It's the Season of Sharing!
Last Call for TOPP To Go! Fall 2020
Whether you missed out on previous cohorts or you just miss engaging with this awesome community of colleagues, you're welcome to join us for our Teaching Online Prep Program (TOPP) To Go! The program will run November 2-30.
TOPP To Go! is a 4-week fully online, community-based professional development program where participants will be guided through four learning modules. The Instructional Design Support (IDS) team at Kapi‘olani Community College has offered 3 cohorts of TOPP To Go! since Spring 2020 and has successfully fostered a robust learning community attributed to the participation of 443 individuals from across the UH system.
All UH employees are welcome to join us. The PD is free and fully asynchronous with a menu of optional synchronous special topics webinars. You will gain access to all instructional modules as well as resources such as our Laulima framework (layout for your course site), syllabus template (available for every campus), and various other resources that are entirely optional and customizable to suit your needs and preferences. Most importantly, TOPP To Go! is a rich community of practice where colleagues across campuses and disciplines can share challenges, questions, insights, and resources. A certificate will be awarded to those who complete all required activities, but acquiring a certificate is not mandatory to participate.
For more information on TOPP To Go!, please contact instructional designers Jamie Sickel <jsickel@hawaii.edu> or Youxin Zhang <youxin@hawaii.edu>.
Join Us for DE Webinars with Your Colleagues!
Creating Community in Synchronous Class Sessions
Friday, Nov 6: 10:00-11:00am
Nadine Wolff
Zoom Link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/96413430913
Passcode: community
Enhancing Engagement & Assessment Through Flipgrid
Friday, Nov 13: 10:30-11:30am
Jamie Sickel, Susan Jawarowski, UHM colleagues
Sponsored by UH Online Innovation Center
Digital Tools to Support Diverse Learners
Tuesday, Nov 17: 10:00-11:00am
Cary Torres
Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/92438066913
Passcode: techtools
Open Educational Resources (OER): Be a Textbook Hero!
Wednesday, Nov 18: 10:00-11:00am
Sunny Pai and Sheryl Shook
Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/94919084669
Passcode: oer
UH Maui College Webinars
Communication in Intercultural Relationships
Friday, 11/20 at 12:00 - 1:30 pm
Communication in Team Settings
Friday, 12/4 at 12:00 - 1:30 pm
For more information, contact Joyce Yamada at yamadajo@hawaii.edu
LCC Teachers Talk Session
Know Your Place: An Overview of Pu‘uloa and ‘Āina-based Strategies
Friday 11/20 at 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
via Zoom at go.hawaii.edu/fx3
For more information, contact Erin Thompson at enkt@hawaii.edu
Free Conference in November
Digital Accessibility Tip (Accessibility Checker)
Using an Accessibility Checker is a great way to check the accessibility of a digital document. When the accessibility checker is used, it will provide a report of potential accessibility issues with suggestions on where and how to fix them.
Several accessibility checkers are available to users depending on the authoring tools used to create content. Microsoft Office users may consider Microsoft built-in accessibility checker. Google Suite fans can use Grackle Docs (Google add-on) to locate accessibility issues in Google Docs, Slides, Sheets.
Tutorials
Using the Accessibility Checker in Microsoft Word (video, 3:18)
Grackle Docs Quick Overview (video, 3:04)
Installing Grackle on Google Docs
Other tutorials are available on YouTube based on what a specific authoring tool you’re working with, such as Microsoft PowerPoint accessibility checker or Adobe PDF accessibility checker. You may also consider reaching out to UH ADA Compliance Support via itsada@hawaii.edu if you have any questions or need assistance.
Counseling Connection: Information Slides for Student Success
Did you know that Tony Silva, the AA in Liberal Arts Program Coordinator, publishes weekly Counseling Connection information slides? (Example: Week 11 Counseling Connection)*
Tony said his slides are “geared toward AA in Liberal Arts majors, and include information about transfer, transfer workshops, transfer deadlines, registration info, etc. designed to improve re-enrollment rates” but we think most of the information will benefit any Kapi‘olani CC student. Since the pandemic, he has been including pandemic-related information, as well.
New Google Slides become available each Friday morning for the following week. Any faculty or staff can gain access by joining the AA in Liberal Arts Laulima site (to receive an email announcement when it's available) or by adding the Counseling Connection google calendar.
You can share the information with your students in a number of ways:
Give your students the hyperlink when new slides become available
Copy and paste only the relevant information into an announcement or a lessons page
Embed the Google Slides into your current week’s Laulima Lessons page by replacing the ending portion of the URL with “preview.” For example,
-->
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PAEI8nh1GYRQCfg1M86FJJFSLf7FjAASKltguuMNGDg/preview
Want to make it an auto-playing auto-looping slideshow? Then change the ending portion of the URL to embed?start=true&loop=true&delayms=3000
*Counseling Connection began as a joint project by Tony and Amy Cook at Maida Kamber Center a few semesters ago, and Tony is continuing the weekly updates.
