Distance Education Newsletter

What an unusual summer this will be! On one hand we all desperately need to relax and recover from an intense Spring 2020 semester. And on the other hand, we all desperately want to approach Fall 2020 better prepared. But it's difficult to plan for Fall if we don't know exactly what shape it will take, and even whether or not its shape will have to shift mid-semester. So what can we do?

While our administrators work together across the UH System to make and re-make decisions in the face of evolving information about the COVID-19 crisis, we can take care of ourselves and each other, build up our resilience, and learn a few new things that may help us cope with the Fall while ensuring the best possible educational experiences for our students. And remember that we are not alone in this! Find a training opportunity that works for you (see below for some suggestions). Find a colleague or two with whom to form a thought partnership--brainstorm ideas, share frustrations, construct solutions. And find some time to nurture your spirit with something joyful.

This summer, TOPP To Go! Master Chefs Kawehi Sellers, Nadine Wolff, and Kelli Nakamura will be serving up some seriously tasty tips for online teaching and learning! Please check out the menu of webinars and mark your calendar to attend...this may be just the secret sauce you need to spice up your online class! All are welcome, even if you're not registered for TOPP To Go!

For the Win: Serving Up Gamification Ideas for Your Class
Thursday, June 4: 2pm-3pm

Kawehi Sellers is an assistant professor in the Hospitality and Tourism Education Department at Kapiʻolani Community College. She has been teaching online for about seven years. Kawehi has been working on class gamification techniques for five years now and is always excited to see her students embrace a different kind of class environment. This webinar will cover various gamification ideas that have worked in Kawehiʻs classes.

Zoom Link: https://kapiolani.zoom.us/j/98843679562
Password: score

Student Engagement in Online STEM Classes
Wednesday, June 10: 2pm-3pm

Nadine Wolff teaches Mathematics in the Math & Sciences Department at Kapiʻolani Community College. She has been teaching for twenty years and ventured into online education about eight years ago. Many students see math as a major hurdle and her goal is to help students overcome the anxiety and apprehension surrounding the subject with engaging activities, real-life applications, and a focus on growth mindset. This webinar will highlight ways an online math (or any STEM) class can foster engagement and a growth mindset through discussions and interactive learning. This session will focus on math-related topics but is open to all and engagement techniques to be discussed can be applied to any subject.

Zoom Link: https://kapiolani.zoom.us/j/93384902345
Password: stem

Sparkles, Sprinkles, Bells and Whistles
Friday, June 19: 10am-11am

Kawehi Sellers is an assistant professor in the Hospitality and Tourism Education Department at Kapiʻolani Community College. She has been teaching online for about seven years. Kawehi recently authored Be a Unicorn with Sprinkles, a document outlining best practices to create active learning environments. In this webinar, Kawehi will share tools, tips and tricks to enhance your Laulima site and the student experience.

Zoom Link: https://kapiolani.zoom.us/j/98151095041
Password: magic

Academic Integrity, Tests & Quizzes (Question Banks)
Wednesday, June 24: 9-10 am

Kelli Nakamura is an Assistant Professor who teaches History and Ethnic Studies and has been online for the past 6 years. In her free time (according to her students) she spends all of her waking days and nights thinking about how to thwart student cheating (reality: chasing a three-year-old who laughs at any efforts of structure and discipline). One effective way to ensure that students are taking original examinations is to make a test bank and have Laulima randomly pull questions so each examination is unique. Kelli will be happy to show how this is possible and how she uses this in her courses to promote academic integrity (and save yourself time from making a brand new examination each semester).

Zoom Link: https://kapiolani.zoom.us/j/95473385059
Password: popquiz

Mahalo to everyone who has registered for the Teaching Online Prep Program (TOPP) To Go! Summer fun series!

TOPP To Go! is a 4-week, fully online, community-based professional development program aimed at helping participants thoughtfully plan, design and develop an effective and engaging online learning experience.

Registration for Summer I is now closed, but we will be offering an additional round of TOPP To Go! in Summer II (July 6 - August 3) so please feel free to join us then if you missed Spring or Summer I. Additional details will be coming as we approach Summer II.

For more information on TOPP To Go!, please contact instructional designers Jamie Sickel <jsickel@hawaii.edu> or Youxin Zhang <youxin@hawaii.edu>.

