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Dear Colleagues,
We thought long and hard about whether to send the first edition of this newsletter out as fires devastate the region, colleagues have lost or are forced to evacuate their homes, and COVID continues to upend every aspect of our lives.
We understand that, for many of you, course planning is not at or anywhere near the top of your list of priorities right now. If that is the case, please just file this away somewhere for when you need it and take care of yourselves and your loved ones. We also know, because we are in contact with you every day, that some instructors are working right now to plan Fall courses, and we want you to have the easiest and most centralized access possible to the resources available to support your remote teaching.
Please make whatever use of this newsletter is right for you at this time. Most importantly, please know that our hearts are with the entire UC Santa Cruz community. If there is anything we can do to make this time easier for you, please do not hesitate to reach out and ask.
Jody Greene
Associate Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning & CITL Founding Director
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WELCOME TO THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE TEACHING NEWSLETTER
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We Made Something For You
Having heard the concerns of instructors about email volume and scattered information, we decided to start a monthly newsletter to bring together essential information related to remote instruction, including where to get help with course design, new technological tools, student academic support services, library and coursebook resources--in short, everything we think you’ll want to know to prepare for teaching this Fall.
We welcome your feedback on this monthly newsletter and look forward to hearing from you about how we can make it most useful to you.
What We Did With Our Summer (Non-)Vacation
Throughout the Summer, CITL and Online Education, in collaboration with many partners, have been preparing for Fall instruction. Much of our work has taken place course by course, with cohorts and individual instructors going through the Canvas course Integrated Course Design for Remote Instruction (see below). At the same time, a large group of staff and faculty members have been developing and participating in Fostering Care and Community, a series of events and conversations considering how the campus community as a whole can best respond to the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic and take up the anti-racist justice and equity work called for (not for the first time) in the wake of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, among so many others. For those looking for resources on anti-racist pedagogy in general and anti-racist remote/online course design in particular, these reading lists should be of interest.
In the wake of the events of the past months, CITL and OE have identified three values to guide our work preparing for Fall (and possibly beyond): accessibility, community, and deep learning. We have developed and updated materials and designed new resources and support with these values in mind. Both the Keep Teaching and the Keep Learning websites have been updated for Fall, and we will be rolling out new workshops open to all instructors in the coming weeks. We look forward to supporting and collaborating with you in the weeks ahead. Please let us know if there are resources you do not see that you would like to see, or modifications you think we should make to the resources available.
We’re here to do whatever we can to make this time easier.
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COUNTDOWN TO FALL QUARTER
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 Fall Quarter starts in six weeks, and we’re here to support you now. Keep reading this newsletter for the key resources to help you prepare.
Another great place to start thinking about your fall courses is by using this getting started guide on the Keep Teaching website. While you’re there, explore the rest of the site for more ideas and links to support.
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INTEGRATED COURSE DESIGN FOR REMOTE INSTRUCTION
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This program is designed to help you reimagine your teaching for remote or online instruction by blending pedagogical practices with practical tutorials for designing digital assignments and assessments, creating lecture videos, working more effectively in Canvas, and incorporating other instructional tools.
The course is in Canvas and can be taken independently and at your own pace, but we encourage you to take it with others as part of a three-week cohort with a facilitator. Sign up for a cohort, or arrange a cohort for your department (at least 8 participants) using this registration form. NEW dates added throughout Fall Quarter.
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Attend one of our upcoming workshops (listed below). Click here for workshop descriptions, dates for the next six weeks, and registration information.
- Assessments and Academic Integrity
- Gradescope: Your Simple, Time-Efficient Grading Tool
- How to Help Your Students Become Kickass Remote Learners
- Hypothesis: An Introduction to Collaborative Annotation
- Supporting Student Resilience: Trauma-Informed Teaching During Times of Crisis
- Teaching from the Tablet
- Yuja Q&A | Ask the Experts
- Zoom for Teaching
Additional Support
The Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning (CITL) is available by appointment to answer your pedagogical questions. Email citl@ucsc.edu to schedule an appointment.
For any questions related to remote or online instruction, drop in here for open virtual office hours with Online Education and the FITC at 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm daily.
If you’d like someone to check your course in Canvas to make sure that everything is working correctly, request a course readiness check with an email to online@ucsc.edu.
Join UCSC Online Slack! By joining you’re getting access to a space that is dedicated to addressing questions about teaching remotely and online.
Upcoming Funding for Online Course Development
Watch your inbox in the next week or two for a new call for proposals to develop online courses to be offered in Winter Quarter. The call for proposals will be similar to the call offered this summer, and courses will be designed and developed during the fall for winter offerings. |
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DIGITAL TOOLS, UPDATES, & RESOURCES
During spring and summer, the campus released several new technologies to support remote instruction. The most notable additions are Gradescope and YuJa. The campus also implemented a pilot for the Hypothesis annotation platform that will be available through December. Here’s what you need to know about these new tools:
- YuJa is a media management system that provides the tools for creating, storing, and sharing media content. You can use it for your lectures, and your students can use it for media-based assignments. Learn more about YuJa here.
