Remote Teaching
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Why You Should Use Modules When Planning Your Course
DOWNLOAD: Planning for Modules Excel Template LINK: Module Checklist Take a look at your course syllabus. What do you want learners to be able to do by the end of the course? Review your learning outcomes and consider these questions: What type of learning activities are needed? What type of assessment activities are needed? How will students practice? How will they receive feedback? How will they demonstrate their abilities (to get a grade)? In standard 13-week term, you would likely have one module every 1-2 weeks. Modules replace thinking about a course in units of time, but instead, as units of content or objectives. Modules can be thought of as…
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Building Community, Remotely
In an online remote context, virtual learning communities (VLCs) allow us to plan for: Interaction Communication Collaboration This video highlights some of the reasons we might want to develop rich VLCs in remote teaching. Below are some strategies framed from instructor competencies. Some strategies for developing interaction: Model participation and practice good nettiquette Use Discussion Forums and participate actively Steer conversations in the right direction Motivate and encourage Create a safe and supportive environment/network Moderate Discussion forum Temper the dominant voices in the forum Set the tone by being positive Encourage and motivate students Use introductions, online office hours and e-mail to promote interaction Incorporate collaborative learning and increased opportunities…
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Teaching Performance-Based Classes Remotely
For those of us who have ever taught courses that require a lot of practicing a skill, this move to remote and online instruction is crushing. It is one thing to record a video of something you’d tell your students and put it up online somewhere for them to access, and another thing to think about a performance based course. When I first taught drama online, I could not see how to do it, as I did not want to lose both the “doing” and the “together” parts of when everyone is learning by themselves at different times. To be honest, I still really prefer teaching drama in a room…
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Leveraging Peer Feedback in an Online Environment
When students take courses in-person, they often find at least one friend in the course with which they discuss the course, the assignments, give feedback to one another, and so on. With the shift to remote delivery, students might have more trouble finding someone to connect with on their own. This post explores how you can introduce peer feedback into your course to ensure that your students have a chance to share their work and receive feedback from peers. In the best cases, they might even form friendships, but another benefit of using peer feedback is that the quality of student work usually increases, which can make your marking much…
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Worried About Take Home Exams and Academic Misconduct?
There is more than one way of looking at the extended time period for open book exams when it comes to academic misconduct worries. You can see 24 hours of unsupervised time with an exam as more time for students to break your rules. Some students may use the time that way and that is deeply frustrating. More encouraging is a view based in research about academic integrity in higher education (for a great review, see the 2013 book referenced below). The basic premise is this: When students are more confident they can do what needs to be done on their own, they are less likely to cheat. Obvious? Perhaps…
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It Helps To Be Transparent About Academic Integrity
You and your students will be out there wondering how fair final assessments can be when everyone is unsupervised. Thankfully, there are some students, that no matter what, will follow the rules and maintain their academic integrity. A small number, will seek to cheat no matter what we do. The group to focus on right now is that large majority that wants the rules to be clear, to be enforced, and for there to be a level playing field for all. The majority of students want to be honest, but at the same time, they do not want to feel at a disadvantage if they are. When students see their…
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The Benefits of Using OER For Remote Teaching
Open Educational Resources (OER) have experienced a growing popularity at the U of S during the past six years, with more than 6,500 students using open textbooks and other OER instead of commercial textbooks. They’re free to use, easy to access, and allow for adaptation to improve student engagement and learning, as well as instructor academic freedom (no commercial publisher telling you what you should teach). With the move of all U of S courses to being offered remotely for at least the spring and summer terms, the use of OER makes a lot of sense, especially with the Bookstore being closed. OER materials are easily accessible for instructors and…
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Tips From Veterans of Remote / Online Teaching
As you prepare to create and teach courses remotely this spring and summer terms, we asked some U of S instructors experienced with this type of teaching to share some quick words of wisdom based on what they learned from their own experiences. Below are their tips related to design, teaching, and assessment for remote / online. Thank you to Jorden Cummings (Psychology), Allison Fairbairn (Music), Hayley Hesseln (Agriculture and Bio Resources), and Karla Panchuk (Geology) for sharing your experiences teaching remote / online courses. Design Keep it as simple as possible. Online learning difficult for many students for diverse reasons, and we cannot assume our students have access to…
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How much help are students getting on their assignments?
You may be concerned with how much feedback or advice students are getting on their assignments or open exams. Below are some options, reasons to try them, and some tools for implementing. Option Reason Helpful tools for this Require an acknowledgement of feedback, guidance or teachings received Respectful of contributions of others Common academic practice as seen in many published papers Truthful An example acknowledgement from a paper you have written, An example where you have been acknowledged; Another example that you find or create that could fit with the assessment Distinguish types of feedback and their acceptability: e.g., proofreading, editing, error correction, peer teaching, conceptual changes… Communicates differences…
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Creating Your Syllabus in The Context of COVID-19
As instructors prepare to teach during the spring and summer terms, one consideration is how to prepare their syllabi in the context of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. The U of S considers course syllabi to be contracts between instructors and students. As such, there are normally significant restrictions on what can be changed in a syllabus once it’s been distributed to students, but as you prepare to teach in the upcoming terms some greater flexibility is needed from all of us. With that in mind, the Office of the University Secretary and Chief Governance Office issued a briefing note stating: University Council, as approved by the Coordinating Committee: “Grants…