Distance Education Newsletter

Working from home is hard! Some of us have small kids to manage, or pets, or other distractions. Some of us have less-than-ideal workspaces with which to "make do." Others of us are just plain lonely, used to being surrounded by friendly co-workers. More and more, in Zoom meetings and emails, there are cracks in the professional veneer. Cats walk across keyboards, kids dance or make faces to get parents' attention, there's a sigh or a tired rubbing of the eyes during a moment of forgetfulness. But these moments are reminders of colleagues as whole people, rich and complex. They are gifts that build trust and connection, and I am so grateful for them. Our struggles with work/life balance make us better problem-solvers, and more empathetic. So bring on the barking dogs and the spouses asking about toilet paper from the next room. Thank you for sharing yourself so fully! Our professionalism and our humanity are not mutually exclusive, but mutually enhancing.

We invite you to join the Fall 2020 cohort of Teaching Online Prep Program (TOPP) to prepare/improve your practice of teaching online.

You will be guided through implementing the distance education (DE) regulations, best practices, Laulima & Web 2.0 tools, online facilitation skills, and more, while building engaging modules of your online class. TOPP models an asynchronous online class, so you will also experience as a student various learning strategies, such as a group project, peer feedback, forum discussions, final presentations, and other opportunities to collaborate with and learn from your colleagues.

Experienced DE facilitators will give you individualized feedback and guidance throughout the program and ensure that by the end of TOPP your online course will begin to meet the minimum standards/regulations and quality criteria.

TOPP Fall 2020 will run from September 21st to November 15th. It will entail 4 weeks of active learning, followed by a 2-week break, and then a further 2 weeks of learning. TOPP will be totally online and asynchronous except for 1 or 2 required synchronous meetings. The program will require you to invest approximately 6-8 hours per week but it will vary depending on your technology skill level and prior experience of teaching online.

APPLY for TOPP Fall 2020 by Friday, September 11, 2020.

OER (Open Educational Resources) workshop series in September

• Intro to Pressbooks Publishing Software

Wednesday, September 9, 11:30AM-12:30PM

Registration

• Building Interactive Pressbooks

Friday, September 11, 11:30AM-12:30PM

Registration

• Strategies for Collaborative OER Projects

Wednesday, September 16, 11:30AM-12:30PM

Registration

If you’re interested in any of these sessions, see details from the CTE OER Workshops page.

Online Tools to Enhance Student Interaction and Engagement

Tuesday, September 15, 11:00AM-1:00PM

Registration; check out more workshop details

Hungry for more? Please visit the UH OIC Professional Development page.

Tired of cat videos or endless streams of negative news? Check out this wonderful clip of the amazing work done by the Instructional Designers and faculty at Kap’iolani Community College as they promote innovation in online learning. Kudos to faculty member Dave Evans as well as Instructional Designers Jamie Sickel and Youxin Zhang for sharing their experiences! (Click image to view video.)

Dr. Kelli Nakamura, a highly respected History and Ethnic Studies professor at Kapi‘olani CC, shares with Sheldon Tawata and Alfred Gonzalez on an episode of Kuilei Courageous Conversations podcast her insights and experiences of teaching online during a pandemic. Kelli has been teaching online since 2014, so her pre-COVID and post-COVID insights on online learning are especially valuable. She emphasizes the need for online teachers to be even more flexible and empathetic toward learners now and shares how she encourages her students to be the first penguin to jump in and acclimate to the new challenges. Kelli practices what she preaches: she was one of the first penguins to participate in the Teaching Online Prep Program (TOPP), was the first Interim DE Coordinator at Kapi‘olani (2017), wrote the first Distance Education Plan, and continues to be the innovator and cheerleader of distance education initiatives at the College.

Name: Paul Briggs

School and Department: Economics Professor, Windward Community College

What courses do you teach online: Economics 130 (Microeconomics), 131(Macroeconomics), 220 (Environmental Economics)

How long have you been teaching online and what made you decide to teach online:

I have been teaching online for about 10 years. I mainly decided to teach online in order to provide some more flexibility to my students who find it difficult to juggle school, work and family responsibilities.

What is your favorite part about online teaching?