- Gradescope is a grading efficiency and automation tool that allows you to grade and provide feedback on paper-based or digital assignments and exams quickly, consistently, and more equitably. Learn more about Gradescope here.
- Hypothesis supports the annotation of PDFs and web pages, promoting deep reading and comprehension. Students’ annotations can be private or shared, and instructors can assign and review annotation exercises for each student or for groups. Learn more about Hypothesis here.
Zoom
Zoom has become an essential part of the instructional toolset. As its use became ubiquitous, there have been increased incidences of both malicious and unintentional disruptions. Learn about how you can protect against “zoombombing” and what to do if it happens to you.
Zoom has gone through a series of upgrades to improve security. Beginning in late September, Zoom will require that every meeting either have a passcode or a waiting room. You can prepare now by ensuring that all of your Zoom meetings include a password, especially recurring meetings and meetings that are configured through Canvas. Learn more about the upcoming change here.
Are you interested in additional help with using Zoom in your class? Consider requesting a Zoom Pair for Fall. You will be paired with a trained student working to assist you in configuration, practice sessions, and/or class meeting moderation. Request a Zoom Pair by emailing help@ucsc.edu, with the subject line: “Zoom pairing.”
Learn more about Zoom and using Zoom for instruction here.
Sharing Pronouns
Many have chosen to share their pronouns through their email signatures and their personal profiles on social media. Did you know that you — and your students — can also share your pronouns in the campus directory and in Canvas?
To update the Campus Directory:
- Staff and faculty can update their Campus Directory profiles to display pronouns by logging into CruzID Manager and selecting “Directory Profile.”
- Students have the option of displaying or not displaying their pronouns by checking or unchecking the "Publish my pronoun in the Campus Directory" box on the My Pronoun page in MyUCSC.
Learn more about pronouns and the Campus Directory here.
Set your pronouns in Canvas by editing your Account settings. Learn more here for instructors; share this link with your students.
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HELPING STUDENTS BECOME KICKASS REMOTE LEARNERS
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More than ever, students in a remote environment will need to be intentional about their learning, and there are things you can do to help. Virtual environments require much more forethought on the part of both instructors and students. Here are eight tips to help you better support student learning.
- Create a learner-centered syllabus. Clear and regular communication is important in any teaching context, but in remote and online teaching contexts it is crucial. A well-organized, complete, and learner-centered syllabus is a critical tool for communicating with your students about the course and supporting their learning. Use this template to get started. Be sure to include the links to the student services suggested in the template.
- Help students connect with each other by building peer support and engagement into the course, such as discussion forums, peer review activities for writing assignments and projects, study groups, and paired classwork.
- Create opportunities for active learning, which is when students DO something meaningful related to the course content and then reflect on their learning, such as creating mind maps, diagrams, or infographics, writing summaries, and leading discussions. Click here to learn more strategies.
- Give students many low-stakes opportunities to explore the course content and reflect on their learning, and provide opportunities to correct or revise their work. When assessments are viewed more as opportunities for students to learn rather than strictly a way for the instructor to determine student grades, it may open up more possibilities for the types of assessments offered and the type of feedback that is provided to students. Here are some ideas.
- Add this Week 0 Module to your course in Canvas. The module provides students with information on how to use Canvas, to access the library remotely, as well as information on the Student Code of Conduct, accessibility, and critical campus resources to ensure that students are supported to be successful in your course. The module can be imported into your course using the instructions linked above, or you can email online@ucsc.edu to ask that it be added to your course (be sure to include your course name).
- Direct your students to the Keep Learning site, where they will find resources and support. Explore the site yourself so that you’re aware of, and can direct students to, the available student learning support and resources.
- Direct your students to some of the outstanding resources available online to support remote learning. We think these resources for remote student success from Oregon State are some of the best around.
- Let students know you are flexible and understanding, and ask for their understanding as well. Tell students that you will work with them to solve challenges they may face, and include a message about this in your syllabus.
Explore the Keep Teaching site for more ideas.
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LIBRARIES & COURSE MATERIALS
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Work with the Library to identify and access affordable, online course materials for your students. Library resources are available for use in your classes, including ebooks, journals, digitized primary sources, and streaming media and films. Use Course Reserves for your assigned readings to make them easily discoverable by students. The Library can also help instructors to lower student textbooks costs through the use of Open Educational Resources. Librarians and archivists are available to consult with faculty developing research assignments on how to best incorporate library resources, information literacy, and library research skills. Reach out to the librarians for help with online resources or to request teaching support.
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CONTACT US
Center for Innovations for Teaching and Learning (CITL) • citl@ucsc.edu
Online Education • online@ucsc.edu
Faculty Instructional Technology Center (FITC) • fitc@ucsc.edu
University of California Santa Cruz
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