Best Practices for Teaching Remotely

Transparency as a Policy

Establish Your Presence Early

Create a video to expand upon the course and what students to expect in your class. Use an Introductory Module as a place to set expectations, relay information on the syllabus, and share resources students will need to use to complete the course. Post announcements and participate in discussions. 

Use transparency to pull back the curtain on the hidden curriculum. Be exceptionally clear about how you expect your students to engage with course materials, fellow students, and you in your class. Provide context for activity and assignments, including why students are learning particular content, as well as why the particular activity and assessment serves their learning.

Clear Expectations

Take an opportunity to allow your students to orient themselves to your course. Describe how much effort you expect from the students on discussion posts, assignments, reading, and so on. Describe the tools they need to complete various assignments. Describe for students what “good work” looks like in your course. Break learning in to smaller, manageable chunks and establish a pattern of activity and due dates.

Learning Objectives

Alignment Matters! Be sure that your course content aligns with objectives and assessments. In an online setting, it is absolutely acceptable to offer more frequent, low-stakes assessments. Aligning these assessments with course module outcomes provides a clear pathway to student learning. Any extra content offered that does not directly support learning objectives can be included in an additional resources area, or left out completely.

Communication

Establish a consistent schedule for communication and feedback.

Work with students to establish norms for communication in your course, including frequency and methods. Use this communication to reinforce materials, concepts, and skills.

Provide timely feedback using various methods – text, audio, and video – so that students can apply this feedback to their coursework.

Provide students with opportunities to interact with peers and instructors both synchronously and asynchronously through Zoom break out rooms, synchronous meetings outside of class, and discussion boards.

Establish Your Learning Community

Connect Early with Your Students

Create a connection with your students early on by including an introduction video of yourself in your Canvas course. Make the video more about who you are and not just what to expect in your class. Add in your pronouns and discuss how you plan to connect with each other even being in a remote setting. In turn, ask your students to post introductory videos or statements on a discussion board. 

Make Expectations and Standards Clear

It's important during this time to be exceptionally clear about how you expect your students to participate in your class. Empower your students as members of your course community to develop standards and expectations for learning in the course. This helps students feel like have “ownership” and a larger stake in the course.

Monitor Student Progress & Conduct Welfare/Learning Checks

Check in on your students. Canvas allows you to look at each students' activity in your course. Are the logging in? Are they participating and completing assignments? Are their completed assignments indicative of content mastery?

Another way to reach out is by using surveys. Ask students what is going well and what isn't. Ask if they're struggling and if so, what type of support do they need? Finally, you could develop an email template to send to students at important milestones in the course.

 

Adaptability

Both students and teachers alike are finding themselves in new educational situations this semester. We have a responsibility to students to create learning experiences that can adapt to various needs that may arise, and we may need flexibility ourselves. Consider how you might implement the following in your course:

Flexible Deadlines

Create assignments that allow you to offer flexibility to students on when they can submit assignments.

Module Based Schedule

Configure your course schedule and structure using Canvas modules that reflect your delivery format. Chunk content, assignments, and experiences around themes that work coherently.

Pedagogy-Driven Tech Adoption

Avoid adopting technology solutions that are only focused on surveillance or efficiency. Choose technology that enhances the content and delivery of your course, and addresses the needs of all learners.