Distance Education Newsletter

Trying to make good teaching and learning decisions in the midst of this COVID-era uncertainty is stressful. We're all waiting for information on which to base those decisions, but then when it the information does arrive, it's often in a state of flux even as we receive it, or it leads to further questions that need answers. It may help to focus on something we can control, to make a few decisions that we can make based on the imperfect information that we do have. This newsletter includes a link to a dashboard on student class modality preferences that may help us make some choices about our classes for Spring 2022. And there are always decisions we can make that are modality-independent (like ensuring that our class spaces--physical or virtual--are safe and inclusive) and that involve ensuring our own well being. We really do have the power to make things at least a little better for ourselves and our students. Let's blaze our own trails into the future, and share our success and our essential-to-learning mistakes with each other along the way.

Use the UHCC Modality Survey Dashboard to answer your own research questions. The pandemic has led to a shift in how our students learn. Click here to explore their preferences by a variety of demographics. Overall, the top winners were:

• Modality: Online Asynchronous
• Duration: 16 Weeks
• Time (if in-person or synchronous): Late Morning (10 am - 12 pm)

There was an article posted about How Instagram Improves Students’ Learning Experience and the ideas presented were compelling. While introducing social media uses into your classroom may not be for everyone, there are several benefits to consider. The author of the article suggests that using Instagram can “raise students’ motivation, engagement, and of course learning.” In addition to the uses outlined in the article, consider asking students to go on a virtual scavenger hunt, searching for posts that directly relate to your class. Ask students to screenshot or share these finds and of course, then reflect and connect. Set up a course-related Instagram account where you post original content related videos/pictures. Even if you use it for a one-time assignment, it can ignite student creativity and get them excited to learn more.

The pandemic has spotlighted the need for culturally sustaining policies, systems, and pedagogy in our institutions. We all need to work harder on developing a culture of inclusion. One way to take a step in this direction is to include a diversity & inclusion statement in your syllabus for Spring 2022. It's not hard to do, and it can go a long way towards helping marginalized students feel like full members of your class community.

It's most powerful if you craft your own statement; check out these samples for inspiration.

Our very own Amy Shiroma (Hospitality & Tourism Dept.) will be presenting a talk story journey about the value of human connection on:

Wednesday 10/27/21

3:00 - 4:30 pm

Zoom link: http://go.hawaii.edu/kLP

Are you wishing your work environment was a more positive place? Are you wondering how to create better connections with your students? Are you feeling like your team is not providing their best service to others? Do you feel like the pandemic has just strained and distanced the relationships in your life?

Come and join us as we share stories, laughs, and maybe a few tears in this talk story journey about the value of human connection. Learn how to build authentic and meaningful relationships in all areas of your life. Sometimes it’s as simple as “Eh! Wot skool u wen?”

Brought to you by the UHCC PD Consortium. For more information, please contact Leigh Dooley at ldooley@hawaii.edu.

Kapiʻolani Community College is an institutional member of the University Professional for Continuing Education Association (UPCEA). UPCEA is an international continuing education association with members from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Australia. Although a continuing education association, many institutional members offer credit courses and many of the conference topics are focused on credit courses and programs.

UPCEA normally holds five regional conferences in October. This year they are changing it up and all five UPCEA regions will come together to hold one region conference! So conference attendees will have the opportunity to hear from speakers from across the country!

The best part is that it is free to all UPCEA members. Held from October 18-21, topics covered include online learning, international, program planning, marketing, student services and community and economic engagement.

To take advantage of this free professional development opportunity, you must first be a UPCEA member. If you are not currently a UPCEA member or unsure if you are one, please contact Melissa Nakamura at mchar@hawaii.edu. If you are not a member, Melissa will add you as a member and you will be able to register for the free conference. Membership is only available to Kapiʻolani Community College faculty and staff.

Hurry! Registration ends on Wednesday, October 13, 2021! More information can be found at the UPCEA Regions Week website.

The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) announced two upcoming webinar events for October and November. Both of them will be hosted via Zoom.

The first webinar, Demystifying Accreditation will be held Tuesday, October 19th at 1PM PDT. The second one scheduled for November 16th (Tuesday) at 2PM PST will be focusing on Assessment Practices for Continuous Quality Improvement.

For more information, feel free to check out ACCJC’s upcoming Scheduled Webinars page. No registration required for these two webinars if you’re interested in attending either or both.

Currently, Kapi‘olani CC has a subscription with Go2Knowledge, which offers Kap‘olani CC faculty and staff free access to dozens of Innovative Educators webinars, both live and on demand (pre-recorded). Many of them are quite good! Here's a sampling to pique your interest:

Upcoming live webinars:

• Designing Effective Micro-learning Lectures to Engage and Inspire (Tuesday 10/12, 9:00 - 10:00 am HST)

• Online Student Support: Why Returning to Pre-pandemic Service Models Won't Work (Thursday 10/21, 7:00 - 8:00 am HST)

• How to Increase Engagement during Synchronous Online Sessions (Wednesday 10/27, 9:00 - 10:00 am HST)

Recently-added on demand webinars:

• Creating Inclusive Classroom Environments: Addressing Implicit Bias, Microaggressions, and Exclusion (60 min)

• Designing Student-centered, Flexible Assignments while Still Meeting Curricular and Pedagogical Goals (60 min)

• 10 Strategies for Dealing with Online Fatigue (60 min)

And many, many more. Sign up at Kapi‘olani CC's G2K account page and browse through the offerings.

