OTC’23 Archives

Equitable grading within Canvas is not always easy. In this presentation, we’ll give you a short overview of the work being done by the CVC Common Course Management System Gradebook workgroup as they seek to help Canvas create a better gradebook, then demonstrate three strategies/work arounds faculty are using to support equitable grading. Strategies we’ll discuss include ungrading, contract grading, and using outcomes along with the Canvas mastery gradebook.

Bri Brown, Distance Education Coordinator, Assistant Professor, English, Cuyamaca College, SW
Suzanne Wakim, DE, SLO, OER Coordinator; Biology Faculty, Butte Community College
Lené Whitley-Putz, Dean, Online Learning, Foothill College
Robert Wonser, Faculty Coordinator, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, College of the Canyons, AT
Amanda Taintor, Faculty Coordinator of Instructional Design and Outcomes, Reedley College

Examine the use of templates in aligning courses with the CVC-OEI Rubric.

Matt Van Gelder, North Orange Continuing Education
Janet Williams, North Orange Continuing Education

In this presentation, we will present an overview of Mesa’s Online Success Team (MOST). MOST is comprised of 8 faculty members across disciplines who foster a larger community of Mesa colleagues that continues to inspire each other to try new ways of engaging our online learners. In this session, faculty, instructional designers, and administrators will learn about our team structure and outreach efforts across campus as well as different projects they could adapt for their own campuses, including:MOST’s Toolkit, an online repository of resources and templates to easily improve online course design Online design cohorts, a set of 4 asynchronous four-week courses Course check up, an attempt to map our existing faculty appraisal guidelines to online course design On-ramp to online learning, a student-facing online learning orientation And more!

Katie Palacios, Associate Professor, San Diego Mesa College
Kelly Spoon, Associate Professor, Mathematics, San Diego Mesa College

NOCE continues to change the course evaluation dynamic. In this update from last year’s presentation, we’ll continue the discussion about how we’re closing the feedback loop by analyzing data to inform curricular and course design revisions to address underlying barriers to support stronger learner outcomes and DEI as well.

Janet Williams, Distance Education Faculty Coordinator, North Orange Continuing Education

One type of discrimination that we don’t often talk about is how we treat our older faculty population. In reality the older members of our teaching and administrative community often have a valuable perspective that is important to the development of new policies and strategies in distance learning. Attendees will participate in a discussion about how to honor the wealth of knowledge that our emeritus faculty bring to the decision making table. Pat has been a strong voice in distance education in our system since 1999 and will share some of what she has tried along the way, emphasizing what’s worked and some of what has not. The product of this session will be a checklist of important influences on our policy decision making going forward.

Patricia James, Facilitator, California Virtual Campus

Technology innovation has been key in supporting students, faculty, and community college departments needing to carry on services rain or shine. This workshop will share how Bakersfield College utilized Zoom to support students with department access whether or not they could make it to campus. If a student needed enrollment support, access to counselors, academic records, financial aid or even tech support, they could drop into our Zoom Student Information Desk, and be connected with the needed personnel and ask their questions. During this workshop we will cover how we set up zoom to house all the resources/departments we wanted available to students, how we track usage of the resource, and how we manage various departments that assisted in the student support space. We will also field questions about this resource and acquiring buy in across departments. This resource has positively impacted Bakersfield College students as they struggle to remain in school during challenging times. Students have expressed their appreciation of this support resource as well as their desire for it to remain available indefinitely. We’d like to share our creative use of technology in the hopes of helping other community colleges wanting to provide equitable access to student support resources.

Nicole Avina, Student Success Technology, Program Manager, Bakersfield College

We all know that online course quality matters when it comes to student success in general, and equity in particular. In the context of the California Community College system, the California Virtual Campus (CVC) has worked to advance student outcomes by implementing a common standard for reviewing course quality with the Peer Online Course Review (POCR) process. At El Camino College (ECC), we discovered that one of the biggest hurdles our faculty faced in engaging with POCR was the structure of the CVC Course Design Rubric. The rubric is thorough, but the design is inefficient. This is especially true for a first time POCR participant attempting to check their own course prior to submitting it for peer review. In this presentation, you can learn about how the ECC POCR leads built our POCR Self Review checklist to restructure the rubric, making it easier for faculty to review their own courses. We will walk through the checklist explaining the rationale behind how we’ve restructured self-reviewing as a three part process. We will also discuss how we see self-reviewing as a crucial activity in de-risking online course quality improvement to make it feel less like evaluation and more like something the faculty member has ownership of. Finally, you will learn where self-reviewing sits within the Local POCR at ECC, and how we are working to make course quality improvement a sustainable effort for our campus so that you can consider what aspects or elements of our process can help you advance course quality efforts at your college. We will also provide access to the checklist to re-use or modify for those who want to continue collaborating on the effort of improving the quality of online courses.

Rhea Lewitzki, Professor, El Camino College
Moses Wolfenstein, Distance Education Faculty Coordinator, El Camino College

College students have diverse skills, abilities, and cultural or social backgrounds. The language presented to students in a syllabus at the start of a course may cause some students to feel disenfranchised or that they do not belong. An inclusive syllabus is a way to establish a first impression that you acknowledge the diversity of students’ backgrounds, needs, and abilities and that you are committed to creating an inclusive classroom that fosters a sense of belonging for all. At Sacramento State, two departments (the Center for Teaching and Learning and the College of Continuing Education) collaborated to support faculty in developing inclusive syllabi for summer online courses and through faculty learning communities. We are currently in the process of redesigning an inclusive syllabus template for all faculty as well. In this presentation, we will provide participants with the tools to assess a syllabus for inclusive language and to rewrite a syllabus using best practices. We will provide research-based best practices of incorporating inclusivity by reviewing examples of both inclusive and non-inclusive language. We will also review common policy language through an inclusive lens and explain how a rewritten syllabus can influence classroom culture. Participants will then use a checklist with specific elements to ensure syllabi comply with their institution’s policy requirements, are in accessible format, and contain inclusive language throughout. Participants will then be asked to practice rewriting identified non-inclusive language to be more inclusive. This presentation will empower faculty members to make changes to their own syllabi and suggest a way to bring this powerful perspective back to their own teams for future consideration.

Kelsey Macias, Instructional Designer, Sacramento State
Crystal Velazquez, Instructional Designer, Sacramento State

Instructure has created a new quizzing tool for Canvas called “New Quizzes” (thank you for the clear title!), which offers new question types and other differences compared to “Classic Quizzes.” While there is no date by which the transition will be enforced for Canvas, development of Classic Quizzes has ceased while Instructure focuses on feature parity and things that only New Quizzes can do.Now is the best time to explore New Quizzes. There is a hub in the Instructure Community dedicated to this tool, and users (that’s us!) can provide feedback to the development process. A good example of this is the survey tool. Instructure was not going to build in an anonymous feedback tool (to replace the Survey option in Classic Quizzes), but that is now on the New Quizzes Roadmap thanks to feedback from users.In this workshop you will learn the current status of New Quizzes development and how we can give feedback to Instructure. You will also learn how to create a New Quiz, including how to convert (“migrate”) a Classic Quiz to a New Quiz. We will focus on those features and question types that are unique to New Quizzes, including Categorization, Hot Spot, Ordering, and the much improved Fill in the Blank.

