UCC Teaching & Learning Center Blog - Sue Shaffer Learning Commons and Library: Guides at Umpqua Community College

06/11/2025

Macy Thoms

No Subjects

What's happening in the Teaching & Learning Center

Library

Please help us in getting the word out that all library items are due on or before the end spring term, June 13. This is true for faculty, staff, and students alike.
Are you planning for fall term classes and wondering how the Library can help? Check out our Library Services for Faculty guide, or send an email to us via library@umpqua.edu.
OER update:
- Open Oregon Educational Resources is delighted to share that after almost four years of collaboration with an outstanding team of authors and instructors, we're soft launching our openly licensed course materials with an equity lens in Human Development and Family Studies, Sociology, and Criminal Justice.
- Please visit Open Curriculum Projects Soft Launch to review materials for 13 new texts (SOC, HDFS, & CJ) and ancillary materials. These materials are ready for any Oregon instructor to review. We hope that you will consider adopting or adapting them for the upcoming academic year.

Tutoring is winding down for the year and preparing for a summer of recruiting for next year. Spring term Study In was a hit. We had Izzy and her handler from Allure Therapy Dogs who got lots of pets and loved every minute of it. It was a pretty busy event with 40 students dropping in for studying and tutoring help. Plus, Kevin Nguyen brought a group of his students for the Study In. It was a great event with lots of food and studying.

We are saying goodbye to 6 of our tutors as they graduate and move on to universities and jobs. They will be greatly missed, and we appreciate all that they have accomplished and done for our students. Saying that, we hope to recruit for those positions over the summer and have them filled before Fall term. If anyone has a referral for tutoring, please let Karri Miller know. We are recruiting for all subjects at this point and really need your help. It would be much appreciated if you could put a word out for any of your top students who will be enrolled in 6+ credits for fall, have an A or B in your courses, and have a 3.0 GPA.

If you have any questions or need information about tutoring, don't hesitate to contact the Tutoring Center at tutoring@umpqua.edu!

Student Tech Help

The UCC Student Tech Help Desk is working hard to bring you the most comprehensive support possible. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us!

UCC Online

Faculty, as we wrap up finals, be sure to score your Course Learning Outcomes and submit your final grades in Canvas. You can find instructions for scoring outcomes here and you can find instructions on submitting your final grades in Canvas here.
The Canvas End of Term Checklist has been revised to reflect our new end of term procedures and can be found on the Faculty & Staff Training page here.
The revised Syllabus Template has been posted to the Syllabi Archive in Canvas, as well as the Faculty & Staff training page.
A new Quality Check rubric has been developed and will be piloted Summer 2025.
We are currently investigating our needs related to H5P and other third-party tools for Canvas based on current demand at UCC. Let us know if it's something you're interested in for your courses!

Thank you to all the subscribers. This will be last Teaching & Learning blog post.

Spring Term, Week 9

05/27/2025

Macy Thoms

No Subjects

What's happening in the Teaching & Learning Center

Library

Contact us at library@umpqua.edu!

After Careful review of content and usage the Library will be ending access to CQ Researcher at the end of this fiscal year (6/30/25). The UCC Library subscribes to 90+ databases, including Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints and Gale In Context: Global Issues, which both contain similar content to that available through CQ Researcher. Need help replacing/accessing/integrating library content into your courses? Reach out to us at library@umpqua.edu today!

Student Tech Help

The UCC Student Tech Help Desk is working hard to bring you the most comprehensive support possible. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us!

UCC Online

The updated Canvas End of Term Checklist has been finalized and posted to the Faculty and Staff Training page. The checklist will also be provided to faculty one week prior to the end of term.
The Quality Check reviewer review of the new QC rubric will be held on May 27th from 1-3pm. This meeting is primarily to gather feedback and finalize the new QC rubric.
In April 2024, The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) finalized a rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), establishing clear digital accessibility standards for public institutions, including colleges and universities. This rule mandates that all digital content, such as course materials, websites, and mobile applications, must comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA.
- This compliance for these standards will take place in April of 2026.
- What this means for instructors (As educators, it's essential to ensure that all digital instructional materials are accessible to students with disabilities):
  - Provide alternative text for images.
  - Ensuring videos have accurate captions or transcripts.
  - Using accessible document formats (e.g., properly structured PDFS).
  - Ensuring that third-party content linked or embedded in courses meets accessibility standards.

