Working, Teaching, and Learning

Alternative Teaching Tips

Teaching online, whether asynchronous, synchronous, or live-cast from a classroom, is different than traditional face-to-face instruction.  Please remember that LTC and LEARN are here to support you. Check out the “Need Help?” section at the top of the page to contact us.

General Tips

• Online and hybrid teaching most often requires rethinking your approach to topics and lessons.  Just trying to replicate the face-to-face learning environment is rarely successful.
  
  
• It can be difficult for students to stay focused when looking at a screen for the same length of time as a face-to-face session.  Synchronous sessions might be shorter than a full class period with some expectation of independent work or asynchronous collaboration.  Likewise, recorded videos/lectures are often best in 5-10 minute chunks.
  
  
• Please remember to stay flexible as it might be very difficult for some students to meet deadlines if they are ill, providing childcare, don’t have access to reliable internet, are sharing devices, or if they are working more than usual.

Making a Plan for Your Course

• Review your learning outcomes—focus on engaging and assessing students on those outcomes.  Assessments may look different online than face-to-face.
  
  
• There are methods of taking attendance during online synchronous sessions:
  • Screenshots of participants in a Webex Meeting.
  • PollEverywhere questions that capture a list of participants during a session). 
  • However, online courses often focus less on requiring attendance and more on requiring evidence of learning (assessments you grade).  Consider that balance as you plan.
    
    
• Students may struggle with learning new concepts outside of a classroom--especially if they are less experienced with different types of learning (e.g., hybrid and online).
  
  • Think about ways to keep learning simple.
  • When introducing new concepts, think about doing a short introductory video that helps give students a frame of reference for what they should be looking for when they read or watch the content you have assigned.
  • Follow up with an application activity (e.g.,  Canvas discussion or individualized activity) where you engage with feedback to support student learning.

Communicating With Your Class and Your Students

• If you’re planning to use  Webex Meetings for meeting synchronously with your class, make a plan for how you might be flexible with students who may be experiencing internet or availability issues.
  
  
  • A good option is to use the  recording feature.
  • If you choose to record sessions, it is courteous to let students know that they will be recorded and give them a chance to not be on camera if they have privacy concerns.
  • If you or your students struggle with audio and/or video, remember to have folks turn off their videos unless they are actively participating. You can also advise them to use an ethernet cord to plug in if they have one and see if they can get others in their house to reduce their internet use during that time.
  • Remember that Webex Meetings has an Automatic Transcription feature for recordings.  Live transcription is only available as an accommodation and would be requested by a student through the Center for Students with Disabilities.
  • Plan for how to communicate if Webex or other technologies become unavailable.  For example, you could email the class that an alternate assignment will be posted to Canvas because Webex temporarily went down.
    
    
• Communicate early and often to your class to ease student anxiety, manage expectations around coursework, and save you time in replying to individual questions.
  
  
  • Using our email system and Canvas announcements works great for this! 
  • Think about ways you can individually reach students through personalized feedback on the work they are doing and reaching out to students who may not be engaging as expected.
  • It’s a good idea to  get assignments into Canvas,  assign a due date so it appears in students’ Canvas calendars, and use Speedgrader for individualized assignment feedback.
  • If you’re not getting any responses or engagement from students within 2 weeks or so, please reach out to the Dean of Students office or the CARE team through their  reporting form. 

Different Ways to Assess Student Learning

• As you begin to develop your assessments during remote teaching, it's important to remember that we want to remove the barriers to learning that students may be experiencing.
  
  
  • If you decide to use a traditional exam, consider avoiding a timed test to reduce student anxiety OR consider how much time to plan to allow for situations such as being dropped unexpectedly from the internet.
  • Consider shorter (and possibly more frequent) quizzes.
  • Be flexible during exams; keep in mind students might have limited access to technology or the Internet, and lengthy exams could cause additional stress for the students, who will be assessed online for ALL of their classes.
  • Some academic honesty tools include the  Respondus lockdown browser, TurnItIn originality checker for papers, and the use of random question test banks.
    
    
• There are a lot of alternatives to traditional exams that can bring authenticity to the assessment process.
  
  
  • Students can present knowledge visually or verbally through a Webex meeting or a recorded presentation using Kaltura
  • Students can prepare a narrated PowerPoint to demonstrate their understanding.
  • Students can submit papers and reflections as in a face-to-face class.
  • Discussions can promote student support and idea sharing, but also be used for assessment.  Some ideas:
    
    • Require students to ask original questions of their classmates in the discussion.
    • Frame discussions at higher levels of learning than just summarizing readings or videos.
    • Require meaningful responses to follow-up questions by you or other students.
    • Require students to summarize the trends in an overall discussion for their formal grade.

For more assessment ideas and strategies, please see the Assessment Tips for Alternative Teaching Handout.