Gregory Beyrer, Distance Education Coordinator, Cosumnes River College

As a result of multiple years of remote classrooms during COVID, teachers have seen a noticeable change in how students engage in classroom activities. Students have been less likely to participate in classroom discussions and team assignments, and have been increasingly more apprehensive about speaking in front of others. Luckily, we have found solutions that leverage new technology to resolve these challenges by focusing on a specific strategy: anonymity.I wish to share my experience of how our classroom manages roughly 100% class participation in discussions every day, despite recent challenges brought forth by COVID and remote teaching. This level of participation would seem impossible in an in-person classroom, and somehow even less likely for remote classrooms; however, modern teaching tools can help us break barriers of socialization, enabling students to comfortably participate in discussions without the fear of judgement by their peers.In this presentation I will discuss how specific technologies have helped us reach these goals, including a detailed look at the features we use from these tools and websites: Pear Deck, Google Classroom, Google Meets, Nearpod and code.org. I will also discuss the power of using student anonymity to boost their participation, and how their performance can be drastically improved by positively reinforcing their contributions, anonymously. Lastly, I will explain how these methods are especially helpful for marginalized or underrepresented groups, who stand to gain the most from these approaches, as they may otherwise be the most reluctant to participate in classroom discussion. As a final tie-in for this presentation, I will draw on my professional experience as a Software Engineer of 12 years to discuss how these approaches can also help students after college, where remote work has taken the industry by storm.

Flavio Kuperman, Software Engineer, TEALS / Twitch

Have you ever had a student drop and you didn’t understand why? It could be that without meaning to, you forgot to add a LLLATCCH to the door of education. We all want to be fair and equitable educators, but that can be hard when we don’t know the eight components of ADA compliance. This interactive workshop will provide you with the tools to quickly and easily remember the eight top items you must always review and correct to create ADA compliant materials. Come on the journey to equitable education with a team who has been teaching teachers for a combined total of over thirty-five years. Take back the techniques you learn at this workshop to spread ADA compliance across your campus. Participants will be given a fully developed OER course: ACED IT! ADA Compliance and Equitable Delivery with Instructional Technology. Add a LLLATCCH to your educational door and let ALL the students in! We look forward to see you there!

Nancy Olson, Director of Instructional Technology and Online Learning, Barstow Community College
Heather Robbins, Instructional Design Specialist, Barstow Community College
Adrianne Rodriguez, Instructional Design Specialist, Barstow Community College

In June 2022, we learned we were one of 23 colleges selected nationally as part of an accessibility audit of online courses within our course management system. In this presentation, we share what we learned from the OCR process, and how we hope to respond to ensure all our courses are accessible. We’ll discuss the audit process and timeline, what we learned from the results (including results about Canvas), and our initial plans and hurdles. We’ll use the Q&A period to brainstorm statewide accessibility needs.

Lené Whitley-Putz, Dean, Online Learning, Foothill College

Traditional grading practices in online learning are more favorable to privileged students from a high-income bracket. Students from historically underserved communities are disadvantaged by traditional grading methods such as grading on the curve or subjective grading. Data from three campuses at the SMCCD shows that Black and Hispanic students are affected due to such grading policies. Student success among White Non-Hispanic students is 80%, Asians 85%, and Filipino 77%; but for students from underserved communities student success decreases. e.g., Black Non-Hispanic 65% and Hispanic 71%. As community college professors start analyzing current grading practices through an equitable lens, they observe disparities in grades. Hence, instructors are exploring alternative grading strategies. In this session, we will discuss the principles of grading and various grading strategies. One strategy that has proven beneficial is ‘ungrading’. In this method, instructors focus on providing feedback instead of ‘grading’ an assignment. Also, students reflect on their learning at periodic intervals throughout the semester. Finally, course grades are determined collaboratively by students and instructors, often through one-on-one meetings. These novel strategies have helped students from underserved communities to learn the concepts and have a positive learning experience.

Andrea Fuentes, Instructional Designer, Skyline College
Simantini Karve, Associate Professor, Skyline College

Joyful Leadership: Applying Positive Psychology, Emotional Intelligence, and Mindfulness to Your Life and Your Work Connections matter more than anything. Effective leaders understand that. In this workshop you will discover ways to increase your emotional intelligence and your school staff EQ (or district team), and to bring more joy, connections, and meaning to your work and life. You’ll learn how to infuse your team with emotional resonance and enhance your ability to courageously and effectively lead your school or district. You’ll get strategies that deepen trust and help navigate vulnerable conversations within your team and get actionable tools towards creating cultures in schools that value the wellbeing of students and staff above all while deepening the learning and academic abilities of kids. Topics such as Self-Regulation, Self-Management, Empathy, Stress-Reduction, Effective Communication, and the role of Play and Joy will be covered. These concepts are research based, grounded in the science of the fields of Positive Psychology, Emotional Intelligence, and Mindfulness. This will be a highly interactive, energetic, and experiential workshop so get ready to have some fun!