Please be proactive and audit your materials. Look for materials that are old or unused and delete them from your courses. For materials that you are using, ensure that they are accessible. For more information please review this Fact Sheet: New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Governments | ADA.gov.

The Access Pearson LTI integration with Canvas has been updated from LT1 1.1 to 1.3. Any faculty member using Pearson will need to update their assignments using the LTI 1.3 method. If you are unsure how to set assignments using 1.3, please reach out to UCC Online for assistance.

Check back in the second week of June for more news!

Spring Term, Week 4

04/24/2025

Macy Thoms

No Subjects

What's happening in the Teaching & Learning Center:

A late welcome to Spring 2025!

Library

The Library is gearing up for our annual inventory. If you have items in your desk/office/home/car/bag, please reach out to us at library@umpqua.edu or stop by during our regular hours with the items.

Want to learn more about the inventory process or other library happenings? Subscribe to our blog for weekly updates!

Tutoring

Contact us at tutoring@umpqua.edu!

Tutoring is still working hard to support our students with new programming and new resources. In addition to TutorMe, there is a new online “almost” 24/7 live tutoring/writing/lab/eQuestions resource available in each of your Canvas courses. These highly qualified and vetted eTutors come from across the United States at partnering universities and colleges and tutor in a wide variety of subjects. You can access eTutoring by signing into any of your Canvas courses and clicking on the eTutoring link (not to be confused with TutorMe). If you have any questions, contact us at tutoring@umpqua.edu.

We also added more tutors and instructors to the Embedded Tutoring program. We now have 5 tutors embedded in Math, Writing, Spanish, and Science classes. Instructors can request an Embedded Tutor by filling out the form (button at the top of the Tutoring Center website).

Student Tech Help

The UCC Student Tech Help Desk is working hard to bring you the most comprehensive support possible. Explore the updated Student Tech Help website to learn more. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us!

UCC Online

The Spring 2025 Part-Time Faculty training sessions were held on 4/3 and 4/4. We covered a range of topics including the H5P in Canvas resource highlight, course leadership, classroom facilitation, CARES and academic early reporting.

If you are a part-time faculty member and were unable to attend either session, you can find the session recording here.

Check back next month for more updates!

Winter Term, Week 4

01/31/2025

Macy Thoms

No Subjects

What's happening in the Teaching & Learning Center:

A late welcome to Winter 2025!

Library

Did you know that you can get all the great library news you need by subscribing to the Library Blog, What's New at the UCC Library? Click on the blog, scroll to the bottom corner and enter your email to subscribe - be sure to click the verification link in your email after you do so. We usually post 3-4 times monthly, and will never share your information with others, but we will surely share our information with you!

Tutoring

Well, new year, new Tutoring Services!

Tutoring Center has been doing so well, the beginning of Winter term has brought new tutors and new subject areas that we cover such as business courses and accounting. I am proud of what it has become. We have 16 tutors and they are doing a great job!

I added a new feature to the Tutoring Center webpage where you can leave messages of appreciation for our tutors. So, if you have a moment, please go and take a look and leave your own message for either one or all our tutors.

We are also starting a pilot program for Embedded Tutoring in which we have one our writing tutors, Brianna, in Brent Lewis's Writing 121 classes one day a week. From what I hear, it is going well and we will be adding more courses each term. If you are interested in either being a tutor in a specific class or having a tutor embedded in one of your classes please contact me at tutoring@umpqua.edu with your request. The goal is to have a tutor that has taken the class from a particular instructor embedded in that same class during lab time or open study time for that class. So, let me know if you are interested.

Otherwise, if you have any questions or need information about tutoring, don't hesitate to contact the Tutoring Center at tutoring@umpqua.edu.

Student Tech Help

The UCC Library Tech Help Desk is working hard to bring you the most comprehensive support possible. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us!

