Won’t it be great to see our students face-to-face on campus again in Spring 2022? While we are excited about re-establishing our human connections, there are several things that we can do over the Winter break as we prepare our courses for Spring. This is the topic of this issue of WVC Online News!
Preparing for Spring 2022
- “Emergency Kit” with a sample “What If…?” for your syllabus
- Welcome letter to your course
- NameCoach is here!
WTF: Webinars and Trainings for Faculty
- @ONE webinars and courses
- Friday WOWs (WVC Online Workshops)
As we’ve all learned in the past two years, we need to be prepared for emergencies that may keep us from holding a class on WVC campus. The ideas noted in the Spring 2022 Emergency Kit can help you and your students in case of COVID-related changes to our Spring on-campus and hybrid classes.
Use the Canvas course shells as part of your face-to-face classes to provide important information and dates with your students, and in particular, the course syllabus.
Here’s a sample of a section you can add into your syllabus or cut/paste into a Canvas page; this sample has the following information:
- Link to a Zoom virtual classroom in case the class is not able to meet on campus during its regularly scheduled day and time
- Your contact information, provide alternate ways students may be able to contact you. For ex., via Canvas Inbox and your WVC email address.
- Contact information to your Department Chair and Dean, in case students are not able to reach you.
- Link to WVC’s COVID-19 Advisory Page which provides information on the College’s vaccination policies, testing and protocols.
Aim to have your students know someone in the class besides you who they could reach out to in case of an emergency.
Sending of a Welcome Letter is a well-known strategy for humanizing and facilitating building of connections in online courses. In addition to providing students with information on when they need to log in, what they need to do first, the materials they need (for ex., textbook), and where they can go if they need help (like Canvas/WVC Online Support, and you!), the Welcome Letter is an opportunity for online faculty to show students a little bit of their own personality and style.
But a Welcome Letter can also work for face-to-face courses as well!
Indeed, many of our students will be returning to the WVC campus for the first time in over 680 days! A Welcome Letter that acknowledges their apprehension of returning to campus is a great way to welcome them back to West Valley. And sending of this letter a week or a few days before the start of the semester can serve as an important initial step towards establishing connections with your students.
In coordination with Mission College, there will be a “full” launch of NameCoach in Spring 2022, with students being introduced to this app as part of their orientation to the College and via email and social media. We encourage you to use NameCoach in your Spring courses, and feel free to share this video with your students, NameCoach for Students, which shows them how to record their names and how they can use it in your class.
NameCoach has already been installed in all of our WVC Canvas courses. Through this app, you’ll be able to hear your students say their own names in their own voices. Sometimes we may think we know how to pronounce their names, only to find out that the student pronounces it differently! To learn how to use NameCoach, watch Using NameCoach for Faculty.
Do you need training to satisfy the requirement to teach online/hybrid? Per the WVMFT faculty contract, faculty scheduled to teach an online or hybrid course must either have:
- taught an online or hybrid course within the District prior to Spring 2015, or
- received approval from Office of Instruction. The Faculty Request for Approval to Teach Online/Hybrid form (along with documentation) is to be submitted in a single pdf file to wvc.onlineFREEWEST_VALLEY
Faculty teaching online (synchronous and asynchronous), hybrid or hyflex in Spring 2022 must have met the course requirement outlined in Article 51.
You can still join your colleagues at the Friday WOWs through recordings of the sessions! Thus far, the workshops have covered using Panopto, NoodleTools, and Popetech, as well as strategies for building community.
If you’d like to know more, visit the WVC Online Faculty Resources Canvas course and watch the recordings and access resources that were shared at these sessions. If you don’t see this course on your Canvas Dashboard, just email the WVC Online team so that we add you into the course shell.
To register for upcoming Friday WOWs (one more in the first Friday of December), go to the Vision Resource Center available in the WVC Portal! You may find this VRC Tutorial helpful.
| Topic | Dates | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| * Introduction to Teaching with Canvas | February 7 – March 6 March 28 – April 24 |
Free |
| * Introduction to Course Design | January 24 – February 20 April 11 – May 8 |
$85 |
| * Introduction to Asynchronous Online Teaching and Learning | February 21 – March 20 April 4 – May 1 |
$85 |
| Introduction to Live Online Teaching and Learning | December 6 – December 19 March 21 – April 3 |
$45 |
| Equity and Culturally Responsive Teaching | February 7 – March 6 April 18 – May 15 |
$85 |
| Creating Accessible Course Content | February 7 – March 6 April 11 – May 8 |
$85 |
| 10-10-10 Communication that Matters | March 14 – April 10 | $85 |
| Assessment in Digital Learning | February 21 – March 20 April 11 – May 8 |
$85 |
| Humanizing Online Teaching & Learning | January 31 – February 27 April 25 – May 22 |
$85 |
| Online College Counseling | No upcoming sessions listed | |
| Online Mental Health Counseling | No upcoming sessions listed | |
| Online Teaching & Design | January 31 – April 24 February 14 – May 8 March 14 – June 5 |
$255 |
Courses with * qualify for Article 51 training requirement. To register for a course or for more info on courses, go to the @ONE course catalog.
@ONE also offers several FREE self-paced courses too!
Contact the WVC Online Team
Max Gault
Academic Affairs
Instructional Technology Analyst
(408) 741-2627
[email protected]
Fox 214
Jennifer Keh
Social Science & Distance Education
Counselor
(408) 741-2592
[email protected]
LA/SS 2H
Whitney Clay
West Valley College Online
Instructional Designer
(408) 741-2619
[email protected]
Language Arts and Social Science 1B
Janis Kea
Economics
Professor, Economics
(408) 741-2538
[email protected]
LA/SS 2E
To join 290+ of your colleagues in this Canvas group and access the collection of resources curated specifically for WVC instructors, email wvc.onlineFREEWEST_VALLEY