Tips for Online Course Management

It is important to make sure all goes well at the start of an online course or students will see your course as sloppy, amateur, and unprepared. The start is also a good time to develop a sense of community. Even before the start of your course, consider designing (or modifying) your college

 

faculty Web page

 

to give better information on your current online courses.

 

Orientation

• Orientation can be online or on-campus (as a one- hour session on a Saturday or weekday evening).  You may give students a choice of either, but make some type of orientation required, not optional.
• Be clear on what you require (a "contract agreement").
• Mix course information with some Canvas instructions, but also be aware that many of your students may be familiar with Canvas.
• Give Help Desk contact information (see

   

  Help Desk)
• See Orientation Content for more details about what to include.
• Be sure your syllabus is ready for online.

Welcome Ideas

• Email students before course begins with a welcome message that includes how to access Canvas and get started.
• Consider opening your course to students a few days before the start of the semester.
• Send a friendly, informative welcome announcement to start off your course - with a brief summary of what to do first and where to find it.  Note that in Canvas, the course needs to be published for students to be notified.
• Include a teacher page in your first module.  Include a picture of yourself and contact information.

Creating a Sense of Community

• Include an opening icebreaker discussion.
• Include chat or online conferencing times as part of orientation: "I will be available via Zoom on this date."
• Include personal phone calls for those who haven't logged in or who haven't yet engaged in the first weeks' assignments.

A variety of materials and formats are available to use in online teaching. It is best to use many of these when presenting information online -- variety works well. You may need to include instructions for students on how to use some of formats and you should always consider cost to students as well as differences in student technical expertise. Some instructors have actually mailed materials as "on loan" to students for the semester, to be mailed back at the end.

 

For more on materials and formats, see

 

Content

 

and Multimedia

Textbook 

• Best if visual and organized into workable sections
• Online e-books are available - less expensive, but not as portable - also reading large amounts of text online can be tiring (smart phones, and e-book readers may change this - see sidebar)
• Consider using no textbook at all or use

   

  zero cost options.

Supplements

• Publisher content can be included as less expensive bundles with textbooks
• CD/DVDs can contain extra videos, presentations, labs

Video and Audio 

• Streaming allows instant viewing with download lag
• mp4 is the most common format for video
• YouTube and other video can be embedded in Canvas
• See

   

  Library Media faculty services

   

  for more options

Presentations 

• Add graphics, audio narration, and video (see

   

  Content)
• Use free "flowgram" programs for interactive Web presentations (see

   

  Programs/Applications for information)

Graphics and Animation

• Use a digital camera or royalty-free clipart
• Develop you own animations using Flash or other programs
• Add narration to even still photos, diagrams, charts, or graphs for effect

Podcasts and more

Divisions

• Group by whatever makes sense for your material: by week, by topic unit, by module - most teachers choose weekly modules
• Separate and group assignments, assessments, activities, etc. into small chunks
• Shorter chunks work better than longer chunks (breaking longer assignments into shorter chunks helps students with time-management)
• Account for the difficulty of the material and length of assignments
• Some prefer giving the same type of assignments each week (discussion, paper, test), while others like a greater variation in types of assignments each week

Schedule

• Create a calendar with dates for each chunk and due dates for all assignments -  this can be done within the Canvas calendar
• Don't forget to account for holidays and Spring break
• Progression 1:
  • some prefer that all content in the entire course be available at the start so students can plan ahead
  • some prefer making only current material available to make the workload seem less overwhelming
• Progression 2:
  • some prefer a system where assignments within each chunk can be completed in any order
  • some prefer "adaptive release" where certain assignments must be completed before the next
• Progression 3:
  • few have tried a "non-building" approach where any work in the course can be completed in any order (but this would depend on the course content and purpose - and see difficulties below)
• All due dates should be finalized and posted in your course syllabus on the first day of class (any late changes should have an accompanying announcement)

Deadlines

• Specify exact due dates/deadlines
• Make assignments unavailable after the deadline (unless you allow for late work)
• Include multiple midweek/mid-module deadlines (or reminders) to help with students' time-management
• Remind students to work regularly in your announcements - not only about weekly assignment deadlines, but also non-assignment tasks like reading, working on longer projects, studying for exams, etc.
• Some have included no deadlines and have allowed students to work through the entire course without any date constraints (except for the end of the course) - this is a self-paced approach (but here the class is out-of-synch with each other, especially in discussions, and this makes it difficult for the instructor to track and grade students)
• Establish clear policies and penalties for late work