A new version of CES was released in September 2021. According to ITS, “The software frameworks used by CES have been upgraded and required major changes to the backend of the application.” For most of us, the change will seem minor - a few menus may look different; however, the following important changes should be noted:

• Non-traditional surveys are now by default open to students for 7 days, just like the traditional surveys. Instructors can still extend and re-open the surveys. Email notifications to the students regarding the non-traditional surveys are automatically sent on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Email notifications to instructors with upcoming non-traditional surveys are sent out on Monday of the week before the survey opens to the students, so the instructor can add questions to the upcoming survey if desired.

• Starting in Fall 2021, CES will create one survey for each instructor for every course in Banner. Previously, CES created one survey per course and co-instructors had to ‘share’ the survey. While each instructor now has his/her own survey where he/she can select questions, the students will only see one survey per course. If a course has more than one instructor, the student view of the survey will have multiple sections, one section per instructor followed by the questions set by the campus/college/division/department and subject.

ITS has also created a new set of how-to documents (requires logging into your hawaii.edu Google account). Please share this information widely, and submit your requests or questions on the CES Request Assistance page.

Source: UH ITS Course Evaluation System Administrator, September 29, 2021

REMINDER: Every CES survey for Kapi‘olani courses consists of 7 campus-level questions plus department-level questions (check with your department). Please note that there are no open-ended questions unless added by the instructor or the department. If you want qualitative feedback from your students, you can add your own questions to your surveys during the next faculty edit period (Nov. 1 to Dec. 2). Please email ecafe-kcc@lists.hawaii.edu if you need assistance.

Our post UH ITS Reviewed Instructional Third Party Online Tools or Microservices (widgets) for Faculty in last month’s Kapi‘olani DE Newsletter incorrectly implied that ITS had reviewed the listed third party tools for ADA accessibility.

ITS has clarified that they review instructional third party tools for privacy policy and terms of use, but NOT specifically for ADA Accessibility. Their spreadsheet only provides accessibility links for faculty reference. Some tools may show "Accessibility page is not provided" in the Tool Accessibility column if no ADA information could be found.

For clarity, ITS has added a clarification statement at the top of the spreadsheet: “​Tool accessibility links (column G) are provided for reference, but have not been reviewed or approved for accessibility. You are able to utilize tools that are not accessible, but would need to ensure that you provide an equivalent opportunity for students requiring accommodations.”

Questions? Please contact the DE Coordinator Leigh Dooley at ldooley@hawaii.edu.

• The Joys of Musical Breakout Rooms (article, Faculty Focus)

Now, when social interaction is more challenging than ever, we need to be especially cognizant that human connection is not an add-on but, in fact, matters almost as much as the content we teach.

• Why I Went from Proctored Exams to Open Book (article, Faculty Focus)

A professor converted her exams from 1-hour proctored exams to 3-hour open book exams. A student’s feedback: “The open-book format was great in that it didn’t make the course a memorization course. Even though it was open book, it still tested our understanding of the topics we learned about, which does reflect well on my knowledge gained.”

• Detailing Last Fall's Online Enrollment Surge (article, Inside Higher Ed)

A closer look at the huge increase in online enrollments in Fall 2020, and and exploration of impacts and implications.

• A New Normal for Online Education (article, Forbes)

"'We’re going to stop using the term online learning because students don’t think in terms of online and offline,' said Paul LeBlanc, president of Southern New Hampshire University. 'They live their lives online. They’re never offline. Think about it: we don’t say we’re word processing anymore. We just say we’re writing. The same will be true of how we learn.'”

• The Future of Higher Ed Is Occurring at the Margins (article, Inside Higher Ed)

To predict the future of higher ed, we need to look at some currently fringe educational arenas, such as adventurous for- and non-profit initiatives rejecting time- and place-based approaches and offering low-cost, competency-based alternatives.

• Median Lifetime Earnings Rise with Each Additional Level of Education, Report Finds (article, Higher Ed Dive)

"Those with less than a high school diploma earned an average of $1.2 million during their lifetimes, compared to $2.8 million for workers with bachelor's degrees and $4.7 million for workers with professional degrees. However, substantial variation within each category means some workers with less education can earn more than workers with more education. Typically these differences are due to field of study and occupation."

• DE Newsletter - September 2021

• DE Newsletter - August 2021

• DE Newsletter - July 2021

• DE Newsletter - June 2021

• DE Newsletter - May 2021

• DE Newsletter - April 2021

• DE Newsletter - March 2021

• DE Newsletter - February 2021

• DE Newsletter - January 2021

• DE Newsletter - December 2020

• DE Newsletter - November 2020