Online Education Newsletter
October 2021
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Dear Faculty,
We are almost to the halfway point in our Fall 2021 semester, and we want to thank you for everything you do to make your online classrooms engaging, accessible, and student-focused. Keep up the great work, you are appreciated!
We, your Faculty Online Educator Co-coordinators, love to hear from you, so please feel free to contact Brett Myhren or Bridget Hoida. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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- Canvas Server Migration: Summer 22
- Canvas Studio Migration
- G-Suite is Coming to Saddleback
- Faculty Center Support
- Mid-Semester Student Check-in
- LRC Tutoring Center Student Resources
- CVC/@ One Math Focused Webinar Series
- CVC/@One Courses & Learning Options
- Canvas Hack: Comment Library
- Deep Dive: Canvas Mobil App
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- Questions About Canvas? Ask the Panda Pros
- FAQs Document
- Library: Badger
- Title 5 Updates
- ASCCC OER Inclusive Access
- POCR
- ZTC (Zero Textbook Cost) Courses
- Flagging ZTC classes for Spring 2022
- Canvas Accessibility Tool: Pope Tech
- Thank you!
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Canvas Server Migration Postponed Until Summer 2022 |
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Update: Canvas Server Migration Date Moved to Summer 2022
Although we originally planned to move to our new Canvas server in Spring 2022, we are now planning to switch over to the new server in Summer 2022. This is also when IVC is planning on moving to their new server, and the extra time will give our technical team more time to ensure that the transition is seamless, especially around the student experience.
Background: As you may already know, Saddleback college is migrating to a new server. This is a positive change, as Saddleback College will greatly benefit from having more control over our instance of Canvas on our own server. Currently, Saddleback and IVC share a Canvas server for all of our courses. It was agreed in Spring 2021 that each college should maintain its own server with the ability to make local decisions best for them. Beginning with a pilot group of faculty in Summer 2021, Saddleback began the migration to the new server, with all faculty and students to follow beginning Summer 2022.
An overview of Frequently Asked Questions about the Canvas LMS Server Migration is also available for those wishing to learn more.
Important Information: Canvas Studio Fall 21 & Spring 22
As we prepare for the Canvas migration, we have noticed several unexpected hiccups, namely with a design flaw within Canvas Studio. It has come to our attention that when course shells are imported/ exported, the Canvas Studio videos and Canvas Studio quizzes (not regular quizzes, just those attached to videos) are not imported/ exported and each must be done manually. We have been in conversation with Instructure (Canvas) about this issue. As we noted last month, they have agreed to import all Canvas Studio videos that faculty have embedded into a live Canvas course module prior to Sept 7th. Anything added by faculty after Sept 7, 2021, will not be imported.
As such, we are providing the following guidelines for all Fall 2021 & Spring 2022 Faculty:
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Please avoid using Canvas Studio for the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 semesters, as any Canvas Studio videos and/or Canvas Studio video quizzes created after Sept 7, 2021, will not be automatically imported to the new Canvas server.
- We are recommending YouTube 'unlisted' as an alternative for videos/ media.
- Student assignments with Canvas Studio will not change because student work cannot be moved from one class to another.
- Please note, we are not talking about regular Canvas quizzes, just the quizzes created inside Canvas Studio and linked to a video.
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Canvas Studio videos - Canvas is moving only videos embedded in the course content and as previously mentioned the cutoff was September 7, 2021. Again, Canvas is not moving everyone's videos. They are only moving videos identified within course content.
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Canvas Studio quizzes - Unfortunately, due to a design flaw within Canvas (that has nothing to do with Saddleback) Canvas Studio quizzes cannot be exported with the videos. Again, these are not the regular Canvas quizzes, just those created in Canvas Studio.
- After September 7th, no new videos will be moved (imported/ exported). It will be the responsibility of the faculty to bring that content over to the new server manually.
- After September 7th, the Faculty Center will check the new server for Canvas Studio videos.
- Once videos are verified, the Faculty Center will start to move forward with the next steps.
- Once on the new server (Summer 2022), faculty can again begin using Canvas Studio.
We appreciate your continued support as we work with Canvas on this issue.
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Help & Support: Canvas & Zoom Migration Workshops
Need help? Our Faculty Center is offering Canvas and Zoom Migration workshops for all interested faculty.
