In the event of a campus closure, instructors may be called upon to teach remotely. To keep students progressing toward the course learning outcomes during a disruption, faculty can create a combination of activities that are delivered online. The following guidelines will help you transition your content to the online modality.
Before you transition your course materials for remote instruction, please consider the following general principles:
Establish and post a routine communication plan with students (best way to contact instructor, online office hours, faculty response time). Consistency helps in times of disruption. Utilize Canvas announcements, the Canvas inbox, live chat, online office hours as well as phone and/or email. Make sure you update the syllabus with this information.
Just like you, your students did not anticipate participating in an online course. They may not have access to all technologies that facilitate all online activities: e.g. high-speed internet, computer, webcam and microphone. Design your course with mobile in mind. The provided checklist (link to checklist) uses mobile design.
Keep students moving toward course outcomes, even if you need to adjust the specific activities that contribute to those outcomes.
Focus on delivering the most significant course activities that impact learning outcomes.
We recommend Sunday night at 11:59 pm. Students who are now stay-at-home parents will need help from others to get everything done, and that help is more likely to arrive on a weekend. Consistency in due dates reduces confusion and allows students to plan ahead.
Synchronous activities require immediate participation and provide immediate feedback. Asynchronous activities can be completed at different time intervals and have delayed feedback (e.g. consider replacing an in-person discussion with an online graded discussion). The key is to confirm the activity is still aligned with the outcomes.
Synchronous courses that require students to have real time interaction with instructors and classmates can present access barriers for students with a variety of disabilities. Recording lectures and making them available on Canvas for students to review, can alleviate most of these barriers. Allowing students to re-watch lectures when necessary also benefits students who experience technical difficulties or are otherwise interrupted during the original presentation. Designing classes in a way that anticipate and eliminates barriers increases the opportunity for all students to be successful.
Give a practice quiz to help students become familiar with the technology before assigning a graded quiz.
Take advantage of CWU Libraries’ digital resources and streaming media collections in lieu of live instruction. It is best if you embed journal articles directly into Canvas instead of uploading scanned copies.
Changes to course modality or class cancellation should come at the direction of your academic department, university center, or the office of the President. Consult with your department chair or dean for more information.
If instructors are called upon to teach remotely, they all will have access to Canvas, the CWU Learning Management Platform. A learning management platform provides a place where faculty can share course documents, assignments and syllabi with the students registered in the course. At CWU most courses have a Canvas component.
Reminder: Use CWU licensed platforms for teaching, learning and communicating to maintain security and FERPA compliance.
Many students will be accessing your course via their mobile device because they do not have access to other technology. Students can login to Canvas via the web browser on their phone or tablet or utilize the Canvas Student App. However, mobile browsers are not fully supported, and features may not function as expected compared to viewing Canvas in a fully supported desktop browser.
Below are options for moving your assessments online. If your assessment cannot be facilitated online, please discuss the options with your Department Chair or Dean.
General Questions
Canvas, online assessments and grading, Instructional design
Lecture capture, audio/video recordings, Panopto, web conferencing
Streaming media & library resources
Complete the checklist below to create an organized, accessible and mobile-friendly Canvas course. Download the checklist.
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