Topic: First-Year Learnings by Hybrid/Online Instructors, May 6, 2015
Topics
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Practical Tips for Online/Hybrid Teaching |
Course Design and Course Site Development
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Design the learning so that it is distributed in location and time. Remind students it is not self-paced in nature.
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Use learning outcomes as foundation for the course design. Think about how the outcomes can be interpreted on a topic or unit level or weekly timeline.
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Plan for contingencies around student personal emergencies so that students know how to deal with late or missed work.
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Use Sakai formatting for text content. Microsoft Word formatting is inherited when text is copied/pasted into Sakai.
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Create an intensive week schedule that includes interactivity and community building, in addition to instruction (lecture) time.
- Ask students for suggestions on how to improve the course.
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Discussions |
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Forum discussions through posts and replies can be either required or optional, or graded via a rubric or ungraded, depending on the roster size, the desired learning outcomes, and number of teaching assistants, if any.
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Form student teams to help structure the conversations: whose post to read, when to reply, or to define the number of required replies.
- (See other attachment for more about Andy’s conversation model.)
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Readings and Assignments |
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Use different criteria for selecting readings for online/hybrid courses, i.e. type of reading, frequency of assigned reading, number of pages.
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Communicate pre-course assignments with sufficient lead time.
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Orient students to the readings (as scaffolding) to help move them toward understanding.
- Provide options in the types of student submissions, such as videos, narrated slides, or text. Also, consider the implications on institutional assessment.
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Communication |
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Communicate clearly what is expected of students around active participation, deadlines, and graded assignments.
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Determine what is expected of teaching assistants around moderating discussions, tracking of student participation, and grading.
- Communicate to students whom to contact and how to request technical support, depending on the type of issue.
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Use of Video/Media Gallery in Sakai |
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Build social presence in a course through video-based lectures and assessment. The medium of video allows students to have a greater sense of instructors as real and relatable.
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Use the integrated webcam recording feature in Media Gallery to record videos on the fly and without the need to use another software or process.
- Technology can fail, so have a back-up plan.
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Zoom Videoconferencing |
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Use Zoom for periodic check ins, especially as major deadlines are approaching and when done in both small and large groups.
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Use Zoom for weekly “embodied,” synchronous (real time) instruction, which can be recorded for later viewing.
- Students live in different time zones. Consider this when scheduling synchronous meetings.
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Attachments:
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Notes and Tips (table above), by Israel Valenzuela (pdf)
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Faculty Peer Training, from Andy Dreitcer (pdf)