UCC Online

UCC Online is moving to the help desk area of the Educational Skills Building. We are still here to support staff and students, but we're no longer in the library.

Check back next month for more news!

Fall Term, Finals Week

11/27/2024

Macy Thoms

No Subjects

What's happening in the Teaching & Learning Center:

Fall Term will be over on the 30th and Inter-session begins on December 9.

Library

Winter Hours

From December 2 through January 3 library hours will be: Monday - Thursday 8am-5pm, Friday 9am-4:30pm. We will be closed during the week of Christmas and on New Years Day. You can always view our current here.

Course Reserves

Are your course reserves up to date? Are you sure? Send us an email at library@umpqua.edu to find out, or even better, swing by the library during our regular hours and take a peek. Are you looking at updating your course reserves? Use our new Course Reserve Requests form.

Do you have items for your class that you need your students to have access to outside of class time? The library can help facilitate this! Fill out the Course Reserve Requests form to get the ball rolling!

Tutoring

It’s been a busy month for tutoring. We had been getting ready for our Fall term Study In event and getting our first round of yearly tutor evaluations completed. It has been a full year with me as the Tutoring Coordinator and building our new tutoring program. We have gone from 4 tutors to 15 within that year and have a wider variety of subjects that we cover. I have built some great relationships across campus and hope to make some more connections as we look forward to adding some new services.

Now that the Study In is over and was a resounding success once again. We had 56 students stop in and our tutors were very busy the whole time. It makes me so proud to have been able to see a full year of this event and the struggles and more importantly the successes. We have all worked hard to make this event and our tutoring program a well oiled machine and it is definitely to a point where I am now looking forward to adding more services and options for students to get the support and help they need.

As we’re always looking for new ideas, I just this last week went to visit the Tutoring Center at Chemeketa Community College, who has the oldest certified tutoring program in the state. They gave me some great new ideas that I plan to implement in the next year (or two). As we move to do this, I will let everyone know. It was well worth the drive through the stormy weather to make that connection and tour their space. I hope to make some more trips to other sites throughout the next year.

If anyone has any ideas of how I can make our services either better or ideas for things we may be able to add to our program, just let me know at tutoring@umpqua.edu.

Student Tech Help

The UCC Library Tech Help Desk is working hard to bring you the most comprehensive support possible. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We are also in the process of moving to the library site for appointments to make getting help easier, which will also be available over Zoom. With this system, students would be able to get help by chat, email, in-person or Zoom even if they cannot access their student account.

UCC Online

Accessibility changes, made Panorama more strict

In 2026 there will be stricter laws around digital accessibility. In preparation for these coming changes, Panorama had been changed to weigh accessibility issues more heavily. You may see your course accessibility scores go down in response to this change. If you would like to read more about the upcoming accessibility changes, check out this Fact Sheet.

Panorama PDF remediation engine coming soon

Panorama will soon provide more tools for making your digital course work accessible to students. The PDF remediation engine will allow you to correct accessibility issues for your PDF files directly in Canvas. Expect more information in early December.

Revamped Beginning/End of term checklist

We are currently revamping the beginning/end of term checklist to account for new systems, tools, and procedures for your courses in Canvas. Starting next term, these checklists will be regularly sent out as reminders of all the recommended items that need to be addressed and checked off before starting and finishing your courses.

Seeking input for QC rubric revision

UCCOnline is currently in the process of revising the Quality Check (QC) rubric. This rubric is what is used to ensure that all our online courses meet our standards and reflect up to date best practices. If you have any course design or online learning best practices that you would like to see reflected on the rubric, please reach out to Chantel Swan.

Faculty reminder to score course outcomes

Please remember to score the Course Learning Outcomes in your courses using the Outcomes Tool in Canvas. For more information on this topic please check out the page Hot Topic: Canvas Tool on the Nest.

Check back in December for more news!

Fall Term, Week 7

10/28/2024

Macy Thoms

No Subjects

What's happening in the Teaching & Learning Center:

Fall term is flying by. We are already in week 7 and finals will be here before you know it! We will have a Fall Study In for students on Thursday, November 21, so mark it on your calendar.

