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Here are methods by which you can communicate with students in a circumstance where your classroom is no longer available.
Using Groups
Using Groups
D2L allows you to organize your students into groups. Once done, you are able to filter the classlist and gradebook by different groups, making communication and grading more efficient.
Plus, you can use Release Conditions to make parts of course content and various activities available to some students, but not others. For example, if you need to provide alternative assignments or asynchronous discussions for students who cannot attend your on-campus classes, this is an efficient way to do it.
Create Groups Within a D2L Course Space
Create a Single-Topic Small Group Discussion
Use Groups to Limit Access to Topics in Content
...and share this video with students, to help them identify their group: https://youtu.be/yXfmZBXzSkc
Email
Email
Email is a basic means for communication, including in courses. But professors often find that, outside of predictable or routine class-wide broadcasts and messages to or from single students, it is troublesome. Both you and your students receive many emails each day and they are frequently lost in cluttered inboxes. Instead, consider D2L your core toolset for course content, assignments, and learning interaction between course members.
Efficiently email your class using D2L or Exchange Faculty Email Accounts.
News Feed in D2L
News Feed in D2L
Every course in D2L has a News Feed. This can be more efficient for you and students than relying on email.
Activity Feed in D2L
Activity Feed in D2L
Every course in D2L has access to the Activity Feed. This tool can be used similarly to the News Feed tool, but also provide space for your students to ask questions. You can also create a dropbox assignment here.
Asynchronous Discussions in D2L
Asynchronous Discussions in D2L
For many disciplines, message boards (Asynchronous Discussions) in D2L can be a quick way to move interaction online. Students can discuss something without specific dates and times that may no longer be practical. (And you may find quiet students in your face-to-face class have more to say in text discussion!)
Quick Start: Basics of Creating a Discussion Topic in Content - Transcript
Organization and Management of Discussions in the Discussions Area - Transcript
Building Discussion Forums and Topics in the Discussions Area - Transcript
Creating Threads and Replies in Discussion Topics - Transcript
Subscribe to Receive Email Notifications When a Class Member Contributes to a Discussion
COLI's Pedagogy Primer Podcast has two episodes dedicated to creative and efficient use of Asynchronous/Message Board Discussions
Spend time on building great discussion prompts based on the substance of your course. Meanwhile, COLI can supply some boilerplate guidelines for good discussions, so you don't have to write these yourself. Use and modify them as you need to.
Include this introduction video for students, so they can quickly become acquainted with D2L-based discussions: https://www.youtube.com/embed/yBSPuTuNM30
See the full list of D2L video tutorials for more on D2L Discussions.
Alternatives to Discussion Boards
Alternatives to Discussion Boards
Asynchronous discussions are often a default method in online education. They can be quite good in many courses. For others, however, different kinds of student-student interaction may work better. You can achieve social learning and teaching presence in your courses with a variety of other tools. Any of these methods may better serve your learning objectives, provide students with creative opportunities, and foster a sense of community within your courses.
Discover Alternatives to Asynchronous Discussion, with resources provided by Dr. Marya Grande.
A popular alternative to message boards is Collaborative Annotation
This allows students to comment directly in the margins of a digital text (usually a PDF, but also a website), and see or reply to each other's marginalia. Canisius has Hypothes.is built directly in D2L but you can also use Perusall.
Chat!
Chat!
D2L has a simple chat system that allows realtime text communication among class members. It's easy to use, and does not require students to create an additional account somewhere else. It's perfect when you want to discuss something at a real-time pace but video web conference is more than what's needed.
Quick Video
Quick Video
Short videos, even just screencasts where students hear your voice, can reassure them them that you are engaged in their learning, despite circumstances.
Web Conferencing, Web Meeting, Live-Remote
Web Conferencing, Web Meeting, Live-Remote
Before attempting to use Zoom or other web conferencing technology to teach, it is strongly recommended you review considerations listed in the COLI Guide to Teaching Online.
During an emergency remove situation, here are some additional considerations:
When you do need to have interactive, live, or timed activities these should take place during the original scheduled class meeting time (e.g. 9:05-10:00 am MWF).
If an alternate time needs to be scheduled for an individual student, please ensure that this does not conflict with an existing scheduled event from another class.
When posting any sort of time of day that your students must be aware of, such as the scheduled time for a synchronous class meeting, remember to include "Eastern Standard Time" or "EST." In a prolonged emergency, some of your students may return to other time zones, so this helps them keep track of important times.
Zoom allows recordings of meetings. If you record to your local hard drive, your options for what's on screen are limited, and you should have a relatively fast (new) computer with a good internet connection. If you record to Zoom's cloud, your video will be there for 30 days, after which it is deleted. So make a habit of downloading and saving your Zoom recordings. Use Panopto to share videos with students in D2L.
You can find basic instructions, including how to request a pro account, at our Zoom Resource. This also has links to Zoom's support site, which has fairly good instructions for all aspects of Zoom for web meetings.
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