Canvas - Zoom migration - Everything you want to know!
Saddleback’s Canvas is getting a new home! Starting Summer 2022, we have a new url (website location). There are a few things you want to do in preparation for the move.
What we will cover:
- What's new and different
- Hands-on moving content
- Trust understanding
- Zoom conversion - what changed, why, and what's new
- Canvas Studio
- migration
- checks and balances
- Troubleshooting
- Schedule one-to-one appointments with people needing additional assistance
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Day: Monday, October 25
Time: 12:00 - 1:30 pm
Day: Tuesday, October 26
Time: 12:00-1:30 pm
Day: Wednesday, November 3
Time: 4:00 - 5:30 pm
Day: Friday, November 12
Time: 8:30 - 10:00 am
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Day: Monday, November 29
Time: 5:30 - 7 pm
Day: Thursday, December 2
Time: 12:00 - 1:30 pm
Day: Friday, December 17
Time: 12:00 - 1:30 pm
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G-Suite: A Google Workspace is Coming to Saddleback!
G-Suite is coming! G-Suite is a Google Workspace with a collection of cloud computing, productivity, and collaboration tools, software, and products, and we’re rolling it out for Saddleback faculty and students.
To make it as safe and secure as possible, we need your help!
Please let the Faculty Center know which apps, tools, and extensions that you like to use while you are logged into G-Suite, so we can evaluate them for security and privacy before being enabled. What are Apps and Extensions?
The fall deadline for this form is October 15, 2021.
Thanks for your help!
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Faculty Center Support: For Canvas & Instructional Technology Needs
Our amazing Faculty Center provides support for Canvas and Instructional Technology. They are available, by appointment, to work with faculty who need assistance before, during, and after building their online classes in Canvas.
(Due to the fact that the Faculty Center is extremely busy, it is best not to email individual staff members or call their voicemails, as they are understandably backlogged). Messages to the main line (949) 582-4515 will be returned by Cora Swanson.
If you have already taught online, hybrid, or have previously completed the Online Educator Certificate and/or are just interested in learning more on your own, you are always welcome to check out the brief self-help videos available on the Faculty Center web page or use these Additional Canvas and Zoom tutorials.
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Liquid Syllabus Workshop - Humanize your online classes
Are any of these phrases familiar to you: "pre-course communication", "liquid syllabus", "teacher-student contract", and/or "micro-lecture"? These concepts are encompassed in many current professional development courses being offered by the campus and throughout the state.
Join the Faculty Center in this online workshop to learn how to use the technology tools you need to mix the ingredients that you already have into a digital format to create a welcoming, more human online experience for your students.
Thursday, 10/14, 10AM - 11:30AM, Register
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Mid-Semester Check-in:
Tools and Tips to Help Encourage Student Success
We know you are doing an excellent job supporting your students and encouraging student success as midterms and the mid-semester point rolls around. (Or, for those of you teaching 8-week courses, finals, and second-eight week classes). Listed below are some tools and tips (generously suggested by faculty like you) to help encourage student success and alleviate student stress during this time.
Please consider trying a new approach from the list below, or email us with additional suggestions, as we know you are all doing great things online!
A Canvas Announcement or Module Page
A simple, yet effective way to let your students know you care is to send a Canvas Announcement or to create a Module page with words of encouragement, support, and helpful resources. You may wish to include a link to the Student Support Hub (see below) and/or the LRC tutoring center (also listed below) as well as any additional resources you have curated in your Canvas Course shell (like midterm study guides). Another idea is to "preview" the second eight weeks of your course, so that students know all the interesting topics, assignments, and projects that await in the second eight weeks.
An Ungraded/Anonymous Canvas Survey
Another great option is to administer an ungraded, anonymous survey in Canvas to solicit feedback from your students about their experience thus far in the course.
Sample questions might include:
- What has been most helpful for your learning in this class so far?
- What is your favorite reading/ assignment/part of the course so far?
- List one important concept from our course that you feel confident in teaching another student?
- List one thing you are unsure of, or one thing you would like to review or relearn?
- In terms of learning, what has caused you the most difficulty in this class so far?
- Are you confused about any part of our course?
- Do you have any questions for me about our course?
