• Revisit your Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) and think flexibly about how to achieve the outcomes. If you’re feeling anxious about the quick transition to online delivery, start your planning by looking back at your SLOs. In most cases, you will be able to guide students to achieving these outcomes—even if you may not be using the exact assignments or teaching strategies you originally planned to use. Keeping the outcomes at the core of your transition planning will help you consider the kinds of changes you might need to make.

• Review your syllabus, course materials, and policies to determine what needs to change. As much as possible, set reasonable, flexible expectations. Lay everything out clearly in your syllabus and assignment sheets, and use Blackboard Announcements, email, or other digital means to communicate your updated plans.
  • Consider hosting your syllabus/daily schedule on Google Drive so students can see changes as you make them. (Here’s an example.) (Be sure to include a link to these kinds of items on Blackboard for accessibility.)
  • Consider using this form to guide your thinking and planning for the course.
  • You may need to consider Open Educational Resources for students who left their textbooks in their dorms. Redshelf and VitalSource are offering free ebooks, and OER Commons is a great site for open educational resources.

• Communicate with students as soon as possible. Once you have a plan in place for any immediate changes—such as an extended deadline or announcement about how a class will be made up—clearly announce your expectations to students.
  • Highlight important changes to the syllabus, including deadline changes—and be sure your syllabus is posted on Blackboard. Using Blackboard as a central meeting point is key. Make sure all information is available there, including your Zoom Meeting ID.
  • The Blackboard Announcements function is particularly helpful for updating students. See the support page for details on how to post announcements, collect assignments, and more.
  • Let students know how soon they should expect a reply from you.

• Keep it Simple. This is a quick transition, and it is more important to establish community and communicate with students than it is to try and learn 5 new technologies right now.
  • Use this excellent resource to think about how to keep it simple while going remote.

• Communicating with Students
  • Manage your time by collecting frequently asked questions and posting them to the Blackboard Announcements page so all students can see your response.
  • Consider holding Zoom open office hours, especially at the beginning of the transition, to make sure students feel supported.
  • Keep communications mobile-friendly. Many students may only have their phones to work from, so try to use mobile-friendly file formats. PDFs are typically the most mobile-friendly for email attachments. You can easily turn a Powerpoint into a PDF, for example, and shrink the size of PDFs.

• Holding Class
  • To replace a traditional lecture asynchronously, you can record a narrated presentation on Zoom or Kaltura. Try to think about how to make the videos shorter and more engaging for an online audience.
  • You can hold class synchronously via Zoom. The University Zoom Support Page has videos and resources for how to use the various features of Zoom. This resource is an entire primer for using Zoom as a Classroom.
    • Here are some tips you can give your students in advance of a live Zoom session so they are prepared to participate.
    • If you’re holding a synchronous class via Zoom, record the lecture for students who may be absent.

• Engaging Students
  • To really engage students in conversations, create video breakout rooms in Zoom! These instructions show how to pre-assign Zoom Breakout Rooms.
  • If you’re tech savvy, try some survey or polling tools. Or try a tool like Flipgrid for boosting social learning through video discussions.
  • Break your planned lectures into shorter, 5-6 minute videos that students can view asynchronously.
  • Did you recently cancel a guest speaker? Consider sending them a Zoom link to participate in class instead.

• Considering Accessibility
  • View University of New Haven instructions for Assisting Students with Learning/Exam Accommodations
  • Carefully consider accessibility. If students have challenges related to WiFi access, encourage them to fill out the technology readiness survey.
  • Also have a plan for how you will support students with accommodations. Email the Accessibility Resource Center at AccessibilityResCtr@newhaven.edu if you have questions.
  • Scroll to page 2 of this document to view instructions for “Assisting Students with Learning/Exam Accommodations.”
  • When using sources like YouTube videos, choose videos with closed captioning.