Example:  Tom Doyle's Calendar

 

Week	Dates	Module(s)	Module Topic (s)
1	Jan 28 – Feb 3	1 and 2	Discovering Psychology and Psychology and Science
2	Feb 4 – Feb 10	3	Brain’s Building Blocks
3	Feb 11 - Feb 17	4	Incredible Nervous System
4	Feb 18 - Feb 24	5 and 6	Sensation and Perception
5	Feb 25 - Mar 2	7 and 8	Sleep andDreams, Hypnosis, and Drugs
6	Mar 3 – Mar 9	9	Classical Conditioning
7	Mar 10 - Mar 16	10	Operant and Cognitive Approaches
8	Mar 24 – Mar 30	11 and 12	Types of Memory and Remembering/Forgetting
		Optional Presentation #1 due by midnight Mar 30
	Mar 29	Exam One (Modules 1 – 12)
9	Mar 31 – Apr 6	13 and 14	Intelligence and Thought/Language
10	Apr 7 – Apr 13	15 and 16	Motivation and Emotion
11	Apr 14 – Apr 20	17 and 18	Infancy/Childhood/Adolescence/Adulthood
12	Apr 21 - Apr 27	19 and 20	Freudian/Humanistic/Social/Cognitive/Trait Theories
13	Apr 28 - May 4	21	Health, Stress, and Coping
14	May 5 – May 11	22 and 23	Assessment, Anxiety Disorders, Mood Disorder, and Schizophrenia
15	May 12 – May 18	24	Therapies
16	May 19 - May 25	25	Social Psychology
		Optional Presentation #2 due by midnight May 25
	May 31	Exam Two (Modules 13 – 25)

Online courses need a greater variety of assignments than do face-to-face courses - and they should be more frequent. Also, online instructors should always keep their grading current - giving students feedback explaining their grades and suggesting ways to improve. All this not only helps students manage and appraise their work, but also helps instructors to check their own course effectiveness. 

 

Canvas

 

Rubrics

 

allow teachers to clarify expectations and grading criteria.  This helps students understand requirements and helps teachers grade more fairly. See Rubistar for rubric examples.

 

Types of Assignments

Quizzes, Tests, Exams

• Experiment with different question types
• It is helpful to students (although entails much work) if you write feedback to each test question choice with explanations for correct and incorrect answers - you can also cite where the correct information can be found.

Discussions

• Grade Discussions weekly or by unit
• Clearly state grading policy and expectations at the start of your course
• Grade on quality (content-related, scholarly, not superficial) and quantity (number and length of posts)
• Some teachers require students to comment on other student posts
• Check for posts that simply repeat other student posts or copy/paste textbook information

Written Work

• Have students submit a document (specify allowed document types)
• Be clear on whether you also grade on spelling and grammar
• Canvas allows you to annotate documents with your comments

Projects

• Projects require creative application of knowledge and skills
• Project ideas include portfolio, slide presentation, website, video presentation, concept map, blog, journal, course notebook, etc.

Group Work

• Give both a "group grade" and individual grade (with a percentage breakdown for each)
• Require a group project, but also accept individual work on the project
• Have students detail the individual work they did on the project
• Have members of each group rate/grade each other on a scale of 1- 10 on some criteria (have them explain their assessment in a sentence)
• Use Peer Reviews

Skill Mastery

• Interpreting graphs (economics), use of programming (CIS), mastery of skills (languages, math), interpreting language (Spanish)

Blogs

• Blogs are personal web pages that become journal-like with the ability to include graphics, comments from students, and links.  For details, see

   

  Blogs in Plain English.
• You can create a class blog or a multi-class blog and ask students to subscribe and comment on blog entries
• You can ask students to create their own blog as an online journal
• You can link all these blogs from within Canvas
• See Useful Resources

   

  for blog development links

Wikis

• These are Web tools that allow for writing and editing by many people simultaneously. Anyone can add or make changes to what is presented.  For details, see

   

  Wiki in Plain English.
• The instructor (or group moderator) can track users for any problems and can delete inappropriate content
• These work well with group projects (for both planning and the finished presentation)
• Wikis can replace discussion boards. As with blogs, wikis can be used for multiple sections of the same class (creating a large group cohesiveness)
• Link the wikis from within Canvas
• See

   