Ask Students to Complete a Mid-Semester Self-Reflection
According to the CVC, "students learn more when they are asked to reflect on their performance and make plans for improvement. This is especially helpful when they receive feedback and guidance on their self-assessment. Instructors can use strategic opportunities for self-assessment to boost students' meta-cognition, and they can provide expert feedback to help students improve. Self-assessment options might include written reflection after a major assignment, muddiest point assignments, and practice quizzes."
Send a Positive & Encouraging Progress Report
Progress Report is a great way to communicate with your students about their success and progress throughout the semester. Although a Progress Report can be used to send students nudges about behavior that needs support, it can also be used to send joy and encouragement to students by celebrating their successes in your course. Mid-semester is a great time to send a positive or encouraging progress report, like "High Essay/Test Score" or "Improved Participation". If you have not used Progress Report yet, here is a helpful video to get you started.
Direct Students to the Student Support Hub
Although the Student Support Hub has been around for over a year (Fall 2020), many new students may not know how to access it, or what a valuable resource it is. Consider reminding your students what a valuable resource the Student Support Hub is.
The Student Support Hub is available in the Global Menu of every Canvas course shell. It includes actionable items for nearly a dozen departments, including counseling, tutoring, library and student technical support. Students can also get to the Hub without logging into Canvas by clicking on this link to the Student Support Hub.
We encourage you to create an announcement, or even better, a short video tour, of the Student Support Hub for your students. Need a sample? Check out the video tour I made for my students below:
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LRC Tutoring Center: Student Resources
There are lots of exciting online student opportunities through the LRC Tutoring Center. Do you have students who are struggling or who want to get ahead? Please encourage them to attend the upcoming Know and Grow Workshop series starting Oct, 4th in-person and online. Workshops are tutor-led and cover topics ranging from Combinations and Permutations to essay development. Additionally, the LRC is are offering online ESL Conversation Groups to help our students develop their English speaking skills.
Online tutoring is offered by Saddleback Peer Tutors M-TH 9:00AM-5:00PM; Fridays 9:00AM-2:00PM and NetTutor (third party vendor) 24/7.
For more information on these FREE opportunities for your students, please encourage your students to visit the LRC at: www.saddleback.edu/tutoring or call 949-582-4519.
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CVC/@ONE: Math-Focused Webinar Series |
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CVC/@ONE is pleased to offer a new series of free webinars designed to help math teachers improve their student outcomes online.
Are you looking for ways to further engage your online math students? Please join us for this webinar where Professor Fred Feldon will discuss how to overcome students' predilection to passivity, increase success and retention (including ways to address AB 705), create a pathway to equity, and develop confident, motivated students.
- Friday, October 15, 1 - 2 pm
Open Educational Resources (OER) are more than just free textbooks. OER offer instructors the opportunity to create custom, equitable, and culturally relevant content for students. Join Professor Kyle Castro (Mt. San Jacinto College) as he shares his experiences adopting, adapting, and implementing OER in his face-to-face, hybrid, and online courses.
- Friday, November 12, 12 - 1 pm
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CVC/@One Courses & Learning Options
In addition to our homegrown Saddleback Online Education Certificate courses (offered above), we would also like to make you aware of the many online educator courses offered by the CVC / @One.
If you missed an event, many past events are available on-demand on their YouTube channel.
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Canvas Hacks: Adding the Notes Column in Gradebook |
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We are committed to making your lives easier with our new "Canvas Hacks" column. In this monthly installment, we will share useful tips and tricks that you may not yet know about in Canvas.
Did you know you can add a Notes column in the Gradebook to keep track of extra information in your course, such as extra student information or general notes? This month we are featuring another video by Brett Myhren where he explains how to add and utilize the Notes column in the Canvas Gradebook.
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Over 10,000 Saddleback Students use the Canvas App:
What Do Your Students See on the Canvas Mobile App?
One benefit of the online classroom is that students can access our content from almost any device that has an internet connection, including mobile devices like phones and tablets. However, this situation can create problems because our online classes look very different on the Canvas mobile app. In other words, your students may not see what you think they see. To make matters worse, many faculty do not know how to check their classes on a mobile device.
