Hero Image
Faculty

Distance Education for Faculty

Welcome!

District Distance Education personnel are here to provide faculty with training, assistance, and support in preparing and teaching fully online, hybrid, and web-enhanced courses using Canvas. District DE strives to offer the finest in education to our students by providing our faculty with the resources and tools necessary to build and maintain their course​ content and materials. 

Our District DE Faculty Training (or DEFT) includes training courses, workshops, 1:1 appointments, resources, and additional support. We hope that these resources and support will help faculty increase their skills in online instruction or "become DEFT" in online instruction. Review the options in the left navigation and links below to find the resources and support you need.

RCCD uses Canvas as the learning management system for all courses. Canvas shells will be available for all classes about two months before the start of the semester. Faculty looking to collaborate with colleagues can add users to their courses in the developmental/sandbox course shells.

New Faculty

Welcome! Read this New Faculty page for a quick overview to get started.

Need Canvas Support?

District DE offers the following Canvas support in addition to our 1:1 appointments, training courses, and webinars.

​Canvas Support

  • Inside Canvas: "Help & More" (question mark icon) in the global navigation menu
  • Canvas Chat Support: Live, 24/7 Online Canvas Chat support

Additional Tech Support

District DE Resources

Resources can be accessed 24/7. District DE personnel are happy to answer questions about any of these resources and assist faculty via a 1:1 appointment.

 

Ongoing Notifications

Regular Canvas Maintenance

In an effort to better manage required Canvas maintenance, Canvas conducts regular Canvas maintenance on the 1st & 3rd Thursdays of each month from 12:05 am - 4:05 am PST. These four-hour maintenance windows may cause intermittent issues. For example, edited content and submitted work may not Save or Submit. To review the maintenance times, sign in to Canvas and click Account> Settings to view the maintenance schedule under the time zone on the settings page. Please make note of this information.

 

Accessibility Statements

Sections 504 and 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act, in addition to multiple CA Government Codes, require that all online content be accessible to all students and that all video captions be accurate. Per the CA State and RCCD Chancellors' mandates, RCCD faculty are responsible for ensuring that all course content and materials meet these standards. Some students may need additional accommodations and assistance from both their instructor and DSS/DRC support staff. District DE is here to help faculty improve the accessibility of their course content. Self-enroll in the Accessibility Guide to get started.

 

Copyright Statement

Non-original works (not created by faculty), such as books, handouts, audio clips, videos, and all other intellectual property, should be considered copyrighted unless specifically designated as free to use. If you are using publisher and/or copyright materials, we recommend consulting a librarian to determine their eligibility for fair use in your course. Please refer to the District's BP2750: Use of Copyrighted Material - PDF for more information.

We highly recommend making copyright-protected materials available by linking to official library resources rather than uploading files directly to your Canvas course. This method has the benefits of:

  • ensuring copyright compliance,
  • improving accessibility compliance, and
  • saving storage space in your Canvas course​

 

Archiving of Canvas Course Shells

In an effort to maintain greater levels of security and protect the privacy of our academic community, District DE is enacting an archival process for Canvas course shells. Effective Spring 2026, all course shells will transition to a read-only, archived status approximately one year after each term's end date. Once archived, no changes can be made to course instructional content, as this is an official record of how the class was taught. Please Note: