Preparing to Teach Remotely

Preparing for a remote semester

If you need to teach remotely, your students will first need to know where to go online to find information about what they need to be doing for class. Typically, they will expect to find this on the campus LMS (for the time being, Moodle, Blackboard, or Canvas) or a standalone web site.  Make sure that they know what system you are using, or otherwise have access to a URL that will take them to the right place. 

What to include on your class site before the class begins

Class sites can be made public any time. Classes in the LMS are made visible to students the week before classes begin for "Preview Week". Make sure your course site includes the following at the top of the first page: 

• a link to your syllabus (in PDF or other accessible format) 
• a clear statement on any attendance requirements and what students should do if they miss class due to quarantine or caregiving.  
• a clear method for contacting you if students have questions (email, Zoom room, office hours) 
• descriptions and links (if ready) to any other tools you will be using in the class, such as Zoom, Google Docs, Echo360, Teams, or Flipgrid.

You should also prepare to hide anything that will not be ready in time for previews. Content can be easily hidden in the LMS, and then revealed when ready. 

Addressing Uncertainty and Providing Structure

When students need to be remote due to a local or global disruption, the best approach is to help them focus on how they can meet the essential objectives for a course synchronously, asynchronously, in-person, or remote. Keeping in mind that many people are still dealing with personal, local, national, and international emergencies. A well-designed, fully-online course takes more than a few months to prepare even in the best circumstances, so if you need to make the change to remote teaching quickly, be gentle with yourself and your students. The recommendations on this page are suggestions, do what you can within your own emotional and practical means.  

Steps to take when preparing to teach remotely 

First, Provide stability and structure 

Create a Moodle class that serves as the hub for your class with contact info and links to important tools and resources. Review your syllabus and revise as needed to allow for flexible remote and/or face-to-face formats. Plan out communications for the semester so that you are regularly sending updates to students and they know what to expect. 

Second, Promote online social connections 

People learning remotely need social connections with instructors and classmates. There are many communities that are online and robust, even though their members may never have met in person. Creating spaces in Moodle (or other online platforms) where students can communicate casually will help build a more cohesive community, even if in-person meetings are still on hold.

Third: Make clear connections between learning objectives and course activities

The learning objectives in your syllabus should be clearly expressed and measurable. Make sure that when students start an activity, there is a clear description of how it links to the objectives for the course and future applications outside the course. If a student is unable to complete an activity as described (because of technical or personal issues), provide a clear alternative that is also an acceptable way to meet that objective. 

For a self-guided workshop on preparing to teach remotely, consider this choice board: Preparing for Remote and Online Teaching (designed by Torrey Trust and Fred Zinn). 

Specific areas to consider when adapting your course to go fully or partially remote: 

• Facilitating Communication: Make sure your contact information and plans for remote learning are listed in a block at the top of your Moodle class. Set up an open Moodle discussion board where students can ask questions about the course and stay connected to each other. Consider recording a short casual video for students expressing support and outlining your plans if individuals, or the entire class, needs to "go remote" for a period of time.
• Course Materials: Confirm that all readings and resources are available online by uploading files or adding links to your Moodle site. If you only have paper versions, check the library for digital versions, or use the copiers in Furcolo to scan digital versions.
• Lectures: Consider how content that was going to be delivered during class as a lecture can be delivered remotely via live broadcast (Zoom) or as recordings. Before recording your own lectures, check online to see if there are videos or podcasts online that cover similar content. If you are already comfortable recording and posting videos, consider making a brief video expressing your support for students, or introducing some lighter moments (e.g., many instructors in 2020 recorded introductions to their pets as well as introductions to the course content.)
• In-Class Discussions: For each reading or course topic, remind yourself of the key themes on which you want your students to reflect. Using discussion boards in Moodle can be an effective approach as long as you consider that online "discussions" as casual writing exercises. Live sessions (via Zoom) can replicate the give and take of an in-person class in a small class, or by breaking a large class into groups. Since going remote in 2020, we've seen Zoom participants be more reluctant to speak up on camera, so using more structure (calling on speakers, setting a sequence of speakers) or text chat can help break the ice.
• Assignments: Determine which assignments are relatively simple to complete remotely (e.g., a lit review.) You can have students pair up to support each other and review each other’s work either via email or assigning groups in Moodle. Consider making deadlines more flexible in case students face unexpected disruptions and need more time to complete work.
• Assessments: If you have high-stakes quizzes or exams, consider adjusting them to allow for open-book assessment. If you are tempted to implement some form of proctoring or surveillance to ensure "academic integrity" please talk to us about alternatives. Surveillance tools and techniques are more effective at harming struggling students than they are at catching students with nefarious intent. (See Resisting Surveillance Pedagogies for more information.)
• In-Class Activities: Review the essential skills that you want students to learn and practice. Some may be able to be duplicated in an online platform. Others may involve students keeping a journal or videotaping themselves performing a task and submitting this for review and feedback.  
• Accessibility: Remember that all students will be under a lot of stress adapting to these disruptions. This can be especially disorienting for students with disabilities. Be flexible and as accommodating as possible. We are available to help discuss accommodations and universal designs for learning activities.  

If you find yourself stumped on how to replicate an essential teaching or learning activity remotely, we are happy to help you brainstorm and design a reasonable replacement.

Additional readings about teaching remotely

The Provost's Office provides a simple, straightforward approach on their Disruption-Resilient Instruction page. Including essential links to documentation for Moodle, Blackboard, and Zoom.

Torrey Trust gives excellent instructional advice this slide deck: “Teaching Remotely in Times of Need”. Including an overview of many tools that can support a variety of instructional objectives.  

Rebecca Barrett-Fox, Arkansas State University, outlines some common sense advice to keep things simple during periods of emergency remote teaching in "Please do a bad job of putting your courses online"

Technologies that support remote teaching and learning