 |
| Image by reneebigelow from Pixabay |
The two are not mutually exclusive, of course.
The advice below is based on these conversations.
Be respectful of student constraints and flexible in finding solutions that work for all of you.
- Some live in places with spotty wifi.
- Some are not be able to drive to campus to use the parking lots.
- Some do not have laptops.
- Some do not have webcams.
- Some do not have data plans that would permit them to call in to weekly meetings.
- The Office of Accessibility Resources website has ideas to make your course accessible for students.
If synchronous meetings are part of the course, be compassionate about schedules.
- Don't require attendance at those meetings. Students are now in different time zones, working different shifts, working different jobs, and taking care of children and family.
- They can't always log in at the time they were available before we went online. Record those meetings. Students do want to see what happened when they can't join the live meeting.
Make things as easy as possible.
- Post grades in D2L Brightspace so they can find them easily.
- "Release" the final grade calculation in D2L Brightspace so it becomes visible to students. They can monitor their overall performance as the course progresses and make an informed decision about changing to P/NC.
- Scale things down to fit the "short course" format. Focus on the learning objectives, not the amount of work originally planned for the course.
- Please don't try to squeeze the work of 8 weeks into 6.
- Advertise your 10 weekly office hours in your email signature, in your D2L course, and anywhere else you can think of.
- Make scheduling appointments easy. MavConnect works for current students and advisees, but Microsoft Booking (within Office 365) lets anyone book an appointment on your calendar.
- Create a regular communication schedule. We are all receiving a lot more email now than we used to and it's easy for messages to get lost in the shuffle. Establish a routine that lets students know when they to look for your messages.
Trust them.
- Don't require them to have a camera on while taking exams if other solutions can do the job. Feeling like they are under observation increases test anxiety.
- Don't require them to keep the camera on the entire time. For a variety of reasons*, they may not want others to see where they live.
Respect "passing times" between classes.
Although students do not have to walk from one class to another, that 10-15 minute break gives everyone a chance to go to the restroom, wrap up their notes, get ready for the next class, and stretch their muscles. (Bonus: We get to do all of that, too.)Faculty responded well to the need for emergency remote instruction, but if social distancing continues into the fall semester, please seek help with designing courses using best practices for online education.
The Purple Standard for Online Course Design is a set of research-based best practices to help you build a great learning experience. Online Instructors can develop their own Pedagogical Competencies, Technical Competencies, and Administrative Competencies.*A Reminder of Who is Hurt by Insisting That Students Share Images of Their Personal Lives