Lessons Learned and Additional Remote Teaching Resources

Colleagues;

Over the past few days, CoE faculty, staff, and students have been working to transition from in-person teaching and learning to remote options. We are off to a good start, navigating this transition together. Please let us know how things are going in your classes by filling out this short survey so that we can quickly address any shortfalls.

In the meantime, we have learned some things and added new tools and resources to teach remotely. Please see below for those resources and tips, and please continue to check the College’s COVID-19 site for regular updates. Most critical to note are:

  • Consider changing course expectations during remote instruction. Moving to online instruction is a different experience. Take extra care to acknowledge this fact, make appropriate changes to your courses and explicitly state any new expectations in various locations in your course materials.
  • Digital delivery of pre-recorded lectures works best. This minimizes the impact of technology issues and allows flexibility to accommodate the schedules (and timezones) of both faculty and students.
  • Prepare now to move to remote recording of lectures. While we recognize that on-campus recording options give the best experience and range of tools, you should plan for the potential that campus buildings may close, and with very short notice. 

We understand that changing your coursework to accommodate remote learning has been very challenging for some of you. However, we are incredibly proud of the ingenuity, perseverance and teamwork of our faculty and staff during these difficult times. We completely trust in your ability to maintain our educational standards, and are here to offer any support that you may need to achieve this.

Thank you very much for your flexibility and commitment to teaching your students remotely so they can successfully complete the Winter 2020 semester despite these difficult, unprecedented circumstances.

Stay well,

Mary-Ann Mycek, Associate Dean for Graduate and Professional Education
Joanna Millunchick, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education
Dan Maletta, Executive Director of Information Technology
Diane Landsiedel, Executive Director of Nexus

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Remote Teaching Lessons Learned

  • Please consider changing course expectations during remote instruction. Take extra care to explicitly state any new expectations in various locations in your course materials.
  • Develop, publish, and use clear rubrics for grading assignments and exams.
  • Digital delivery of pre-recorded lectures works best to minimize the impact of technology issues and allows flexibility to accommodate the schedules (and timezones) of both faculty and students. 
  • Advise your students if you are switching lecture platforms or if you begin recording lectures from home. They may notice sound quality issues and changes in the way they must access lectures, data, assignments, etc.
  • Canvas allows faculty and students to better track and manage their course. Instructors can add assignments that are automatically updated in the site calendar, syllabus or gradebook without additional steps. Students can track their progress, complete assignments and participate in discussions all in one location.
  • Gradescope is a great tool that supports grading assignments and exams, whether paper-based, digital, or code. And it’s fully integrated with Canvas.
  • Some students are having issues with technology or connectivity. Please check in with all of your students to ensure they are engaged and are able to access remote content. You can also direct them to coe-remote-teaching@umich.edu for personalized technical support
  • Additionally, some students are reporting that social distancing is making it difficult to stay motivated or on task. The CARE Center is always available if they need personal support. 

Remote Recording Options
While we recognize that on-campus recording options give the best experience and range of tools, you should plan to move your primary recording off-campus. Prepare now for the potential that campus buildings may close, and with very short notice. Multiple options will allow you to record your lectures from off-campus.

  • Kaltura can record your lectures and post them to your website or Canvas.
  • Echo360 can record your lectures along with streaming them to you students.
  • Zoom and BlueJeans both allow you to stream your class while recording at the same time. Make sure to post the video for the students who couldn’t attend live.
  • Some faculty who have previously recorded lectures in the CAEN LecCap system or with Nexus are choosing to post or batch pre-recorded lectures from previous offerings to complete the Winter term.
  • For assistance with recording lectures remotely at home, email at coe-remote-teaching@umich.edu for support or visit the CoE Teaching Resources site.
  • You may experience technological issues at home, email at coe-remote-teaching@umich.edu for personalized technical support. 

New Tools for Office Hours
Office hours seem manageable so far. To improve connections between faculty and students:

  • Remote Office Hours Queue is a “digital waiting room” that allows students to sign up for office hours and be placed in a faculty member’s queue via BlueJeans.
  • Zoom video conferencing is now available for campus.
  • Jamboard is a digital whiteboard application that is shareable via the Google suite (like Google docs). It works best with a tablet and stylus, but it appears to work on a phone.

How to Learn More
We realize that remote teaching may be new to some of you and that you would like to learn more. We suggest you: