Ventura College is currently providing course materials, trainings, and product updates on variety of tools that improve student engagement, ADA compliance in online courses, unique assessment techniques, and teacher delivery / course presence.  A lot of these materials are hosted in our VC DE Faculty Hub in Canvas.  If you would like to be added to this great resource please contact one of the Instructional Technologist Designers (Matt, Sharon, or Ali).  If you are looking for a quick demo on how to use Canvas in your on campus courses please contact one the Instructional Technologist Designers to get an overview for web enhancing your class.  Otherwise, you might be interested in the Online Teacher Training Course in Canvas (OTTCC) which is the district wide course that certifies VCCCD instructors to teach online and/or hybrid courses.

The Online Teacher Training Course in Canvas (OTTCC)

The Online Teacher Training Course in Canvas (OTTCC) prepares instructors to teach online by combining best practices in online education, current trends in educational technologies, and universal design in Canvas. All online and hybrid instructors are required to successfully pass the OTTCC prior to teaching online.

Competency Based : This is a competency based course that allows expert online instructors to receive credit for imported work from a previous online course  while helping new instructors and instructors new to Ventura College understand the best practices and learning management skills necessary in succeeding in online instruction at Ventura College.The Online Teacher Training Course is required of all online and hybrid course instructors.

What is in the course? This course is comprised of timely and relevant information as well as consistent best practices from Ventura College and the Online Education Initiative.  The course focuses upon the concepts and the goals from the OEI Course Rubric for Online Course Design, the Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning from @One, and the Introduction to Teaching in Canvas Courses from the OEI Project.

Time Commitment: Depending upon your experience in online education, you may go through the course at different paces. For the instructor who is new to teaching online, we request that you come to all on-campus meetings for a total of 5 hours. In addition, there will be approximately 3 hours of homework for each hour in class. An experienced instructor in online education will find that by importing content from another learning management system (LMS)  or course that he or she can most likely demonstrate competency in a variety of topics at a faster pace. 

Current Distance Education Faculty and/or Faculty Assigned a DE Course for the next semester will receive priority, but all instructors interested in teaching online are welcome.

OTTCC Fall 2019

September 2019 Session:

• Kickoff Meeting Time:  Monday, September 9, 2019 @ 5:30-7:30 PM

• Course Dates:  September 9 - October 7

• Please Register Here

Instructional Technology Consultations 

OFFICE HOURS: To better assist faculty with their on-ground (web-enhanced), hybrid, and online courses, the instructional technologist team is offering a drop-in schedule for faculty who need just-in-time one-on-one help with teaching with Canvas. This includes Canvas design, ADA compliance reviews, course reviews, online teaching advice, and other timely instructional technology suggestions.

Instructional Technologist Drop-in Schedule
( Web Conferencing and Studio Trainings by Request  )

Open Studio Friday Workshops @ Ventura College 

Upcoming Events in the LRC Training Studio (LRC 136 - basement of the Library Building)

• Web Enhanced Trainings ( one hour sessions to get you started with your ON CAMPUS needs in Canvas )
• Open Studios with the OTTCC Course Participants 
• Open Studios to address current questions with Educational Technology
• ALLY Trainings ( our new ADA Compliance tool in Canvas. )
• Humanizing the Online Class with Video ( check out an iPad for usage this summer )

The LRC Training Studio (Room 136) will be open (10 AM - Noon) to help faculty prepare online, hybrid, and/or web-enhanced courses throughout the semester. These sessions may include relevant topics from the OTTCC or faculty may feel free to bring a topic or project they would like to work on such as: 

• Screencasting and Video Production Projects
• Closed Captioning (Accessibility)
• Custom Home Pages
• Tools for Communication and Web-conferencing
• Open Educational Resources
• OEI Course Design
• Designing Effective Discussions
• Canvas Topics: Gradebook, Discussions, Content Pages, and More
• 7 Secrets of Canvas
• Name Coach and Notebowl
• Ally the ADA Compliance Tool in Canvas
• Gradebook Help

Web-conferencing via ConferZoom will also be available for those who need to participate remotely. ​

Introduction to Canvas for On Campus Instructors
(web enhancing your course)

Do you want to improve communications with your students in on-ground courses?  Do you feel like you are optimizing the Gradebook?  Would announcements to your students and the Canvas messaging system help you reach your students on their mobile devices?  Make an appointment with one of the instructional technologist designers to learn more about these universal concepts for all courses and all students at VC. We also host these sessions throughout the year and welcome you to Friday Open Studio sessions for specific questions. (Individual consultations are usually one hour in length and tailored to your questions and needs.)