LETTERS DEPARTMENT ONLINE EDUCATION STATEMENT OF VALUES & EXPECTATIONS
LETTERS DEPARTMENT ONLINE PROGRAM
Online education at Miracosta’s Letters department should help students develop the ability to use reading, writing, technological literacy, and thinking skills to advance their personal, social, and cultural agency.
To teach an online composition course, an instructor should
COMMUNICATE WITH STUDENTS
- Create an original and regularly updated course in Canvas that reflects a working knowledge of online course design principles and digital communication strategies
- Prior to the start of the semester, communicate with students by sharing instructor bio/intro, class navigation tips, course expectations, and MCC resources on preparing for online learning and technical requirements and support.
- Know when and why to employ certain online teaching strategies to best serve students’ rights and needs. Surveying and assessing best practices for each group of students and exercising flexibility in meeting that distinct group of students’ learning needs by, for instance, experimenting with synchronous vs. asynchronous sessions.
- Per AP4105, practice intrusive, instructor-initiated instructor-student communication strategies that consistently and meaningfully monitors and supports active student participation during the semester, addressing the affective domain (students’ lives outside the classroom space).
- Models ground rules for communication in the online learning environment.
- Exercises flexibility with students’ schedules (and time zones) on a case-by-case basis.
- Present and distribute prompts in various communication modalities--written document, video, email, etc.--to meet diverse students learning styles/preferences.
- Provide regular and personalized written, audio, and/or video feedback on students’ work.
- Open spaces in which students can ask questions of the instructor (and each other).
- Connect students with online academic support resources, such as the Writing Center’s online tutoring.
FACILITATE STUDENT-TO-STUDENT COLLABORATION & ENGAGEMENT
- Per AP4105, build community by regularly incorporating synchronous and/or asynchronous activities and assignments that facilitate quality/meaningful/relevant student-to-student interaction.
- Use interactive capabilities of student-accessible technologies (Canvas, Google docs, etc.) to engage students in writing as a recursive process--brainstorming, outlining, revising, editing, and peer reviewing.
DEMONSTRATE EQUITY & PRACTICE CULTURALLY SUSTAINING PEDAGOGY
- Organize the online course content so that it is clear, easily navigable, efficient, and student-centered.
- Demonstrates currency in our field by designing culturally relevant curriculum that includes
- Varied, diverse forms/modes of reading, writing, and research skills
- Texts that support students of our Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI)
- Assignment prompts that inherently encourage and support academic integrity, while using review tools (such as Turnitin) if needed.
- Tools that enhance interactive and engaging lecture material, which can include screencasting, multimodal elements, interactive video software, etc.
- Participate in professional development centered on student populations, especially disproportionately impacted groups, in the online learning environment, including, but not limited to, military veteran students, military affiliated students, student parents, and men of color.
CURRENCY IN ONLINE COURSE DESIGN & ACCESSIBLE LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES
- Participate in departmental community of practice and/or professional development centered on online education to maintain currency in the field centered on teaching and learning in composition, rhetoric, literature, humanities, and linguistics.