Distance Education August 2024 Newsletter
"As the leaves turn, so do the pages of our minds. Welcome to a new season of learning, growing, and thriving. The Fall semester is a new chapter, write it with purpose."
Distance Education Team
Faculty Corner
Welcome back to a new academic year at Taft College! We hope you had a restful summer and are recharged for the exciting year ahead. As we continue to enhance our Distance Education offerings, we’d like to update you on some important changes and new tools available in Canvas that will help you and your students succeed.
Canvas Updates
- Honor Lock
Honor Lock is a cutting-edge proctoring solution that enables secure online assessments, promoting academic integrity while providing a seamless experience for students. With Honor Lock, instructors can create a more controlled environment for quizzes and exams, reducing the risk of cheating and ensuring the authenticity of student work.
- Design Plus with Citi Labs
Design Plus, powered by Citi Labs, is an AI-driven design tool that empowers students to create professional-looking content, presentations, and projects. This intuitive platform offers real-time feedback, suggestions, and inspiration, helping students develop their creative skills and produce high-quality work.
- Organizing AnnouncementsIn Announcements, a "Mark all as read" button is now available, and instructors can notify students of updates and set "Available from" and "Until" dates. The Submission Type interface on the Assignment Edit page has been updated. In the Grade Book, the "Message Students Who" cutoff value has been moved, and a note now explains that instructors may see different values than students. When personal pronouns are enabled, they display in Inbox messages, the compose message dropdown, and the Inbox search field. The Login page Help Menu has a new interface. Some LTI icons have been resized, and file quotas are now set in Mebibytes but displayed in Megabytes. An update has been added to the Discussion/Announcement Redesign Change Log.
Students Tips for Success
- Introducing Honor Lock! As a Taft College student, you're no stranger to online exams and assignments. But with the flexibility of online learning comes the risk of academic dishonesty. Honor Lock, a powerful Google Chrome extension is designed to promote academic integrity and ensure a fair learning environment. Honor Lock provides 24/7 support for test-takers.
- Avoid technical issues with a device check-up. Use Google Chrome as your preferred browser for the best compatibility. Close unnecessary tabs. Disable your pop-up blocker specifically for Canvas to access all features without restrictions. Please see Clear Cache and Cookies/Allow Pop-ups and Technical Requirements.
- Distance Education has updated the Student Toolbox.
Accessibility Tips and Tricks
- Get Involved
Accessibility is more than just a legal requirement. Taft College is committed to removing barriers and fostering an inclusive environment for students, faculty, and staff. Your contribution matters!
It is never too late to make your course content accessible! Contact your accessibility technician, [email protected], for help.
- Tools and Resources
Don’t forget to use accessibility tools that Taft College offers in Canvas:
- Pope Tech
- Canvas Accessibility Checker
- Design PLUS Accessibility Checker
- Sensus Access
Don’t completely rely on these tools for accessibility though! There is more to accessibility than just what these tools check for.
- Available Resources
Upcoming Events
- August 2024 Skill-Up
Distance Education will be hosting an Honor Lock workshop on Friday, August 30, from 10-11 a.m. in room T-14. Honor Lock is the new online proctoring tool available for faculty.
- September 2024 Skill-Up
Distance Education will be hosting Design Plus Tool by Cidi Labs. The workshop will take place on September 20, from 10 - 11 a.m. in room T-14.
- In-Depth Accessibility Overview Using Pope Tech Dashboard and Instructor Guide
The California Community Colleges Accessibility Center is proud to announce that Pope Tech Dashboard is available system wide at no cost to colleges.
Please join the Accessibility Center on Thursday, August 22, starting at noon, as Pope Tech demonstrates how to evaluate and remediate course content for accessibility using the features of their Canvas accessibility tools: Dashboard and the Accessibility Guide.
How to Participate
Hosted by the CCC Accessibility Center and delivered live via Zoom by Pope Tech, the training will be one hour. Registration is not required. Please join us by clicking the "Attend via Zoom" link below:
Thursday, August 22, 2024
Noon-1 p.m., Pacific
Feedback and Suggestions
If you have any feedback or suggestions for our department's monthly newsletter, please email or call our director Jon Farmer ([email protected]) directly.