Learn how to put classroom activities online

Learn more about technologies available to help support common classroom activities in a remote or blended teaching environment.

should be posted in Canvas, which will notify students when they access Canvas and may generate a notification to users depending on their preferences. 

For other communications, 星空传媒 Webmail or are both available.

Regardless of your communication method, you should for your class.
 

For courses with asynchronous classes, creating recordings of lectures is paramount. Recordings can be made or , and should be distributed to students using Canvas; see the 鈥淧ost materials & videos鈥 section on this page for additional information on sharing videos via Canvas.
 

There are few options for tracking attendance:

  • Have students type their name in the Zoom chat, then or have it . 
  • Create a Google Form for students to complete at the start of each class meeting.
  • Build a Canvas Quiz for students to complete during each class.
  • For smaller classes, go back to basics: keep track of who has attended class by checking off student names on a piece of paper. For a paper-free alternative, can also be used.

offer a place to facilitate discussions among students. Students can make posts and respond to posts made by classmates. Discussion boards can also be to facilitate small group discussions.
 

Grading can be with , which supports most common grading schemes. Various items in Canvas can be graded, including , , , and . The top tips for grading in Canvas:

  • Understand that the gradebook is controlled by changes made to the Assignments area of the course
  • Use to provide feedback to students
  • Create to help speed-up and simplify your grading
  • Take a moment to read about
  • If needed, can be set-up

Grades entered in the Canvas Gradebook can be sent to SIS for midterm and final grade recording.

Live presentations can be made via Zoom by allowing participants to . Students can share their screen, open their presentation, and unmute themselves to present. 

For recorded presentations, students can make , , or . Once the video has been created, students can share them on or submit them to an .

There are a number of things you can do to , including:

  • Setting meeting expectations and communication preferences
  • Using
  • Creating
  • Utilizing
  • Using the when sharing your screen

Several departments around campus have identified alternatives for lab activities, so please check with your department to see if they have a recommended suggestion. Additional suggestions have been identified in this  resource.

Office hours can be held virtually using Zoom. We recommend using to monitor who joins your meeting.

Canvas is the best option to distribute materials to students, regardless of teaching method. While there are within Canvas, we recommend using of your Canvas course. , such as organizing content by topics and supporting a variety of content types. Teaching + Learning Technologies has designed a Canvas course template for dual delivery courses, that focuses on using Modules and provides placeholders for supplying course policies and materials. If you鈥檙e interested in this template, !

If you are posting video content, we also recommend doing so through Canvas. You鈥檝e got a few options for this, depending on the type of video you鈥檝e made:

  • Zoom cloud recordings
    • Zoom cloud recordings, that need to be stored for longer than 180 days
      • These videos should be for longer-term storage. Once added to an Echo360 course, students can access these videos from , or you can in your course. 
    • Zoom cloud recordings that only need to be stored for fewer than 180 days can stay in Zoom.
      • You can with students by posting it in Canvas. Somewhere or is probably the best way to do so.
      • You can also use to automatically make the cloud recordings available to students. 
  • Video files saved to your computer/Google Drive (for example, Zoom computer (local) recordings, videos made with other applications, or videos you have downloaded from some other source)
    • These videos should be , which is optimized for video storage and playback.
  • Echo360 recordings
    • If you to an Echo360 course, students can access the videos from , or you can in your course. 
    • If you do not publish the recordings to an Echo360 course, students can access the videos after they have been in your Canvas course.
  • Echo360 classroom recordings
    • Instructors must , which are only available in 星空传媒 . These recordings will be automatically added to an Echo360 course. Students can access these videos from , or you can in your course. 

in Canvas lets instructors build and distribute online assessments. There are some considerations for online quizzes built in Canvas:

  • All times set on quizzes are based in the Eastern time zone (Cleveland local time). Keep this in mind when choosing an access window for your quiz, as students may be in different time zones.
  • Do not set an 鈥淯ntil鈥 date, as it can prematurely submit student quiz attempts. Instead, use the 鈥淒ue鈥 date. Submissions made past that time will be marked as late, so you鈥檒l know who missed the due date.
  • for individual students. 
  • Students can leave a quiz and resume it at a later time. If you鈥檝e set a timer, the timer will not stop during this time. At the end of the timer time limit, any attempts will save and automatically submit answers.

If you determine that a high-stakes exam is required for your class, 星空传媒 does offer secure testing tools. No matter which tool you decide to use, there are limitations and considerations to take into account. Please review for more information about both tools.

Canvas and Zoom are good options to support small group work.

Canvas allows you to , which provide an area in Canvas for group members to share documents, post discussions, and communicate. This is a good option for asynchronous group work.

Zoom supports breakout rooms, which create smaller meeting rooms within your main meeting. Students can share their screens, chat, and collaborate with other students in their breakout rooms. They can also ! This is a good option if all group members are joining the class via Zoom, or if you can pair one in-classroom student with one remote student.

With either Canvas or Zoom, Google Apps support collaboration for group work, allowing for multiple collaborators and live editing of shared documents. in Canvas provides a quick way to create Google Docs for your students. 
 

in Canvas should be used to collect student work. Students can upload files from their computer, select documents from Google Drive, or create videos or .
 

Using Zoom to connect remote students together is the solution for synchronous courses, for both fully remote and blended classes. You can use Zoom to share your screen and monitor interactions of remote students. If you need to record your class session, you can . 

If you are teaching a blended course, with some students participating remotely along with students in the classroom, you may also choose to record your class with Echo360.

For blended courses, here are some tips for maximizing Zoom meetings held in 星空传媒 classrooms:

  • Discourage students in the classroom from joining the Zoom meeting. If they do join, it is important that everyone in the classroom keep themselves muted to avoid audio feedback.
  • Students in the classroom will be able to hear students on Zoom, but the opposite may not be true. If questions are asked in the classroom, repeat them so students on Zoom can also hear them before you answer.
  • Be mindful not to wander away from the microphone and camera. 
  • Most rooms will support document cameras being shared on Zoom and on the classroom projector simultaneously.
     

Acknowledgement

These resources have been built with great influence from University of Washington, , and .