There are several things I like about online teaching. One of course, is the flexibility it allows students and myself to conduct classes. In online instruction, one is no longer confined to teaching (or learning) at a specific place or time. I also like the preparation I do for a course and knowing that it is something that can be continually perfected throughout time. Last but not least, I like being able to show the course to others as a final product (something that is difficult to do with a face to face class).

What are your biggest challenges that COVID-19 has presented to you and how are you overcoming them?

Because I attended the TOPP Summer Institute in 2019, I already had online courses developed for my discipline. And I used the same online template for both the online and the face to face courses. I just had to get students up to speed with the new reality; they (and I) had to do a crash course on all things ZOOM. During the Spring 2020 semester, I switched my face to face meetings to ZOOM calls. I did my best to maintain the same schedule and rhythm of the course so that students could still complete the courses and get something out of the experience.

What surprised you about teaching online?

A big surprise is that I could achieve the same objectives and provide as rich of an experience to my students as in a face to face class. And using the online template has really enhanced my face to face classes as well.

What is your favorite web tool/technology?

While I really like Padlet, Flipgrid and Loom for different reasons, I really have learned to appreciate what Google has to offer. Google docs is an amazing and simple tool that enables collaboration for all to see. And I can link up most any document to my Google drive for students to see and they can do the same. And I am going to try out Google Drawings to draw econ graphs to students and for students to share their drawings with me. Google seems also to have unlimited storage capacity as well, which is a huge burden that we do not have to worry about. I have only scratched the surface of what Google has to offer.

In our June issue, we shared Be a Unicorn with Sprinkles, a document outlining best practices to create active learning environments. The Magical Unicorn column will be dedicated to small tips to consider when you’re inspired to enhance your online class. This month’s column is about instructor presence and showing students your personality, style and interests. Consider sporadically using your own images and messages throughout your Laulima site to connect with and inspire students. For this message, Kawehi took a selfie with her phone, used the Photo Lab app to add a comic effect, ran the photo through remove.bg to remove the background of the photo, then put it together with words of encouragement in Canva. The last step was to embed the image in one of her Laulima lesson pages.

What a difference a year makes. We know that the pandemic has affected teaching and learning in profound ways. The percentage of enrollments in online courses for fall 2020 reveals the impact COVID-19 has had on distance education at our own college. In fall 2019, students registered for 4,686 online classes out of 18,234 classes total at Kapiʻolani CC. One year later, students have registered for only 4,663 face-to-face, hybrid, and/or off-site classes. We don’t know what the future will hold or how these numbers will look next spring or fall, but the DE team is here to support you in your online journey during these uncertain times.

Have you wondered why you enabled the waiting room in your Zoom meetings but some participants are able to enter your Zoom meeting without having first been admitted from the waiting room?

Because it is a default setting for UH ITS licensed Zoom accounts. It’s time to go check your Waiting Room settings via Zoom web portal to ensure all participants joining your waiting room enabled meetings will be put in the waiting room by following the instructions below.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.

2. In the navigation menu, click Settings.

3. Under the Security section look for Waiting Room Options.

4. Click Edit Options to select who you want to admit to the Waiting Room.

5. Change "Who should go into the waiting room?" to Everyone.

6. Change "Who can admit participants from the waiting room?" to Host and co-host only.

7. Click Continue to save the changes.
   

Does your email thread quickly grow to oodles of pages with preset signatures appended at the end of every reply going back and forth? Gmail now has a setting to allow you to control when to attach your signature. Look for "Signature defaults" in your Gmail settings, and change when to include or not include your signature. The sample setting below will always attach a signature when sending a new email but not when replying to or forwarding emails.

You can always override the signature setting for each (new or reply) email: Look for the pen icon and manage your signature.

Did you know that there is a new assignments tool in Laulima? Last month, Google officially released Google Assignments LTI that can be integrated into various learning management systems and UH ITS has made it available in Laulima!

Some English faculty have been telling us for a while that using Google docs for writing assignments provides workflow superior to uploading/downloading file attachments in Laulima. Have you wondered if you could share Google docs with students for draft essays so that there is only one copy of the file with instructor comments and peer feedback? What about using a comments bank and using built-in rubrics to simplify grading? What about checking for plagiarism?

