Remote Teaching Notes from LEARN and LTC
Campus Instructors,
We hope that during the last few weeks you took some time to relax and found ways to refresh your energy and your outlook. As you transition back to teaching, we encourage you to connect with your students in as many ways as possible but also continue to find time to connect with your family and friends. Here are some mental health tips that you may find useful.
Building Resources
LEARN and LTC would like to kick off a weekly webinar series called “Teaching Talk” where we’ll share some quick tips around emerging topics and facilitate a conversation where instructors can reflect on their remote teaching, share challenges, and exchange ideas. Each week — or “episode” — will be recorded and added to the Teaching Remotely website for those who may not be able to participate and would like to watch it at a later time. Mark your calendars to join us for Teaching Talk – Episode 1: First Week of Alternative Delivery on Friday, April 3, from 1-2 p.m. here: https://uww.webex.com/meet/webern
We are also exploring ways to use our campus tools to create a community of practice where instructors can share challenges and ideas asynchronously. More on this soon!
Inquiries and Tips
This week our offices have fielded many inquiries on how to use Canvas to support teaching and learning, how to teach concepts through video, how to connect with students synchronously (e.g., virtual office hours, small group sessions, and larger class sessions), and transitioning activities to the online environment. Here’s some related quick tips:
- Don’t forget to publish your Canvas course site when you’re ready so that students can see it! For more help on Canvas, please see our Teaching Remotely website.
- You may be wondering about how you can create a short video to greet your class or teach a concept. Remember to keep videos short to keep student attention and check out our Creating Lectures for Remote Teaching help document to get started!
- If you’re planning to use Webex Meetings for meeting synchronously with your class, make a plan for how you might be flexible with students who may be experiencing internet or availability issues. A good option is to use the recording feature. If you choose to record sessions, remember to let students know that they will be recorded and give them a chance to not be on camera if they have privacy concerns. Also, remember that Webex Meetings has a new Automatic Transcription feature!
- Thinking about a way for students to share their thoughts or projects? You can do this by having them post a quick video to the Canvas discussion area!
- If you have not yet done so, consider surveying your students about their internet access, technology resources, and preferences. Here is a brief Google form survey that you could copy and use with your class. You could also run your survey through Canvas by creating an ungraded survey within the “quizzes” feature.
Remember — the LTC and LEARN are here to help!
The LTC is available to help you transition things you may have done face-to-face to alternate delivery, as well as help you with our different technology tools that support remote teaching and learning. The LTC is available Monday–Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. via phone (262-472-1004), email (ltc@uww.edu), and Webex. To request a Webex consultation, you may email or call the LTC and the next available team member will be in touch to schedule a time that works for you. You can also visit http://go.uww.edu/ltc-workshop-signup for the most up-to-date list of training sessions!
The LEARN Center is also available to discuss options and new ideas for activities or assessments via email (learn@uww.edu). You can also reach the LEARN Center via phone (262-472-5134) or Webex by appointment. To set up a call or conference time, please email learn@uww.edu.
Best,
Heather Pelzel (LEARN Center Director)
Nicole Weber (Director of Learning Technology)