Distance Education Newsletter

With Valentine's Day at its heart, February is the month for taking care of each other. Let us nurture you with helpful hints and tips, workshops, a guide to available support, and timely information. We are so happy to be working with you!

The UH ITS is now licensing Adobe Acrobat Pro 2019 to all UH faculty and staff! You can request an Adobe account from https://www.hawaii.edu/sitelic/adobe/ and install Acrobat Pro DC on 2 devices. See How to request Adobe Acrobat Pro DC from UH ITS for more details. Please contact sladmin@hawaii.edu for assistance.

According to the 2018 Kap​ʻiolani CC DE Student Survey, 43% of students who had a positive online learning experience said an instructor or a counselor reached out to them when they were struggling. Are you interested in increasing your students’ persistence through frequent and timely communication? Find out how MySuccess Early Alert can help. Contact Michael Sheehey at msheehey@hawaii.edu.

Have you updated your syllabus to reflect the new online tutoring vendor? UH has contracted with tutor.com who provides 24/7 online tutoring service to all active UHCC students. Contact Virginia Yoshida (yoshidav@hawaii.edu) if you have questions about tutor.com.

In addition to a full version upgrade during the winter break, the UH ITS is now planning monthly updates/patches to Laulima. The most recent update on Jan 20th, 2019 fixed the Chatroom refresh issue and also brought back emoticons in the Rich Text Editor. See Laulima 12 Updates and New Features for other improvements in Laulima 12.5. If you run into any Laulima issues, please submit your request to ITS via the Request Assistance form.

For FACULTY:

Thinking about embedding a Youtube video into your Forums/Assignments/Overview tool? Watch a quick video tip from TOPP: Embedding Videos in Laulima Forums.

For STUDENTS:

To embed an image in Laulima Forums, students must first upload it to their own Workspace (Home). Watch How to Insert Image or Video in Laulima Forums (for Students).

Touted as an AI-powered writing assistant, Grammarly is a handy little Chrome extension that can help clean up your writing in a snap! Grammarly is free to download and lives in your Google Chrome browser, popping up to notify you of potential improvements in not only grammar and spelling, but punctuation, style and tone as well. It unobtrusively offers suggestions and highlights errors across multiple web-based platforms, including Gmail, Google docs and even Laulima! It’s a fantastic little friend to have around for contract renewal, tenure & promotion, or just to check you before you send an error-riddled announcement out to students at the end of a long day...speaking of students: be sure to share it with them too!

CELTT is pleased to announce that a series of interactive workshops will be offered for each month in Spring 2019.

February Workshops

F2F | ProctorU

• Tuesday 2/5 at 1:30 - 2:30 pm in Lama 118
  
• Wednesday 2/6 at 9:30 - 10:30 am in Lama 118

SPOTLIGHT: Online Teaching | Gamification

• Friday 2/15 at 1:00 -2:00 pm in Lama 118
  

March Workshops

F2F | Accessibility (Microsoft + PowerPoint)

• Tuesday 3/5 at 2:30 - 4:00 pm in Lama 116
  
• Wednesday 3/6 at 10:30 am - 12:00 noon in Lama 116

SPOTLIGHT: Online Teaching | Maximizing the Effectiveness of Discussion Forums

• Friday 3/15 at 1:00 - 2:00 pm in Lama 118

April Workshops

F2F | Fostering Community in Online Courses

• Friday 4/5 at 1:00 - 2:30 pm in Lama 116

SPOTLIGHT: Online Teaching | Group Projects Online

• Friday 4/26 at 1:00 - 2:00 pm in Lama 118

Reminders will be posted through Kapi'olani News and Events. Our goal is to provide opportunities in a variety of workshop topics to anyone who may be interested in learning, collaborating, and/or growing their skills.

If you have any questions about our Workshop Series or would like to suggest a topic, please reach out to celtt@hawaii.edu.

We are looking forward to seeing you.

There are various resources for technology-related support. Knowing who to contact and how will ensure the best and most efficient resolution to your issue!

Please note that the appropriate contact for technical support for Laulima is the Help Desk - they are the only ones with full access to the back end of Laulima and the only source of support that is staffed and available 24/7, including holidays.

Get the printable Quick Reference

Information Technology Services Help Desk

Any and all technical issues, including those with Laulima.

• 24 hrs a day / 7 days a week

• Includes holidays

• Email: help@hawaii.edu

• Phone: (808) 956-8883

• Click Request Assistance at the bottom of any Laulima page

Instructional Design Support Group

(re)Design of online learning activities; selecting, aligning, or learning technologies for teaching and learning; related professional development.

• M-F, 8am - 5pm

• Submit a ticket via Resolve (resolve.kapiolani.hawaii.edu)

• Contact Instructional Designers individually

CELTT

Software, hardware, website requests

• M-F, 7:45am - 4:30pm

• Submit a ticket via Resolve (resolve.kapiolani.hawaii.edu)
  

ITS ADA Team

Accessibility and ADA compliance, including expert assistance with making your documents accessible

• M-F, 8:00am - 4:30pm

• Visit hawaii.edu/access for resources

• Email: itsada@hawaii.edu

Let’s make sure our students have the information they need to make informed decisions about what online classes to take. We have revamped the DE Course Comments Form, and it is now SO EASY to fill out! On the back end, an automatic comment is generated based on teachers’ responses, so all your department’s Banner-inputter has to do is cut and paste. If you’re teaching online in Summer 2019, you should have received the form earlier this week; if not, or if you’d like it resent, please contact Leigh (ldooley@hawaii.edu). Please note: filling out the form is OPTIONAL; default course comment language will be used if you choose not to fill it out (such as: “This class may require one or more proctored exams”).

Refresh ‘19 was a great success! Mahalo to all who attended, presented, coordinated and otherwise supported this event!

Missed a session or just want to revisit a resource? Find them here: Refresh '19 Resources

Last semester the DE committee submitted an action request to Faculty Senate regarding a policy to address semester start and end dates. The resolution states that a motion was made in response to the action request (#1819012), that a policy be initiated by the VCAA that reminds faculty, each semester, of the following:

1. no activities or assignments, even orientation related, extra credit or those without any impact on student grades, should be due before the official start date of the class;

2. no classes should end before the official end date of the class; and

3. final examinations are to take place during the institution specified final exam dates and times.

The Chancellor approved this resolution and charged the VCAA to include the three items mentioned above as part of the VCAA’s end-of-semester email reminding faculty of their responsibilities to close out the semester. However, this reminder from the VCAA to the instructional faculty is not considered to be a policy and is not subject to the process outlined in K1.100: Policy on Policy Development Process.

"Giving a Nudge: How Digital Alerts Can Keep Students on Track," EducationDive, January 2019

“Provosts Count More on Online Programs,” Inside Higher Ed, January 2019

“Rethinking State Authorization, Again,” Inside Higher Ed, January 2019

“Teaching Critical Thinking: Some Practical Points,” Faculty Focus, October 2018