It is necessary to consider who one's learners are and what factors would impact on how they will learn what they are supposed to in one's course. Knowing cohort characteristics is useful for selecting learning resources and designing learning activities that are relevant and appropriate, while knowing individual learner characteristics is critical in planning how to support individual learners. Student access to technology is a particularly important learner factor in remote learning. Differences in student access to technology means that we should be prepared to deliver course content in multiple formats.

Course content should be chunked into weekly study units or modules for students to work through. To ensure that each chunk represents a reasonable amount of course work per week, teachers should calculate time on task, or the time learners need to complete each learning task. Time on task, instead of contact time, is used because in remote learning there are no lecture hours or class sessions in the usual sense and learners will be studying on their own for the most part.

The availability of a vast array of open educational resources in all disciplines supports a resource-based approach to teaching and learning, which develops subject knowledge through study of authoritative and authentic resources (e.g. core readings/texts) within the disciplines, as well as information literacy (the ability to locate, evaluate, and use information) and independent learning skills. In resource-based learning, teachers carefully select learning resources for students to study and they curate these learning resources — i.e. they integrate these learning resources into the course in a structured way and provide study guides to scaffold learning.

A learning activity is “a specific interaction of learners with others using specific tools and resources, oriented towards specific outcomes” (Beetham, 2008, p. 28). Learning activities provide opportunities for learners to, independently and/or collaboratively, integrate and apply concepts and practice skills learned. Learning activities for a remote learning context include discussions forums, reports and presentations, blogging, and collaborative writing.

Traditional assessment can be used to test mastery of content while alternative assessment, which involves the performance of an authentic task, is appropriate for evaluating skills and dispositions as well as content knowledge. Whether you use traditional or alternative assessment, it is useful to provide a guide that sets out the task, procedures, schedule, and evaluation criteria. Various online tools and offline means can be used for assessment of learning.

The course guide not only provides an overview of the course but also prepares remote learners for independent study. It sets the tone for the course and gives learners a clear picture of what to expect, including what they need to do in order to successfully complete the course. The schedule of learning activities, in particular, will help learners plan their personal study schedule and it will help them keep on track as they study remotely.

In remote learning, it is important to reach out to our students so that we do not lose them. Unlike in face-to-face classes where we can see and talk to our students anytime, it is more challenging to make our presence felt and to establish a sense of connection from a distance. This can have an adverse effect on learners who may feel isolated and unsupported. In this short note on supporting remote learners, we focus on the importance of regular communication with students and giving timely feedback.