Resilient Teaching and Learning » Starting the Semester Online

Considerations for starting the fall semester fully online

Due to Covid-19, we have the opportunity to start our semester fully online. Below are resources that can help you during your planning for the start of a successful. The most important part about having a great start is to relax and have fun. If you’re having fun, your students will have fun, be engaged, and learn.

Please visit each of the following steps for additional information.

Selecting the delivery model that best suits your teaching

	Opportunities:	Considerations
Synchronous for the instructor, Less work up front, more work during the semester.	It’s more like a traditional class in that you see all your students and can have real-time conversations. Can use Zoom breakout rooms to do group work and group discussions as you would in a traditional classroom.	Students without access to reliable (or no) home internet may not be able to participate fully or at all. Students must attend class at a specific time. Since we start later, they may decide to keep summer jobs which could conflict.
Asynchronous for the instructor, more work up front, less work during the semester.	Students can participate in class on their own schedule (any place, any time). Students with unreliable internet access at home are less affected when watching videos or reading online than when participating in a live video session.	Students often feel like they are “teaching themselves” or are alone in their learning, so faculty need to plan ways to prevent this through communication and collaboration.

Adding engagement to your online teaching

Synchronous:	Asynchronous:
Do small group work using the breakout rooms in Zoom. Do think-pair-shares using the private chat with your partner. Bring them all together to tell the class what you discussed. Do polling using the Zoom polls or the non-verbal communication icons. Extend the conversation outside of class using the OAKS discussion board or activity feed. Add easter eggs (messages or items hidden in content/syllabi/etc for the students to find) to your online OAKS content. Consider recording all synchronous sessions for those who couldn’t attend. Measure student engagement instead of taking attendance	Do small group work using the breakout rooms in Zoom. Create discussions using the OAKS discussion board. Add easter eggs (messages or items hidden in content/syllabi/etc for the students to find) to your online OAKS content. Make sure to put your personality into your course via video lectures or short videos introducing each week.

Creating Lectures

Synchronous:	Asynchronous:
Include pauses for questions within your lecture. Students may be uncomfortable interrupting. Be sure your presentations have a large font so they can be easily read.	Chunk your content into manageable sections that are 15 min. or less. Include questions within the video that the student needs to answer to encourage reflection and to show they watched the lecture. Use guided notes to keep the students on track when watching the lectures. Make sure they are accessible.

Communicate Early and Often

Students want to be in contact with their faculty members so it’s incredibly important that you stay in contact with them, especially in an asynchronous class.

Create weekly OAKS Announcements that are encouraging
Email students that aren’t participating fully or aren’t accessing your OAKS class to encourage them to participate
Office regular office hours via Zoom so students can talk to you about problems or concerns

Build Community from the Start

Do an online community building activity such as an online escape room to really get the students involved in one another.
If doing introductions, make it about them as a person. Learn about pets, where they’re from, what they want from their future. Let them get to know you as a person, not just as a professor.
Consider using FlipGrid for your introductions so students can meet you and one another.

Set Expectations

Be very clear in your syllabus about your expectations of your students during the first three weeks and beyond. Remind them it’s a changing environment and they need to be flexible.

How often should they log in per week?
How much time should they spend per week?
How many absences can they have?
If they are absent can they watch recorded sessions? If so, where will they be?
Where can they get Tech Help?
What does success look like in your class and how can they achieve it?
Include your communication parameters and preference, ex. I prefer email communication and I will respond within 24 hour (but not on the weekend).
Create a syllabus quiz that they can take multiple times to ensure they have read and understand the syllabus.

Exclamation

Please don’t forget that you need a Plan B in case you or some of your students are quarantined. Also don’t forget that the last week of the semester, and the final exam, will be fully online, so plan accordingly.