Newsletter Archive - Edition 5

DDLC Learning Communities Meeting

The District Distance Learning Committee has $40,000 to spend on professional development funds this academic year. We asked you how you wanted that money spent, and you answered. Based on the feedback and data we received, eLearning will be sponsoring three learning communities (20 hours each, with a stipend of $960 to participants) to meet over the remainder of Winter and Spring quarters this year. This is a wonderful opportunity to collaborate, learn, and build with colleagues across our three colleges, with support and assistance from our Instructional Design team.

Here are the learning community topics:

• Building Community in the Online Classroom, supported & organized by Sanja Kadrić

• Anti-Racist and Inclusive Teaching, supported & organized by Julian Barr

• Alternative Assessments and Grading, supported & organized by Robin Leeson

If you would like to explore these topics within a community of your peers from across the Seattle Colleges, please join us for an Overview meeting on February 11 from 1-2pm, in our Zoom room. Or if you are interested but cannot make that time, reach out to one of our three Instructional Designers to let us know. We have space available for up to 45 participants, with 15 participants per College, and all participants will receive a $960 stipend.

We hope to see you all on February 11 and look forward to working and learning with you!

If you have any questions, please contact Julian (julian.barr@seattlecolleges.edu), Robin (robin.leeson@seattlecolleges.edu), or Sanja (sanja.kadric@seattlecolleges.edu).

Upcoming eLearning Zoom Drop In

eLearning will be hosting Zoom drop-in hours this quarter. Drop-in on February 17, at 1:00pm for support from various members of the eLearning team! More details to come soon.

Minor Updates Released

In January and early February Canvas released a few minor updates including:

• When a grade is entered manually for an assignment that is considered missing, Canvas now removes the red missing label instructors see on the gradebook.

• When adding external links into a module and you select “Load in New Tab” Canvas will now retain that setting for any additional links that are added to the module.

• Graders are now notified if your comment is not posted. A dialog box will appear asking if you would like to proceed and save it as a draft or if you would like to go back and post it. This can be turned off after the first time it occurs per assignment.

• The Accessibility Checker color has been updated to display as blue instead of red, which improves accessibility for users.

To read more about these and other minor updates please the January and February update release notes.

Canvas Tip

Using timed quizzes in Canvas is a popular feature but sometimes students need extra time. Whether it be an official accommodation or other reasons they have disclosed, providing flexibility can be required and important to student success. Whether they have an official accommodation, or you simply want to grant certain students extra time, here is a Canvas guide describing the process. Additionally, we recommend this video that provides step-be-step instructions as well.

As always if you need help with Canvas and any of its features please reach out to elearning@seattlecolleges.edu.

At the start of the new year, we typically think about resolutions, and many are attached to behaviors of self-care, traditionally health related behaviors, that socially are deemed “healthy.” As probably most of us have experienced those, usually these do not come to fruition by the end of the year. We also get the various lists, books, and articles all trying to convince you there is a certain way to do self-care. Case in point when in January the actor Reese Witherspoon shared this Instagram post with the following caption:

"Let’s talk about habits! Are there any that have improved your daily life? Here are some I'm working towards:

1. Start the day with a big glass of water.

2. Get 10 mins of outdoor light. @Hubermanlab recommends morning light.

3. Spend 30 — 60 mins reading without distraction everyday.

4. In bed by 10pm. *no late-night TV binges. Try to get 8 hours of rest!"

All these things are probably great things to do, but celebrity chef Ina Garten commented on Reese’s post with her own take:

"That sounds great but I’m probably not doing any of those things! LOL!! My formula is easier to follow:

1. Drink more large cosmos

2. Stay up late watching addictive streaming series

3. Stay in bed in the morning playing Sudoku instead of reading a good book.

4. Spend more time (safely) with people you love. In a pandemic, I do what I can!"

Before self-care became a white corporate buzzword used to sell yoga pants and touted by celebrities, it was rooted in radical self-liberation of the Black Panther Party. Black Panther leaders like Angela Davis and Ericka Huggins have talked extensively about their practice of yoga as an act of survival and the Black Panthers would build recreational centers in New York and California that specifically made sure that basic needs to care were met for both adults and children. We can find this work continuing now through Black women especially, for example see the work of Tricia Hersey and her Nap Ministry, that asks questions like “How will you be useless to capitalism today?” and the power to simply rest.

In the words of Angela Davis “Anyone who is interested in making change in the world also has to learn how to take care of herself, himself, theirself.” Therefore, taking care of ourselves and each other in education is so important. For us to make change, be present, and available to students, we also must be okay. In recent episodes of the podcast Hybrid Pedagogy, there have been discussions of both Self-Care and how to incorporate Care into teaching. Both episodes can serve as excellent starting points for folks to think about care in teaching and similarly focus on self-reflection.

Whether you are more like a Reese or an Ina, all practices of self-care are valid. Rather than giving you specific practices of self-care, and in the spirit of self-care as a collective practice, we wanted to use this newsletter section as space where folks can provide their own advice and examples of self-care that they practice.

CLICK HERE TO PARTICIPATE!

Zoom Shortcuts

Here are a handful of Zoom shortcuts for PC and Mac to help you move around quicker during your Zoom sessions. For these shortcuts to work properly, be sure Zoom is the active program you are using. For example, if you are Zoom’s screen sharing feature, the active program is whatever browser you are using, you will need to activate Zoom to use the pause or stop screen share shortcut. I hope you find the shortcuts below helpful!

WINDOWS/PC

Alt+A: Mute/unmute audio

Alt+V: Start/stop video

Alt+M: Mute/unmute audio for everyone except host

Alt+Shift+S: Start/stop new screen share

Alt+T: Pause or resume screen share 

Alt+C: Start/stop cloud recording

Alt+P: Pause or resume recording

Alt+N: Switch camera

Alt+Shift+R: Gain remote control

Alt+Shift+G: Stop remote control

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H: Show/hide floating meeting controls

Alt+Q: Display prompt to end or leave meeting

MAC

Command (⌘)+Shift+A: Mute/unmute audio

Command (⌘)+Shift+V: Start/stop video

Command (⌘)+Control+M: Mute audio for everyone except the host

Command (⌘)+Shift+S: Start/stop screen share

Command (⌘)+Shift+T: Pause or resume screen share

Command (⌘)+Shift+C: Start cloud recording

Command (⌘)+Shift+P: Pause or resume recording

Command (⌘)+Shift+N: Switch camera

Ctrl+Shift+R: Gain remote control

Ctrl+Shift+G: Stop remote control

Ctrl+Option+Command+H: Show/hide meeting controls

Command (⌘)+W: Prompt to End or Leave Meeting