Distance Education Newsletter

March is the month of mid-terms and the ramping up of the complexity of assignments, so it's a rough month for both students and teachers. We can't forget to celebrate our students' successes as they leap these higher hurdles. Let's make it a month of both patient encouragement and exuberant high-fives for our DE students. And while we're at it, let's congratulate a colleague on a job well done, too. You all deserve to be honored for all the hard work you're putting into teaching DE and all the amazing things you're accomplishing!

Did you miss our TOPP Pre-Application Information session? Please contact celtt@hawaii.edu to get additional information and to learn how to apply. Applications for both Summer 19 (5/20 - 6/28) and Fall 19 (9/3 - 10/25) are due on Tuesday, 3/5/2019. We are limited to 10 participants per cohort. Selection criteria for TOPP Summer 2019 are:

1. FT or Lecturer scheduled to teach DCO in Fall 2019

2. FT or Lecturer scheduled to teach DCO in Spring 2020

3. FT or Lecturer scheduled to teach Hybrid in Fall 2019

4. FT or Lecturer scheduled to teach Hybrid in Spring 2020

*Faculty new to teaching online (i.e. TOPP is required before teaching online) have higher priority than grandmothers
**FT faculty may not receive TEs if teaching Summer I (UHPA rules).

Do you think TOPP is awesome? If so, you're in good company. On Friday 3/1 at H2SI, Helen Torigoe was recognized with a Wo Community Building Award for creating TOPP. Congratulations to Helen, and to all the other IDs who have collaborated with her on facilitating and revising TOPP over the years (Marisa, Jamie, and Youxin). We've always known that Kapi‘olani CC has the very best program for training faculty to teach online; now the whole UHCC system knows it, too!

Padlet - Engage the students in your class by using the interactive pinboard called Padlet! Students can upload and share multimedia files, record videos and audio clips directly into the Padlet, share links to resources, questions, comments and ideas and more all without having to create an account! CELTT has purchased a full Kapi’olani Padlet Account with unlimited licenses, so if you’re interested, please log into RESOLVE, click the Home tab, then click Instructional Design and Support Requests and request yours!

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.

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

March Workshops

F2F | Accessibility ( Word + PowerPoint)

• Tuesday 3/5 at 2:30 - 4:00 pm in Lama 116

• Wednesday 3/6 at 10:30 am - 12:00 pm 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.

Did you know that Kapiʻolani CC faculty and staff can use an exclusive coupon code to order various training webinars at Go2Knowledge for FREE? (Retail price is $400+ per session.)

Lots of engaging topics are coming up on teaching, administration, counseling, Title IX, student support, FYE, student success, distance education, and more! Please see the calendar on their website for webinar listings and descriptions.

Visit the Go2Knowledge information page for registration instructions or order your free webinar by following the steps below:

Step 1: Go to https://www.innovativeeducators.org/pages/events

Step 2: Click on the webinar you want to order

Step 3: From the Webinar Pricing drop-down menu, choose the Go2K option

Step 4: Click the Register button, then the Check Out button

Step 5: In the Customer Information section, enter your email address and Billing Address (KapCC address)

Step 6: On the right side of the page, enter the Discount Code KCC17 and click the APPLY button *IMPORTANT*

Step 7: Make sure the Total is $0.00 USD

Step 8: Click the Continue to payment method button on the bottom of the page

Step 9: Click Complete Order button and you should get an email confirmation.

Your recording will be sent to you about a week after the webinar goes live. Please keep in mind that all webinars listed on Go2Knowledge are set to Eastern Standard Time. Please contact us (celtt@hawaii.edu) if you have problems ordering your free webinars.

Tip #1: A Strange Case of Shy Forums

When students try to click on the Forum instructions (“View Full Description”), it opens and closes too quickly to be read. Not even ITS knows why or when the problem occurs.

