Categories for News

Many hands raised.

Lunch and Learn – Turning Technologies Response Systems

Turning Technologies is a student response system distributor. Come to the CTL Workshop room to have lunch on them Thursday April 13 from 12:00pm to 1:00pm while they demonstrate how their system can increase student engagement in the classroom. One of their key products called TurningPoint will be demonstrated as well as their system’s ability to integrate with Canvas.

Seating is limited to 20 so RSVP Here to select your lunch preferences and reserve your seat.

 

 

Maricopa Digital Badging Dialog Day

Save the Date: Maricopa Digital Badging Dialog Day

Submitted for approval of 3 clock hours of non-academic advancement. If you are submitting for Faculty Professional Growth (FPG) hours, please print this announcement as you will need it to submit with your FPG application.

Join the MCLI, the “CTL Near You” and the Canvas LMS Core Group for a day focused on Digital Badging in Higher Education. Discover the valuable and growing role of digital badging in capturing student learning, motivating learners to new learning while also supporting competency-based education and industry/employer needs.

What is digital badging? Check out this article from Educause and then check out the event to dive in and learn more.

Hands-On Sessions

During the hands-on sessions, participants will get a chance to begin developing a badging model for their course or program, discuss the practical and fantastical strategies for using digital badges, and learn how to quickly and easily create and award badges using a web-based system.

Keynote Speaker

Veronica DiazDigital badging expert, Veronica Diaz from Educause, will present the keynote session about digital badging including best practice examples from colleges and universities around the country. She will talk about how educators can leverage badges to motivate learners while transforming the education and credentialing landscape.
Thursday, April 6

12:30 to 4:30 P.M.

Registration begins at 12 noon.

Chandler-Gilbert Community College –Pecos Campus
Agave (AGA) Bldg,
Rooms 1240 – 1242

Lunch on your own. Brown bags welcome.

Register Now
Digital Badge Icon
Earn Digital Badges for Participation!
For More
Information Contact:
Stephanie Williams
Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction
(480) 731-8298
UDOIT Logo

UDOIT Canvas Accessibility Tool

We are pleased to inform you that the UDOIT Canvas accessibility inspection tool is now available to scan and address accessibility issues within your Canvas course!

Please review the following resources to assist you in accessing and using UDOIT to improve the accessibility of your courses:

As always, contact us with any questions you may have and we will be happy to assist.

What is UDOIT?

The Universal Design Online content Inspection Tool, or UDOIT (pronounced, “You Do It”) enables faculty to identify accessibility issues in Canvas. It will scan a course, generate a report, and provide resources on how to address common accessibility issues.

What does it do?

UDOIT will identify “errors” and provide “suggestions” in the following areas of your course:

  • Announcements
  • Assignments
  • Discussions
  • Files (i.e., .html files)
  • Pages
  • Syllabus
  • Module URLs

It will check for the appropriate use of the following:

  • Use of headings in page structure
  • Alternative text for images
  • Table headers
  • Color contrast
  • Descriptive link text
  • Video captions
Inspire Learning

Still lots to do!

Inspire Learning logoIt’s only Tuesday!

There are many more fun activities to engage in at the CTL this week! Here is a quick look:

Wednesday 9/14

  • 2:30-4:00  9 Formative Assessment Techniques for Online Courses – Hosted webcast in the CTL
  • 4:00 – 4:45 Communicate with Google Email: Come and discover some tips to optimize your communication via email by using labels, filters, customizing your inbox, and so much more.

Thursday 9/15

  • (12:00-12:45) Lunch n Learn: Spanish: Do you want to learn basic Spanish? ¿Si habla un poco de español y quiere practicar o aprender más? All MCC faculty and staff are invited to engage in an informal learning experience to practice fundamental Spanish. Speakers of various levels may join the workshop at any time. You are welcome to bring lunch.
  • (1:30-2:15) Canvas Commons: Canvas Commons is Instructure’s learning object repository for Canvas cloud customers. It has been turned on for MCCCD starting in Fall 2016. Commons allows you to share parts or all of your course content and to use lessons, quizzes, and even entire courses shared by other Commons users in the Canvas community.
  • (1:30-2:30) Explore: Flipping the Classroom: Log in and discover what it means to “Flip the Classroom.” This webinar will cover an overview what Flipping is and how it can be valuable and encourage engagement in the classroom.