  Useful Resources

   

  for Wiki development links

Grading

• Some use percentages (A:90%, B:80%, C:70%, D: 60%, F: below this)
• Use credit/ncr (pass/fail) for some assignments with a fixed amount of points
• Most recommend to not allow students to grade each other as trust in the class will plummet - (although one can allow comments or critiques on each other's work)
• Extra-credit work allows much more flexibility in online courses especially for poorly performing students and those with time-management problems
• For student complaints about grades, refer to your stated expectations or syllabus, give an acceptable example from the past, give suggestions for improvement

What to Include in Your Descriptions of Assignments

• Objectives - Purposes and expectations of the assignment
• Procedure - Instructions on developing and completing the assignment
• Materials - Any materials (sources, tech requirements) to be used
• Rules/limits
  • For exams: time limits, backtracking, attempts
  • For papers: number of pages, warnings about plagiarism
  • For presentations: number of screens
  • For discussions: number of posts
• Due Date - Exact deadline
• Grading/Points - Criteria to be used in assessing the quality of the assignment (Rubrics

   

  are recommended)
• Submission - How and where to submit the assignment; acceptable formats and file sizes
• Feedback - Whether feedback will be given and where

Discussions are one of the most important areas in an online course. This is where much of the "real" learning can take place and it is the one place that gives a sense of community to the class. But, handling the discussion board can easily become one of most difficult parts of online teaching. Facilitating discussion and dealing with problems can take much time. Below are some tips and hints to make your discussion boards more effective.

 

Procedures:

• Create topic threads by week, module, etc. - create prompts that are on specific areas within these
• Name each Discussion or group of threads something appropriate to the content of the course: "Chapter One Questions," "Question on the Brain and Central Nervous System"
• Include only one idea per prompt - not too long, not too many thoughts
• State clear guidelines: length of posts (one paragraph), minimum number of posts (4 per week), types of content desired (use of text information, resources, etc.), your policy on personal posts ("My computer sound is not working," "I knew you in high school") grading, warnings (see sidebar)
• Consider setting up smaller discussion groups (see Using Groups)
• After a deadline has passed, lock discussions so that students cannot add posts past the deadline (the posts will remain available for students to read and review)

Prompts:

• Discussion prompts should clearly state the topic - although you can sometimes use a "tempt prompt" such as "Can you answer this?"
• Use open-ended prompts that demand more than one answer (one-answer questions tend to kill threads or get repeated, identical student replies
• Use controversial issues that integrate course information - play "devil's advocate" - avoid long debates with only one student, but rather open it up ("Would anyone care to comment on . . .?")
• Use critical thinking or hypothetical, "suppose if" scenarios - more reflecting on than repeating information
• Post a quotation and have students respond
• Post questions like: "The most important thing I learned in this chapter is . . ." or "What confused me most about this section was . . ."
• Use guest speakers (see Outside-In)
• Role play - become a historical figure, a confused student, a professional - and invite questions and responses
• Discuss posted papers by students, web links, current news on course-related topics
• Draw from students' own life experiences
• Do not allow students to create their own Discussions as these can get off point, misused, or create too many similar threads diluting responses
• Ask students to list the most valuable student posts of the week and make comments

Facilitating:

• Demand posting immediately when a course begins - the first log on, the first week (use "Tell us something about yourself," "Why are you taking this class?," "Give advice to your fellow students about becoming a successful online student" - or assign students to give information about another student requiring student interaction)
• Encourage particularly good posts ("Great ideas here," "Perfect understanding of the text") but do not over praise or other students may become intimidated - give a "reward" such as a link, a connection to a future area in the course, a book resource
• Don't be too negative, judgmental, contradictory, authoritarian, ridiculing - for poor posts, don't delete, but respond in a reply post that you will also reply privately in an email to that student (all student will see this reply and learn from it, yet you will not be directly embarrassing the student)
• Restate or rephrase a student post clarifying their response ("Yes, you are saying that . . .", "Do you mean that . . .")
• Think of Discussions as conversation - with a similar flow - look for connections between posts and point this out ("Your post is similar to Mary's on . . .")
• So student's don't feel hurt or neglected, be clear in your syllabus and announcements that you will not respond to every post but that you will read all posts (it is impossible to respond to every post and this can set up an unreasonable expectation - students should learn from each other) - some suggest more replies at the beginning of the course (1:5), less towards the end (1:12)
• Tell students they can voice their opinions, but they must back these up with course information
• For too brief posts, ask for further explanation or clarification
• For an unclear post, ask other students to explain what that student was saying
• Reply in third person so that your post does not sound too personal and exclusionary, but use the student's name to make it sound friendly and inviting to others (instead of "You say that . . .," use "Mary states that . . .")
• Don't respond with one or two words ("yes," "good," "OK," "thank you,") or that thread will die - these only work in F2F - you could privately email your thanks or praise for the thread
• To make for more student-student interaction, specify the number of of posts (one half?) that must be replies or comments to another student's post, not just to the initial prompt of the instructor ( the instructor can direct students to do this with such statements as "Who would like to respond Jerome's post?")
• Create dissonance by challenging students with difficult, critical thinking questioning - argue, but "agree to disagree" - bring out the complexity of issues, the multiple sides of an argument
• If a thread gets off-topic, direct the thread back
• Wait for students to respond first, before jumping into a thread - wait - but if a single post is left hanging for too long, add a comment ("dangling posts" can be negative in a Discussion)
• Don't be afraid to end a Discussion ("This discussion is now closed")
• Also be advised: much depends on the students you happen to have in your class (and this is a toss of the dice). Sometimes you get a very interactive group, sometimes not. And, while you can easily turn this around in a lecture class, it is much more difficult with online. So, the motto here is: don't always blame yourself.