If you happen to come across this issue in the future, do the following:

1. Select the forum or the topic (whichever page you're having this issue on) Settings

2. In the Description section, click "Source"

3. Delete a line of source code (it typically populates at the top): <div class="toggle" style=""> or similar

4. Save.

Tip #2: Lose Youtube’s “recommended videos”

A study found that online students engaged more in non-educational multi-tasking (i.e. distractions) than F2F students. The recommended videos that appear at the end of your course-related Youtube video could add to the distraction or worse, lead them down a rabbit hole that may not lead them back to your online class. There is a way to suppress Youtube from showing recommended videos.

Open the video page > Share (at bottom right of the video) > Embed > Copy the entire <iframe> code

Paste the <iframe> code in the Source view of Rich Text Editor anywhere in Laulima (works in Lessons, Announcements, Forums, T&Q, etc.), then add ?rel=0 in the code:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JeKn-ym6sgE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

?rel=0 tells the video player to suppress all related videos.

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 Fall 2019, you will be receiving a link to the form via email shortly, as the Fall schedule gets populated. 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”). For more information, contact Leigh (ldooley@hawaii.edu).

There is currently a great deal of discrepancy in the way we define and talk about courses with varying degrees of Web-based activity. Specifically, the DCO code for "distance completely online" or the term "online course” may lead to misconceptions, and it is not uncommon for issues to arise when students find they are required to come to campus (sometimes on multiple occasions) or participate in other location-based activities in their "online" course.A s a greater variety of formats and options emerge, it is necessary to have standard terminology that both encompasses and delineates course formats along the continuum from face-to-face to fully online. Such specificity should help alleviate some of the misconceptions we often encounter with our currently broader and more nebulous terminology and ensure that we share a common language for the types of course formats we offer at KCC and what they entail.

The DE Committee has developed a set of definitions/glossary for the continuum from face-to-face to fully online and we are happy to announce that Faculty Senate has voted and accepted the action request on the adoption of these course format definitions to establish clear and specific, shared language among campus stakeholders, including faculty, staff, administration and students. This adoption is not meant to affect or change the original banner codes, but we hope that the terminology will become common language at KCC.

Face-to-face (F2F) : Class activity is organized around scheduled, location-based meetings.

Synchronous Distributed (SD) : Class activities are scheduled and location-based; Web-based technologies are used to extend face-to-face activities to students at remote sites in real time.

Web-Enhanced (WE) : Online class activity complements in-person class sessions without significantly reducing the number of required face-to-face meetings.

Hybrid (H) : A minimum of 50% of the class activities are online, with the remainder of activities occurring in face-to-face meetings.

Primarily Online (PO) : The majority of course activity is completed online, but there are limited required face-to-face instructional activities such as labs, clinicals, practicums, service learning, internships, performance assessments or proctored exams.

Fully Online (FO) : All course activity is done online; there are no required face-to-face sessions within the course and no requirements for location-based activity.

In the 2018 DE Faculty Survey, we indicated what communication methods we're using successfully with our students. Top communication methods include responding to students in a timely manner, sending out regular reminders of assignments / activities and their due dates, and giving feedback. Fewer of us (but still a good number) find check-ins to offer assistance vey helpful to student success. It's clear from the numbers that most (all?) of us are using multiple communication practices. In the spirit of a March of patient encouragement and celebration of accomplishments, it might be a good time to think about our communication practices and how they impact student success. What exciting and effective practices are you using now?

Question 14: What communication practices have been effective in your DE courses? (check all that apply)

• Seven Things to Consider Before Developing Your Online Course (Faculty Focus)
• Using Your Students' Evaluations (Inside Higher Ed)
• Teaching Gen Z Students: Strategies for Dynamic & Engaging Learning Experiences (PDF)
• Interpreting what is Required for “Regular and Substantive Interaction” (WCET Frontiers)
• The Long and Short of Online Courses (Inside Higher Ed) - Talks about the UH 5-Week Online initiative and other colleges experimenting with shorter course length
• Extending the Conversation on Online Course Length (Inside Higher Ed), continued from the previous article