Friday 9/16

  • (2:30-4:00) Lesson Design Series: Collaborative Learning: Would you like to design engaging lessons for students to construct knowledge through authentic learning experiences? Do your lessons and assignments align to course competencies? In this 5-part workshop series, participants will apply knowledge of effective lesson construction to refine or create content-based lessons. Participants who complete all five workshops will receive a badge and certificate of completion. Collaboration in the classroom offers opportunity for students to interact with content and peers to make-meaning of new knowledge. Practice and apply learner-centered approaches for students to solve problems and make-meaning of course content in work groups.

Register or show up – we don’t care – just join in the new experiences and contribute to the conversation!

Casual business people raising hands in circle in sunny office meeting

Be Right Back

The CTL will be closed

Tuesday July 26th at 12:00 noon

For department planning.

Thank you for your patience as we strive to plan how we can best support you this upcoming year!

The CTL Team
Canvas Commons Header Image

Announcing Canvas Commons

On June 30, Maricopa launches a new teaching and learning tool within Canvas called Commons. A team faculty, library, eLearning and Center for Teaching and Learning staff from across the District collaborated to bring this new learning objects component to Canvas.

What is Commons?

Commons is an addition to Maricopa’s current Canvas license that allows the sharing, discovering, and reusing of learning activities and objects in a seamless and easy-to-use environment. Using Commons, faculty (and users with teacher and designer access to Canvas courses) will be able to search for relevant materials from personal, institutional or public learning object repositories. This means they can design courses and activities (modules, assignments and quizzes) without creating materials from scratch or pulling them from external sources.

Commons will also offer a platform to share resources and content expertise within Maricopa and a wider educational community, a tremendous asset for sharing template courses, assignments, and more.

As an added student benefit, Commons will deepen Maricopa’s commitment to the Open Educational Resources (OER) Maricopa Millions project by providing a platform where Maricopa Millions OER resources can be shared and showcased.

Learn more about Commons (Overview Video).

Will this change Canvas?

The Commons feature is very unobtrusive and will not change how faculty design or teach courses in Canvas. For users who have teacher or designer-level access to Canvas, a new global navigation menu will appear that says “Commons.” Students will not see the Commons option.

Where can I learn more?

There are great resources to get you ready for this exciting tool.

Commons Community
Commons Guides
Subscribe to the Commons Newsletter
Enroll in the Welcome to Commons Course

Will training be offered?

MCC will offer training on how to use Commons, as well as best practices for sharing and using Commons materials (copyright and content licensing). Please look for additional campus announcements from the MCC Center for Teaching and Learning and via the MCC Intranet for more information about training opportunities.

If you have any questions, contact the MCC Center for Teaching and Learning: ctl@mesacc.edu or 480-461-7331

Canvas and Turnitin.com logo

Changes to Turnitin​® Integration Coming May 18

As you may be aware, there have been integration issues between Canvas and Turnitin® since mid-October, 2015. Neither Instructure nor Turnitin® have been able to fully resolve these issues due to the use of an older, soon-to-be deprecated, integration. To improve and stabilize this service, we are removing the old integration effective May 18.  The new Turnitin® LTI integration gives Canvas users full access to all Turnitin® functionality (OriginalityCheck™, GradeMark and PeerMark) and ensures we will be able to utilize new features and fixes as they are released for the product.

What does this mean to you?  You will need to download any originality reports you wish to keep before May 18, as you will lose access to them once the old integration is removed. You will need to re-configure assignments for Summer and Fall 2016 courses to use the new integration anytime before or after May 18. Follow this guide for step-by-step instructions.

If you have any questions contact the CTL via email: ctl@mesacc.edu or phone: 480-461-7331

Canvas New UI Announcement Banner

Canvas New User Interface is Coming in May

A New Face for the Same Canvas

On May 18, MCCCD is planning to move to the new Canvas User Interface (UI). The new UI has been in international Canvas environments since Summer of 2015 and now will become standard for all instances of Canvas.