Featured Faculty
Name: Beryl Yang
Department: Arts & Humanities
What courses do you teach online?
My online courses include MUS106: Intro to Music Literature, MUS107: Music in World Cultures, and MUS121C: Piano I.
How long have you been teaching online and what made you decide to teach online?
I started teaching online in Spring 2014. I've always been very interested in the new avenues for instruction that technology can enable, but what caused me to decide to teach online was the flexible schedule that asynchronous teaching affords, which allowed me to care for my newborn baby. Our daughter was born that same semester, and I was able to continue teaching!
What is your favorite part about online teaching?
There are so many things I love about online teaching. If I had to pick just one, it would be the wide variety of resources available, both in terms of instructional technology and subject content, such that there are so many directions and possibilities for improving my online courses each semester. Ever since I first started teaching online, I've been exploring and trying new tools (many thanks to our wonderful instructional designers and DE team!) to make my classes easy to navigate and engaging. It's so rewarding for me to see how new instructional methods and new edtech apps can increase students' interaction and engagement.
Since all of my online classes are student driven, and since musical culture and practices are constantly evolving, the subject content is interpreted and presented differently by different students each semester. As a result, I always learn something new from my students every time I teach the same course.
What are your biggest challenges during COVID-19 remote/online teaching and how are you overcoming them?
The biggest challenge, and probably everyone faced this to a greater or smaller extent, was that we weren't given much notice before being forced to transition face-to-face classes to fully online delivery when we were all surprised by the pandemic. I was not ready by the end of the Spring Break to teach piano entirely online, despite having six years of online teaching experience at Kapi'olani CC and eighteen years experience of teaching piano in person. For example, 67% of the students in my piano class were international students. Most of them, and some of the local students too, did not have access to a keyboard at home. When the campus closed down, students could no longer access our piano lab classroom to practice.
Learning how to play the piano without a keyboard during a pandemic is as impossible as it sounds and, for some students, piano class was no longer their first priority. In addition, many of the international students expressed concerns about their safety, and they left the U.S. when they could. Most of them had to do a 14-day quarantine after returning to their home countries. It was very difficult for me to see many of my most motivated students, who were doing so well before the pandemic, not being able to finish the class due to the problems they faced. I maintained communications with them, offered extensions on assignments and quizzes, and eventually gave those who couldn't finish the class the grade they had earned before the pandemic.
For Fall 2020, I am again teaching piano online. The difference is that this semester I had enough time to plan for the class and for the online delivery, and students were informed before registering that they would need to have access to a keyboard off campus, in case the classroom had to be closed again due to the pandemic. On our course Laulima site, I offer the students tips on what kind of keyboard to get and where to get a keyboard on O'ahu.
What surprised you about teaching online?
Students more openly express themselves in online settings than in-person classes. Maybe it's because they have more time to compose themselves or it feels safer without the in-person pressure. I'm often impressed by the depth of their thoughts and their experience as we analyze world music in relation to politics, the environment and their personal identities.
What is your favorite web tool/technology?
Padlet! It makes sharing music videos and comments so much easier!
What We Are Reading, Listening to, and Watching Now
- No Study Groups...and Cheating Concerns. Are Students Learning? Campus Pandemic Diaries, Ep. 4 EdSurge (audio podcast)
This episode dives into concerns about the quality of online teaching and learning, from student and teacher perspectives. It also discusses cheating, and online proctoring, and the implications of both of these. Campus Pandemic Diaries is a semester-long series of audio postcards from students and professors at 6 colleges and universities. This is the best episode yet. Episode 5: Who Is Missing from Campus? is also available and is a good one, focusing on students ghosting in online classes. Why do they do it? And what can we do about it?
Students Cheat. How Much Does It Matter?The Chronicle of Higher Education (sign up for a free account to read the article)
As the pandemic continues, the debate grows louder. “Policing students shouldn’t be the North Star of anyone’s teaching. Especially not during a crisis that has put everyone under tremendous pressure,” but it is on everybody's mind. This article reflects on different assessment options and concerns by faculty struggling to come up with fair, equitable, and reasonable solutions.
Students Are Distracted. What Can Educators Do About It? EdSurge (audio podcast)
Interview with James Lang, author of Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It. The value and challenge of paying attention in today’s distracted society is discussed, and practical tips for focusing attention in the classroom (face-to-face and virtual) are shared.
Structuring Synchronous Classes for EngagementTeaching in Higher Ed (October 2020)
“Despite feeling like my class is less engaging than in other seasons of my teaching, the students have shared that they feel like the time we are together passes so quickly and that they are learning a lot.” The author shares how most of her synchronous classes are structured, starting from Before Class and ending with the Next Steps.
Sara Bloomfield’s Clear COVID Mask Accessibility by Design, wcag2.com
The “Clear Covid Mask” is a DIY COVID-19 mask that lets others see the wearer’s mouth. This helps everyone communicate better, especially those who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.