Google Assignments in Laulima can do all that!!!

Here’s a video to get you started. Please contact us at celtt@hawaii.edu if you have questions or if you need help.

The color of text, images, and other elements used in your document can affect the readability and legibility of the content. Please keep in mind that not everyone sees colors the same way. Poor contrast between font and background colors can cause readers to strain their eyes and potentially miss out on important information. Below are some considerations when you use colors.

• Provide sufficient color contrast between foreground text and background color.

• WCAG 2.1 requires a contrast ratio of 7:1 for normal text (i.e., below 14pt bold or 18pt normal), 4.5:1 for large text (i.e., 14pt bold or 18pt normal, and above).

• Use supplemental formatting (e.g., bold, caps, italic) with color to convey meaning.

• Incorporate patterns in a colored chart or diagram to allow color blind people to be able to distinguish the identifiable areas (see an example below).

Additional Resources:

• Color & Contrast for Colorblind Friendly Design (video tutorial, 3:19)

• Contrast-ratio - a website helps you to test the contrast between foreground text and background color if you know the color codes

• Color Hex Color Codes - a website where you can pick a color and get the hex code for it

• Canva Color Color Palette - a website provides you tons of color combination choices

Adobe Color - a website provides you more advanced color choices (e.g. Analogous, Monochromatic, Triad, Complementary, Shades)

Did you know that you can display mathematical equations in Laulima using LaTeX or AsciiMath equations? First, enable MathJax in your site (do this for each site):

1. Go to Site Info > Manage Tools

2. On the right-hand side, check “Enable MathJax for automatic rendering of LaTeX and AsciiMath in this site”

3. Continue and Finish

Then simply write LaTeX in the rich text editor and the resulting equation will display in mathematical format.

There are TWO options:

1. Equation is centered on its own line: Use double dollar signs at the beginning and end: $$math$$

$$ y=\frac{-b^2 \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a} $$

Which will display as:

2. Equation is inline with other text: Use backward slash and open parenthesis: \( math \)

\( \displaystyle y=\frac{-b^2 \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a} \)

Which will display as:

Note: the command \displaystyle slightly increases the size of the equation which works well for fractions.

• 7 Activities to Build Community and Positive Classroom Culture during Online Learning New York Times (article)

Seven very practical community-building activities are shared. Some will work best in synchronous learning environments, some in asynchronous learning environments, and some could be used effectively in either.

• Tributes Pour in for Sir Ken Robinson, a “Source of Insight, Inspiration and Joy for Millions” EdSurge (article)

Sadly, Sir Ken Robinson passed away on August 21. He was an intrepid champion of innovation in education. The article celebrates his wide-reaching influence.

• Your ‘Surge Capacity’ Is Depleted--It’s Why You Feel Awful Elemental (article)

Is your surge capacity depleted? Surge capacity is a collection of adaptive systems — mental and physical — that humans draw on for short-term survival in acutely stressful situations, such as natural disasters. But natural disasters occur over a short period, even if recovery is long. Pandemics are different — the disaster itself stretches out indefinitely. While there isn’t a handbook for functioning during a pandemic, Masten, Boss, and Maddaus offer some wisdom for meandering our way through this.

"Don’t just map what you were already doing into a video conference. That might be a good first step, and it’s better than nothing. But there’s an opportunity here to rethink everything. It’s okay to do less and do it better. Have something that’s sustainable..." --Salman Khan, from a Washington Post article

• DE Newsletter - August 2020

• DE Newsletter - July 2020

• DE Newsletter - June 2020

• DE Newsletter - May 2020

• DE Newsletter - April 2020

• DE Newsletter - March 2020

• DE Newsletter - February 2020

• DE Newsletter - January 2020

• DE Newsletter - December 2019

• DE Newsletter - November 2019

• DE Newsletter – October 2019

• DE Newsletter – September 2019

• DE Newsletter – August 2019

• DE Newsletter – May 2019

• DE Newsletter – April 2019

• DE Newsletter – March 2019

• DE Newsletter – February 2019

• DE Newsletter – January 2019

• DE Newsletter – December 2018

• DE Newsletter – November 2018

• DE Newsletter – October 2018

• DE Newsletter – August 2018