College Spotlight
During the spring term we started building
Online Canvas Training Courses using
Softchalk Create that we hope to have up and
running for fall of 2014. This will allow newly
hired instructors to complete the basic
required training for Canvas at their
Over the past few months, we have
made great strides in providing our
students and staff with immediate
access to Canvas training by
creating Instructor and Student Support
Courses that are stationed within Canvas’
Help section. Within these courses, they will
find current MGCCC Canvas step sheets, short
tutorial videos, and recorded Virtual
Workshops. Our goal is to provide a one-stop
shop for their immediate Canvas needs.
convenience and provide the eLearning
department the opportunity to focus our
efforts on providing even more advanced
training and one-on-one support.
ACADEMY NOW! TECH, TRENDS, AND NEWS | Issue 1
by
Jennifer Leimer, MGCCC
Greetings, colleagues and friends!
It is an exciting time for eLearning
at Mississippi Gulf Coast
Community College! As we began
the switch to Canvas, we took a
hard look at the support we had
provided in the past. While we felt
like we did a pretty good job of
covering the basics, we knew that
we needed to kick it up a notch.
Our next step has been to go beyond the
basics and offer more advanced training. We
have spent more time on training to enhance
student engagement, incorporating best
practices in the online classroom, and
providing better feedback to students.
In addition to providing eLearning support to
students, we recently took on a project
where we converted the MGCCC Student
Success Seminar series into online learning
modules. Our goal was to create both
interesting and informative courses the
students would enjoy and gain valuable
information from to be successful in their
college careers and beyond. These should be
up and running this summer.
2
As we continue to incorporate new
technologies, we look forward to the
challenge of providing even better service
and support to our faculty and students.
SPOTLIGHT
“Our goal is to provide
a one-stop shop for
their immediate Canvas
needs.”
Featured Partner: AspireEdu
Dropout Detective ™
Dropout Detective ™, a student
retention software, will be available July 2014
for MSVCC Courses and is specific for online
students. The new software evaluates Canvas
data and calculates a “risk index score” for
each student. The results are presented in an
easy-to-use dashboard for administrators and
staff.
Dropout Detective allows colleges to better
utilize their resources by assisting in
• Monitoring student risk
• Contacting students who are at risk
• Documenting communication and
interactions with students
• Referring students to appropriate support
services
Key Features of Dropout Detective:
• Revie ws students’ performance across ALL
courses and calculates a single Risk Index
Score (similar to a credit score) based on a
proprietary algorithm
• Retrieves all information from Canvas and
does not require any additional loading of
data or “flags” to be initiated by instructors
• Generates an easy-to-use dashboard (at
the college level, advisor level and at the
course level) that displays all students and
a red-yellow-green “stop light” format to
draw attention to the most at-risk students
• Allows administrators and instructors to
drill down from the dashboard into an
individual student’s profile to determine
the risk reason and to develop a pro-active
plan of action
• Provides comprehensive student profile
information on a single screen that
includes performance activity in each
course (grade, # of missing assignments,
last submission date, last date of
attendance). Profile also includes all
student contact information in one
location (cell number, alternate email,
Twitter screen names and Facebook
address which makes it easy to reach the
student).
• Supports automated text messaging based
on risk profile