Introducing . . . the Year in Review

As the days grow longer and the sun shines brighter, some of us can’t wait to spend our non-working hours reveling in all our favorite summer activities. But before we do, let’s take a moment to reflect upon eLearning’s 2024-2025 academic year.

eLearning at the Seattle Colleges has accomplished much. We’ve responded to and closed over 4,175 tickets, ranging from Canvas questions to programming queries and everything in between. During winter quarter, we launched an Accessibility Bytes Program, “a series of quick, engaging micro-training topics designed to help improve the accessibility of digital content.” Our Bytes workshops, drop-ins, and instructional videos have covered accessibility checkers, alternative text, tables, videos, and several more essential topics. This content, a range of checklists, and additional digital accessibility information can be found in our ever evolving District Accessibility Training Hub.

Some of our additional achievements include:

• Presentations on Canvas New Quizzes
• LEAD courses focusing on Introductory and Intermediate Canvas as well as HTML in Canvas
  • Check out our linked registration page–we’re offering Canvas LEAD courses this summer!
• Quarterly Pressbooks cohort groups and Pressbooks support
• Participation in Development Days and other college professional development programming throughout the year
• Design, development, and revision assistance with New Student Orientations (NSOs)
• A complete overhaul of one of our campus’s physical eLearning spaces
• Many, many one-on-one consultations with faculty and staff about pedagogy and technology
• On campus and online student Zoom, Panopto, and Canvas support

We’ve also welcomed two new team members: an Accessible Technology Manager and an Accessibility Services Coordinator. We’re so delighted to have them!

Life in eLearning has, of course, not all been as rosy as this list of suggests. Most of us have taken a sick day or two. Some of us have had surgery and others have taken care of family members who had surgery. We’ve lost family and friends. Servers have moved sluggishly, platforms have collapsed, and some days troubleshooting anything seems so infuriating, we have been tempted to throw equipment across the room. (We can confirm that at least one small lockbox was launched in a fit of annoyance—no one was injured and frustratingly, even the lockbox emerged unscathed). Moreover, changes have occurred which have been so impactful, some of us are still trying to catch our individual and collective breath.

Whew. (Breathe). That was heavy.

In the remainder of this newsletter, the eLearning Instructional Designers wax poetic on pedagogical topics close to our hearts including accommodations, creativity, zero modules, new quizzes, and summer media. We invite you to read, engage, and meander about this Pressbook as you see fit. In the meantime, we leave you with eLearning’s collective summer to-do list.