Remote Learning: The Basics

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You’ve survived the first couple days of teaching remotely because of COVID-19 – congratulations! 

We’re going to use this post to take a pause and review some of the methods that are most helpful for transitioning online. These are the things that will make your course functional. Your course will survive. And later in this transitioning online series, we’ll be covering items that will slowly take you from surviving to thriving. 

But for now, we’re starting small. If you haven’t checked out the Getting Started with Remote Learning course in Canvas, please do so. We walk through these tips plus best practices, FAQs, and ways to get help with your course or technology. 

Communicate with students through Canvas Announcements. 

This is a confusing and stressful time for pretty much everyone involved. Lower students’ stress levels by communicating proactively. Use Canvas Announcements for these messages to keep all important, class-related content in one place – Canvas. Canvas Announcements are also sent to your students via email or text (depending on their notification settings), so it’s simple for them to stay up-to-date with the information you send. 

Present lecture content

For this item, you’ll be operating similarly to normal – you’ll just be delivering your lecture via technology instead of face-to-face. 

You could use Zoom for synchronous (real-time) meetings. However, we strongly recommend you record your lectures and give students the videos. Since students are not on campus, you don’t know what kind of responsibilities they have at home or what time zone they’re in. A 9 a.m. virtual lecture on the East Coast would be a 6 a.m. lecture on the West Coast or a 5 a.m. lecture in Alaska. Yikes! 

For recording your lectures and posting videos, we recommend using Zoom or Ensemble Anthem. Check out the How Tos & Tools page in the Canvas Getting Started with Remote Learning Course for instructions on how to use both those tools. In addition, we recommend you review Best Practices for Webcam Recording as you prepare to create lectures. 

Moderate discussions

Since we recommend you present your lectures as asynchronous videos, you may be wondering how class discussions can work. 

Canvas provides a simple tool for this: Discussions. Discussions allows you to present content (including lecture videos and written questions) for your students to view and respond to. This tool allows students to post and respond to peers as they’re able. Remember, a student’s schedule at home likely has more distractions and responsibilities than when on campus. If you also post in the forums and participate, it can help create a sense of community. 

Give quizzes or tests

Canvas makes it simple for you to take your quizzes or tests and offer them online. They currently have two different options for the kind of quiz to create, so check out New Quizzes vs Classic Quizzes: Who You Gonna Call? to help you decide which format you want to use. From there, check out the Canvas resources for creating a New Quiz or creating a Classic Quiz. If you want to use proctoring for an exam, check out Using Google Forms for Proctor Registration to walk you through a simple process to collect proctor information. 

This is a lot of information and a big change, but the CTL is here to help you as you navigate this new time. We have many resources included in the Getting Started with Remote Learning course. If you have questions or want to accomplish something that we haven’t discussed in the course, please leave a comment in the Q&A discussion board. 

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