Why does this matter? Because many of our students are viewing our classes on mobile devices. How many? Take a look at the chart below:
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According to Canvas, we have more than ten thousand students using the Canvas mobile app on a regular basis. We don’t know exactly how those students are using the app (which is a separate issue), but we do know that they are using it. Anecdotally, we have always known that many students were accessing our classes via the mobile app, but we have not tried to determine just how many.
This leads us to our next question: how should we respond?
First, we want to meet students where they are. If students are using the mobile app, we want to provide the best possible experience in our courses for those students. While we may prefer that students use a desktop or laptop to interact with our courses, we have limited control over the device that students choose. Second, we should remember that many students do not have access to a desktop or laptop computer. In other words, we are dealing with issues of equity as well as convenience.
This semester, we want to begin a conversation about how we can improve our instruction for mobile devices. There are many ways that we can approach this situation, but we thought that we should start with the most basic: we need to be able to see our own classes on a mobile device. We can’t craft a sensible or coherent response until we are able to see what our students are seeing. That will be our first step. The goal is to check our classes on a mobile device just as often as we check the “student view” on our desktop computer.
Here is how you can see your classes in the mobile app:
In general, you will want to do the following:
- Download the Teacher app for your mobile device
- Download the Student app for your mobile device. (You will need both in order to use “student view” for your class.)
- Log in to your Teacher app.
- Find your class and enter it.
- Scroll down to “student view” on the menu (at the bottom).
- The Student app will open, where you can see your class as your students see it.
Keep in mind that “student view” is an approximation of the student experience. It is not exactly the same, but it is a great starting point. We see this practice as the first step in a campus-wide conversation about mobile devices and online classes.
We look forward to hearing from you about what you discover.
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Questions About Canvas? Ask the Panda Pros
We get it. Canvas does a LOT. Want pointers on features and tools (like Studio)? The Panda Pros have your back.
Throughout the Fall, Canvas is offering FREE one-on-one coaching.
Sign up to meet with a Panda Pro who can answer your questions and help you feel ready for fall.
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FAQ Guide
Do you have questions about Online Education? Rest assured, you are not alone! Dean of Online Education, Marina Aminy has recently updated the Frequently Asked Questions Document to help faculty become more familiar with Saddleback’s many services, best practices, and guidelines to support our students.
Over 25 Frequently Asked Questions, with detailed answers, can be found in this comprehensive guide.
Please feel free to reference it as questions arise. And if you have a question that is not on the document, please let us know, so we can answer if for you. Thanks!
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Title 5 Proposed Revisions
For those interested in current conversations surrounding Title 5 at the state and federal level, this document contains "the proposed changes intend to align California Code of Regulations to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and the Federal Register (FR) and expand the scope of the publication of course standards to include online course requirements.
Where the federal rules are less robust, Title 5 may retain stringency and preserve the quality of distance education."
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Library Resources for Faculty
Our Saddleback librarians are here to support you and your students during remote learning with numerous resources and services!
All online article, film, and eBook databases are available from off-campus 24/7 with a student or staff Saddleback username and password.
The Library is now available with online and in-person hours! Visit the Library in-person Monday – Thursday 9am – 5pm and get live help from a librarian for research or any other Library needs via online Monday – Thursday 8am – 8pm and Friday 8am – 2pm.
Links for all of these points of contact are also on the homepage of the Library website. Emails and voicemails will be returned within 24 hours.
Library Workshops & Badgr LTI
Our Library Workshops are changing:
- The Library is piloting a badging system for our online workshops!
- We implemented the Badgr LTI which awards students a badge for successfully completing a library workshop in Canvas.
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We are asking faculty who assign library workshops to their students to create an assignment in Canvas, where students can either upload the link to their badge for verification, or a screenshot of the badge. We’ve included both written directions (see attached) and a video for students at the end of each library workshop, showing how to collect and share their badges. We’d love feedback on how this works for you!
- While we are working out the kinks, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you or your students are experiencing any technical issues with the system or if you have any questions.
- We are still collecting workshop completions as we have in the past and will send out completion reports upon request and at the end of the semester.
Our workshops for fall are:
- Avoiding Plagiarism
- Citing with RefWorks
- Evaluating the News
- Finding Articles
- Starting Your Research
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ASCCC OER Initiative: Get the facts about automatic textbook billing
Jennifer Pakula and Nicole Major, our Saddleback College ZTC/ OER co-chairs, are also our ASCCC OER liaisons. As such, they asked that we share the launch of InclusiveAccess.org a community-driven initiative to raise awareness of the facts about automatic textbook billing.
