Dear Instructors,

Heard about the Canvas Community yet? (Even if you have, keep reading because there’s something new!)

The Community is THE place to go to find answers, share ideas and connect with other like-minded educators around using Canvas most effectively.

There’s even a CCC Canvas Community within the larger community just for us! Our CCC Community has been newly redesigned as our Canvas Home Base to make it a more powerful, streamlined gateway to the plethora of Canvas resources available to you.

We’d love to use this as a primary way to connect the whole state so we can leverage all the passion and innovation we’ve got going on in our CCC system around Canvas!

In order to do that, we need you to join the group. It’s easy to do and doesn’t cost a dime.

Join the CCC Canvas Home Base!

Our Home Base is publicly viewable, but you will need to “Join” to participate and be notified about new content and events (which is what makes it fun).

1.  Go to https://community.canvaslms.com/groups/ccc

2.  Ensure you have created a Community Profile. See How do I log into the Community with my Canvas Account?

3.  Use the “Actions” menu to Join the group!

Once you’re part of the CCC Canvas Home Base, you can add your voice by responding to the Can-Curious Question of the Month (or post an introduction or submit a feature request or join a discussion or . . .).

See you there!

P.S. We want to encourage everyone to get in the habit of tagging your posts and feature ideas with #CCC. Makes it easy for all of us to find things related to CCCs.

Stacey Carrasco
Senior Program Coordinator for Professional Development
California Community Colleges’
Online Education Initiative / Online Network of Educators (@ONE)
scarrasco@ccconlineed.org

The Online Education Initiative has created some fantastic ADA informational modules for Canvas. Here is the link to self-enroll:

https://ccconlineed.instructure.com/courses/98

Included is information on how to create accessible materials (word documents, pdfs,  videos, PowerPoints, etc.) and a basic overview of the essential tools and techniques for ensuring your courses are accessible.

Take advantage of this great free resource!

Greetings:

Don’t Delay! Act Now! Time is running out for getting courses “exchange ready” for fall – not to mention summer! I encourage you to take a look at this timetable for Spring 2018 Course Design Academy:

Faculty Information Meeting 
(Link to Register)

Course Submission Form
(Link to Course Submission Form)

Interested instructors should register for an information meeting then follow up to get course(s) submitted by the due date.

As a reminder, steps to getting a course “review ready” include:

  *   Making a “Master Shell” copy of the most up-to-date version of the class in Canvas.

  *   Adding “info@onefortraining.org” to People in the course and assigning the role of Designer.

The complete Review Ready Checklist is pasted below for your convenience.

Finally, we have a lot of great information on Course Design Academy on our website, including quotes from instructors who have been through the process.

We look forward to working with them!

*Please note my new phone number below*

Autumn Bell
Chief Professional Development Officer
California Community Colleges’
Online Education Initiative (OEI)
Hosted by the Foothill-DeAnza District
Phone: (650) 949-7801

OEI Review Ready Checklist

Thank you for your interest in Course Review and in making your course available to students in the Online Course Exchange.  We have created this checklist to help you prepare your course for a timely and helpful review.

We encourage you to use this list as a personal reference. When all of the steps are done, please go to the Course Submission Form to complete the checklist form online and submit your course for review.

• Make a copy of the most up-to-date version of your course in Canvas and name it using this convention:

MasterShell_LocalCourseID_LastName
(Example: MasterShell_MATH101_Bell)

At this time, we do not review live courses with students enrolled.

• Add “info@onefortraining.org” to People in the Review Copy and assign the role of Designer.

At some colleges, permission to make course copies and add People are not turned on in Canvas. In that case, please contact your OEI Single Point of Contact or your college’s Canvas Administrator.

• Be sure to publish:
  • The course.
  • All instructional content in the course (e.g. modules, pages, assignments, discussions, quizzes, etc.).

The Reviewers will be looking at your course from a student perspective, so anything you would make available to students should be available to the Reviewers.

• Create a separate folder in your Files area called “Accessibility Review” and add any files/documents—Word, PDFs, PowerPoint decks—that are currently being used in your course (so we can check for accessibility).
• Choose a Home Page in the Master Shell.
• Add the welcome letter/email you normally send to students to the Announcements OR placed it in a welcome module where the review team can find it.
• Include all, or at least a sampling, of your announcements for the review team to see.
• Include your plan for instructor-initiated contact (Rubric item B2) in the syllabus and/or as a note to the review team.
• Complete the online Publisher Content Inventory
• Submit your course by completing the Course Submission Form.

Reviews Begin the week of:

Tuesday, March 20

10:00-11:00 am

Monday, March 26

By 5:00 pm

Monday, April 2

Thursday, April 5

10:00-11:00 am

Wednesday, April 11

By 5:00 pm

Monday, April 16

Monday, April 16

1:00-2:00 pm

Monday, April 23

By 5:00 pm

Monday, April 30

Tuesday, May 1

1:00-2:00 pm

Monday, May 7

By 5:00 pm

Monday, May 14

Friday, May 18

10:00-11:00 am

Thursday, May 24

By 5:00 pm

Monday, May 28

This 6 page, tri-fold, full-color, guide is an invaluable resource for anyone who uses the Canvas Learning Management System! In a clear, user-friendly, format, it contains step-by-step instructions, shortcuts, and tips on how to use the basic features of Canvas.

Features include:

• Setting Notification Preferences
• Creating an Announcement
• Assignment Types
• Creating a Module
• Uploading Files
• Editing the Syllabus
• And much more!

If you are West LA College faculty you can pick up your guide from the Distance Learning office or contact Eric Ichon at ichone@wlac.edu

Read the full story and watch the video here!

In this 9-minute video, SRJC Math faculty Dr. Jennifer Carlin-Goldberg shows how she uses Canvas Commons to import sample course shells with free OpenStax content produced by and aligned with the California Community Colleges Online Education Initiative’s course design standards.