• Establishing (or Re-Establishing) Community
  • It is important for students to interact with one another and to also regularly feel your presence in your online course. There are a variety of approaches to try out:
    • Discussion forums (Here’s how to create a forum in Blackboard.)
    • Peer review (Try PeerMark in TurnItIn)
    • Small group conferencing with or without the instructor via Zoom
    • Chat in Microsoft Teams
    • Virtual office hours in Zoom

• Assessing Student Work
  • You will first want to consider if you need to change any scheduled assessments to make them more online-friendly. You can turn a paper test into an online test. You can use blogs, journals, and wikis to assess students’ learning and progress. See these videos for help.
  • Try your best to offer frequent and timely feedback, keeping in mind that feedback is a tool to help students learn.
    • • Kaltura is excellent and easy for creating a screen capture as you give a student feedback on his or her work.
      • When you create a regular assignment in Blackboard, commenting on students’ submissions is as easy as click-and-type.

• (Virtually) Visiting the Library
  • The library has a variety of resources for faculty and students, including their “Chat with a Librarian” service; “Library Help” email service; “Zoom Reference” service; and remote “Research Consultation” service. They also have a 24/7 “Ask a Librarian” service in place. Visit their MyCharger page for more information.

• Creating Online Assignments
  •  See these University of New Haven tips for Administering Online Exams and Quizzes via Blackboard.
  • Also see these Blackboard resources for learning how to create tests and quizzes.
  • You can also attend live help sessions hosted by University faculty and staff.

• Addressing Diversity and Inclusion Issues
  • See these best practices for maintaining equity and inclusion in remote learning from the Myatt Center for Diversity & Inclusion

• Exam Creation & Administration – This document describes best practices for administering online exams and quizzes through Blackboard.
• Respondus – The university has adopted two tools from Respondus that help promote academic integrity during online assessments. To use the Respondus Lockdown Brower or Monitor, read Getting Started with Respondus. Also check out these Respondus FAQs.
• Academic Integrity – These best practices for maintaining academic integrity in online environments were prepared by the University of New Haven’s Dean of Student’s Office.
• Accessibility – This document includes best practices for assisting students with learning/exam accommodations.

1. 1. WeVideo – Video editor with free 30-day trial for teachers.
   2. Zeeting – Presentation tool that includes interactive surveys and polls for audience members.
   3. Poll Everywhere – Remote audience engagement tool.
   4. Peergrade – Facilitates online feedback sessions with students.
   5. Perusall – Allows social annotation of texts.
   6. Flipgrid – For video-based discussion forums.
   7. Thinglink – The free version allows you to create interactive images.
   8. Genially – Presentation tool that also allows you to create games and infographics.
   9. Kahoot – An app for creating learning games.
   10. Anchor – Free podcast creation tool.

“Going Online in a Hurry: What to do and Where to Start,” Chronicle of Higher Education – A great resource for critical questions you’ll want to ask yourself as you start planning your transition to remote teaching.

Keep Teaching: Resources for Higher Ed – An online community for faculty across the country to share resources and ideas, and ask questions about teaching remotely.

Education Companies offering Free Subscriptions due to School Closings – An extensive list of educational companies that are currently offering their services for free.

Building a Community of Learning – Provides a variety of links to resources on topics such as feedback, accommodating for diversity and inclusion, building a teaching persona—all in the context of online teaching.

Blackboard Webinars – Blackboard Is offering free training webinars for instructors from March 17 through April 2.

Quality Matters Checklist – A remote instruction checklist with actionable strategies, tips, and considerations.

Google for Education – Google has lessons your students can take, such as how to prepare a resume, how to evaluate the credibility of online sources, and more.

Course Progress Checklist – This checklist created by Claire Glynn can be distributed to your students to help them track their progress in each course and stay organized.

Open Educational Resources curated for University of New Haven faculty 

Sharing a resource re: supporting faculty learning about teaching with tech, we offered a free public webinar series on the basics of online student engagement, trauma-informed teaching & learning online, inclusive online teaching, and a panel of instructors who have experience teaching in both physical and online classrooms, and the recordings & materials are freely available here: https://bit.ly/CSSW_WebinarSeries_TransitioningOnline

• Responding to Novel Coronavirus: A Faculty Triage Guide for Decision Making

• Teaching Continuity & Creating Community

• Coffee and Course Continuity Discussion: Fast Feedback (will take a moment to load)

• Topic: Coffee and Course Continuity Conversations (3) – Coping with the stress of this remote teaching environment (will take a moment to load)

• Beyond Powerpoint (will take a moment to load)

• Coffee and Course Continuity Conversations: Exams and Presentations  (will take a moment to load)