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

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!

Recent Posts

Fall Term, Finals Week

What's happening in the Teaching & Learning Center:Fall Term will be over on the 30th and Inter-session begins on December 9.LibraryContact us at library@umpqua.edu!Winter HoursFrom 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 ReservesAre 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!TutoringContact us at tutoring@umpqua.edu!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 HelpContact us at studenttechhelp@umpqua.edu!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 OnlineContact us at ucconline@umpqua.edu!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 soonPanorama 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 checklistWe 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

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.LibraryContact us at library@umpqua.edu!Course ReservesAre 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.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!For more about Course Reserves, check out the Library Services for Faculty research guide.TutoringContact us at tutoring@umpqua.edu!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: Student Tech HelpContact us at studenttechhelp@umpqua.edu!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 OnlineContact us at ucconline@umpqua.edu!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!

Welcome back to the Teaching & Learning blogWe'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.LibraryContact us at library@umpqua.edu!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!TutoringContact us at tutoring@umpqua.edu!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 HelpContact us at studenttechhelp@umpqua.edu! 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 OnlineContact us at ucconline@umpqua.edu!Mark your calendars, there is an upcoming faculty Panorama Digital Accessibility training scheduled for Oct. 16th 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)

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! ...