Required Online Teaching Training

Thank you for taking this important step in your journey as an online educator. Completing the trainings outlined on this page not only demonstrate your commitment to student success but also an acknowledgment of an ever-evolving educational landscape. Your commitment to designing quality online courses makes a profound difference in our students' educational experience.

Please see the information below for which training(s) is/are required for each modality and how to get started.

Cuyamaca Requirements

Instructors assigned to teach online classes require training prior to teaching asynchronous online, synchronous online, hybrid, and HyFlex courses (additional HyFlex training is required-see below).

The Online Teaching Certification covers these required elements as outlined in the AFT Faculty contract:

Canvas Learning Management System
Online pedagogy
Accessibility

How Do I Get Certified to Teach in an Online Modality?

There are 3 ways to become eligible to teach online:

Complete Cuyamaca's Teaching Online Certificate course. Email the Instructional Design Technology Specialist, Amber Toland Perry and Distance Education Coordinator, Bri Brown to get enrolled.
Complete @ONE's Introduction to Asynchronous Online Teaching and Learning or the 12-week Online Teaching & Design (OTD) course and submit the completion badge to the Distance Education coordinator.
Submit a certification from another institution to the Distance Education Coordinator. The DE Coordinator will then evaluate whether the certification meets the AFT Union requirements outlined above.

When Do I Need to Be Certified?

All faculty who will be teaching asynchronous online, synchronous online, hybrid, and HyFlex courses need to have completed their Online Certification prior to the start of FLEX week the first semester they plan to teach in one of those modalities. The facilitator needs enough time to provide feedback and collect any necessary revisions prior to the start of FLEX week. The facilitator does not work over holiday breaks.

HyFlex Training

In addition to the online teaching certification, HyFlex instructors must follow these steps:

Express Interest:
- Part time faculty express interest in teaching HyFlex to their AFT Rep.
- Full time faculty notify their Dean of their interest to teach a HyFlex course.
The faculty member must have a HyFlex teaching assignment.
Email the HyFlex Coordinator to enroll in the 2-hour pedagogy and 1-hour technology trainings.
Complete the online pedagogy training by the end of the semester prior to the first HyFlex teaching assignment.
Complete the technology training by the end of FLEX week of the first HyFlex teaching assignment.
Faculty will then be paid 3 hours at their non-classroom hourly rate for completing the HyFlex training.

Questions about HyFlex training? Email the HyFlex Coordinator, Nicole Hernandez at nicole.hernandez@gcccd.edu.

Set up your Canvas Course Container

Canvas makes it easy to develop a course as it includes tools to make an online course work well. Empty Canvas container shells are automatically created for each course section you are teaching for each semester and will appear when you login to Canvas. You can build your course from these empty containers and/or copy material from a previous course into these containers (for details, see Faculty Canvas Resources). If you want to get a head start on development, you can create your own development container at any time from your Canvas Dashboard and then copy your work to new containers in the future.

We strongly recommend that you follow the Pre-semester Checklist each semester.