Problems and Solutions:

• For students posting mainly at the deadline:
  • create mid-week deadlines (postings split between 2 deadlines)
  • give more points for mid-week posts
  • give bonus points for the first 15 students posting
  • have a mid-week deadline for replies to original prompts, then a end-of-week deadline for follow-up replies to other student posts
  • demand three different days of posting per week (some experts suggest students log on 5x a week even if they post nothing
• To prevent too many personal stories, excessive debating, or casual posts:
  • specify how many posts should directly include (or use) specific course content
  • set limits on personal posts or opinions
  • have two sets of Discussions: one for textbook information, one for debating
  • direct students to your always-available, no points "Student Lounge" Discussion for a "student union like" atmosphere
• Always warn students in your syllabus and orientation, that they should be: collegial to each other, polite and respectful - delete or edit objectionable posts and email the author (see Problem Students)
• To eliminate very short posts, specify how long each should be for maximum credit (for example, at least four sentences; 200 words) or provide a few "quality posts" for students to model
• If you allow students to edit or delete their posts, you might have difficulty in tracking and grading ever changing posts
• If some students overpost or monopolize discussion, email them privately and combine praise - "Help me out by reducing or delaying your posts so other can have a chance to answer as well as you"
• Either allow or disallow text messaging lingo (LOL, BTW, IMHO) or emoticons such as :^) or :-) - but state your rule up front (and remember generation gaps on some of this)
• To prevent problems before they escalate, monitor Discussions frequently

Canvas groups not only make for a better class community, but can also reduce instructor workload and make online classes more manageable. It is best to wait until week three or so before starting groups so that students can get used to your class and each other. Realize that students in a Canvas group can only see their own group work - but there are many ways to expand beyond this (see below). The instructor should always observe the group's progress and ask to be informed of any "slackers" so that they can be emailed about responsibility. You can change and mix groups over the semester (including leaders). Advise students that they are responsible for managing other group members (including any changes needed for those who might drop out midway).

 

Group Activity Ideas

 

Discussion Board	For each week or chapter, have a group develop questions based on the readings. Then have them post these to a Db for all students to read and have them moderate all posts for that week. Next week, new group. (for a clear description of setting up groups in Bb, see the sidebar) Split large classes into isolated groups for all discussions (mix members throughout the semester) Create "special interest" groups for those who want to focus on a particular topic in your course
Projects	Here the leader must divide and assign work (by task such as searching, graphics, programming or by content) and must set mini-deadlines to keep the task on-schedule Include a final public class presentation or summary. Consider having students use Google Docs .
Jeopardy Games LIVE	Students can gain points by playing (and winning) in a Jeopardy-type game on course subject matter Use the Bb Chat or Bb Virtual Classroom See sidebar for tips on live sessions
Chat Sessions	Use live discussion on a particular topic or for review sessions before tests (vary times so that all have a chance to attend) The instructor does not have to attend these, but could assign a student moderator and later view the recorded transcripts for grading Use the Bb whiteboard in combination with live chat for diagrams and charts to get a live, face-to-face feel See the sidebar for tips on using chat
Other	Schedule local, in-person, face-to-face groups for study sessions or for assignment coordination Use peer review such as commenting on other student papers (as in English courses) Have students post their homework and have other students do critiques in the Db Try using the Bb's Group Browser which allows many students to view Web pages simultaneously. Read Group Work in Distance Learning Courses

 