Library

Course Reserves

Are your course reserves up to date? Are you sure? Send us an email at library@umpqua.edu to find out, or even better, swing by the library during our regular hours a take a peek. Are you looking at updating your course reserves? Use our new Course Reserve Requests form.

For more about Course Reserves, check out the Library Services for Faculty research guide.

Tutoring

The Tutoring Center has been really busy this term and my tutors are working hard. October 7-11 was National Tutor Appreciation Week and we did some great stuff for our tutors. I established a Tutor Appreciation board for people to come write notes of appreciation to our tutors and the great work that they do. So anyone and everyone should come see it and write their own notes.

We also tried doing our first Nursing Study Group just before midterms with little success. It was pretty last minute so we will try again next term with more advance notice. If anyone would like to see a study group at any time formed for any of your classes, just let me know and we can accommodate that with space and tutors if needed (maybe even snacks if we have enough advance notice).

Here are some shots of what’s been happening in the Tutoring Center:

Definition of a tutor
Tutor noun -
1. A person who is hardworking and dedicated.
2. One who guides and inspires.
3. A mentor, an encourager, a modivator.
4. One who is admired, trusted and appreciated.
5. A person who touches lives forever. Group of several UCC tutor, including: Zackary Cheatham, Brianna Graves, Zachary Sullivan, Hannah Jarmin, Brooklyn Wolfe and Alex Maxwell. All are standing around the Tutor Appreciation board on Friday of National Tutor Appreciation Week.

Tutoring Center on a busy morning during midterms.

Student Tech Help

The UCC Library Tech Help Desk is working hard to bring you the most comprehensive support possible. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

UCC Online

The Panorama training session was hosted on 10/16 for faculty. For those who could not make it, Ryan Ha has provided a recording of the session along with additional training material that can be found on the Faculty and Staff Training page.

Make sure to check back again in November for more updates!

Late Welcome to Fall Term!

09/27/2024

Macy Thoms

No Subjects

Welcome back to the Teaching & Learning blog

We're using this opportunity to share a bit more about the happenings in each department within the Sue Shaffer Learning Commons & Library. We will be publishing a new post on the last Friday of every month.

Library

Welcome back, faculty! We here at the library hope you had a restful and magnificent summer! We've been hard at work getting our resources (physical and digital) ready for you and your students this fall!

Are you wondering what services we at the library are able to offer you and your students? Check out our new Library Services for Faculty research guide!

Many of our resources were given a facelift over the summer, so they may look a bit different, and they may act a bit different, but they are still the same solid resources that you've come to rely on. That said, a few of the links have been updated, so you will want to use the link-checking feature in your Canvas shell to identify any broken links.

Perhaps the largest update to our library resources has been with EBSCO. Almost every one of our 30+ EBSCO databases have a new user interface - a welcome update for these products. This might mean that people who were once familiar with them are now wading into unfamiliar territory. Never fear, we're here to help! Any database on the A-to-Z list that has a green play button next to it has a quick tutorial on how to use it.

Are you interested in learning more about using Kanopy films in your courses? Join us in the library on October 8th from 11:30 - 12:30 for Maximizing Digital Resources in Education, register here!

Tutoring

Welcome back! Tutoring started Week 1 and was super busy. We have 14 tutors available in the Tutoring Center and they are here to help. So, whatever questions you have, whether it be math, science, any nursing subjects, social sciences, humanities, filling out an application, getting tips on study skill or test prep, and many other subjects and skills, they are here for you! Just stop by the Tutoring Center in the library and we can get you all set up with whatever you need.

We also have Pear Deck Tutor (formerly TutorMe) in Canvas which is live online 24/7 tutoring help. Just click the link in the left navigation menu for TutorMe and follow the steps to talk to a live tutor anytime.

If you or anyone you know excels at math, science, or business courses, we are always looking for those tutors. If you are taking at least 6 credits and have a GPA of 3.00 and have had As or Bs in those courses come see us in the Tutoring Center or contact us at tutoring@umpqua.edu. We can set you up to make a little extra money during the term. We have very flexible hours and is a great place to work!

Student Tech Help

The UCC Library Tech Help Desk is working hard to bring you the most comprehensive support possible. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. You can even schedule appointments here (Library Tech Help Desk 2024-2025) with WC Online now!

