Contact Hours

Please be aware of the contact hours each week for your course (usually 4) and the associated prep assumption (generally 2 hours per credit). Your plan should approximately match the weekly expected number of contact and prep hours for your course.

  • In a 10-week term, a 4-unit course equates to 12 hours per week

  • In a 6-week term, a 4-unit course equates to 20 hours per week

Explore Synchronous+Flexible contact hours.

  • The students have enrolled in a course with scheduled meeting times - you can use those for Zoom lectures and for exams. But also make the content available at other times.

Students will honestly intend to join synchronous lectures, to complete the reading, and to watch the lecture videos but if there are no due dates (with associated points) then they will procrastinate. They will try to cram by watching 10 hours of lectures the night before an exam. Structure your course to encourage consistent, weekly participation.

Ensure weekly participation

Encourage students to stay on track each week with frequent low-stakes assignments.

    • Make use of REEF app to poll your class during any live sessions. Including plenty of opportunities for students to demonstrate that they are following along or indicate that they are struggling with a concept. The REEF app works perfectly during synchronous lectures.

    • Create a set of Canvas quiz questions for each week that students can either answer during the scheduled lecture period (while watching the lecture in real time) or answer within 48 hours of the scheduled lecture period (while watching the video of the lecture). You can tell them (and this will be true) that they will have a better experience doing it in real time. This will also accommodate students who are watching on a smartphone and can’t realistically answer quiz questions while watching the lecture, but can answer the questions immediately after the lecture.

    • It will take a few hours for in-the-cloud recordings to appear on Canvas, so you’ll want to give then at least 48 hours after the end of the lecture to complete the quiz.

    • Does your textbook come with assignable online comprehension checks?

Set consistent weekly due dates

  • Predictability and consistency will be appreciated

  • Canvas defaults all due dates to 11:59pm (which is a terrible choice for pedagogy). If you are going to change it - change it for everything. Choose a time when technical support and office hours are more available.

    • e.g., "all weekly assignments are due on Mondays at 5pm."

    • e.g. "all take home exams will be open for 48 hours and due on Fridays at 5pm."

      • schedule times during exams when a dedicated TA or instructor will respond to any emails

Canvas speak: 'Due' is the date added to the calendar. 'Available Until' closes the assignment.

Soft opening

Treat the first week of the quarter as a soft opening for you, your instructional team, and your students. Build in more flexibility than you think you will need.

  • Use synchronous meetings to give repeated introductory lectures so students don't miss out if they have technical issues.

  • If there are assignments due this week, plan to accept them without late penalty for a few more days.