Remember we are in this together!
Academic Affairs is working hard to ensure that faculty will be fully supported during this time.
There will be bumps in the road and inevitable technical issues; however, the University has numerous resources available to help you with this situation.
💡Tips for Success
Get the assistance you need: Attend trainings. Reach out to The Collaborative or ITS for consultations and assistance.
Rely on your department chair: Your chair is the primary contact for both University and department-specific expectations that need to be considered.
Learn how to transform: Think about ways that you can transition your teaching from in-person to online by consulting our teaching resources.
The course’s governing questions, ideas, and methods of inquiry will not change.
Student learning outcomes should remain largely the same even as methods of assessment and assignments might shift.
You are still an expert in terms of both content knowledge and pedagogical practices.
The existing connections between you and your students will not disappear simply because you move online.
What are your strengths as a teacher?
What pedagogical practices do you normally rock in your in-person classes?
What aspects do your students most appreciate about your in-person classes?
What are the most important student learning outcomes?
What can be realistically accomplished in the available time frame?
What can be kept from your original syllabus and schedule?
Resist feelings of urgency.
We don’t know what’s next or what will work best, so don’t try to plan the entire semester all at once. Instead, make a few changes at a time and then evaluate their impact.
Before committing to a totally new course plan or technology, take the time to engage students in the work of course revision.
Accommodations and adjustments will need to be made to account for changes to the University schedule and new course format.
Postpone - Do my planned activities need to proceed on the same timeline?
Adapt - What changes to materials, deadlines or assignments could be adjusted to accommodate a temporary disruption?
Substitute - What materials, activities and assignments could be moved to an alternate format to accommodate a longer duration of disruption?
Support - What do my students and I need to meet the challenges we are facing?
💡Tips for Success
Name things carefully: Take the time to update and rename documents so students are positive which versions are most up-to-date.
Remember the schedule: Everyone is still operating on the Trinity class schedule so you can use Zoom to meet during your regular class meeting times for “real time” or “near-real time” lectures, discussions, and student presentations.
Consider redesign principles: Engage in “backward design”: 1) identify desired results, 2) determine acceptable evidence, 3) plan learning experiences and instruction.
Some situations will take longer to resolve than planned; technical issues will occur, and there will be unexpected complications.
Students will be in different time zones and there will be initial confusion as people discover their new routines.
Because students’ background and home lives are quite diverse, situations may emerge that require you to work one-on-one with students to ensure equal access to online resources.
It is not necessary (or advisable) to adopt totally new tools, workflows, or pedagogical practices. Learning new technologies is very empowering and can make you a more confident instructor; however, using new approaches involves unforeseen and unplanned-for complications and set-backs that should be avoided in this time. So, as much as you can, pick tools and approaches familiar to you and your students.
💡Tips for Success
Don't try to be an expert: Do not try to master every tool or resource.
Find what's easy: There are many great, easy-to-learn technologies that can be readily added into a course.
Do not reinvent the wheel. Take advantage of existing online resources including special access to sources due to the current situation.
Use the library. The library has many great online resources--including electronic books and journal articles as well as films-on-demand and streaming videos.
Any course materials that can be should be made digitally accessible. The library is available to help faculty consider ways to make course reserve materials digitally accessible.