Inclusive Access has taken off as a sales model that automatically adds the cost of digital textbooks into students’ tuition and fees. While this model is intended to address some of the challenges with high textbook costs, it is also creating new challenges for students and faculty.
How exactly does Inclusive Access work? Does it really save students money? What about this kind of program is “inclusive”? Straightforward answers to these questions aren’t always easy to find.
InclusiveAccess.org is a one-stop-shop for information, tools, and other resources to help administrators, faculty, students, and policymakers make informed decisions about Inclusive Access and its implications for the campus community.
InclusiveAccess.org was developed by SPARC with generous support from the Michelson 20MM Foundation. Partners include AAC&U, Academic Senate for California Community Colleges Open Educational Resources Initiative, Creative Commons, DigiTex, Student PIRGs, Open Education Global, and OpenStax. Other mission-aligned organizations are encouraged to join.
If conversations about Inclusive Access are happening in your campus or state, we hope you will consider sharing this resource far and wide! To stay in the loop, sign up for emails and follow @TextbookBilling on Twitter.
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POCR- Peer Online Course Review
As you may remember, Saddleback College is proudly certified as a “Local POCR” campus, which means we are certified to review OE courses in-house. Even more outstanding, 64 courses have been reviewed locally at Saddleback!
If you are interested, we are currently offering a $1800 stipend for participating in POCR and fully aligning your course to OEI-CVC Course Design Rubric.
More great news, Pope Tech (new Canvas feature mentioned at the top of this newsletter) will help accessibility within the POCR process.
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Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Courses: Stipends Available |
Fabulous news: We now have 26 pathways (degrees/ certificates) that are ZTC!
If you are interested in learning more about zero textbook cost alternatives for your courses, please contact Jennifer Pakula or Nicole Major, co-chairs of the OER/ZTC Workgroup. Now might be a great time to explore ZTC resources given the economic situation many of our students are currently facing due to the pandemic. Furthermore, OER/ZTC is an integral part of the College Promise Program, Pathways, Equity, and Student Success.
Stipends are available for faculty who teach credit courses and are converting from a publisher textbook to no-cost. Unfortunately, stipends are not available for non-credit courses and faculty teaching a course for the first time.
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Reminder: Please Flag your ZTC Classes for Spring 2022 in MySite
We are asking faculty to ensure that classes that meet the requirements for "ZTC" (zero textbook cost) are properly flagged in MySite for Spring 2022. Every semester we work with the Office of Planning, Research, and Accreditation to track ZTC sections and student success metrics in ZTC courses. Data analysis becomes difficult when courses without textbook requirements are not flagged. We are also working on identifying ZTC Pathways. This work can only be done when courses are flagged. Saddleback College currently offers 26 ZTC degrees/certificates!
Flagging courses as ZTC only takes a minute. Log into MySite, click on "Faculty Services", click on "Current Schedule", and click on "Section Management".
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New Canvas Accessibility Tool: Pope Tech
When editing your Canvas module pages, you may have noticed a new navy blue "P" icon at the bottom of the page (pictured on the right). This tiny icon is Pope Tech, which is a huge help in making your courses accessible for all students. Pope Tech will quickly scan your site—revealing accessibility errors, alerts, features, and more.
Results in Pope Tech are categorized just as they are in WAVE, making them easy to understand. Along with your accessibility data, you'll get explanations in plain English—what each issue means, an assessment of its impact on users, and suggestions for remediation.
Pope Tech makes it easy to identify your most- and least-accessible areas, helping you prioritize issues and deploy resources efficiently. You can even track your progress over time, to measure and document your accessibility gains.
For an Instructor Guide Video Demo, please view the video below:
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Thank you for everything you do for your students. We know they appreciate your dedication, commitment to learning, and enthusiasm. We wish you an enjoyable and productive second eight weeks of our Fall semester.
Please feel free to contact Brett Myhren or me (Bridget Hoida), if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. We love to hear from you!
Sincerely,
Bridget Hoida, Brett Myhren & the OE Team
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