We are the Program for Online Teaching, a group of volunteer faculty helping other faculty teach better online.

Our focus is on pedagogy as the guiding force for using technologies for teaching.

Many of us are from MiraCosta College in Oceanside, California. MiraCostans may access the Teaching/Technology Innovations Center for technical help, resources, news and more.

The POT Network

  • POT Diigo group
    (see tutorial on how to save bookmarks)
  • POT Facebook group
  • POT Vimeo Channel (workshops)
  • POT YouTube Channel
  • Twittter (please use hashtag #potcomm)

Using Facebook to join groups

For students, tutorial on how to join Facebook when you want a lot of privacy, and just want to join a group for class.

Moodle: Firefox and draft essays

Tutorial for students on how and why to use Firefox create essays outside Moodle for insertion into a forum or quiz.

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by Lisa M Lane

Interactive Checklists for Students in Blackboard

by Laura Paciorek (June 2011)

This video shows the viewer how to create “mark reviewed” buttons on their course website items, in Blackboard, so students have a way to check off each item as it is completed. This helps students insure that they do not miss any items as they go through their tasks in the class each week.

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Designing Your Menu in Blackboard

by Laura Paciorek (June 2011)

This video demonstrates for the viewer how to make the items in the left menu appear in larger text, in bold, and in italics. This technique may be used to bring students’ attention to different items in the left menu. This might be helpful for instructors who want to insure the left menu items are prioritized and organized in ways that help the student understand their importance and/or purpose. Instructors may also simply enjoy making the menu look a little different, adding to the visual interest of the course design.

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Course Website Tour Workaround

by Laura Paciorek (June 2011)

This video gives the viewer an idea for how a course website tour can be created using the tools available in Blackboard instead of through video programs that must be downloaded/installed and may require payment. Course website tours can be helpful at the start of each semester when students are becoming familiar with the online class layout. Wimba voice authoring, images, and text are used in the course website tours. Two examples are given: one has several images and one essentially only contains two images.

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