This is the SPOT for certification for online teaching! 

Welcome to the journey...

 

This web site outlines the Skills and Pedagogy for Online Teaching (SPOT) certification process for Mt. SAC faculty. In this process, a baseline of skills and pedagogy needed for effective online teaching will be demonstrated by each faculty member through the completion of several tasks in this certification process.

All instructors are required to complete the Skills and Pedagogy for Online Teaching (SPOT) certification process in order to teach a Distance Learning (online or hybrid) course.  

As I am sure you have heard, the campus has moved from Blackboard to Moodlerooms. This also means that the SPOT process in Blackboard has been transitioned to Moodlerooms starting Fall 2012. All materials left in the Blackboard SPOT course or your Blackboard CERT courses was lost at the end of the Spring term. If you wish to complete the SPOT process that you may have started, you will have to start the process over in Moodlerooms. Remember, faculty who completed the SPOT certification in Blackboard will NOT be required to redo the certification using Moodlerooms.

Prerequisites for SPOT:

• Must have and use a Mt. SAC email account

• Must have completed a Mt SAC LMS training (workshops or online)

  • For more information on LMS training follow this link: http://www.mtsac.edu/instruction/learning/olsc/moodlerooms/mtsac_mr_workshops.html

How SPOT process works:
After registering for SPOT (both at POD registration and with SPOT facilitators), the following will occur:

• You will be enrolled as a student in the  course "Skills & Pedagogy for Online Teaching (SPOT)"  - where you will read and submit all tasks

• You will be enrolled as an instructor in your own personal  course with "CERT" in title - where you will create tasks and communicate with your SPOT verifier

• A SPOT Faculty Verifier will be assigned to you for the duration of the SPOT process

• You will independently read and perform many tasks to prepare you for teaching a Distance Learning course

• Each task will be verified by your SPOT Faculty Verifier

  • Note: Faculty Verifiers are not required to verify during the intersessions. So, while you may still complete Tasks during the intersessions, your verifier may not start checking them until the regular semester starts back up.

• When all tasks have be done, you will receive a SPOT certificate

How to Register for SPOT:
If you wish to become certified to teach a Distance Learning course, you have come to the right "spot".  To get started with SPOT, do these 2 steps:

1. Register for SPOT on POD offering web page - go to POD calendar to look for 1 SPOT offering. It will usually be near the first or last day of the month. Sign up for any day. SPOT is an ongoing, self-paced course. The start and end date is up to you.

2. Send an e-mail from your Mt SAC e-mail address to Michael Dowdle: mdowdle@mtsac.edu

   • Include in the message:

     • Your FULL name

     • Your portal username

     • Your full Mt. SAC email address

     • Your department

     • Your employee "A" number (needed to verify status in Banner)

     • Please put the words "Please register me in SPOT" as the subject of the message

 After a few days you will receive a welcome e-mail message from your SPOT facilitator with instructions on how to get started with the SPOT process.