The Online Teaching Conference (OTC), coordinated by the California Community Colleges, takes place annually in Anaheim, CA but this year it will be entirely online, free, and open to the public. OTC is known for gathering faculty, staff, and administrators leading the way in developing innovative and effective online education. See the conference program that includes sessions on curriculum/pedagogy/technology for improving online teaching and learning. Be sure to register for this amazing professional development opportunity!

Your Kapi‘olani CC Recharge Team is creating a Recharge Summer Camp experience for you! This 4-day professional development event will take place virtually, via Zoom, on the mornings of August 3 - 6, and will feature interactive presentations, opportunities to peek into and discuss virtual classrooms and learning solutions, and wellness activities. All staff and faculty welcome! Reserve the dates now, and please watch the Bulletin for more information.

“A picture may be worth a thousand words, but not if you can’t see it!”

The key to make a digital image accessible to all users is to provide an Alternative Text (a.k.a, alt text) based on the image's function (decorative vs. non-decorative).

Below are some key considerations when making digital images accessible:

• Leaving out the alt text is not a good option because the screen reader will read out the file name of the image instead.

• Each alt text should be as concise as possible within a 125-character limit and needs a period at the end of it (so that screen readers will pause).

• Avoid using phrases such as “image of” or “photo of” because a screen reader program can automatically detect a picture and tell the user "this is an image + alt text (you provide)."

• Symbols, such as okina and kahako, are not acceptable in the alt text field (see special note below for Laulima). In fact, it's better not to include any symbols (besides a period) in your alt text unless absolutely necessary.

Symbols NOT allowed in Laulima alt-text editing box:

: ; “ * [ ] & ~ = % # @ $ ! / < > ʻ (okina) … (three periods in a row)

Symbols allowed in Laulima alt-text editing box:

( ) - _ ‘ . , ? + .. (two periods in a row)

Video tutorials:

How to Make an Image Accessible in Laulima (1:44)

What is ALT text and how to add alternate text to MS word (1:58)

Adding Alt Text to Images in Powerpoint (1:00)

The answer might be more complex than you think. Check out this great infographic from Oregon State University.

You may find that users are no longer able to launch their camera through FlipGrids embedded in Laulima. Videos are viewable within the embed, but when you try to click the green button, it will no longer launch your camera (or provide the pop-up asking you to allow this action). Instead, you get the standard help info that pops up when you may have to allow permission to use your camera (but no ability to do this). If you open the app in a new window, there is no problem with launching the camera. You may wish to either link to your FlipGrids from Laulima or provide a notice to students that while they can view the videos in Laulima, to post their own, they should open the FlipGrid in a new tab or window.

• Delivering High-Quality Instruction Online in Response to COVID-19 Faculty Playbook

Developed by: the Online Learning Consortium, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and Every Learner Everywhere, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

"Delivering High-Quality Instruction Online in Response to COVID-19 is a faculty-focused playbook intended to improve course design, teaching, and learning in online environments. With special attention to the needs of instructors teaching online for the first time, the guide offers strategies for getting started and improving over time."

• Black Lives Matter at School Resources (EdJustice, National Education Association)

NEA EdJustice engages and mobilizes activists in the fight for racial, social and economic justice in public education. Many resources available to help stay connected and engaged in advocating for racial and social justice in the classroom.

• Five Factors That Affect Online Student Motivation (Faculty Focus, article)

Motivated students are more likely to engage and therefore more likely to succeed. Explore the MUSIC model of student motivation: The five main factors that contribute to student motivation: eMpowerment, Usefulness, Success, Interest, and Caring.

• Six Practical Approaches for Teaching Writing Online (Faculty Focus, article)

Embrace the affordances of online teaching from our composition and business writing classrooms: (1) Don’t ditch the workshop, (2) keep it hands-on, (3) employ exemplars, (4) self-directed and peer revision, (5) encourage revision, progressive grading, and extra credit, and (6) embrace multimodality.

• Three Strategies for Better Online Discussions (Educational Leadership, article)

Effective online discussions can be orchestrated by thoughtful planning. Provide clear participation guidelines, create strong questions/prompts, and help students connect with each other’s posts.

"Online learning carries a stigma of being lower quality than face-to-face learning, despite research showing otherwise. These hurried moves online by so many institutions at once could seal the perception of online learning as a weak option, when in truth nobody making the transition to online teaching under these circumstances will truly be designing to take full advantage of the affordances and possibilities of the online format." --from “The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning,” EduCause Review

• 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