a comma and space between each. Example: jjulius, sdavis
  6. Select the appropriate role for the user. ‍
    • Available role options are Student, Teacher, TA, Teacher, Designer, and Student (see below for details on these options)
  7. Click the Next button
    • Some IDs may already be used in Canvas at other colleges. If you get a prompt about this, select the ID that is associated with MiraCosta College.
  8. Click the Add Users button
Step 4, 5, and 6

Course Roles Explained for Department Courses

Student Role

  • Primary use: Students enrolled in a course site.
  • Permissions: The Student role has permissions to view course content and engage in course activities, including the ability to submit assignments, participate in discussions, and view the course roster.
  • Limitations: Students cannot manipulate settings for a course.

Teacher

  • Primary use: The instructor assigned to teach a class.
  • Permissions: Teachers have all course-level permissions, including the ability to add, edit and delete all
  • content in a course, edit course settings, and manually add individuals with active Canvas user accounts.
  • Limitations: None.

Teaching Assistant (TA) Role

  • Primary use: TAs assigned to a specific class to help the instructor.
  • Permissions: TAs have permissions equivalent to the Teacher role. They have all course-level permissions, including the ability to add, edit and delete all content in a course; grade students; edit course settings, and manually add individuals with active Canvas user accounts.
  • Limitations: None.

Designer

  • Primary use: Department staff, content providers, and other instructional support staff.
  • Permissions: Create course content, discussions, announcements, assignments, quizzes, and other content features.
  • Limitations: Designers cannot add other individuals to a course and cannot access grades.
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