>> Hi and welcome.
My name is Cynthia Wilshusen,
and I am your instructional designer,
distance education coordinator.
So, I am the person who will help you
with all your instructional technology needs related
to your online environment.
Whether it be online component for face to face class
or if you might be teaching a distance education class,
now or in the future, and so I was just going to point
out a few important things that you might want to know about.
So, one of the first things is we do use Canvas
as our campus learning management system or LMS
and Canvas can be used for more than just online classes.
So, we have a lot of faculty who teach face to face
that are using Canvas as a way
to distribute information to their students.
So, Canvas is a great resource if you wanted to be able
to interact with your students by giving digital copies
of your files for reference, as well as a tool to e-mail them,
send out announcements like reminders about a class,
change or if you have a field trip or that they needed
to bring something to class.
Announcements is a great tool.
So, Canvas can be that portal for all of that information.
Every course, when it is created in the course schedule,
gets a corresponding Canvas card.
Your students do not have access
to that course card unless you actually publish the course.
So, you want to make sure that you go through
and learn a little bit about Canvas
if you've never used it before, reach out to me and I'd be happy
to help you get your course set up
and put some basic contact information
and resources in there.
In addition to Canvas, you're going to want to make sure
that you get access to our Canvas teacher community.
So, this is a teacher community that I've created for our campus
and in here it gives you, under modules,
lots of different resources that you can use to build
and design the content that you've putting in your course.
As well as how to use certain features.
So, if you're a do it yourselfer,
you can certainly get into this course and access all
of the resources on how to you work with Canvas here,
I've set up different pages for that.
In addition to that, I wanted to point out that we do also have,
through instructional technology,
access to some great resources for you.
We do have a sight license for Respondus,
which is a test bank system and if you plan on using Canvas
as a way to possibly administer quizzes, which is a great way
to do a pre-quiz for testing your student's knowledge;
whether it's a face to face or an online class.
You could use Respondus as a way to build those quizzes
or even bring in publisher questions and then,
easily import them into Canvas.
We also have Adobe Suite and Microsoft Office.
The, Microsoft Office, you can actually access
for free anywhere off campus.
The Respondus and Adobe Suite, you'll need to put
in an IT ticket and ask them to install it
on your campus computer.
Respondus, I can give you instructions on how to install
that on a non-campus computer,
and then some online tools as well.
We have access, just recently, to Camtasia Relay,
which is a video editing tool.
So, if you wanted to create some content lectures that you want
to live beyond the classroom, this will be a great tool
and again, you can synchronize them and link them
up with Canvas so that your students can access them
and review the material when they need, before an exam.
And then also Voice Thread is a way to interact
with your students as far as an online discussion board.
It becomes more of a visual discussion board,
rather than a text based.
So, those are some resources available to you.
I also have been securing, for us, some great opportunities
for enhancing your ability
to create some really rich content in your classrooms.
So, I do have some Microsoft Surface
and Mac Book Pros available.
Two of them have Camtasia on them, so if you wanted
to check them out and record some videos, you could.
We also have available for check out to,
that don't have the Camtasia on them, but if you needed
to do more enhanced skills
that maybe your computer doesn't have,
I have access to those resources.
So, those are some things I wanted to point out with regard
to what we have available.
You know, back into the Canvas site,
some things that you want to be aware of.
Be looking for e-mails from me.
I try to send out e-mails regularly.
Send me your e-mail if you haven't gotten the start
of the semester check list yet and this has direct links
to the Canvas teacher community where it reminds you
of different things that you probably want
to set up in your course.
And again, Canvas is available for all resources.
One of the really amazing things about Canvas is in your course,
go into here, you have access to sharing information
with your students by uploading files.
So, if you wanted to send them a PDF copy of the Power Points,
give them access to your lecture materials,
you could use files as a way to do that.
You could also create nice, rich content pages
so students can access and reach your information visually.
Most importantly, we've gotten feedback from our students
that they really like Canvas.
It's easy to use and they wish that more faculty would use it,
primarily because they want to know how they're doing.
So, they want to see their grades, they want to know
where they're at in the class and get a feel
for where they have missing assignments, if they do,
and how they can ensure that they stay on track.
So, the grades tools in Canvas is an online grade book
and very easy to set up for a face to face and online class,
create a couple place holders for your assignments,
and just like an Excel spreadsheet, you can go in
and record the score for the student
and then the student can see their grade book view,
only their grades.
They don't get to see all
of the student's grades, only their grades.
And then, as I mentioned before, announcements
and then Canvas does have a built-in inbox
that is course specific.
So, you can e-mail just the students in your course,
send them reminders, welcome them to class,
distribute information to them.
It is important to recognize that for any of those features
to work, you do have to publish the course.
So, when you get into your course homepage, the publishing
of the course is right here on the front page,
but more importantly, I'd like to help you.
So, reach out to me if you have any questions.
I do have a handout that I got, distributed; therefore useful.
This has some information about the resources I have in my roles
and my contact information.
Feel free to stop by my office, I'm upstairs in the library.
Give me a call, shoot me an e-mail, since I do teach online
and distance education.
I'm online all the time.
So, feel free to e-mail me.
I look forward to personally meeting you at some point
in the future and welcome to Cuesta College.