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WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017 | VOL LXX ISSUE 14 tccclarion.com f/ccclarion T@ccclarion
erasing the board: TRANSITION TO CANVAS BY BIANCA SANTELICES STAFF REPORTER
BSANTELICES@CCCLARION.COM
Blackboard Learn has graced the computer screens of Citrus College for 15 years. This summer, Citrus will integrate a new learning platform. Canvas Learning Management System is a learning platform that serves 90 out of 113 California community colleges. California’s Online Education Initiative named Canvas as the top choice by community college students, faculty and administrators. With Blackboard’s contract expiring at the end of this se-
mester, Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences Dana Hester decided to move to Canvas. “The government and state legislature partnered with OEI to fund colleges who would switch to Canvas for free for two years,” Hester said. Furthermore, Hester said that if Citrus did pay for Canvas, it would still be 50 percent less than what was being paid for Blackboard. “We’re excited about this because we have this body of experience from colleges around the area, such as Pasadena City College, who’ve gone through the transition from Blackboard
to Canvas,” English professor Beverly Van Citters said. Hester said though Canvas has similarities to Blackboard, the features are easier for professors to use for distance education classes. “It has all of the same features that Blackboard does, the grade book and discussion boards,” Hester said. “But with online courses, the technology is much easier for faculty to use. “If a faculty member has dates attached to the course schedule that they would like to set up, it would all have to be done individually on Blackboard. So, if you made a date change in
the calendar then you’d also have to make it in the syllabus and then you’d also have to find where it was in the module.” On the other hand, Canvas is more intuitive in which it automatically updates everything related to that date change. “The support from Canvas is much more comprehensive,” history professor Senya Lubisich said. “You are able to do more robust things.”
SEE CANVAS • PAGE 5
Photo Illustration by Megan Bender Clarion
WOMEN’S HISTORY COURSE INTRODUCED TO CURRICULUM After several years of push from the history department, the first women’s history-focused class comes to campus BY MALCOLM CASTELLI STAFF REPORTER
MCASTELLI@CCCLARION.COM
Coming to Citrus College in the 2017 fall semester, students can take the first women’s history course on campus after years of the history department working to offer the class. The three-credit course will be held from 1:05 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays in the fall semester and cover the history of women in America from the pre-Columbian era to modern times. The discussion-heavy class will be CSU and UC transferable and requires no prerequisite, though general knowledge of American history is recommended. No formal textbook is required for the class instead, history professor Elisabeth Ritacca will assign three separate readings to supplement her teachings that highlight the diversity of women’s lives in America, she said.
The memoirs “Lakota Woman” by writer/activist Mary Crow Dog and “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by abolitionist Harriet Jacobs will be read alongside “Cannery Women Cannery Lives” by UC Irvine historian Vicki L. Ruiz Ritacca has previously taught women’s history at UC Davis, Solano College and Walla Walla University and was considered for her job here at Citrus based off of her own specialization in the field. “It’s very unusual to not have this course offered, so I think it’s a big step forward,” Ritacca said. While the course serves to better educate students on the history of women in America at a community college level, the class can also help students who plan on transferring. “We’ve looked at our course offerings and we do find with the general survey courses, that in terms of students who want a transfer degree we
need more specialized courses,” history professor Senya Lubisich said. Lubisich said the history department has pushed for the past several years to get the course into the curriculum but was unable to make progress prior to hiring someone of Ritacca’s professional background. Upon getting hired she took the lead for getting the course curriculum approved and had the full support of the faculty, Lubisich said. “To have somebody that can throw their academic training and academic weight behind the subject, that’s what we really need and that’s who she represents,” history professor Bruce Solheim said. “We have wanted to see it offered for such a long time,” Lubisich said. More than anything, Lubisich said she wants students who take the class to have fun in her class while SE E HI S TORY • PAGE 5 Photo: Maddison October, Illustration: Megan Bender Clarion
The Parking problem
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