Strategies

You may have a lot of questions about how to accomplish face-to-face teaching strategies in an online format. Here are some of the most popular (and simple) tools for teaching online.

Canvas

This is where you'll want to start when moving your class online. The number of tools either built into or accessible in Canvas will help you keep your class moving. All students, instructors, and staff have access to Canvas.

Zoom Meetings

Zoom meetings is an online videoconferencing tool that allows multiple people to join the same meeting and share audio and video with each other. This is a great tool to use for synchronous instruction with your classes. There is also an option to record your synchronous lectures and upload them to Canvas. Zoom will store your video for up to sixty days.

Things you will need for Zoom

• Device with a good internet connection (laptop/desktop, tablet, smartphone)
• Headphones
• Microphone
• Webcam (optional) if you want to keep up face-to-face contact

Panopto Lecture Capture

Panopto video service is a Canvas-integrated tool for recording asynchronous lectures. This technology will allow you to record and edit lectures in advance and post them in Canvas for students to view at their leisure. Our Panopto agreement allows instructors to keep materials there indefinitely.

Much like Zoom, to use Panopto, you will need:

• Device with a good internet connection (laptop/desktop, tablet, smartphone)
• Headphones
• Microphone
• Webcam (optional) if you want to keep up face-to-face contact

Quizzes, Tests, and Exams

You most likely will have had several quizzes and tests scheduled during the disruption. Canvas has a great Quizzes tool that will allow you to input your tests and quizzes simply and quickly. Multiple choice and short-answer questions are the easiest to input, but matching and true/false questions aren't difficult to do.

Once your quiz or test is inputted, you can use the Quizzes settings to determine when each assessment is made available to students, then compare how students did on each questions and see general information about each assessment (how long it took each student to attempt it, number of questions correct, etc.) There is also a feature that allows you to add extra time or any other accommodation that may be appropriate.

Canvas Files and Cloud Drive

You will most likely want to share documents, files, images, etc. with your students. This can easily be accomplished by accessing the Files tool built into Canvas. This is where you can upload any media you want your students to view and use. Canvas has a great tutorial that explains how to use its Files tool that you can access on the Resources page.

You can alternately use Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive to share files with your students.

Collecting and Grading Assignments

Students can use Canvas to turn in assignments in a digital format and you can also use Canvas to grade these assignments and assign points/a grade for each student. While you will be able to see the entire grade-book for all students, students will only be able to see their own personal grades.

Keeping Students Informed

As was stressed during the Getting Started section, keeping your students informed of changes is key to moving your class online. There are several ways you can keep in touch with your students during a disruption.

• Canvas Announcements allow you to post information for any student who logs into the class to see
• Canvas Chat lets you text chat with students through Canvas
• Email is super-fast and widely used
• Zoom office hours allow you to host virtual office hours that students can "attend" and get some face to face time with you.

Whichever method you choose, make sure to respond to students in a timely manner and have a clear communication policy to help avoid student anxiety.