Advice on Setting Up Groups in Canvas

1. See Canvas Guides to set up groups
2. Give each group a distinctive name (corresponding to the content of your course) and be very clear and detailed on the assignment task, how they are to proceed and collaborate
3. Choose different options for student interaction (Discussion, chat, file exchange)
4. Add students to each group (4 - 15 is a good amount depending on the activity) and have a plan in case students drop out
5. Depending on the assignment and it is best that the instructor choose and divide students into groups because allowing them to self-group can become a mess. Another option is to have a sign-up sheet for various topics - signup based on interests
6. Give group role options (leader, researcher, designer, programmer, writer) depending on the assignment - especially designate a leader who will be the moderator and report to the instructor
7. Specify how grading will operate (individual grades, a group grade, or the recommended combination of the two)

The virtual classroom environment can be confining. It can be exciting and educational to expand beyond this and bring the outside world into your virtual classroom.

 

Guests

• Call or email professionals, experts, those who work in your field, other instructors, or those who have had personal experiences with your course content.
• Be sure to explain to your guest how online works (login instructions, time frame for the visit, how to use technology, what to expect).
• For adding guest lecturers or others to your Canvas containers, fill out the form on the

   

  Canvas Forms

   

  page.
• Consider using Zoom online conferencing for a rich experience. 

Interviews

• Have students interview someone related to course material (in person, by phone, by email).
• Post their interview (or a recording or video) to a Canvas discussion.

Observations

• Have students observe people or a situation that relates to course material

Field Trips

• Have students visit a course-related location and report (prepare assignment instructions and questions)
• Examples: a church for religious studies, court for law, planetarium for astronomy

Cross-Cultural Assignment

• Explore other countries by Web search
• Google has a

   

  language translator
• You might even set up correspondence through similar online courses in other countries (perfect for history, languages, political science)
• Google has a

   

  text translator

Movies

• Have students view a movie (theater or rented) that relates to class material

Share

• Exchange material with other instructors here or across the world (search for schools)
• Share video, animations, presentations

Labs

• Simulate laboratory experiments using household items
• See the sidebar in

   

  Choosing Materials

Communication is much more important to student success in online classes. It is needed to break the isolation sometimes felt by students and to bridge the differences in background (which can be greater in online classes).

There are two main types of online communication:

 

Type	Examples	Pros	Cons
Synchronous (live)	chat, virtual classroom, office hours	more immediate better sense of community	difficult to manage with many students (see the sidebar in   Using Groups   for advice) distracting hard to censor difficult to grade
Asynchronous (posted)	email, messaging, discussions, announcements	more flexible for student schedules convenient better quality interaction since there is no rush	excessive or rude emails (see   Problem Students   for advice here) instant reply expectation (see   Workload   for advice)

 

Announcements:

• Community building
• Should be updated at least once a week
• Include: reminders of assignment due dates, comments on class progress, add interesting new information (news links, articles)

Discussions:

 

see

 

Handling Discussions

Surveys:

• Can also give a sense of community and encourage more student-student interaction.
• Results can be used in discussions.
• Some give a survey at the start of the class that describes the course demographics and students expectations and attitude about the class.

Personal teacher-student and student-student contact:

Type	Pros	Cons
Email	can send emails to student's preferred external email address	when you add students, their default email address may be incorrect or one that they do not use regularly (you MUST have them immediately   check their email address in WebAdvisor) emails can get "lost" hard to track tons of emails from many sources in your inbox (consider setting up a separate gmail accounts for each class see "forwarding email") can be blocked by spam filters
Inbox Messages	Inbox messages are sent through email	there is a record of all interactions in a course
Written Work Feedback	entered in assignment "Comments"  besides assignment discussion, these can include personal issues as a better substitute for email	students need to be made aware to check this (in "Grades") see Providing Feedback in Your Distance Learning Course

Email Advice:

• Be sure that students have their

   

  correct email listed in WebAdvisor or you will not be able to contact them. Any changes made to email addresses in WebAdvisor will be transferred to Canvas within 24 hours.
• Besides a welcome email (see

   

  Orientation), you might also include and end-of-course goodbye email including their final grade.
• Be sure to save all emails and messages to and from students throughout a semester in case of disputes.

Servers

Here are some basics about the underpinning of your courses. Canvas is hosted on a remote server.  WebAdvisor handles all rosters at AandR and will automatically update student roster changes in Canvas.