This updated interface (look-and-feel) for Canvas includes:

  • an enhanced user experience for the Dashboard and Global Navigation menu, and
  • a collapsed Course Navigation that allow for a more content-focused and responsive layout.

What does this change mean for me and for students?

Canvas will look different, but it will work the same. For example, menus like the Global Navigation will move to the left-side of the screen, but the feature options available in the menu will not change.

New Canvas UI Quick Reference (Print Version).
New Canvas UI Dashboard & Global Menu (Interactive Reference)
New Canvas UI Course Menu (Interactive Reference)

Preview the Changes

Faculty and staff can preview the changes in the MCCCD Canvas Test environment at https://maricopa.test.instructure.com. We encourage you to view your courses and become familiar with the new UI.

Please note that this is a testing environment and changes made will not be reflected in the live production site.

What resources are available to assist me and students with the new User Interface?

Faculty Resources

Student Resources

Do I need to change my links to Canvas Guides?

All the Canvas Guides have already been changed to reflect the new interface. Be sure you provide links to the new Canvas User Guides.

Get a Sneak Peek in this Video Overview

Canvas New UI Overview Video

 

Maricopa Millions logo

OER Development Grants, Phase 6

OER (Open Educational Resources) hold great promise for reducing costs and increasing access to required course materials. Community colleges around the country (Washington, California, Virginia) have joined in with national efforts to increase the production and use of OER materials. Washington’s OER project saved students over $1.25 million in just the 2011-12 academic year, and over $5.5 million since 2011.

The main goal of the Maricopa Millions Open Education Resources (OER) Project is to reduce educational costs for students. Spending less money on textbooks and materials will foster greater access to materials for students, which may enable them to stay on track with completing their courses.

The Maricopa Millions OER Project includes developing a strategic, sustainable OER infrastructure that would include: awareness, professional development, OER development and technical support, marketing and technical structure. In order for OER to be successful at MCCCD, we have established an OER strategic planning and implementation team to establish and oversee specific OER outcomes over the next 5 years.

The driving objective for the project is to save MCCCD students $5 Million Dollars over the next five years through the use of OER materials. And we’ve already reached our goal in 2 1/2 years, but we’re not stopping there.

This Maricopa Millions OER project, through an internal grant process, supports the adoption, adaptation, and development of complete OER course materials for high enrollment courses in the MCCCD.  The final product will be OER course materials that can be easily adopted and modified by other faculty (including adjuncts) teaching that course. Phase 1-3 targeted high enrollment courses. In Phase 4-5 we welcomed all courses to be submitted for the grant.

In Phase 6 we continue to welcome all courses to be submitted for the grant. However, most math courses and the following courses (ENG091, ENG101, ENG102, RDG091, CHM130LL, GBS151, PSY101, PSY230, BIO156, CHM130, CHM150/151/152, HES100, and SWU292) are not eligible, as they have already been funded and/or developed.
 
A statement of interest is requested by 5pm on Wednesday, February 17, 2016. If submitted, this information will be used to introduce faculty who may have interests in creating the same course in an effort to encourage collaboration. The statement of interest is not required but strongly encouraged.  

Proposals are due by 5pm on Wednesday, March 9, 2016. Group proposals will be accepted and are encouraged.

Grant proposals are now being accepted for OER Development Grants. For more information regarding the OER Development Grant program, please visit our website .

Spring Training Banner

MCC Spring Training Workshops

Register TODAY! MCC’s CTL will offer workshops as part of the MCCCD Spring Trainings Series. Collect tickets, trade cards and take souvenirs for teaching and learning back to your classroom. Workshop details are available on the CTL calendar. The CTL is featuring the OER Ideation Circle during the spring semester. Participate on the main campus and MCC-RDM CTL as scheduled on Mondays. Afternoon sessions available on Tuesdays. Ideation Circles provide space to collectively explore educational topics.

CTL Postcard Spr16 Workshops