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Studio-based Remote Teaching
Studio-based courses are about the process of observing, creating, critiquing, and refining over time. Students learn techniques and process, attempt them, compare what they have created to criteria, intent, or other works, and then refine or iterate. The 4 key elements for a studio-course include: Observing a demonstration of a process or the creation of a product Performing a process or create a product using appropriate materials or space Comparing, critiquing, or observing drafts and final products Refining, iterating, and revising to improve skills and observation Observing and Performing a Process Would you typically be present to observe students’ create some artifact of their learning and is this process an…
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Online Sharing Circle
Technology is excellent at allowing us to work remotely, but it can be more challenging for building community or keeping a community strong. Technology’s strength is for communication and is not as robust for building connection, especially with larger groups. Purpose The goal is to create the ‘lunchroom’ experience where people share and ground themselves within their respective working group/community. We believe that this type of opportunity will contribute to the art of kiyokiwin, coping with the social isolation, allowing people to raise topics outside of work priorities, better understanding of each other, and so much more. Online sharing circles could be used by instructors to facilitate “courageous curiosity” with…
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Field Work in the Classroom – Remote Context
Field work is important to your course because it provides a way for students to meet experiential outcomes, build a professional identity, feel engaged in their learning, and can help students retain knowledge and understanding. Some programs may rely on fieldwork for attracting new students and for maintaining outreach with community partners. Can students meet experiential outcomes this semester in a remote context, independently? Do students need this outcome to meet the course objectives? Take Inventory of what you already have. How might students build a professional identify outside of the fieldwork context? How might we engage students with their profession to build knowledge and understanding, outside of fieldwork? In…
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Offering Seminar Courses Remotely
A good seminar is all about students thinking critically and deeply about ideas, and then building on the ideas of others. Face to face (F2F), that looks like a small group of students in discussion, lead by an instructor, TA, or even by another student or groups of students. In an online environment, seminars will work best if they occur asynchronously in the discussion boards in an LMS (Canvas). If the group is small enough (think about a dozen students), some type of synchronous tool, like Zoom, can allow students to talk to each other at the same time. The 4 key elements for a seminar that need to be…
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Making the Most of Synchronous Lectures
Synchronous lectures are likely to seem awkward for the first while, but by following the suggestions below you’ll be making the most of your time together and building a community of learners. Synchronous lectures mean that you and students are “together” using an online platform or tool in real time. When you choose to teach in real time, you are deciding that a schedule will be set, you will teach at that time, and students will attend at that time. Students will need to ensure that their schedules are free and they have the necessary hardware (e.g., computer, mic, webcam) and a fast enough internet connection. The supported tool for…
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Simple Strategies to Elevate your Asynchronous Delivery
By now you are probably familiar with the concept of asynchronous remote learning. If not, asynchronous learning means you and students are not limited by timing. You are deciding that students can engage with the material on their schedule, at times, and places when they may have better bandwidth and other kinds of capacity. As you can imagine, asynchronous learning can be of varying quality; therefore, here are some tips and ideas to keep in mind to help make the most of your asynchronous design. One important way to make the most of your asynchronous learning is to finalize the learning materials (e.g., creation of lecture videos, suggested readings, discussion…
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Identifying Placements that work for Remote Learning
Your “placement” may be a practicum course or may be work-place or community-based learning experiences built into a course. In either the longer or shorter duration, these opportunities are valued by students as a means to improve skills and refine understanding by practicing and receiving feedback in a professional setting. Also, students appreciate the chance to build their networks and resumes for their future careers. Availability of placement partners? In the remote context, we know that our usual partners may find themselves less able to take students on. Even if they want a student, they may also need to reduce the number of people in their physical settings. You may…
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Preparing and Supporting Students in Remote-context Placements
You already know how much your students value the learning opportunities that happen sometimes and are called the “real-world.” Our approaches to this need to be different in the remote context, but there are opportunities for expanded student learning too. After all, skills for remote working and use of online tools for collaboration and communication are transferrable as 21st century skills regardless. How may individual student situations vary? Reach out to your students involved in your practicum or community-based learning course. Individual situations may vary and affect options in ways you don’t expect. Many students may not move to Saskatoon this fall and it will be useful to know what…
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Three Ways of Delivering Remote Learning
Making some preliminary decisions about the direction of your remote course can help you focus in face of a sometimes overwhelming number of technological options and educational jargon. Here are three ways of delivering remote learning to contemplate before you go too far down any one path. Prior to locking yourself into a method, you should keep in mind that your students may face some constraints or limitations for synchronous learning (e.g., bandwidth, webcams, a suitable space to participate in the call). Check in with your students about any such restrictions. Will you meet virtually with your students at a scheduled time for teaching and learning? “Synchronous” means you and…
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Lecture Videos: Keep them short
You can use Panopto to record your lectures with slides, with audio, so that students can hear you, and with video, so that students can see you while you speak. That system has lots and lots to offer. Note the links at the bottom of this post to get to extensive training resources. To get started, you should break your previously prepared lectures into smaller sections (5-7 minutes) to record them that way. Here is why: Most important when you are getting started: if you have to, it’s quicker to re-record a 5-7 minute video than a 60-90 minute video. In the future, you are more likely to make use…