 

Course Containers:

• Empty course container shells are automatically created for every section you are teaching each semester. These will appear in your Canvas account about the time registration begins. You can then build your course from these containers, add a Canvas template, and/or copy material and settings from previous courses into these containers (see Canvas Container Preparation).
• If you wish to include material or settings from a previous semester course, go into the new Canvas Shell course settings and click Import Course Content. You can then select the components of the current course you would like copied into that container and even convert dates.
  • Be sure to check Announcements.  Any announcements without Delay Posting dates will be sent out as soon as the course is published.
• Use the pre-semester checklist each semester.
•  Students for each section are automatically added into your container each semester (included late adds). Use WebAdvisor to drop students.
• At the end of the semester, after your course is over, use the post-semester checklist.

 

WebAdvisor/Colleague (Cuyamaca's electronic roster): This is the only way to view and manage your student rosters (see tutorials below). Login usually has the same Username/ID as your email/network password, but can have a different password. View all online student rosters with daily updates by AandR. Enter final grades through this online system.  Teachers should also save Canvas Grades into Excel for printing and electronic storage.

 

Students will automatically be added to Canvas courses daily by WebAdvisor.  Be sure to alert your students to correct email addresses in WebAdvisor. To add guest lecturers or others to your containers, use the Canvas Request form.

 

WebAdvisor will:

• add students into your containers automatically daily
• will set student status to Inactive when the student is dropped
• will create a student account in each container for each faculty member (identified as Test Student in gradebook) so that you can view your course as a student
• WebAdvisor Help for Faculty

Course Schedule Notes:

• The semester before your class begins, be sure to write and submit any notes that you wish listed in the notes section of the college course schedule. These notes can include instructions about your orientation, whether students should email you before the first day of class, your college web page, contact information, etc. (see this example of class notes or look in the Cuyamaca Schedule's online classes).
• You must submit these to your Chair, Coordinator, or Dean immediately following your class assignment (the semester before the course is scheduled to begin
• Your notes will be listed in both the online and printed schedules

Overall Timeline for Course Development:

• Before a class can be offered as online or hybrid, a special form needs to be approved by the curriculum committee.
• At the start of the prior semester:
  • Get course and section approval (by Chair or Coordinator)
  • Submit Course Schedule notes
• Months before the semester begins:
  • The container will be automatically created
  • Build your course within this container (include content and assignments)
• When registration begins:
  • Students automatically added by WebAdvisor
• Start of the semester:
  • Publish course
  • Begin teaching class

College Email and Cuyamaca Access:

• District/Faculty Email Instructions (including automatic forwarding)

Faculty Login:

• email: first.last@@gcccd.edu (john.smith@gcccd.edu)
• network login (for faculty web page creation, other areas on the college site):
  • username: first.last (john.smith)
    • [ may sometimes require "gcccdedu\" before username (gcccdedu\john.smith)]
  • password: PIN (birthdate - MMDDYY - on the first login, then can be changed)

Student Email:

• name: first.last@students@gcccd.edu (john.smith@students.gcccd.edu)
  password: college pin
• Student Email Instructions

Cuyamaca Web Standards

 

Contacts:

• Technology Contact List
• Canvas Request forms
• Help Desk

Faculty:

• Canvas login (same as network login):
  • username: first.last (john.smith)
  • password: PIN (birthdate - MMDDYYYY - on the first login, then can be changed)
• Can change first name (display name) in Canvas -  use the Canvas Request form.
• If the server should go down or have problems, you should call the Help Desk and report the outage: 660-4395 (on weekends record a message and it will be intercepted and action taken within the hour). You can also email the Help Desk at c-helpdesk@gcccd.edu

Student Canvas Login:

• Username: first.last (e.g. john.smith)
  Password: Your 8 digit birthdate (e.g. 07151985).
  The password can be changed after students login (make sure they use any changed password in future course logins)
• Login help:
  • Cuyamaca Students 619-660-4395
  • Grossmont Students 619-644-7383   
• Student accounts are available one day after they register for a class, but they will not see their online Canvas class until the instructor has published it.

• Pre-Semester Checklist
• Online Faculty Mentors
• @ONE's course offerings
• @ONE's Intro to Live Online Teaching and Learning course
• What Makes a Good Online Course and How to Do it in Canvas facilitated by Terrie Nichols and Bri Brown

• Regular and Effective Contact Webinar facilitated by Dr. Josh Franco and Bri Brown

• Facilitating Group Work on Zoom Webinar facilitated by Rachel Polakoski

• Vision Resource Center Playlist of Helpful Webinars for DE Modalities
• Cuyamaca Faculty Resources Canvas Shell