The newest series in our suite of CETL program offerings, Alternative Instruction is a blend of the old TECH and TEACH programs, reformatted for online environments with a focus on equity. The certificate is foundational for any faculty member who wants to use best practices in online environments.  For more information about the Alt-Instruction Certificate and to enroll in the course, go to: http://www.calstatela.edu/cetl/alt-instruction. 

NOTE: The Alt-Instruction certificate is the prerequisite for entrance to the DOC (Design Online Courses) program. 

Yes. See above. There is a new workshop, Low-Bandwidth teaching, and an equity elective that you may still need to take--as well as a small deliverable to earn the Alt-Instruction certificate. Enroll yourself in the Canvas course and find out what you have received credit for.

You will receive credit for any face-to-face workshop you have taken previously as long as it is in the series and completed after the transition from Moodle to Canvas. For instance, you may have taken Moodle Gradebook. This workshop will not count towards the required workshop Canvas Gradebook and SpeedGrader. Enroll yourself in the ALT-Instruction course and find out what you have received credit for.

Alt-Instruction workshops will phase out by mid-July to accommodate fall 2020 CETL programming. 

For the self-paced workshops, please plan to complete all assignments and quizzes by July 26th. 

Note on Webinars:

For support on registering for a Webinar, please see our Alt-Instruction FAQ page. Please note, that there will be a limited number of webinars offered this summer, calendar, and schedule the times most appropriate, as space will become more limited. 

They are different, but related. The Alternative Instruction program is a fully online professional development pathway designed by CETL this past spring for faculty who wanted to get a head-start on redesigning coursework for remote delivery summer and fall 2020. Over 400 faculty have enrolled in the course. The certificate is foundational for any faculty member who wants to use best practices in online environments.

The Summer Institute is a Provost’s initiative that builds on the Alt-Instruction program. Consult the Provost’s Email of 5/20/2020. Faculty who participate in the Summer Institute will build out sections of their fall Canvas course(s) applying information they learned in the Alt-Instruction program, using a revised Quality Matters checklist. Faculty may earn a support payment of up to $2000 to do so. 

NOTE: Summer Institute Canvas coursework should be submitted to the college or department for evaluation and payment. CETL does not approve or issue payments.

NO. In order to provide the highest quality of service to all our faculty for the Summer Institute and the Alt-Instruction program, we will not be offering other programming this summer. 

NO. CETL will never evaluate the worthiness of any course. Your Department and College are responsible for curriculum quality and will sign off on any completed work you perform. Contact your college dean, chair, or designee.

Yes, every instructor is provided an extra Canvas course, called a Sandbox. When you log into Canvas, look for it on your Dashboard. Typically the Sandbox is used to explore and experiment with Canvas. You can request an additional Sandbox to plan and build your Fall course using the Canvas Special Shell request form.

Later, you can transfer the content of your Sandbox to your live Fall course. Consult the Importing and Migrating Courses page for more information. 

Please confirm the intended course you will be assigned for Fall with your department. This is to ensure you are planning appropriately. While you wait, please consider building your course in a Canvas Sandbox. You can request a new Sandbox to plan and build your Fall course using the Canvas Special Shell request form.

Later, you can transfer the content of your Sandbox to your live Fall course. Consult the Importing and Migrating Courses page for more information. 

NOTE: The Sandbox should only be used for designing and building the course. Please do not enroll students in your sandbox.  

If you are a returning lecturer without access, or if you are BRAND NEW Cal State LA instructor, please reach out to your department and see if they can help you activate (or reactivate) your account. If however, you think you won’t get access to our Canvas environment until later this summer, you can always create a free Canvas account outside of our Canvas instance. Start building in your free Canvas account, and then import in the pieces when you get access to the Cal State LA Canvas instance. The CETL Alt-Instruction course template is still available through Canvas Commons, even in the free Canvas account. Simply select Commons, after you’ve registered and search Alt-Instruction. You should see an image like the one below: 

As the Fall semester approaches, you can transfer the content from your Free Canvas Account to your live Fall course in Cal State LA’s Canvas instance. See below on how to export your course content from your free account, then import it into Cal State LA’s Canvas instance. 

For more information on this process, please consult the following Canvas Guides:

• How do I export a Canvas course? 
• How do I import a Canvas course export package?

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