Ronen Habib, Founder and Lead Trainer, EQ Schools

The rise of Artificial Intelligence is a major development in online education, and it has the potential to revolutionize online writing instruction and student writing. AI can provide college-level student writers with instant feedback on grammar, style, organization, and more, helping them identify areas for improvement and make faster progress. AI can also help students generate new ideas and develop their critical thinking and arguments throughout the writing process. However, it’s essential that both educators and students understand both the capabilities and potential pitfalls of AI. This presentation will explore the benefits and challenges of using AI in online writing instruction across academic disciplines and provide participants with tools and strategies to effectively utilize AI to enhance their teaching and students’ learning experiences.

Participants will see how AI tools can help students develop stronger writing skills and improve the quality and effectiveness of online writing instruction across academic disciplines. They will also be introduced to practical strategies to help their students avoid over-reliance and inappropriate use of AI software. Additionally, attendees will have hands-on opportunities to use AI software to craft syllabus language and assignments tailored to their students’ specific needs.AI literacy is a critical 21st-century skill, and AI has the potential to revolutionize the writing process for both students and instructors. As educators, it is crucial that we familiarize ourselves with AI and its capabilities so that we can prepare students for a world where AI plays a central role. This presentation will provide tools and strategies to effectively use AI technology in the online learning environment, helping attendees unlock AI’s full potential and take their online writing instruction and students’ writing to the next level.

Angela Cardinale, Distance Education Coordinator, Chaffey College
Leona Fisher, English Professor, Distance Education Facilitator, Chaffey College

As online course offerings have increased dramatically in recent years one of the biggest challenges facing online educators is the time and effort required to create effective online assessments and to engage students meaningfully in those assessments. Cue Generative Pre-trained Transformer technology. Emerging AI can be a powerful tool in teaching students about-and engaging them in -the online learning process. During this session,attendees will gain valuable insights into the effective integration of AI into authentic assessment practices by understanding the role of AI not as a tool to produce an assignment deliverable but as a tool that can help students connect to the process of learning.

Trudi Radtke, Instructional Technologist / Designer, Moorpark College

Nicole Avina, Student Success Technology, Program Manager, Bakersfield College

Online discussions have traditionally been used as a means to both engage students in interactions with each other, and critically analyze course content. With the recent advent of Large Language Model (LLM) artificial intelligence platforms, there has been a growing concern about plagiarism and academic integrity in written assignments. Thus, faculty have an opportunity to rethink discussion prompts, deliverables, and rubrics. Primary goals include fostering critical thinking and information literacy skills; creating rigorous assessments; and integrating proactive uses of this open technology into the online classroom. In this workshop the presenters will address how weekly discussions can be revamped so that students can use LLM technology as a springboard for idea-generation, and consider ways LLM content can be used as an equity-centric means for students to co-create course content and Open Educational Resources.

Doug Cummings, Instructor
Katie Datko, Director of Distance Learning & Instructional Technology, Mt SAC

The online learning environment presents unique challenges in creating an inclusive and welcoming space for all learners. The principles of instructional design are critical in ensuring that online courses address the needs of diverse learners, promote equity, and foster an inclusive learning environment. This presentation will discuss how specific course design strategies can be incorporated in order to accommodate principles of equity without compromising academic standards which are integral to true student success and career readiness. By implementing these principles, educators can ensure that all learners have equal opportunities to access and benefit from online courses. By the end of this presentation, you will have a better understanding of how to design and deliver online courses that prioritize equity and create a positive and inclusive learning experience for all students.

Additionally, we will explore several important factors that influence the success rates for students of color in an online or digitally-based learning environment. We will also discuss practical methods the institution can implement to support equity. Lastly, we will discuss ways online students can be encouraged to participate in the process of equity and take advantage of the educational opportunities offered by the faculty and institution.

Melvin J. Cobb, Professor, Long Beach City College