UCC Online

Mark your calendars, there is an upcoming faculty Panorama Digital Accessibility training scheduled for Oct. 16^th at 2:00pm by Ryan Ha from Yuja over Zoom. He will dive into the features of Panorama including accessibility reports, alternate formats, and accessibility tools when building content in the Canvas rich text editor. Invites will be going out shortly so keep a look out.

Quick Canvas tip! Are you having issues with accessing third-party tools in Canvas like Panopto, Turnitin, or your digital textbook? Make sure you are not using a browser that has heavy privacy settings like DuckDuckGo or using a browser that is Incognito or Private Mode. This prevents Canvas from passing your authentication credentials to that third-party software and will block you from gaining access.

UCCOnline will be hosting training sessions and workshops both in person and online in the near future. They will cover a range of topics including Quality Check Reviewer training, rubric enhancements, New Quizzes, Canvas Outcomes, Master Shell best practices, and more. Keep an eye on your email as well as the Faculty and Staff Training page as details are released.

Check back next month for more updates!

Stay Tuned! (04/17/2024)

07/25/2024

Macy Thoms

No Subjects

What's new?

Are you looking forward to learning about what exciting things are happening at the Teaching & Learning Center in Spring Term? So are we!

Stay tuned for the return of the blog in Week 4 of the term!

How is it already nearly the end of week 8! (02/29/2024)

07/25/2024

Macy Thoms

No Subjects

Library

The library is doing some springtime cleaning, and asks that you do, too! If you (or your students) have items that have been checked out from the UCC Library, please bring them back to us. We’re gearing up for a much-needed inventory of our collections and need to know what’s still outstanding (aside from our customer service, we know that’s outstanding! 😉).

On the flip side, if there’s anything that you’re wanting the library to offer, please reach out to us using one of the following forms:

Tutoring

Tutoring is still looking for more students who meet the following criteria to become a tutor:

Required Qualifications:

Be a current UCC student with at least 6 credits.
Maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher each term.
Earned an 'A' or “B” in the courses(s) tutored.
Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.

Preferred Qualifications:

Promote a positive, safe, friendly environment amongst students and staff of diverse cultures and educational levels.
Previous tutoring experience.

We are very much in need of Math and Nursing tutors for next term. We could also use tutors for Computer Information Science/Computer Science and Business.

Student Tech Help

UCC Online

You might recall that we will be moving our digital accessibilities tools from ALLY to Panorama for the coming Spring term. Yuja hosted a training session for faculty but if you missed it, fear not! You can find a recording of the session here.

You can also find additional Panorama training materials on the Faculty and Staff Training site.

Week 5 and Midterms (02/07/2024)

07/25/2024

Macy Thoms

No Subjects

Welcome to the Teaching & Learning Blog! We’re using this opportunity to share a bit more about the happenings in each department housed within the Sue Shaffer Learning Commons & Library.

Library

Have your students been struggling with citations? Are you sick of seeing them turn things in that have quite obviously come from EasyBib or another citation generator? The library provides you and your students access to an easy-to-use, high-quality citation management system called NoodleTools.

With NoodleTools you can create, manage, edit, save, organize, annotate, and export accurately formatted bibliographies in APA, MLA, & Chicago style!

For more information on NoodleTools, check out this helpful Research Guide.

Tutoring

Tutoring is still looking for more students who meet the following criteria to become a tutor:

Required Qualifications:

Be a current UCC student with at least 6 credits.
Maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher each term.
Earned an 'A' or “B” in the courses(s) tutored.
Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.

Preferred Qualifications:

Promote a positive, safe, friendly environment amongst students and staff of diverse cultures and educational levels.
Previous tutoring experience.

We are very much in need of Math and Nursing tutors for next term. We could also use tutors for Computer Information Science/Computer Science and Business.

Student Tech Help

UCC Online

Are you spending too much time correcting the auto-captioning in your Panopto videos? OCCDLA pays for an allotment of professional captioning for UCC. Just reach out and let us know what videos you would like to have professionally captioned, and we can have that taken care of.