Communicate with your students early and often
- Provide regular communication, especially early on, about how the course instruction will proceed, how you will be communicating with them, and how you want them to communicate with you.
- Regular communication and quick feedback on course activities will also help students feel connected and remain invested.
Consider realistic goals for continuing instruction
- Remote instruction will often need to proceed asynchronously to account for the variability of student’s access to technology. With that in mind, consider what amount of the original material is still possible to cover.
- What lectures, discussions and activities can be preserved and do they need to be rearranged to allow for asynchronous access?
- What synchronous elements are feasible for you and your students (e.g., using video or text chat for scheduled office hours, video conferencing for real-time discussions)?
Choose tools and practices familiar to you and your students
- Consider which technologies are feasible to adopt easily in order to avoid a steep learning curve for you and your students.
- At St. Olaf, Moodle and Google tools both offer the means to share content, collect assignments, and have discussions. More specific information about their different capabilities can be found on the strategies page.
Communicate changes in course expectations & assignments
- Just as you would establish classroom expectations, consider how that will change with remote instruction.
- How often should students be involved in the course material?
- What can they expect of the faculty?
- How should collaboration and communication take place?