Saul Epstein

Tip! What is this “Tutoring” item on my Canvas menu?

The JCCC Library and the Academic Resource Center use a web-based tool (named “Penji”) to help students connect with librarians…

scary scene of red-eyed robots emerging from fog with one very clear in the foreground glaring at the viewer

Tip! Turnitin Takes on AI

ChatGPT! ChatGPT! You can’t say it 5 times fast, but lately it’s all anyone can talk about. It’s either the…

Tip! If Something Doesn’t Work, Report it

JCCC is a big place, full of classrooms and conference rooms, and there’s more electronics installed in more of those…

woman in front of a computer with charts on chalkboard in background

Tip! Submit a File on a Student’s Behalf

Ever had that one student who can’t figure out how to convert their “Pages” document to a PDF in order…

Tip! If You Must Grade a Quiz Manually, Best to Post Grades Manually

Do you use Canvas quiz question types that require you to grade them manually? In the time between when a student submits an attempt at a quiz with such questions and when you finish grading the attempt, the student may see confusing or alarming information that they can easily misread to say they bombed the quiz. Use a manual grade posting policy to prevent unnecessary panic.

Tip! How Many Times Have You Scheduled a Teams Meeting by Mistake?

Web conferencing, even for one-on-one meetings, is a very convenient option to have. It can basically bridge the gap between…

Tip! How to Create “Thumbnail” Links in Canvas

In web parlance, a thumbnail is a scaled down (sometimes also cropped) copy of a larger picture or graphic. A…

Tip! Why can’t I “mute” grades in Canvas anymore? (Or, what do these “eye-cons” mean?)

Once upon a time, it was possible to prevent grades entered into a given column in Canvas from being communicated…

Tip! Let Students into a Canvas Class before Day One

For any number of reasons, a professor may wish to give students access to their section’s Canvas space before the…

Tip! Where did the mandatory attendance entry go?

The Faculty “community” on the “My JCCC” site includes a tool for entering mandatory attendance (which determines whether a student…

Tip! Under-appreciated Benefits of a Source Course

Every section in every term’s credit schedule gets a dedicated space in Canvas. Canvas itself calls these spaces “courses” —…

Tip! Using the Canvas Scheduler Feature for Student Appointments

Scheduler is a Calendar tool that creates appointment groups within a course or group. Students can sign up for a…

Tip! Invoke Turnitin after Submissions already Turned in

Have you ever developed suspicions that students might have plagiarized material for a particular paper after one or more submissions have already…

Tip! Ed Tech Equipment Available for Checkout

We’ve got a lot of equipment here in the center, and it’s all for faculty benefit. We have tried to…

Tip! Student Study Spaces and Resources

Plan ahead and reserve a study room for yourself or your group. Need a laptop? Borrow one for use while…

Tip! Request a Course Consultation with the Ed Tech Center

Request a consultation with ETC’s Design Team. We work side-by-side with faculty throughout the course development process to create an…

Tip! Canvas Assignment Availability

All Canvas assignments (including graded discussions and quizzes) have settings which determine their availability for interaction: availability when, and to…